Monster is officially launching the next phase of its Facebook application BeKnown, which includes its Company Profiles facility. This allows organisations to post details about themselves, including any current vacancies it has posted on the Monster job board.

David Henry, vice-president of media and digital marketing EMEA, told Recruiter that it links back to Monster’s strategy of helping employers to ’fish in one of the biggest talent pools in the world’, which Facebook represents.

BeKnown allows people to use Facebook for professional networking and since its launch in the summer has notched up nearly 62,000 daily active users and around 2.7m monthly active users. Henry said it had been one of the fastest growing apps on Facebook “several weeks in a row”. He added that there were already well over 700 company profiles on the network, which include the likes of Google and IBM.

“We’re trying to help people create passive talent pools and want them to invest in building their networks,” said Henry, adding that the service is free with Monster having no direct revenue strand from BeKnown. “If you happen to be a Monster customer you can attach your current vacancies and we hope this is another reason for people to use Monster but we’re not forcing people down paths.”

Monster has made it extremely easy for an organisation to create a profile, which must be “claimed” by someone at the company, who then becomes the administrator. This person can invite others to add to or edit the profile, with the administrator able to control the content.

“Whether it’s on BeKnown or elsewhere, organisations must manage their employer brand online so it’s very important that the person who claims the profile is the right individual,” said Henry, who explained there are a number of security settings to help ensure this happens.

As well as post core company details, employers can also tell BeKnown users what it is like to work at the company and can keep them up-to-date with news and vacancies via a live information stream. “It allows a company to keep a potential candidate interested in what opportunities they have available,” he said.

BeKnown users can follow companies and are able to see who in their network might work at this organisation. Clearly for BeKnown to be able to work most effectively, it relies on individuals and companies spending time building their connections, and to this end Monster has made it easier to expand their networks. They can easily invite people they might know who work in their current company or who previously worked there or with whom they worked at a previous employer. Users can also invite people join by email and provides the facility for a personalised message.

Employers can post vacancies and distribute these to their first and second degree connections on BeKnown and in addition these can be posted to Facebook. Using its Sixth Sense semantic search technology, Monster has also added a new feature that can be used when an employer posts a job. It scans networks to suggest people with whom you might want to share the job details among your connections because they might be a good match.

You can also share such information in a number of other ways, including on the organisation’s Facebook wall or via customised lists of people. Similarly, you can choose to share news of a vacancy only internally. Henry reports that one client is already using BeKnown to gain greater visibility of its in-house skills and is encouraging staff to join so it is easier to spot them for internal mobility purposes.

Monster has also released a mobile app that allows BeKnown members to view their network on the move and search and apply for jobs, as well as access the BeKnown email services.

Monster will shortly announce details of another new product, which makes use of Sixth Sense. See More, which is currently in beta in the UK, uses the cloud to provide employers with visibility of its talent pools wherever they might be residing.

Henry said Monster will continue to develop BeKnown and said the next stage is for companies to create some “great content” on it which will help to build their employer brand online. “If an employer wants to post jobs to their first and second degree connections then that is a quick process,” he said. “But if you want to really make the most of social recruiting, you have to put some time into it. You have to water it and give it some sun.”

www.beknown.com