LinkedIn is currently at the very top of the food chain when it comes to social recruiting, but that could soon change as Facebook has just acquired Pursuit -- a San Francisco based startup that allowed users to recommend each other for jobs using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and, of course, Pursuit's inner network. The goal of Pursuit was to help trusted references help companies sort through piles and piles of job applications to find the best candidates.
So why is it that it's being taken as a given that Facebook's job search capabilities will dominate the scene? For one thing Facebook has an impressive 500 million user count to crush LinkedIn's less impressive 80 million user count. But secondly -- but make no mistake, second to none -- Facebook has intent. They're the kings of intent.
Facebook has done a better job at modeling intent by asking users directly — “Are you single? In a relationship? Married?” And recruiters expect Facebook’s proven ability to model intent to purchase for advertisers based on user data, means they can do the same for job search. (Imagine what you could learn about someone’s professional intent based on things like a recent breakup, a move to a new city, liking certain pages, and contextual analysis of status updates.)
It will be very interesting to see how this will unfold! Stay tuned.
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Bambi Blue is a freelance writer, editor, and codemonkey living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She moonlights as a jazz musician, a social butterfly, and most apparently a weisenheimer. Loves to cook, hates to clean, and can easily be found on Twitter
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