Facebook is testing out new job recruitment features, a method that could broaden outreach for small businesses.
The social media job site of the future? If you’re thinking it’s LinkedIn, that might not be the case anymore.
Facebook recently introduced a new feature for small businesses to find and hire employees, TechCrunch reported.
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As a test, Facebook posted a “Jobs” tab on different business pages (including TechCrunch’s). Through this tab, employees can share details about available positions (experience needed, salary, full-time versus part-time) and accept applications through the Facebook messaging system.
“Based on behavior we’ve seen on Facebook, where many small businesses post about their job openings on their page, we’re running a test for page admins to create job postings and receive applications from candidates,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Facebook is moving into familiar territory—these recruitment tools are what makes LinkedIn a professional hot spot. The two sites’ reach is a much different story, though: LinkedIn’s 106 million monthly active users can’t compete with Facebook’s 1.8 billion. Engagement is much higher on the latter, too: Many users visit LinkedIn only to update their profiles or look for new positions, whereas people visit Facebook daily for any number of reasons.
So, should LinkedIn feel threatened? The answer is debatable. TechCrunch seems to think so, noting that Microsoft’s future $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn could persuade more people to turn to Facebook. A contributor to Fox Business, however, feels differently:
“While both Facebook and LinkedIn both collect copious amounts of data on their users, and that data is used for targeting purposes, we’re talking about completely different types of data,” Evan Niu wrote in “Facebook’s New Job Listings Are Not a Threat to LinkedIn.”
“It’s true that people often include professional information and experience on their Facebook profiles, but the scope is extremely limited compared to LinkedIn, which was built from the ground up as a professional network,” Niu continued. “People have more of a vested interest in maintaining and updating their professional LinkedIn profiles than the professional section of their Facebook profile (you know, that part next to your favorite quotes and music).”
But don’t ignore the benefits of this new Facebook feature for small businesses. There are over 50 million small business pages on Facebook, according to Forbes, and these pages might soon be equipped with the tools to recruit more potential employees. LinkedIn, on the other hand, deals mainly with big corporations.
