Job Tip: Using Facebook to Help You Find a Job

Facebook doesn’t necessarily have a great reputation for business networking, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use it to your full advantage. In many respects it possesses some of the same perks as LinkedIn, at least insofar as it allows you to display all of the qualifications, skills, and experiences that might make you a promising job candidate. The communication options afforded by Facebook are much more casual and relaxed, though, so be sure to read through all of these job tips and pointers:

• Keep in mind that, with Facebook, you have the option of basically telling the whole world everything that happens to you throughout the day—but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Be discerning, especially if you intend to use Facebook for business networking. (Facebook, in particular, is a social media platform that invites having separate business and personal accounts.) At the very least, check out your privacy settings and make sure that any embarrassing or incriminating photos are set to “None of my Networks” visibility.
• Just like with LikedIn, make sure your Facebook information is accurate and up to date. Also make sure to use keywords that recruiters might be searching for. Again, it’s all about maximizing your odds of being found via search.
• Be careful about the settings on your Wall. This is a great tool for casual communication with friends and business associates alike, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the things people write on your Wall need to be seen by prospective employers. Be careful about who you permit to write on and read your Wall.
• Take the time to set up different networks for personal and professional contacts—and after that, it will be easy to add all new Facebook friends to the appropriate network.
• Not all recruiters are going to use Facebook’s internal search capacities—some of them might search Facebook by using outside search engines, like Google. To ensure that they can find your page, make sure you check “Public Search Listing” under your privacy settings.

Download the Social Media Guide free to find even more tips to help you know what a potential employer is discovering about you—both online and off. The Social Media Guide is packed with useful advice and helpful hints to create the most effective and employer-friendly online profiles possible.

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Winehouse death video scams hit Facebook

Paul Bergen / Getty Images Contributor

As soon as the news that singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home hit the Internet, the usual reactions began flooding in. There were plenty of touching tributes, a handful of cruel jokes, and a wave of emotional tweets. And now there’s the almost obligatory series of Facebook scams which seems to follow a well-publicized death. 

Sophos reports that the first scams started popping up barely four hours after the 27-year-old singer’s death was confirmed. The only comforting news is that the schemes are simple and familiar: Scammers attempt to lure individuals into clicking a link out of sheer morbid curiosity.

Just as many were tricked into compromising the security of their Facebook accounts or computers by links claiming to lead to photos or videos of Osama bin Laden’s death a few months ago, folks are now being lured into helping cold-hearted and malicious scammers profit by following links offering video footage taken hours before Winehouse passed away: 

Sophos

This is how one of the links related to the Amy Winehouse death video scam might look on Facebook.

As Sophos explains, these links most certainly do not actually contain videos of the deceased singer’s final hours, but instead lead to online surveys from which the scammers earn a commission — as well as a pop-up message which tricks victims into exposing their friends to the scam.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Think twice before clicking a link you discover in your News Feed — is the friend who shared it really the type who would “like” a video like that? — and keep an eye out for peculiar pop-ups.

And if you get suckered into a scam like this despite being careful? It’s ok, it happens to the best of us. But there are a few things you should do:

• Check the security settings on your Facebook account. Did you really authorize all the apps and websites which are interacting with your Facebook account? No? Take access away from the ones which look unfamiliar.
• Look at your News Feed. Are there things or links which you don’t recall liking listed? Are there posts and status updates which you didn’t write? Get rid of them before your friends see them and get scammed, too.

Related stories:

• Bin Laden death brings malware explosion
• Bin Laden death photos? Stay away
• ‘Invite’ scams target millions of Facebook users

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She’s obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.

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