Recruiting in China

MONTREAL -- Companies are increasingly hiring through social networks such as Facebook, turning websites meant for friendly banter into effective recruiting tools.

Talent seekers are finding that these online services, where members mostly share vacation photos and discuss weekend plans, have a terrific asset - it's full of people and they talk a lot.

Look at consultant giant Ernst & Young, which created a Facebook community showcasing the company with flashy videos and a Q&A section. More than 9,500 people are part of this group.

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Font:****The group for Southwest Airlines, where one will find an ad for software engineers, boasts more than 50,000 members.

Even the CIA is luring aspiring spies on Facebook.

It gets people talking.

Robert Neel, a recruiter in Washington D.C. and blogger for Jobmatchbox.com, puts the Facebook allure in terms of numbers: "If you follow where people are online, the vast majority are on MySpace and Facebook, and it's increasing."

At last count, MySpace had more than 115 million users. Facebook clocks in much lower at 31 million. But recruiters are preferring the latter since it's a little cleaner, more organized, and the members more mature than MySpace, which found favour with bands and teens.

And since Facebook members volunteer tons of personal information, its search function can be a virtual gold mine for recruiters, Neel said.

"You can search for people by skills or by company or by job title," he said. "It takes you straight to the candidate."

As the ease and low cost of social networks becomes more apparent, innovative companies are finding creative ways to promote their brands. It costs nothing to create a Facebook group or to have employees who are members spread job openings among their contacts.

One of the more promising uses of Facebook is through applications. These are mini programs, made by anyone, that users can add to their profiles for free, expanding the functions to their once-static profile pages.

Popular applications involve movies and sharing music, but job-related ones are picking up. One application from website Jobster sends users alerts whenever a new position opens in the company and area of their choice. Big names like Nike, KPMG, GE, Merrill Lynch and Boeing have signed up.

Taleo Corp., a talent-management software maker in Dublin, Calif., is about to release its own application for recruiters. The application will make it so when a headhunter advertises a job, the post appears on the Facebook news feed of all their friends. But to use this application, a company must be a Taleo client.

"For smaller companies who don't have big brand, sourcing candidates is their No. 1 pain," said Jason Blessing, general manager of Taleo's small-business division. "And there are a lot of college students in Facebook. It's rich in talent. It's a good place to give customers a presence."