On June 25th 2011, the online recruitment world saw the arrival of a new kid on the block. BeKnown is the offspring of corporate recruiting giant, Monster; and is being heralded as the fundamental new tool for recruiters, human resources, and talent acquisition teams.
But what is BeKnown? BeKnown is a professional networking app integrated into Facebook. It uses your Facebook information to create your very own BeKnown account. It allows a user to connect professionally without mixing business and friends on Facebook. As a BeKnown user, you are provided a specific home page which you can customise to best reflect your personal style. You can create a resume, apply for jobs and access helpful career tools – all designed to boost your job securing ability. BeKnown is what would happen if Facebook and Seek had a baby.
Before the new app was a twinkle in Monster’s eye, there was LinkedIn. Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has become a key player in the online corporate staffing market, proving to be super effective in enabling employment amongst those in the professional workforce. They separate themselves from the Facebook crowd by marketing themselves as “the Professional Social Network”. And although not specialising solely in recruitment, LinkedIn’s corporate recruiting stream is its fastest growing revenue generator. The people behind LinkedIn are proactively listening to their users and in the process of developing new services and tools to reflect the requirements of their consumers.
There are demographical differences between those who use LinkedIn and those who use Facebook. But what kind of demographic uses BeKnown?
According to figures released by Comscore in March 2011, Facebook users have an average age of 36 and an average household income of $75,000. Forty-two percent of Facebook users are college graduates. On the other hand, LinkedIn users have an average age of 41 and an average household income of $120,000 with 70% of users having graduated from college.
Monster’s is aimed at the grey-area audience that lies between Facebook and LinkedIn and the Facebook users that don’t use LinkedIn to look for work. Ultimately, these platforms are just that: arenas that facilitate communication and the sharing of information, interests, photos and personal news. They are not specific and the content depends solely on the user and how they wish to share.
Using the same basic principles as Facebook, BeKnown enables the user to personalise their job search by not just uploading a resume, but by encouraging users to give their resume a personality by rewarding ‘badges’ that are based on your work history, education and the size and composition of your professional network
But will this portal work? With the knowledge and recruitment expertise of Monster at the helm, we’re sure that BeKnown will be a successful and effective online recruitment vessel and we look forward to keeping tabs on its growth.
