What about all of the job finding on Facebook?

We've all seen the various social media articles, career blogs and Generation Y experts that repeatedly promote Facebook as a source of hire, venue for job searching and place to interface with employers. The following might help put some of that hype into perspective.

While this may not be the most scientific or comprehensive report, it does seem that there would be some validity to what these researchers found about millennials Facebook habits. New report says millennials aren’t looking at Facebook pages ---- Orlando Business Journal by Andrew Robinson, Reporter - Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Here is the full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/socialmadness/2012/04/new-r...

Some highlights...

Dr. Tina McCorkindale, assistant professor of communications at Appalachian State University, Dr. Marcia DiStaso, assistant professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University, and Dr. Hilary Fussell-Sisco, assistant professor of public relations at Quinnipiac University, completed the research that suggests millennials are not frequently surfing Facebook Fan Pages once they log onto the social network.

So what are millennials doing on Facebook? According to the report, they use Facebook for the following reasons:

"Stalk, creep, check, browse" others' profiles;
Chat;
Update status;
Check messages notifications, timelines;
Upload photos or other content;
Play games;
Keep in touch with family and friends.

Notice how “looking for jobs, posting employment related content and joining talent communities” is missing entirely from the list? In my own completely unscientific observations, the vast majority of my Facebook friends (of all ages) have minimal, if any professional purpose for using Facebook. Rather, the above is quite accurate in describing the fun, friends and family recreational use of the site that most of us probably engage in...

Thoughts?

KB @TalentTalks

Comment by Tim Spagnola on April 13, 2012 at 6:51am: A fair question indeed Kelly. One interesting thing that I can add to this topic is that recent survey was conducted by AMN Healthcare asking providers what social networks they use for professional networking and was surprised to see Facebook lead the list.

Of the surveyed health care providers, 41% said they are using Facebook, 29% said they are using YouTube, 23% said they are using LinkedIn, 11% said they are using Twitter and 3% said they are using Foursquare for professional networking purposes.

It should be noted it was a sample of 2k responses, but as a healthcare recruiter I found it interesting to see how many turned to Facebook.

Comment by Kelly Blokdijk on April 13, 2012 at 4:58pm: Thank, Tim. Those stats are interesting! Wonder where Pinterest fits in that list...

I do see plenty of interaction with people that know each other professionally on FB. But not sure that I would classify that as "professional networking" as the majority of activity skews toward personal topics.

I'm wondering if what is being included in the FB count are: BranchOut, BeeKnown, GlassDoor and similar applications that can be accessed through the FB login.

Comment by Jacob Share on April 15, 2012 at 8:22am: I'm glad this survey was done, although the results don't surprise me because they reflect how I use Facebook when I don't have my work hat on. Additionally, I don't see Facebook fan pages as being overly active although there are exceptions. Regardless, none of this takes away from the value of Facebook for recruiters.