CNN Money: Watch out, LinkedIn: Facebook is gaining on you
Social networking site elbows in on LinkedIn's job-finding franchise.
… Recruiters have been scouring professionally-oriented social network LinkedIn for qualified candidates for years now. More than 40% of Fortune 100 companies pay to use the site to find talent among its 46 million members.
But social networks are still evolving as places to hire and be hired, and Facebook, with its 250 million members, is gaining ground.
Unlike its more career-focused competitor, Facebook offers members profiles that tend to reflect their whole life. In the past that deterred many who were concerned an incriminating photo or wall post might be discovered by a potential new boss.
That fear is going away as people become more comfortable sharing their lives online, sometimes even blending their personal and professional personas. Some users take advantage of Facebook’s privacy settings to edit the information they present to professional contacts.
More importantly, Facebook is gaining credibility as a tool for recruiters and human resources professionals, the very folks who've been avid fans of LinkedIn. For one thing, Facebook seems to cast a wider net and provide recruiters with more references – and more outlets to spread the news about a job opening. Facebook users have an average of 120 friends. While LinkedIn won’t release this statistic for its members, recruiters say the average number of connections likely is smaller because of the site’s narrower scope. …
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