How to Use Facebook for Professional Networking

In addition to being a platform to interact with family and friends, share photos, videos and other content that you come across online, Facebook has also grown to become a platform which facilitates professional and commercial growth. In spite of it gaining popularity as an informal social platform, it has also been able to facilitate a range of professional and career oriented services. With the ability to update your profile with work and academic information, employers can browse the profile of their applications. This means that just like Linkedin, it is important that you create your own brand on Facebook.

Here is how you can conduct professional networking on Facebook –

1. Acquire a Vanity URL – The first thing you should do on Facebook to brand yourself is get yourself a vanity URL. This means that you can get yourself a customized domain on this social networking site. Instead of facebook.com/d45h126k90 you can get a facebook.com/yourname URL for your profile. Also, this will give you a Facebook email address.

2. Profile Photo – If you intend to make some professional profit out of your profile, you must upload the same photo you’d use on your Linkedin profile. While many experts advocate that Facebook is your space, and you should give your profile viewers a unique experience, everything is allowed as long as it doesn’t work against the goodwill you intend to create.

3. Your privacy Settings – If you intend to entertain your professional as well as casual friends on the same profile, make sure you have modified your privacy settings that allow you to choose what photos, videos and posts you can show to your friends. You can also create different friend groups who are given customized access to your profile page. For example, you may not want the accountant from your company to see pictures of you and friends from the wild night you had over the weekend.

4. Professional Details – Updates your site with sufficient professional information. Clearly state what you do, as against stating what you are. For example, terms such as ‘Consultant’ could mean a lot of things if different industries. Use this space to clarify your background.

5. Leveraging BranchOut – A recently launched third party application known as BranchOut is a fascinating tools which allows you to go through your contacts as well as their contacts based on the company they work with. All you need to do is fill in important details about your work and get started.

6. Beneficial Status Updates – Instead of wasting your space posting pictures of funny pets and babies, do something beneficial with your statuses. Make it informative, put up some industry information, post articles, and make sensible opinions.

In addition to this, if you have a blog, ensure that your friends can see your updates through the social RSS. If you truly want to make an impression on facebook, it is strongly recommended that you quit all your farms, cities, and restaurants since playing showing frequent activity on these games reflects poorly on your personal brand.Additionally, try to get active on facebook groups and pages, and also leverage the use of Facebook events to show your involvement in industry events.