Facebook, the king of tweaking and updating features on the fly, made a small, but significant change to user profiles last week. Now, users are able to add and tag professional skills to the “Work and Education” section of their Facebook Timeline, no doubt to compete with LinkedIn.
Facebook, the king of tweaking and updating features on the fly, made a small, but significant change to user profiles last week. Now, users are able to add and tag professional skills to the “Work and Education” section of their Facebook Timeline, no doubt to compete with LinkedIn.
Didn’t notice? Well, you’re not the only one, so don’t worry.
In fact, most people weren’t aware of the change, except Sociobits.org, a blog dedicated to social media news. For a company that usually announces all changes on its blog, Facebook’s quiet introduction of this subtle feature was a bit of a surprise.
These new professional skills work like tags. By clicking on one of the professional skills, users can view a new page, which shows friends that have interest in same skill and other related pages. For instance, a user will be able to see groups, pages and other listings of new people that also have an interest in that skill.
It’s definitely a significant change with enormous potential for job seekers and employers. So why was it such a back-alley integration? Probably because Facebook doesn’t want to outwardly seem like it’s competing with LinkedIn. But in reality, Facebook has been making slight changes to its interface since last year, not only add more options for users to describe their interests, but also more features to distinguish their professional and educational abilities.
Facebook’s push for more job-seeking features has come after a study conducted last October by Jobvite, which found that 52 percent of job seekers use Facebook to help find jobs, trumping LinkedIn’s 38 percent. The Jobvite study also found that one in five people have been sent a job lead on Facebook. While these changes are directly related to Jobvite’s study, you have to wonder if that influenced Facebook’s decision to pursue more professional features.
As Facebook integrates itself into the professional world, more people are beginning to use it as a career- networking tool. CEOs, brands and social media agencies use Facebook to add “Career opportunity” tabs on their pages and actively recruit employees by posting job descriptions in their updates or messaging candidates directly.
Now, Facebook’s new professional skills update gives employers the opportunity to scope out potential job candidates by a particular skill. Employers can see who their friends are, where they went to school and what interests them. It’s like a more personal form of resume, and a way to easily find a candidate. On the other hand, job seekers can optimize their profiles by adding their best skills, making their profile more visible to a recruiter.
For the past year, Facebook has battled with Twitter to win over advertisers, now it takes on LinkedIn to take over the professional world. Though Facebook still hasn’t triumphed over Twitter, do you think it will replace LinkedIn?
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