Years ago, I got very excited about networking and we filed for a patent that described a 'brilliant' way of integrating social networking into a job board. But when we started implementing the idea it
went nowhere and I became disillusioned. Recently new software platforms have
proven that the networking idea was not at fault, rather it was our
implementation that was to blame.
As little as six months ago I thought that social networking was a bubble about to pop... now I think it is more like an earthquake for the recruiting world. One of the websites that convinced me is Chris Russell's Jobboarders.com.
And yet, it will still take years for a lot of really viable niche sites to emerge. Yes, these sites can grow very quickly, however, a social networking site needs much higher traffic than a job board does to become a valuable recruiting tool.
There is still a bubbly element to social networking - I believe that a lot of recruiters will experiment with it and fail to make the hires they expect. A lot of social networking sites will go out of business.
I will keep a list of social networking job boards to keep an eye on here. Their fortunes will tell the story:
- beaker.com
- jobsinsocialmedia.com
- linkedin.com
- medicalmingle.com
- recruitingblogs.com
- wirelessjobs.com
It is still not obvious to me that social networking works well for job boards especially when you consider large niches. Where social networking really shines is in the realm of peoples hobbies and passions, for example rc gliders, coffee, art, music etc.
What's your favorite Ning website?
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
The use of social networks as a passive job board is a very easy idea, but few companies are brave enough to try it. It's pretty simple - they are living in an age where data was confidential, and they assume they have to control it to "win."
Some few staffing firms are using different social network applications to build loyalty among their consultants. Those companies will be very successful, but the vast majority of companies and candidates will continue to use job boards.
The reason is simple. Social networks are just networking with technology, and most people who are capable of networking for their career are already doing it. The other 80-90% just want a job, and only jump in when they need a job, which is not very effective. It still could be a killer app, but the jobseeker's inherent laziness will prevent it from being an earthquake.
** es ** I think this is a very insightful comment Jim, thank you for taking the time! ... since publishing this post, I have started to lean in this direction based on early results of our own experiments with Ning.
Wouldn't is be cool if one web site could be used to search (profiles) on all those sites at once? Imagine the scenario: YOu log in to a web site. In your profile you store your LinkedIN username and password, and the same for all other site that require you to log in to search. Perhaps even Monster actaully. Than you perform a search on that one site, and the site sends the request (with your credentials) to all the Social networking sites (and Online CV databases perhaps), and presents the results (as hyperlinks) to the results on all sites. So if you are looking for a 'Six Sigma + Dublin', you only do a search one on one site and get the results from all the sources you would normally have to go and do such a search? Just some automation, to get all those results in a single results page, to speed up your work... :) Ivan | www.JobsBlog.ie
**es** that is dangerous thinking Ivan - that's how businesses get started - "wouldn't it be cool if..."
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