If your network equals your net worth you may be sitting atop Fort Knox. Hire My Friend, a free Facebook application kicks networking up a notch by allowing you to harness the power of your Facebook circle to help a job-seeking friend.
Here’s how it works: The app allows you to attach a mini profile of a job-seeking friend to your profile, showcasing your friend’s skills and talents to your network. The app also takes advantage of the Facebook newsfeed, allowing you to notify everyone in your network about your amazingly talented friend who’s on the job prowl.
Sign-up is fairly simple; just add the Hire My Friend app and answer a few questions about your friend, such as what kind of job your friend is looking for and why she should be hired. There is also the option of attaching a link to your friend’s LinkedIn profile. Once you’ve done that, your job-seeking friend will be added to your profile and the rest of your network will be able to send a message to them.
Hire My Friend’s fan page is also ripe with resources for job seekers, including a Twitter tab that lets users see some of the latest job postings on Twitter, a resource center that lists major job search Websites, job blogs, and online resume tools.
“If you could gather 500 of your friends in a room and tell everyone about your friend who needs a job, someone in that room is likely to know someone who will be searching for someone with their skill set,†said the developer.
The app launched in January and has more than 90 active monthly users.
Renita Burns is a writer and content producer for BlackEnterprise.com.