They’re at it again…. Monster.com attempts to jump into the world of social media, with a new App called BeKnown. This app allows facebook users to make professional connections while sill keeping them separate from their friends and family (I guess they didn’t know about Google+). While Monster’s take on Linkedin might appeal to facebook fans with its familiar blue interface, it is far behind the years LinkedIn has had to build its network of users, jobs and recruiters.

Users are able to import work history details from LinkedIn, Monster.com, and Facebook, and contacts from their email or Twitter, allowing them to browse jobs by these and their second-degree connections.

However, BeKnown hasn’t earned my love or that of most recruiters. The app purposely does not let recruiters search for job candidates by parameters (qualifications or work history) unless they are part of each other’s network. For those in the recruitment world this reduces the service considerably, which then reduces the desire for users to maintain their profiles, as there is little chance of being passively recruited.

What’s the point you ask??

Well… according to Monster, the objective is to build its members trust. While this may be refreshing in the modern day world of recruitment where privacy is a word of the past, the purpose of this app is lost.

I do acknowledge that there is a promising feature to BeKnown. The “Social Referral Program” which has yet to go live, will allow a company’s job listings appear to the friends of all the employees of that company. This reduces the task of recruiters of having to direct employees to repost listings themselves, however the referral is seen by job seekers as less trusted as it is not coming directly from a friend.

With more populated professional network sites like LinkedIn, BeKnown will have to build its network fast as the incentive for users to build a profile on this Monster app is limited.

As for me, I’m sticking with LinkedIn for now.


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