Recruiters: NEW! How to Search Facebook by Employer, Education, Location and Freetext

I posted earlier today about Facebook’s new Profile Page and how the emphasis on its revamped employer and experience section could prove invaluable to Recruiters. I pointed out that Facebook unfortunately still make it very difficult to search profiles. However I just tried a search from within Facebook and found something that looks very new and is certainly most interesting! Facebook’s old Search function allowed you to search by keywords (limited) and then narrow your results only by location.
I’m not sure if it changed only today on the back of the new Profile upgrade but my Search button is now allowing me to narrow my search by Employer, Education or Location!
Check out this screen shot:

This is an awesome update as it allows us to find people who have a specific job title (keyword search), work for a certain employer (employer filter), have a certain qualification (education filter) and who are in a specific location (either use the location filter or the keyword search). Knowing Employee “John Smith” works as an “Audit Senior” for KPMG in Dublin provides me with everything I need to know to go find his contact details and get in touch with him.
Slowly but surely Facebook is encroaching further on LinkedIn’s territory! What is next I wonder???

Check out how Facebook now displays the results of this updated Search function; the employer and experience section takes up most of the page!!

Facebook’s new Profile Page and what it means for Recruiters

Just in case you haven’t heard yet; Facebook have started rolling out a new look Profile Page to its users. The new page is pretty cool and provides us with a long overdue overhaul to how everyone’s personal profile is presented with lots more screen space for photos, connections and most importantly for us recruiters, career information.  If your profile hasn’t automatically been updated yet, you can go get the new profile here.

So why should Recruiters be excited about this otherwise mundane development?  Well, when you first go to the new Profile Page you are prompted to edit and update your information with a HUGE section devoted to your employment experience.  Here you can add a list of your jobs and your qualifications with sections for adding plenty of further detail.  Now the smart ones amongst you will already know that Facebook always allowed you to do this but the real change is the prominence that employment information now has in the new profile.  I reckon that people are much more likely to update this section now which means Recruiters are finally going to be able to access some of this rich biographical data.
Facebook remains a real challenge for recruiters and sourcers as the privacy settings ensure that we can access very little info on prospective candidates but even if it just means that user data is better profiled to allow for improved Facebook Advertising matches, it’s a start!

Tribute to Leslie Nielsen; this is Frank Drebin in Interview action

Facebook’s latest recruitment video

How do you allow Photo Tagging on your Facebook Page (New)

Photo Tagging is a great way to virally spread your Facebook Page out through the Social Graph but the default setting for Facebook Pages does not allow your Fans to Tag Photos, only Administrators have this privilege.

There used to be a reasonably easy way of going into your Page Settings and changing the Permissions for the Photos applications but a few months ago Facebook revamped the Edit Page interface and removed the option of enabling Fan Photo Tagging.  Thankfully, there is a solution, and it’s easy peasy!

Check out this Video for a quick demonstration:

The text version is as follows:

1. Go to your Facebook Page (making sure you are logged in as an administrator). Click on the “Edit Page” option in the left hand column.  Look at the URL; you will see id=XXXXXXXX somewhere towards the end of the url, the X’s being your unique number.  Copy this number.

2. Type in this URL, replacing the blank line with your unique ID number (no spaces): http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/app_settings.php?id=__________&aid=2305272732

3. Choose the appropriate option under “Allow fans to tag photos by (Your Page Name)”. Click Save and you are done.

It’s as easy as that!

Accountancy & Finance Job Vacancies on the rise in Ireland?

As our poor country faces an ass-whipping from Europe today and a possible bail-out from the IMF, all signs on the ground are that the recruitment market is returning to normal.

I received my weekly update email from Irishjobs.ie this morning and I haven’t seen so many jobs advertised in years!  I’m not looking for a job but I sneakily subscribe to the job board’s alerts to see what’s happening in the finance and accounting market from week to week.  A quick look this morning tells me that firms such as KBC Bank, Ernst & Young, Groupon, Mercer, Marsh, Irish Nationwide, Citco, Facebook and even state controlled Bank of Ireland are all hiring for accountancy and finance staff right now. If you’re an Accountant in Ireland, the world seems to be your oyster!

Below is a quick image of less than half the jobs advertised!

 

I hate Google right now!

I’ve just been going through a very simple search this morning of Twitter profiles that contain a client’s keyword whom we wish to follow.

It being a Sunday, I must be getting lazy as I used Google as my search engine.  Low and behold, 4 pages into my search, Google blocks me from using their service.

Sometimes, I really HATE Google!