There is a “New Kid on the Block” in the tremendously popular and widely used professional networking arena. That “New Kid,” who has the potential of soon being the “BIG Kid on the Block,” is a new application known as “BeKnown,” released June 25th by giant online job hunting site Monster.com.
The application has been designed and engineered to run inside Facebook, thereby providing users the potential of building professional connections with the nearly three-quarters of a billion users currently on Facebook. As a result of that potential, BeKnown is expected to easily—and quickly!—take a key position alongside the current giants of LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and Jigsaw.
(NOTE: Facebook does NOT endorse BeKnown, or any other applications designed to be run within Facebook, for that matter.)
In essence, BeKnown will bring the worldwide leader in connecting people to job opportunities (Monster) to the world’s largest and most active social network (Facebook). Any way you look at it, this should be huge, both for job seekers and hiring companies!
Let me count the ways
Why should you even care about this new social network? Let me count the ways.
In recent blogs we have strongly and repeatedly emphasized that, for purposes of properly BRANDING yourself, it is very critical that you be . . .
- Findable
- Desirable
- Contactable
- Selectable
When it comes to finding a new job, for years the adage has been, “It is not WHAT you know but WHO you know.” As I’ve mentioned several times in recent blogs, today it’s “not WHAT you know but WHO you know, who knows YOU and can you be FOUND?”
What this means
Whether we like it or not, there simply is no longer any job stability. Loyalty to a single employer, and likewise, loyalty from a company to its employees, are quaint concepts. This does not mean, however, that you should jump ship for every opportunity that comes along. What it does mean is that you need to be constantly . . .
- Ensuring that you are making your company money or saving your company money.
- Quantifying those accomplishments and achievements in terms of dollars, numbers and percentages.
- Building and enhancing your professional networks so you can be found.
Notice in the last bullet point above I used the plural of the word “network,” as in “networks.” Certainly you should already be on LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and Jigsaw. Today I am strongly recommending that you also quickly come up to speed and be among the first to explore—and take advantage of—what looks to be another major professional network, BeKnown!
In upcoming blogs I will be exploring BeKnown in greater, more specific detail, but for now, I suggest you go to www.beknown.com and download the application. Play around with it and experiment. (I’ve already done this and it was fun and exciting) Obviously, that’s the starting point for being able to tap into the vast network of professionals currently on Facebook
The advantage of the network
Here are just a few of the many advantages I have already discovered on BeKnown:
- •By downloading the app, you are able to build a professional network inside Facebook that will be separate and distinct from your personal connections. (In other words, BeKnown connections will be separate and distinct.)
- BeKnown enables you to reach out and build a network among 750 million people (nearly 70 percent of whom are between the prime professional ages of 25 and 54) vs. LinkedIn’s 100 million.
- Upon launching your BeKnown app, you will be able to invite all of your LinkedIn contacts to join BeKnown. A great starting point!
- Strong privacy settings will allow you to control what information is shared with others and easily manage your data.
- BeKnown integrates professional networking with access to jobs, patented tools and resources available only from Monster.
The downside
The only weakness of BeKnown that I have thus far found is that you can’t search for people using keyword searching. You can only add people by searching for names. One would hope—and expect, actually—that Monster will soon add additional searchable technology to the app so that one can more quickly and easily build a targeted group of connections.
Even at this early stage of development, what I have seen thus far of BeKnown has me quite excited. It should have you quite excited too!
Author:
Skip Freeman is the author of “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The HTW Group (Hire to Win), an Atlanta, GA, Metropolitan Area Executive Search Firm. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.
