Facebook expands into new territories and might threaten LinkedIn in the recruiting business. This might have a profound effect on the job seeking market.
According to TechCrunch, Facebook is testing a new Jobs tab. It will allow certain pages to post new job openings and offers. But that’s just the basic explanation.
Actually, Facebook is testing quite a few recruiting features. A spokesperson for the company has confirmed this to the famous tech blog. “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”, says the spokesperson.
If successful, the test could open a new niche for Facebook. A niche which would target LinkedIn directly as the top recruitment and business-focused social network. The Jobs tab will allow companies to post full on free job ads and “boost” (pay) them if needed.
The candidates will have an button to “Apply Now”. It will launch a form which will be pre-filled with info from the user’s Facebook profile. Of course he or she will be able to edit it at any point. The companies will then receive the applications as Facebook messages or get them forwarded to an email address of their choosing.
Facebook might be good for your business
Facebook is not saying if or when the service will be ready. But it already shows that the company is looking to become the go-to place for more than just sharing with friends, news and entertainment. Facebook is already looking into becoming a place for business, too. A lot of companies are selling products and services via their Facebook Pages. It also wants them to help them communicate with clients via chatbots on the Facebook Messenger.
Adding an option for job postings, which already happen quite often, but are not regulated, will make it even more attractive to companies. After all LinkedIn is used by about 467 million people. Facebook has more than 1.79 billion users. People browse it all the time, often several times a day. This increases the likelihood they will see the job offers. It can also boost sponsored ads to even more people.
Granted, most people don’t really have business-oriented profiles. You might not want to apply for a job at a big company if your profile picture is you out drinking or even somewhere on a beach. But with more and more companies trying to come closer to the people and break away from the cold corporate tone, this might be a great, almost seamless way to do it. As long as they don’t go overboard with it.
Image credit: Flickr (CC) / chriscorneschi