Curated By Shawna Armstrong

Earlier this month, I shared ways to use Facebook search filters to find talent. I generally don’t recommend cold contacting strangers on Facebook to solicit them for job opportunities.  Just like if you post something too personal or political on LinkedIn, you’ll get slapped with, “this isn’t Facebook” comments, you are similarly likely to be dismissed or ignored on Facebook for soliciting candidates because… this isn’t LinkedIn.

However, sometimes you’re unable to source another option.  If you are not successful at locating a LinkedIn profile or an email address from a web scraper, you can use the desktop version of Facebook Messenger (Messenger.com) to search and connect with public users on Facebook.  The best part is that messages get directly sent to users and not to the “other” elusive inbox.  In this article, Jonathan Kidder also provides sample search strings and message templates.