Facebook is a social network and can be locked down so no one except people you allow can see it. If someone has a Facebook page like you mentioned above with them building farms with Siamese midget twins to show that they are not racist or homophobic then that would ring alarm bells for me, it would show that this guy is a try hard!

Better advice would be – lock down your Facebook account so no one can see it other than your accepted friends, get a great public profile on linkedin full of recommendations etc and then direct people there. There are dozens of social networks out there and you may be a member of all of them, so you can decide which set of contacts you want to access which profile.

You wouldn’t rock up to a job interview, pull out your camera and show the HR manager some holiday pics, that would be mental, looking at Facebook profiles while the recruiter is there is just the same. I do agree that you should build a strong positive digital footprint if you are going for a job, comment on topical forums etc, have a “business Twitter feed” where you don’t talk about what you ate for lunch etc.

But you do not need to show anyone your Facebook page, you can simply say, ahh, sorry, Facebook is where I talk to friends about my social and private life, I like to keep work and business separate. LinkedIn is where I connect with business contacts, here is my public URL, feel free to connect with me.