In my blog post today on JibberJobber I talk about LinkedIn not being optional. If you are (or want to be) a professional, you need to be on LinkedIn. Period.
Facebook is optional. It’s not a requirement in job search or career management… but it’s definitely something you should look at. Not for necessarily social reasons, but definitely for relationship reasons.
“They” say it’s likely we’ll network into our next job. There are plenty of networking tools out there, from JibberJobber (to manage your job search and relationships) to LinkedIn (to find and be found), and of course off-line, face-to-face networking. Here are some reasons to seriously consider a Facebook strategy:
- Many Facebook users are professionals. Let’s assume many Facebook users started a few years ago when they were in college. Now, some of them have graduated and are in management, decision-maker or influencing decisions. I recently reconnected with a long-lost friend on Facebook who, to my surprise, is a VP of a major technology company.
- Facebook is a great place to find new network contacts. There is crossover between LinkedIn and Facebook, but in Facebook you’ll be able to meet contacts in a different setting. Think formal meeting vs. the social gathering after the meeting… you get to see the same person in two different lights, right? Facebook has a number of social places, like Groups, Pages, etc. where you can learn more about potential professional contacts and perhaps relate to them on a different (more personal) level.
- Facebook helps you reconnect with long-lost friends. No kidding. A year ago I felt very disconnected from my old high school buddies… I thought we’d never reconnect. And then one of them Friended me on Facebook. And some of their Facebook Friends were our mutual high school buddies and now I’m connected to about a dozen of my old buddies. I’m absolutely amazed at where people ended up and what they are doing for a living. These are people I have relationships with, and they are in decision-making positions… at the very least, they have professional networks I might want to tap into.
Again, LinkedIn isn’t optional… if you need help with your LinkedIn Profile check out Career Resumes LinkedIn Makeover page, or the announcements I made on JibberJobber blog today. If you want to get started on Facebook check out my blog (and book) at Facebook Advice dot com.
