Everywhere I turn recently I keep hearing that Facebook is the place to recruit. It’s bigger than LinkedIn, has more daily visitors, people stay on it’s pages longer, blah blah blah.
- But does it have more hires than Linkedin?
- Even more importantly can it source more great candidates than LinkedIn?
- Who has more future potential to truly become an outstanding recruitment vehicle?
Currently both sites are still lacking but even with lower numbers LinkedIn is that much more effective in identifying, tracking and hiring talent. LinkedIn’s recruitment tools are better and the opportunity to be innovative and blow the doors off other recruitment social media sites is there for the taking.
Even with the Monster initiative BeKnown, Facebook does not seem ready to attack the talent market directly, preferring to leave the effort to other parties. Sure Facebook is another good tool but compete with LinkedIn – not even close.
LinkedIn has the opportunity to launch the killer app, employee (referral) program, with immediate payouts on hire, immediate follow-up, real-time stats, etc. Hopefully it goes way beyond it’s current meek plans. Sure Facebook could try to do the same but it’s platform is not set up to truly allow participants and recruiters to effectively connect.
The key determining factor in this ongoing battle will be the business side of the equation. How will businesses use these sites moving forward for things other than recruiting?
Remember recruiting is our end, not everyone else’s. People often debate LinkedIn’s proffesional approach vs. Facebook’s laid back one but when doing business as it relates to partnerships, legal matters, intellectual property, venture capital, etc as a successful business who’s site would you rather be on?
As the sites evolve to take on the larger social media market, it’s critical to look at how they are constrained by what’s already been established. The more companies use a site for business purposes and ultimately making profits, the more effective recruitment will be on that site.
I, for one, see a ton of potential on LinkedIn for future revenue generation, not so much with Facebook. In the end it’s all a question of how innovative and daring Linkedin or Facebook can be. Who has the bigger cojones, as they say. I for one am betting on LinkedIn to continue to lead the recruitment social media market.
What’s your view on the battle of the giants?
Francois Guay is a recruitment and talent management consultant, who writes the ‘AttackDefendDisrupt’ blog.
We really welcome any and all contributions from the community, so please feel free to share your views and opinions with us, your colleagues and peers via our blogs section.
2 Responses
The 3rd option…
Alternatively there is the WYGU (who I work for). WYGU is a social platform dedicated to careers that covering all sectors (not just professionals – LinkedIn) in an environment that is completely separate from your personal life (Facebook). We’re finding this is really striking a chord with our community.
Facebook recruiting
Facebook can absolutely be a solid source for recruitment. Retail and other sectors have candidates who are not on LinkedIn. I recently came across Identified and am a big fan. It helps recruiters make use of Facebook data for recruiting purposes, similar to LinkedIn.
Susan