Dive Brief:
- Facebook is testing a new recruiting feature that might put it in direct competition with LinkedIn, according to TechCrunch.
- TechCrunch noticed its Facebook page now has a "jobs" tab, and Facebook confirmed with the publisher that it’s trying out additional recruiting features such as allowing Page administrators to create job postings and receive applications within Facebook’s platform.
- Businesses will be able to share status updates on new jobs with special formatting that should help the openings stand out in the News Feed, and the postings would also show up in the jobs tab for business pages.
Dive Insight:
Facebook copying its competition for ideas is nothing new, and the jobs page play shows Facebook is pushing further into the social business space following the launch of its enterprise chat service Workplace in October.
Even though LinkedIn has long been established as the go-to B2B social networking platform, Facebook holds some advantages, notably its 1.79 billion users (compared to LinkedIn’s 467 million), and access to user targeting data that will help businesses find the right candidates. The ease in which publishers and other business pages can search out and directly connect with candidates might also hold a strong appeal.
However, Facebook users may be wary of using their personal social pages for professional purposes. LinkedIn provides a critical distance as a strictly networking and business-oriented platform, and people may want to keep it that way.
At this point, Facebook's walled garden is looking awfully tall, with apps and products that follow the lead of everything from Snapchat to Slack and now LinkedIn. It's hard to argue with Facebook's results, however, as Q3 earnings last week showed a 56% increase in revenue year-over-year.