There’s been a lot of buzz about Facebook’s newest feature Graph Search this week. The announcement was made on Tuesday that this new search option would change the way we connect with our friends and products within the platform. The launch has opened up a lot of discussion among marketer and small businesses owners about how Graph Search could alter strategy when it comes to marketing in the social medium of Facebook. The opportunity to be discovered by friends of customers supports a plan to be present on Facebook and to have a strategy for posting engaging content that will be shared and eventually show up in a search.
Photo Courtesy of Facebook
On the same token, if you’re an employer with a plan to hire this year, how great would it be to have your opportunities discovered by the friends of your recruiters and employees? With 92 percent of recruiters using social to source candidates, let’s open up similar discussion about the benefits Graph Search could offer corporate recruiters, especially for companies who encourage employee referrals for hires. Each position has a “spec” or an ideal person for the job. For our sales positions, we look for people who exhibit leadership, have sales experience, been held to quotas, or have customer services experience. But, recruiters also look for people who might be outgoing or show risk-taking behaviors for these positions. Some might search “friends who work in sales” or “friends who like the movie Wall Street” to stumble upon friends they might not have considered for an open position.
On the other hand, this could become a good tool for job seekers or recent grads who are starting to hunt for a new job. They may look up “companies that my friends work for” or “software companies in the DC area.” Users could also search “my friends who are writers” or “my friends who work in marketing” to find new companies to add to their list of prospects. At the end of 2012, we (recruiters) were all excited about the ability for our jobs to be found in Facebook and now, Graph Search offers users a way to find us based on what their friends are sharing about their individual work experience.
Graph Search could potentially be useful for any employee who is looking for friends to refer. If you’re currently a Vocus employee, remember that we do reward you for referrals and once Graph Search is made available to you, Facebook could be a great place to find the friends who have potential to make a difference here. On the other hand, you might have just heard about Vocus and its opportunity for growth, so you search “friends who work at Vocus” for an “in” at our company and you send those friends an inbox message to get the process started. Social media offers people the opportunity to connect with employers in a less intrusive way. We’re in an age where it is completely acceptable to post to a company’s wall, ask about hiring opportunities and expect a response.
Below are some videos that show you how Graph Search will work. The product is still in closed beta mode, but you can add yourself to the waitlist here.
You can read more about the development behind Graph Search on Wired.com. What are some other reasons you are excited to get Graph Search? Leave your comments for us below.
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Deborah Kim
January 18, 2013 at 2:54 am
This is crazy! It makes it so easy to connect with people with the same interests or maybe even reconnect with people as well. It’s taking the FB Friend search option and enhancing it x10. I can’t even imagine what else will come out after this. Candidates will need to be even more mindful about social media as a recruiting tool.
Lauren Holzer
January 18, 2013 at 10:30 pm
Any tool to help better utilize facebook for targeted searches is welcome! Very exciting news! Vocus is hiring visit http://www.whyworkatvocus.com for more details.
Skyler Grubbs
January 21, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Great write up V! Sounds like the new Graph search works well for both recruiter & job seeker. Looking forward to trying it out.
Veronica Segovia
January 21, 2013 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for the support, Skyler! It will be interesting to find out how people use the tool to discover new things within the platform.
Top software company
February 26, 2013 at 4:59 am
I read somewhere that 48% of all job seekers did social media job hunting on Facebook in the past year. That’s a lot of eyes searching for opportunities, and if your brand is already active on the network, it could be worth engaging power users to recommend applicable candidates.
Consultants in Mumbai
April 23, 2013 at 2:47 am
Facebook is one of the best way to help people find job quickly and easily.
Veronica Segovia
April 23, 2013 at 10:29 pm
It definitely can help people if they know how to search. People can find potential referrals by searching for friends who work in certain industries or at a certain company. How do you think Facebook can be more useful to recruiters and/or job seekers?