When we began recruiting for an Account Director three months ago, we decided to be open-minded yet highly selective about the candidates. We knew we needed someone with years of strategic marketing experience, as the success or failure of client engagements would be highly dependent on this person’s ability to develop and implement strategic marketing plans. Outside of that requirement, we were open to a wide variety of backgrounds, as well as where, how and when we might find this person.

The job boards generated lots of resumes, but few qualified candidates. Everyone in the company posted the job opening on LinkedIn and Twitter, which resulted in a few very good referrals and interviews, but none seemed to be a perfect match.

So how about Facebook as a recruitment tool? Isn’t that for keeping up with friends? What the heck…throw caution to the wind and bore our “friends” with a business-related status update. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what I did, and that’s exactly where we found our winning candidate.

Let’s face it…the line between personal and professional relationships can get pretty blurry. In this case, the friend that connected us was someone I met almost 15 years ago. Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz was in the very first Executive Roundtable sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Technology Council. Buffy and I developed a friendship over the years, which is how we wound up being Facebook friends.

My post found its way to Buffy, and as she tells me, “ I saw my trusted long-time friend and colleague post about a job and knew that my friend PJ would be a great fit.”

PJ McDermott Glennon indeed was the best match for the position, and we are thrilled to have her on board as our newest Account Director. Over the past 15 years, she has been a strategic advisor primarily in the non-profit world, but as we come to find out, this translates really well in the for-profit world. In fact, if you can succeed like PJ has as a strategic business advisor in the non-profit world, the for-profit world is a piece of cake. As PJ puts it: “In the non-profit world, marketing has to convince ‘prospects’ to devote time and money for the benefit of others. In the for-profit world, the prospective consumer directly benefits from a buying decision.”

Please join us in welcoming PJ McDermott Glennon to the Right Source Marketing team. You can reach her by email, or check her out on LinkedIn.

And the next time you’re looking to recruit for your company, don’t forget about Facebook. After all, the best job candidates typically come from personal referrals, regardless of whether they are connected to you personally or professionally.

About the Author: Michael Teitelbaum is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don’t hesitate to drop Michael a comment on this post or follow Michael on Twitter for more marketing commentary.