Jibe Hopes to Fuse Social Media with Job Hunting
Everybody knows that Facebook is the undisputed king of social networking, it’s the world’s most visited website and almost every individual and business in the US has some kind of presence within it’s domain. As a result it has become easier than ever to reach out and connect with people you don’t know in real life, which can have some benefits (and disadvantages) when it comes to trying to hunt down your dream job.
Jibe is a start-up which hopes to combine the massive reach of Facebook, with the more professional approach of business networking taken by LinkedIn. It aims to do this by using members Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to build up information relating to what they do and who they know. The system then builds up a map of networking contacts who may be able to provide a social boost to an prospective job application, for example it may highlight a friend of a friend (one you don’t know directly) who works for a company you hope to become employed by, you could then take that information and try to get yourself introduced to the person who may be able to help you.
Jibe is also acting to aim as a recruiter in its own right, helping to promote jobs which cost members credits in order to be able to make an application. Users earn their application credits by interacting with other people on the site, also by sharing information from the site via their other social networking accounts or alternatively by purchasing them outright.
By providing a detailed network of contacts and references in relation to individual job seekers, Jibe is offering the opportunity for people to leverage whatever social clout they may have to help get them a new job, whilst also offering prospective employers a snapshot of the kind of employee any potential candidates are likely to be.
If business interests decide to get behind this kind of recruitment site it could potentially be quite a good idea. However, the key to whether Jibe will be successful or not will most likely come down to the companies ability to get high profile job offers promoted through the site, otherwise the service doesn’t offer anything beyond what people are already able to do with their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Potentially this could be a really big hit, but at the moment Jibe has a long way to go and a lot of backing to secure before it will see any kind of real success.
Posted in Social Startups. Tags: job hunting, jobs
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