Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which Is Better for Recruiting?

I came across this article on ERE.net and found it very interesting that Facebook and LinkedIn were even being compared against one another as recruiting tools. Both are extremely popular social networking sites, but I think it’s clear that as far as recruiting goes, LinkedIn is the obvious choice.

It’s interesting to me, because it seems like Facebook has been getting a lot of mixed messages recently about being used in a professional setting. When news hit that employers were asking candidates for their Facebook passwords there was an extreme amount of backlash advising everyone to keep their personal lives (Facebook) and professional lives (LinkedIn) separate. Many argued that Facebook should never be included in the job process, whatsoever, and that employees should keep their personal pages completely private.

I have, however, noticed BranchOut’s presence quite a bit more on Facebook — this may be due to the fact I have a lot of recruiter friends. BranchOut is an application that sits on top of Facebook’s interface — it keeps users’ personal info private while providing employer information recruiters can find. Is anyone who’s not either a recruiter or a 2012 college grad using BranchOut? Does it really work? On its website, BranchOut boasts that its app operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 million jobs and more than 20,000 internships. But is that really saying much? A more appropriate number to look into would be the number of people who have actually been hired through BranchOut. I’m assuming it is considerably low. It’s a nice idea in theory; I just truly don’t see people buying into it, especially when they can easily connect with you on LinkedIn.

When it comes to recruiting, LinkedIn is going to win out every time versus Facebook.

Linkedin was literally built to be a professional networking site, and to connect with people you’re not necessarily friends with, or know personally. Facebook is not a professional site, and that’s okay! I think recruiters need to stop forcing Facebook to be something it’s not. I’m not saying it’s impossible to source and hire from Facebook — I’m sure it’s happened – but that’s the exception, not the rule. A lot of people don’t even list their work on Facebook, since it’s not a requirement on the site.

Although I think there are quite a few things that LinkedIn could improve upon, when it comes to recruiting, I must say that it is the go-to site. It’s the perfect avenue (right now) to display your career information and practically invite recruiters or employers to view your information and reach out. Linkedin also doesn’t have any serious competition right now. While it might be a natural reaction to compare the site to the gorilla social network that is Facebook, at the end of the day they both exhibit extremely different uses.

I do wish there was a serious competitor for LinkedIn, however. Then the site might face some pressure to improve and cut down costs for recruiters! My next post will go over the cons of LinkedIn recruiting — aspects I hope the site will change once it faces competition and realize it’s not perfect.