Week 5 EOC: Social Networks & Job Hunting

Facebook has become a new platform for company recruiters to search for new potential employees. Recruiting through Facebook has been slowly growing as companies are either cutting back or all together cutting out all spending on expensive Job boards. This has affected other sites like LinkedIn, a professional networking site. It seems that people will most likely click on available position application posted on Facebook; rather, than in traditional job board websites like LinkedIn. However, some people like Jeff Vijungco, Vice President of world-wide talent acquisition for Adobe Systems Inc., does not agree on Facebook recruiting. “Focus groups, prospective job candidates were sharply averse to being contacted through Facebook for Jobs,” said Vijungco (Light, “Recruiters Troll Facebook). Then he goes on saying, “They have more success finding employees through LinkedIn.” CEO of LinkedIn put it this way, “Users tell the company they want to keep their personal and professional networks separate (Light, “Recruiters Troll Facebook).” I do agree, as a professional, I wouldn’t like a company contacting me through my Facebook page. Otherwise, I would have not created a LinkedIn page for companies to contact me through. I like to keep my personal “life” away from my “professional” one. There are positions like Brand Ambassadors that would make more sense of being recruited through social networks like Facebook. “People love talking about things that make them happy – including their favorite products and brands (Marketing: An Introduction 143).” Social networks like Facebook have been regularly used as a medium for customers to rant or share experiences with certain companies or products. Brand Ambassadors are customers that are enthusiastic and devoted to companies or products. “Brand ambassadors, programs leverage the power of peer to peer communication. Consumers hear about products and brand experiences from others just like themselves – people they trust – rather than from commercial marketing sources(Marketing: An Introduction 143).”