Over the last two years, LinkedIn has used its fast-growing user conference to roll out products that have become such a part of the daily life of LinkedIn-o-philes that we barely remember when they didn’t exist. The idea of pushing really targeted jobs to passive job-seekers was highlighted in 2010. Last year, LinkedIn unveiled the since-improved tool for managing candidates called Talent Pipeline. Those looking for an even-bigger announcement this week may be disappointed, but LinkedIn is, however, rolling out multiple improvements to existing products, and launching significant new ones.
It’ll soon make big, not-yet-specified changes to the profile pages. For now, though, here’s what’s new: a way to measure your brand against others; an index of the most in-demand employers; “sponsored jobs” to get your listings up higher in the results on LinkedIn; and, upgrades to LinkedIn Recruiter.
The talent brand index, as spelled out in the video below, puts in percentage terms just how much they’re into you. If I spend my spare time looking at Zappos’ jobs on LinkedIn, or if I’m a Zappos follower — that’ll up the company’s score. You can break it down: how, for example, are your customer-service jobs perceived, or your jobs in Florida?
This product for companies that are LinkedIn customers basically takes into account two things: how many people are aware of your workplace, and how revved up they are about wanting to work there.
Anyhow, this is a good segue to the next new offering: a list of the most in-demand employers. Or, in LinkedIn’s official capitalized parlance, the Most InDemand Employers. It’s a new list featuring some old standbys like Google, Apple, and Nike.
Yes, there are so many lists of the most-sought-after employers that perhaps it’s time to make a list of the lists of the most-sought-after employers. Heck, LinkedIn even had one this summer, about students. But what LinkedIn says is different about this one compared to some others is that it’s not based on a survey of where people want to work, but an actual analysis of data, similar to what I was describing above with the brand index.
OK, on to the “sponsored jobs.” It’s a new product where recruiters bid to get listed at the top of the “jobs you may be interested in” list you’ve probably seen on your LinkedIn pages. Available in the Americas and Asia, it gets you listed on people’s pages, based on their skills and experience.
David Manaster, ERE’s founder, was saying yesterday that had this announcement gone out before Indeed got bought, it would have taken quite a bit of steam out of Indeed. It’s a threat to the job aggregators, one that one-ups them in a sense by targeted the coveted passive job seekers.
Lastly, LinkedIn is rolling out new updates to its “Recruiter” product; companies can now, for example, filter a search by criteria like only those people who are already followers. In other words, you can search for people who are already interested in your firm. I guess you could say they are passive job seekers who, like I said about Entelo’s target market, are more active than other passives, and in this case, not just active but interested in your company.
That may all sound confusing, but the bottom line is that most people, whether you consider them passive or active, are open to hearing of new jobs, something that continues to work in LinkedIn’s favor as it adds two new members a second, and new products each fall.