Facebook's Not Just for College Students Anymore

About six months ago, I was flooded with invitations to join Facebook. I thought "You've gotta be kidding! Facebook? I graduated from college too many years ago. I'm not a 20-something anymore."

I poked around...and decided to give Facebook a whirl.

I'm so glad I did.

Facebook is a great place to...

* Catch up with people you haven't connected with in a long time. I reconnected with a grade school buddy -- after almost 20 years! What a blast! The nice thing about this...it's informal. More informal than on LinkedIn, which I love, too, as a job search tool. Facebook is definitely more FUN than LinkedIn...so you can be relaxed. My Facebook profile is much more fun than my LinkedIn profile. Then, when your buddies ask you "what have you been up to?" you can say, "Well, actually, I'm looking for a job. Kind of a job like this..." and then describe what you're seeking. You never know who can help you in a job search. Get the word out there!
* Find out who knows who! This is really fun. My goodness, my first month on Facebook, I could hardly keep myself off of it (I'm prone to Internet Attention Disorder, I think!) You can look at your friends' networks, and with a single click, ask to add them to your network.
* Get popular people to join your network. Swoon...Guy Kawasaki is in my network! I feel like a teenager...he's a hero of mine! And he joined. He said YES! Well, OK, so he probably has no idea who I am and just clicked to let me join his network. I am one of his almost 5000 friends (at his point in time). My point is that many popular people will let you have access to their network. You can feel included. OK, so Guy hasn't called me...yet. But the point is, this is informal networking. It's a way to learn about people and their lives, so that if you wind up interviewing at their companies, you have a "feel" for them. Nice.
* Give people just a limited view into you. When someone joins your network, you have the option to give them full access to your profile, or just limited access. Helps if you want to have a "little" privacy...but don't imagine that people won't eventually find out all the stuff (you still want to be judicious about those salacious, luscious photos of you...)
* A place to create your own community about an idea or an issue. For example, I created a Job Search Gym group on Facebook, and can share information with members about what I'm doing...and get interesting feedback. Today, someone posted about VocationVacations and about a job working in a day spa. I love the community and resource-sharing!

Hourglass At the same time, Facebook can be...

* An inordinate waste of time...if you let it be that. Gosh, for weeks, I was addicted to Scrabulous and Bogglific. Oy!
* A little sophomoric...c'mon, it's not a business community. I am tired of getting emails that ask me to forward them. Bo-ring. And cutesy videos.

Overall, I think it's important to be on Facebook to experience the social networking trends out here, especially if you're over 40. It's a way to stay in touch with what's happening. I'm reminded, by one one of my 50-something clients, that "if you want to work at a hip company, you need to like what's hip, or you'll go mad." So, check out Facebook and stay hip.

Anyone have an opinion about MySpace for grownups? Job seekers? I still don't see the value in it...but I'm willing to change my mind.

Social networking rocks,

Susan

Susan Bernstein, MBA MA
Job Search Coach & Founder
The Job Search Gym
www.JobSearchGym.com