5 Career Advancement Tips for Facebook

Here's some news you're bound to "Like": Facebook - the same site that hosts your embarrassing pictures from last weekend - could help you climb the corporate ladder. And why not? With an estimated 1 billion users on the site, there's a fair chance that the company you work for - as well as the one you want to work for - has a presence there.

Follow these five tips to transform the Facebook® social network into a career network:

Enable your News Feed's "Subscribe" feature.

If you want to use Facebook for career networking, you need to keep your personal and professional lives separate, according to Noland Hoshino, a graduate of the University of Phoenix MBA program and co-founder of digital and social communications company [B]cause Media.

"You can activate a Subscribe feature on your personal account and select the type of content [anyone outside your circle] can see," he explains. Subscribers will only see your public posts, keeping your private life just that - private.

Use Groups to connect with your peers.

Hoshino asserts that since Facebook groups are interest- and topic-based, they can be excellent tools for wading through the millions of people on the site and finding those who can help you advance your career. Simply search for keywords related to your field, like "nursing," and join the groups that look promising.

Install apps that will help you get noticed.

The Facebook App Center is home to many social games, but you'll find productivity tools there as well. Hoshino recommends the BranchOut® app, which shows you where your friends work and which of those companies have job openings. You can also create an inventory of your job skills that will help you find positions for which you're suited.

"Like" the companies you want to work for.

Researching a potential employer prepares you for inevitable interview questions, such as, "Why do you want to work here?" Facebook gives you an easy way to do that homework. "A job seeker who 'likes' a Facebook page," Hoshino says, "can stay abreast of an organization and what they're doing."

"Tag" employers in creative ways.

You won't get a company's attention by tagging it in a regular status update - no matter what industry you're in. Instead, Hoshino suggests using sites like Vizify and about.me to create an infographic of your resumé or putting together a PowerPoint® presentation that illustrates why you're the ideal candidate for the job.

"In order to gain the hiring company's attention," Hoshino explains, "the job seeker must stand out from the crowd and do something unique."

-By Shadi Mirza

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