In this issue we look at the hot topic of social networking and online recruitment. We also welcome another new job board partner to whatjobsite.com. And once again we round up the latest offers from our partner job sites in the UK and Ireland.

Please feel free to forward this issue to a colleague, and let us know if there are any topics you'd like to see us cover in upcoming issues. We'd love your feedback.

Many thanks to fish4jobs for the sponsorship of this newsletter.

Editor
Karl Schweppe
karl@whatjobsite.com

You can't lift up a newspaper these days without reading something about social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Linkedin. These sites have exploded over the last number of years and at the moment seem to be the centre of all things online.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the online recruitment industry has already started looking at social networks as potential areas to recruit. Currently, recruitment activity on social networks is dominated by job boards offering applications that allow users to search for jobs ―creating a mini job board on a user's profile page― or tailored job alerts ―effectively, an updated version of an email alert. However, for all the hype and effort there have been few reports of real success with such products.

Some recruitment sites have developed alternative applications that show more promise. Jobtonic, the referral recruitment site, launched the "refer-o-matic" application that allows Facebook users to “refer” a job to a friend with the potential of earning themselves a referral bonus for doing so.

Employers have also started to use social networks. There are reports, for example, of a growing trend amongst employers to investigate potential hires through their MySpace or Bebo pages. That is, employers are finding out what people are getting up to in their free time before hiring them. We must point out, however, that the legality of this activity is not uncontested.

But some employers have properly ventured into the social networks. Numerous larger employers have set up profiles, but in spite of the “cool” points that such companies might get from being on Facebook etc., there seems to be no compelling reason for them to be there. Again, rather like the job boards above, employers might also be awaiting the killer application.

There is one social network, however, that might offer employers a real recruiting opportunity. Linkedin is unlike other social networks in that it is a professional social network. Users create professional profiles on Linkedin which detail their careers, professional interests and connections. Late last year, it was reported that over one million people in the UK had signed up to Linkedin.

There is a lot to the Linkedin site (indeed, there is even a job board) but for recruiting purposes it's the professional profiles that are compelling. From an employer's point of view, Linkedin can be viewed as a big library of CVs. Linkedin allows you to search these online profiles CVs and find people who might just be perfect for your job. Of course, the people you find might be happy in their current jobs and not want to change, but then everybody is happy in their current job until a better offer comes along.

As online recruitment is about finding the most relevant people for your job, Linkedin does offer a way of finding these relevant people. For this reason, we believe that Linkedin might well be worth considering as an addition to traditional CV database search.

The general consensus in the online recruitment media seems to be that while social networks should be part of a candidate acquisition strategy (getting people to visit your site) they do not as yet provide a viable direct channel to recruit. The money and effort that has to go into recruiting with them could better be invested in a more traditional channel like a job board or CV database. In our view too the jury is still out on the majority of social networks as recruitment tools. Linkedin, however, does seem to provide the most promising channel for direct recruitment.

We hope this article has been of help to you. For more information on online recruitment and job board advertising visit the whatjobsite Recruitment Advice area.

Tying in with our article above, in last month's whatjobsite poll survey we asked our users "Have you ever used a social network like Linkedin to recruit?" Interestingly, more than 60% of our users had already used social networks to recruit. 38% had used them without success while 22% of our users had successfully hired with social networks. A hefty 40% of our users said they had no interest in using social networks. Will we see these proportions change as social networks become ever more popular? We will definitely return to this question later in the year.

This month we welcome another partner to whatjobsite.

• WorkingMums.co.uk is a thriving job site and community for professional women looking for flexible, full, part time, office and home-based opportunities. We enable businesses of all sizes to tap into this extensive pool of talent to find experienced candidates for both senior and support roles, quickly, efficiently and cost effectively... find out more

If you are looking to hire professional women be sure to take a look at WorkingMums.co.uk.

Here's our round up of exclusive offers for whatjobsite users from our job board partners:

• WorkingMums.co.uk:- Save 25% on job advertising with your first booking. A standard job advert on the site is usually £99.50. You can save 25% off this fee if you place your first advertisements with us in March. To take advantage of this offer call 020 8432 6094 quoting discount code WJS01, or email info@workingmums.co.uk
• JobsGroup.net:- We are currently offering whatjobsite.com users three special offers across our network of ten jobsites to celebrate being shortlisted for Best Job Board at the Recruiter Awards 2008. JobsGroup.net sites include the largest engineering and construction niche jobsites by market share (JustEngineers.net and JustConstruction.net). The offer: 1, Free CV Database Test Drive; 2, Choose 2 sites and get 10% off the lowest priced site; 3, Choose 3 sites and get 20% off the lowest priced site. Call us now on 0845 050 2000 or email sales@jobsgroup.net

Click on the links to visit the whatjobsite site profiles and contact the sites directly about their offers. Or visit the whatjobsite Special Offers Page for more offers from job sites.