Social Networking for Business

The Economist writes: “Social networking has proved to be of greatest value to companies in recruitment. Unlike a simple jobs board, social networks enable members to pass suitable vacancies on to people they know, and to refer potential candidates back to the recruiter. So employers reach not only active jobseekers but also a much larger pool of passive candidates through referrals. LinkedIn has over 350 corporate customers which pay up to $250,000 each to advertise jobs to its expanding network. Having lots of people in a network increases its value in a super-linear� fashion, says Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s founder. He says corporate use of his service is now spreading beyond recruiters: hedge funds use it to identify and contact experts, for example.”