Recruiters Like Facebook More than LinkedIn

Recruiters find Facebook "engaging" and say it has access to a bigger network of people, according to a recent study.

Online recruiting lab Potentialpark analyzed the online presence of 500 firms and interviewed human resources about using Facebook and narrowed it down to seven reasons. From Mashable, but edited for length and content:

  1. It’s more engaging. With Facebook, employers can follow a “let them come to us” strategy by setting up a business page for recruitment and career purposes. With LinkedIn, the communication is very much one-way with employers proactively searching for candidates.
  2. Facebook is where the action is. Recruiters perceive that few students and recent graduates actively update their LinkedIn profiles, whereas they are quite active on Facebook.
  3. It’s free and open. Employers like that Facebook enables them to upload advanced recruitment content, such as testimonials, videos, pictures or a job search — and it’s all free of charge with no premium accounts like LinkedIn.
  4. It’s a bigger network. Facebook offers a larger audience, with more than 800 million active users worldwide, compared with LinkedIn’s user base of around 120 million members.
  5. The Like button. When it comes to career website integration, its Facebook feeds and the Like button are easier to integrate.
  6.  It’s better for branding. When it comes to employer branding activities and talent communication — especially with students, graduates and early career professionals — many prefer Facebook.

However, the survey of more than 30,000 students and graduates worldwide showed that about half (48 percent) preferred to connect with employers on LinkedIn, with respondents saying that they felt Facebook isn't "the right place" to make contact with employers and they were uncomfortable sharing private information and their profile with recruiters.

It's not surprising people are nervous about recruiters seeing their Facebook updates. We have written about several instances where employers disciplined or  fired employees for comments they made on Facebook. Employers also seem to make value judgments on potential employees based on photos and status updates (so keep yours private!) 

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