BranchOut, a professional social network for Facebook, is announcing the launch of RecruiterConnect, a tool for recruiters and hiring managers to source job candidates on Facebook and build private talent networks. BranchOut says that RecruiterConnect is also the first enterprise software product available on the Facebook platform.
Launched in July 2010, BranchOut is sort of like a LinkedIn for Facebook because it allows you to network and find jobs through your friends on the social network. BranchOut’s Facebook app lets you search for companies and then shows you all your friends who either work there or know somebody who does. The application basically unlocks the massive amounts of career data about your social graph on the world’s largest social network.
On average, BranchOut, which is backed by Accel, Norwest, Floodgate, and Redpoint, says a network of 300 Facebook friends translates to 30,000 professional connections.
Now recruiters have an enterprise application to source candidates and take advantage of the connections taking place on Facebook. The application itself provides recruiters with a potential candidate’s work history, education and recent professional activity, along with similar profiles and connections. RecruiterConnect also helps companies accurately match candidates with available positions.
BranchOut also recently launched a partnership with CareerBuilder.. The enterprise move on Facebook is interesting considering how popular professional LinkedIn has become for recruiters. But clearly with 800 million members Facebook is becoming a professional networking hub in many ways.