For Internships, Jobs and Careers: Network by Joining Groups on Facebook

I’ve talked about Facebook in several posts – mostly what NOT to do to protect your professional image. Yet there are many things you CAN do on Facebook to help your networking efforts.

I have to admit that at first I didn’t really understand how to effectively use Facebook. But as I l earn more, I understand that the opportunities for networking on

Facebook can be quite numerous. (Yet as with most things in life, you have to be willing to give in order to get.)

Examples of two Facebook groups to which I belong

This month I’ve been part of a four-session teleseminar called “The Law of Action 2.0” put on by the BlogSquad (Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff) and Kathleen Gage with an accompanying secret Facebook group that does not show up in profiles.

On this secret Facebook group page are discussion topics connected to the teleseminar course. Here we can ask questions and get answers from each other. And in this spirit of helping, we get and give friend requests from and to others in the group.

I also now belong to the Facebook group Virtual Coffee Dates – which is an open group that anyone can join – started by MaryPat Kavanagh (www.queenofmarketing.com).

This group had a virtual coffee date on Friday -- and it was my first time on a Skype IM chat. For me this was an amazing opportunity to “chat” with some very successful women in the internet world. One woman even recognized my name as being in “The Law of Action” Facebook group with her. And another woman on the chat was Mari Smith, whose area of expertise is using Facebook “for fun and profits” (http://whyfacebook.com).

Find groups on Facebook that are of interest to you

If you click on GROUPS under “Applications” on your Facebook account home page, a search engine for groups will pop up. Put in a description of your interest (I just tried bird watching to see how many groups would come up – lots) and you’ll get a list of groups connected to that subject.

Click on each group’s pages to read about the group and then choose a couple of groups to join. Be an active participant in discussion topics (that’s the giving part) and begin to get and make friend invites in the group (the getting part). And you can always drop out of a group if you later decide it’s not right for you.

This is an organic way to start making friends with people of similar interests – and a first step towards utilizing Facebook connections “for fun and profits” as Mari Smith would say.

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Flipping Burgers and Beyond, Facebook groups, BlogSquad, Kathleen Gage, www.queenofmarketing.com, http://whyfacebook.com, internships, jobs, careers

“Tweeting” Your Image – the Twitter Phenomenon

Just when you’ve got MySpace and Facebook figured out – carefully balancing “fun” with maintaining a professional image – comes Twitter, a micro-blogging platform that offers you the ability to send messages (tweets) of 140 characters -- not 140 words.

The idea is that you post a message on Twitter to let everyone who is “following” you know what you are doing. In other words, people choose to “follow” you and then get a news feed of your tweets.

In the last week I’ve gotten email newsletters from several internet marketers explaining how to use Twitter for business purposes. Trying to follow this advice, I’ve sent tweets about attending the two-day internet marketing seminar of John Kremer (www.bookmarket.com) as well as attending BookExpoAmerica. Last night I sent a tweet about reading the book “Problogger” by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett recommended by the BlogSquad (www.blogsquad.biz).

It’s important to consider how this new social phenomenon (it’s free – anyone can sign up at www.twitter.com) could help or hinder your professional image. If you sign up for this social network, ANYONE else who is on the network can “follow” you unless you check “Protect my updates.” (This lets only people whom you approve follow your updates.)

I’ve just put a Twitter link on both of my blogs. (I chose to have only one tweet appear rather than the five tweets that is the default setting.) And I actually don’t update through Twitter. I update through Ping.fm, which at this writing is still in beta.

And actually I don’t go to the Ping site to update. I go to my Facebook page, where I have the Ping application. There I can dash off a quick update that Ping sends to the sites I’ve indicated: Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. And, now apparently, Twitter then sends the update to my two blogs.

Okay, are you as confused as I am? And you want to know what’s the point of this post? One, you should know what Twitter and tweets are if someone asks you about this new phenomenon. Two, you should remember to follow all the “protect your brand” recommendations that I’ve given for other social media networks.

And because it is so easy to dash off a tweet, you may have to be especially careful to resist shooting off a risqué comment. Instead, if you decide to join Twitter, consider how you can positively impact your brand.

You know what? I’m going to send a tweet through Ping on my Facebook account that I’ve just blogged about Twitter.

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