MIKESTOPFORTH

A few days ago I wrote about LinkedIn – the web-based social networking tool with a business application.

I hadn’t realised that just three days before that BusinessWeek Online had run a story on the ever-increasing use of social networking tools like LinkedIn in companies titled Social Networks: Execs Use Them Too.

From the article:

Recruiters at Microsoft (MSFT) and Starbucks (SBUX), for instance, troll online networks such as LinkedIn for potential job candidates. Goldman Sachs (GS) and Deloitte run their own online alumni networks for hiring back former workers and strengthening bonds with alumni-cum-possible clients. Boston Consulting Group and law firm Duane Morris deploy enterprise software that tracks employee communications to uncover useful connections in other companies. And companies such as Intuit (INTU) and MINI USA have created customer networks to build brand loyalty.

The Holy Grail in recruiting is finding so-called passive candidates, people who are happy and productive working for other companies. LinkedIn, with its 6.7 million members, is a virtual Rolodex of these types. Hudson says she has hired three or four people this year as a result of connections through LinkedIn. “We’ve started asking our hiring managers to sign up on LinkedIn and help introduce us to their contacts,” she says. “People have concerns about privacy, but once we explain how we use it and how careful we would be with their contacts, they’re usually willing to do it.

Interestingly, it was via LinkedIn that I (and others) first discovered that Google was scouting for talent in South Africa.

If you’re not already on LinkedIn, register a free account. Start with trusted contacts and if you’re keen, install the Outlook toolbar for added functionality.