Facebook is not just for individuals. Many major U.S. businesses are creating their own Facebook sites as a way to build brands and generate more job applications.

In a February 2008 article for the Society of Human Resource Managers written by By Rita Zeidner, employers are using social networking sites to tell their recruitment story.

"Many recruiters and recruitment job boards—including industry-specific and geography-specific niche sites—discovered Facebook long ago," writes Zeidner. "But now an increasing number of employers including Ernst & Young, Sodexho, Unilever, Accenture and the Georgia Army National Guard are also establishing their own Facebook pages."

These pages will usually include some text about the company and a link to the company's career web site. TMP Worldwide, a recruitment advertising firm based in New York, is actually marketing a new application called "Work With Me" that will allow employers to post job listings on their own Facebook pages.

"The program is designed to allow companies to encourage their employees to post job listings voluntarily on their personal Facebook pages. In return, they would be paid a finder's fee for hires made as a direct result of the posting." write Zeidner.

Job seekers who click on the "Work With Me" job posting are directed to an expanded description of the job on the employer's web site. Applications completed online are put into the employer's own tracking system, not Facebook's.

For more information, go to Society for Human Resource Management.

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