Researchers Moira Burke and Robert Kraut recently conducted a study that included responses from 3,000 participants and Facebook data from nearly 250,000 users. Their conclusion; Facebook usage increases your chance of finding a job.

The theory is that interaction with close friends will actually encourage those friends to help you in locating a job. According to Burke, “When the economy is really bad, it’s not enough to hear about a job opening. You need someone to vouch for you, or to make job opening when it didn’t exist, or to refer you to HR,”

A DailyBeast.com news report on the study found that other researchers tended to agree with the Facebook findings. Miriam Salpeter, an Atlanta-based career coach and author of Social Networking for Career Success, says the Facebook study’s general findings don’t surprise her, but she does still stress the importance of building contacts in the field you want to get into. “I think one of the best things about social media is that you can expand the network of people who know, like, and trust you without necessarily always needing to meet those people in person,” she says. “You can get to know someone pretty well via frequent and brief online interactions. Those online interactions often result in people becoming familiar and comfortable enough with someone’s expertise to refer that person for a job.”