My favorite story from Emily Liebert’s Facebook fairytales was “Lawyer Speak.” This story demonstrates how powerful Facebook is and why it is becoming a colossal tool that is changing society for ever. Lawyer Speak is about a girl named Rebecca that discovers Facebook and proves it to be one of the world’s most powerful networking tools. Rebecca’s experience with Facebook gives promise that Facebook can be properly instituted into business. She creates a group and ends up getting a job based on the contacts she makes with the group. She also is able to get her Alma mater to make a statement that her and other alumnus wanted because of Facebook.
I never knew Facebook could be such a powerful tool. I normally go on Facebook when I am bored and use it to kill time. Rebecca showed me that people can use Facebook to do some very productive things. This has me wondering if people will all find their jobs in the future through social sights like Facebook. Most job applications are already online so it makes since for Companies to use Facebook to reach out to qualified candidates while also gaining a scope into their lives. Facebook is a pretty informal way to connect with people. This shows that informal contacts via Facebook can be very important ties. These ties can lead to more opportunities than the ones that are presented from people that we actually know in reality.
I have a friend that received a summer internship at Morgan Stanley that paid $25 per hour through Facebook. I knew that Facebook could hand people opportunities but it didn’t fully sink in since I wasn’t blessed with such luck. Rebecca’s experience along with my friends are now motivating me to attempt to use Facebook to connect with even more people and to find some opportunities for myself.
I also learned from reading this that there are no limitations to networking. Web 2.0 has made the world smaller and we have to use every tool that is available to meet as many people as possible. This shows me that not only do I have to try and connect to as many people in reality as possible but I also have to be social while online. These Facebook success stories show that you never know who can help you even while surfing the internet. Stories like Rebecca’s make me even less likely to understand why some people decide to be online outcasts and avoid every form of social media. This reading leaves me with the question: Will Facebook in the future take more features from LinkedIn to connect people with more opportunities?
Great Reading, I would give this chapter of the book a 10/10.
ReplyDeleteHey Zane,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great when you read these stories and it leaves you feeling optimistic? But my question is this: even though we've heard success stories about people finding jobs via Facebook and a pinch of luck, would it REALLY become common practice for others in the future? I just ask this because one of the biggest issues people have about Facebook is that there are privacy issues and if employers start using it to find potential candidates, candidates' 'private' lives are for everyone to see... which means the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yes, Facebook makes the networking landscape smaller and more accessible to us, but at the same time, it's easier for employers to find reasons NOT to hire you if there are questionable pictures or status updates or wall posts they see when they visit your page. And for that reason, I think LinkedIn will be more favored for others to connect to employers rather than using Facebook
I definitely think that Facebook will fill more of a Linkedin role in the future. I doubt it will ever lead to jobs above entry level and internship status, but thats where most careers start any ways. In comparison to the real world I would liken Facebook's role in job applications to how I give my resume to older friends who then pass it along in their work. I believe Facebook will serve as a means to get a resume into the right hands through and eventual network.
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked to see how many productive purposes Facebook served because I had never heard such success stories before reading the book. I agree with your point that web 2.0 has made the world smaller and enabled connections between more and more people, but I also agree with Charlie that I can't see Facebook leading to jobs beyond internships or entry level. Even so, it's still a good thing because it allows people a place to start and they can move up from there to different or higher jobs. I am interested to see how the role of facebook evolves and enables such productivity.
ReplyDeleteI thought this chapter was awesome too. It really shows how much of a change can be made through something as easy as starting a Facebook group. I wish there was a way to know what Facebook events or groups or fan pages were going to have such a strong following or reaction, so that we could harness these outlets in a continually positive way. I guess this comes back to the idea that people will find the uses that they want for social media outlets. All I know is, I would like Morgan Stanley to pay me 25/hour through Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAll these stories of "productive use" of FB I find very interesting. As an IT worker I always find it necessary to "game" systems, to make them work for you with through un-intended means and 'kludges." Here is a story along those lines - the BPL digitized some rare books for their content, but the front and back covers had this amazing, although afterthought artwork. The proposed audience for the contents of the book never appeared, but a new audience cropped up - tattoo artists, skateboarders, people looking for something to skin their laptops with. This is how I view some of these stories - Facebook was envisioned as a way to keep up with Friends, but now people are "gaming" the system to do some pretty amazing things. Put 500m people in a room and there are bound to be some unintended activity!
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