Comments on: Is LinkedIn Becoming a Job Board?

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:20:04 +0000

Bill,
I am in no way, shape or form denying all of the social functionality built into Linkedin – as you detailed them – they’re all there.

I totally agree that many recruiters use LinkedIn like a job board (post jobs, search for candidates) – but there’s nothing bad/wrong with that.

I will also say I believe that the “average Joe/Jane” who is NOT a recruiter doesn’t really use much, if any of LinkedIn’d social functionality, as evidenced by the LARGE percentage of people who create a minimalist profile, have < 10 connections, and don’t come back to LinkedIn often (or at all).

If you check out data for the “Big 3″ social networks on sites like Compete.com. you will see LinkedIn has the lowest # of unique visitors per month (and it appears only half of all people with LinkedIn profiles return at least once a month).

There’s no denying all of the available social functionality of LinkedIn, but I would still argue that 50% of the people visiting LinkedIn use it primarily for facilitating employment in some way (from the job seeker side – it is a “professional” network, after all) and that 50% use it for just being social.

And just because there are tons of jobs posted on/via Twitter – it does not a job board make, IMO. I do not believe that many people eschew searching for jobs on Google, Indeed, SimplyHired, and the major job boards and instead decide to search for jobs on Twitter.

Somebody please show me information otherwise.

Bill – as always, I LOVE the dialogue. There is no ground gained or critical thought that comes from everyone always agreeing with each other. Let’s continue to push the ball forward!

By: BillBoorman

BillBoorman — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:35:46 +0000

I’m not suprised by the result of your poll Glen, but i’m not sure how many people visit that are not recruiters. This might skew things a bit.
I agree it is least social because it is largely business based and lacks the “instant” element of twitter or facebook.
I’d be interested in looking at how many posts are made in groups daily, how many questions get answered or sent out, how many polls get voted on, slide share presentations viewed and how many new connections happen each day. This could be compared to jobs posted as a comparison.
Linked In is massively under used by recruiters. take a look at all the applications available and use a few. change your status every few days (you don’t need to leave tweetdeck to do this.), use box.net to embed any document in your profile. feature your blog (don’t just list it.) Add slideshare presentation and video (using google docs) to your profile. Set up an RSS feed to filter questions in to your in box so that you can answer the target one’s, gain subject expert status and make new connections.
These are my tips of social things you can do that enables much more social activity in linked In. Be glad to help anyone that wants any help on this.
Bill

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:27:55 +0000

Well, the majority of the 186 people who responded to the poll seem to indicate that most people think LinkedIn is at least 50/50 job board/social network – a total of 73%.

No one can deny that LinkedIn has paid job posting, structured job search functionality (they’ve partnered with SimplyHired for crying out loud!), and premium pay-to-search-for-and-message-people.

Of course LinkedIn is also a social network, with groups, Q&A, etc., but lets be honest – LinkedIn is the least “social” social network (as long as you remove recruiters from the equation). Check the web analytics/visitor data.

I’d love to see some stats on LinkedIn regarding the average number of connections and the amount of people who create a profile and never come back – this data exists for Twitter, but I haven’t been able to find it for LinkedIn. Anyone?

By: BillBoorman

BillBoorman — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:35:18 +0000

Great post and twitter argument on the subject, my view is a bit different.
I think linked in is a social network which is being used, on the whole as a job board. It could be argued that this makes it is in fact a giant on-line directory of profesional services, as Linked in is used as much by profesionals for non-job/recruiting activity as it is for this purpose. I know sellers of all kinds of services that are doing this.
Just recently I have been looking at the part Linked In plays in community building. It is interesting to note the Recruitingblogs.com has about 30,000 members on the Ning Network and 100,000 in the Li group. The % of active members is also a little higher in Li.
The questions and polls make networking much easier and there are 1000’s of groups with active posting and strict rules on not posting job’s or adverts outside of the designated places. I belong to a few that are very active, and use LinkedIn to message more than e-mail.
Many recruiters need to learn these functions to build “talent networks” in this platform.
Far from a Job Board in my opinion.

Thanks Glen

Bill

By: Julie Montgomery

Julie Montgomery — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:36:32 +0000

Glenn,
You’re stirring the pot again. If somebody calls LInkedIn a job board, my guess is that this person joined LinkedIn within the last 5 years. Wasn’t it about 10 years ago that it all started? When we started with it, that was a great vision, but not what we were using it for. We were using it to figure out “who was who” mostly so we could market into customers.

Nowadays, when our company goes on a sales call, I know the potential customer looks up our employees on LinkedIn.

When I interview somebody, most candidates view my profile before meeting with me.

It’s an awesome social networking tool. Smart recruiters know how to use social networking tools to recruit.

Jules

By: gregg dourgarian

gregg dourgarian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:16:57 +0000

Looks like a duck…

Enjoyed the post and would like to see an elaboration of what commenter Karen calls for – an evolved vocabulary for social networks and how they relate to job search.

I don’t get Dave Graziano’s comment that LI can’t be a job board in the future because it lacks certain features. He may be right but what keeps LinkedIn from evolving to have those features?

By: Recruiters Account for 1 in 20 U.S. LinkedIn Profiles | Boolean Black Belt

Recruiters Account for 1 in 20 U.S. LinkedIn Profiles | Boolean Black Belt — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:45:53 +0000

[...] What’s that? LinkedIn isn’t a job board? Well, no it isn’t exactly, but it’s pretty darn close! If you don’t think so, please take the time to read this article. [...]

By: Sandeep Patil

Sandeep Patil — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:24:50 +0000

Very nice and informative post indeed. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Sandeep

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By: Joshi

Joshi — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:15:58 +0000

HI,

Linkedin is good Networking website, since we are working in Recruiting was are able to see linkedin as Job portal only. We always love to see as we like to.

I think only less % of the website is JOb portal, it used as good networking tool for technical solutions. When i have checked with a software engg: “do you look at Jobs posted in Linkedin” they said that they dont even know that jobs will be posted in Linkedin. They used linkedin to get connected to people in there own skillset and check with them if they need some solution and answer.

Regards,

Joshi.