Due to our relationship with RBI we have done a lot of work around recruitment in the Web 2.0 world.

Both Dave King & I have presented on this subject at events everywhere from Manchester to Milan. We cover topics such as how personalisation of search results means that integrating local details (possibly by tagging job vacancies on Google Maps) is becoming so important and why utilising social media to monitor and manage online reputations is essential for any business.

But a couple of recent calls I received from recruitment consultants (which were flattering, if a waste of time as I’m very happy here at Altogether) made me think about a much more direct method of making use of Web 2.0 in the recruitment sector. Both of the calls I received recently had found my details not through word of mouth, or even via this blog, but through social networks such as LinkedIn and even Facebook.

I’ve known that recruitment consultants have been using LinkedIn to find potential candidates for digital vacancies since last year, but this week was the first time I received a call from a consultant who had found me on Facebook. This is a very interesting development, and builds on other recent events.

Today’s Technology Guardian has a column in which Victor Keegan talks about how the rise of social networks mean that people are voluntarily opening up their personal (and it would seem professional) lives to millions of people they barely know. And a recent report from the US on social networks, suggested that Facebook has a higher proportion of professional people using it than other sites such as MySpace and Bebo.

When you take all of this information together, it seems obvious that recruitment consultants would be using Facebook to find potential candidates. My profile includes details of my employment history, as well as links to all the blogs I contribute to & Facebook groups I have joined; many of which are based around search, social media, online marketing and digital media; as well as comments I have made in these groups. All of which provides essential information on a potential candidate’s experience & knowledge when deciding on his or her suitability for jobs in these sectors.

The only question remaining then, is why more recruitment consultants aren’t using these networks and how long it will be before Facebook follows LinkedIn and adds job vacancies to its Marketplace feature.

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