Friday, July 13, 2012

Will Facebook Jobs Hurt Linkedin?

A recent Forbes article suggests that a new facebook job posting feature is expected in the autumn of 2102 that could "kill Linkedin's momentum.".  The new facebook feature will act as a job snatcher or aggregator which scours the web for job postings and then bundles them all into one searchable and convenient location.    Hundreds (or thousands) of  job posting aggregator websites already exist, but none have the power and ability of facebook to match job specs against 900 million monthly user profiles.

900 Million Monthly Users
In the beginning, job boards such as http://www.monster.ca/ , http://www.workopolis.com/, http://www.working.com/ and http://www.careerbuilder.ca/ will have little to worry about.  Facebook will simply steal their content and re-post jobs within the facebook feature so that the job applicants are redirected back to the respective original "revenue generating" career site. This will increase the original job board's traffic and will help keep them relevant.

Expect the new facebook jobs feature to also snatch postings from facebook company pages within its own platform.   Companies that use custom job posting apps on their facebook pages can expect their traffic to increase as job seekers are directed from a convenient one-stop-job-shop without them having to find and visit each employer's individual company page to do redundant searches. 

App providers such as jobmagic, jobvite, or jobs4labs should also get a little boost in business as more employers turn to facebook to post their job openings. You might have to pay to build your facebook App but  there is currently no limit to the number of postings allowed on a company page and there is no cost on a per posting basis. 

150 Million Users
But will this have any impact on Linkedin?  Doubt it!  Postings jobs in a job board format is the antithesis of Linkedin.   Linkedin users seem bound and determined to network with everyone in the globe.  NOT applying for jobs through job boards is why they are on Linkedin.  The real question is whether the traditional job boards will be hurt in the long run?  The traditional career sites will have a new powerhouse competitor forcing traditional job boards to continue adding features, building social media partnerships, reinventing their service offerings, differentiating themselves and staying relevant.   The big boards are already having a difficult time justifying their cost per posting model.  The new facebook feature is sure to make their sales pitch a little more difficult.

Steve Jones
Been there - Done that ....on job boards and social media space.

1 comment:

vinay Johar said...

Interestent! The media of the networking business are changing and moving online. LinkedIn, Facebook, and some concrete to industry and career means to make new contacts and interact with Online Channels. Today, social gives you the access to a broad audience and makes you visible to recruiters.