Social media has expanded way beyond its roots as a way to re-connect with your old high school friends or to obsess over the cute boy who lives down the street. Major brands social media marketing have become so well integrated at times the consumer isn’t even aware they are being sold a product. But you don’t have to be a major corporation to make your Facebook page work for you! Below are 4 uncommon ways to use your Facebook page…nnStart a Revolutionn 
Any of you who changed your profile to red last month already knows what I am talking about. Because of the broad reach of social media it has become even easier to mobilize the masses and create groundswell support for the causes we care about. It’s becoming harder and harder for legislatures not to notice the number of likes on a cause page or the trending of a popular hashtage like #marriageequality. It’s no substitute for good old fashioned voting or getting involved with the political process but it is a quick and easy way to let our government know where popular opinion lies. It’s also a great way to open up a dialogue with friends and acquaintances on the other side of the fence.nnWatch the Newsn
This seems counterintuitive but during the recent presidential election my Facebook news feed was announcing which states went blue or red faster than CNN…yes, this is partly because News channels need to go through fact checking sources and verifying information and your random fb friend doesn’t. But it’s also a numbers game. If every single one of your friends is watching a different channel and posting what they are viewing then you are getting the benefit of diverse sources of information. It would have been physically impossible to watch every single news channel all at the same time during the election night but it sure was possible to get the info they were presenting just by refreshing your news feed every few seconds. I also find that Facebook highlights news stories that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I watch the same news channel every morning so when a friend posts an article or video from another source I get the opportunity to see something I wouldn’t have otherwise found like an interesting article about finance or law or another topic that I don’t normally encounter. Just make sure to pay attention to what source your news is coming from (i.e. if it’s a post someone put up from The Onion, it probably isn’t a real news story). And it’s a good rule of thumb that reports of celebrity deaths and/or sex tapes are often spam links that will potentially lead to your Facebook being hacked.nnSolve a crimen 
This isn’t really a new concept, there have been numerous stories of stores putting surveillance footage on their Facebook page to help in identifying perpetrators, thieves being caught by posting pictures of stolen goods and/or status updates detailing criminal activity. There is also this genius woman who found her iPhone’s thief by using her iCloud to post pictures he had taken with her phone to Facebook. You too can use fb in the same way. Post pictures of lost items and ask your friends to repost it. The reposting widens your network giving you more opportunities to have someone say, “I know that person” or “I’ve seen that missing necklace.” I’ve also recently seen friends posting about lost pets and reposting local stories on missing children. Facebook is a quick way to direct a lot of attention to a crime creating a virtual network of witnesses. And we all know that witnesses and attention are the two easiest ways to get caught in a crime.nnFind a Jobn
You could use linkedin to do this, but I personally find it clunky. Plus the fact that you can see who has viewed your profile makes it difficult to achieve the level of stalking I am about to recommend. Say you have found your dream job at CompanyX, before you apply plug that company name into your Facebook search bar. If the company has any sort of presence on Facebook (and who doesn’t these days?) then a plethora of usable info should come up like their official fb page, friends and acquaintances that have worked for them or liked their page. Why is this helpful? The first reason is companies tend to be looser on their social media pages than on say a job listing or their official posts. Maybe you find a funny post about how the CEO hates stripped ties. You have quickly found a quick and easy way to give yourself a slight edge over all the competition. Or you can find out that the great guy you met at your best friend’s party also works for CompanyX. You now have a connection that can do anything for you from giving you advice about how to make a good impression, to telling you what it’s actually like to work at the company, to making sure your resume makes it to the top of the pile. Another way to go about this is to plug the name of the person who currently holds the position you are applying for, the head of their human resources, and/or the head of the department of which you are applying into the same fb search bar and check out their Facebook page. If you are lucky and they have a totally open page you can mine a lot of information. If you have any mutual friends that should show up on their friends section and that’ll give you your 6 degrees of separation to mine. You can also use Facebook to find links by posting a status as simple as “Anyone know someone who works at CompanyX?” or “Looking for a job, do any of you know of an opening?” It’s amazing the wealth of knowledge and connections social media provide. I was once trying to get a hold of a play I really wanted to produce but couldn’t get access to it so I posted a status asking if anyone knew the playwright and sure enough a friend of a friend did. In two quick minutes I had the playwright’s email address. Social networks make six degrees of Kevin Bacon seem like child’s play. Never has it been easier to find out that your sister’s friend’s cousin holds the key to your dream job. When searching common names like Jane Doe you may want to use the location or workplace filters to help narrow down the pool. Here are a few other things to keep in mind:nn-If you are Facebook friends with your co-workers and you haven’t told your work you are looking for a new job, posting a status about it is probably a really bad idea. What you can do in the meantime is put any of your co-workers into a list (go to the button on their page that says “friend” click on it and choose the “add to list” option) and then hide that list from seeing any of your profile or statuses while you are job hunting (using your privacy settings, choose the custom option which will let you include lists in who can/can’t see your profile). It’s more discrete than unfriending them and once you are in your new position you can reopen your settings and resume your Facebook love.nn-In the same way that you can use social media to get closer to job prospects, prospective employers can also use it to check you out. So if you don’t want your future boss to see those great St. Patty’s pics of you puking green beer, it’s probably a good idea to clean up your profile or change your profile settings to private while you are job hunting.nnWritten by Barbara Janice Kielhofer
