Blog Post: Now, Go Make Some Friends

Remember when your mom sent you outside to play and make friends? With all the social networking tools available online today, making friends has taken on a whole new meaning.  You make friends by staying inside, and on the internet.  If you’re not already on Facebook orLinkedIn with the intent to get hired or maintain professional connections, you need to go make some friends.  Here’s why.

1)  Increase your visibility. By adding connections, or ‘friends,’ you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile and think of you when they’re searching for someone to hire or have an opportunity to do business. 

2)  Enhance your search engine results.   When someone types in your name on Google, what comes up?  Wouldn’t you like to control what comes up?  Having a facebook or Linkedin profile will be the controlled public information about yourself. 

3)  Give you the inside track for an interview.   If you know who you’re going to be interviewing with, you can look them up on either Linkedin or Facebook and know more about them than any candidate.  This might sound creepy, or borderline stalking, but it’s common in today’s society.  People use the internet to get all kinds of information.  Just make sure that what you say in the interview doesn’t come across as creepy, but something like, ‘I was on LinkedIn and I saw that we attended the same school.’ 

4)  Transition into a new job.   When you start a new job, you don’t know many people.  But as you meet people, you can add them as friends and maintain a social connection, even from a distance.  So if you meet someone in training but they live in Florida , you can still maintain that connection.

5)  Keep people up to date.   If you’ve found yourself unemployed, or self employed as I like to call it, you can let people know you’re looking for a job in a direct way.  For instance, in the facebook status update you can put, ‘Brett Farmiloe is looking for a job in the sports industry.  Does anyone know someone who works in sports?  Or know someone who might know someone in sports?’ 

By being direct and utilizing the social capability of Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll be able to increase your chances that you’ll find a job.  So, go out and make some friends.  You can start by adding me.

Brett Farmiloe is on Facebook and LinkedIn.  You can add him on Facebook by clicking here, and on LinkedIn by clicking here.  He and business partner Zach Hubbell are co-founders of www.pursuethepassion.com.