I have become a big fan recently of Plaxo and wanted to share‚ ideas on how recruiters and sourcers can get‚ the most‚ out of using it. I wrote about Plaxo back in December, and likened it to a “new LinkedIn“. I really believe it to be true.‚ My network is increasing by the dozens daily. Much like LinkedIn, the larger your network the more you can gain. Only, with Plaxo, you get more contact information and options for reaching out to your connections. This can include mobile, business and home numbers, email addresses, home and business addresses, blog and personal website links and more.

An especially valuable aspect to Plaxo is that each‚ member has a “Pulse Stream” on their home page. It‚ basically lets you know what your Plaxo network is up to.‚ The Plaxo Pulse Stream represents a great way for recruiters and sourcers to‚ spread the word about job openings and a unique way to attract top talent, find job seekers and to network with others. For example,‚ Plaxo “hooks up‚ feeds” to sites that you use, such as Blogs (WordPress/Twitter), Social Networks (Facebook/LinkedIn) and a lot more. When you post or use these sites, your activity is displayed out on the Plaxo Pulse Stream. So, if you wanted to get the word out about job openings in your company, this represents a nice option for you.

If you join specific groups within Plaxo, each group has it’s own “Pulse Stream” which helps recruiters and sourcers to target a specific audience and‚ also allows for another outlet‚ to gain potential job‚ seekers for your open‚ positions. Here are a few examples:

Here, you can see a job seeker reaching out to the group I joined called “Networking for Global Entrepreneurs”:

Here, you can see a manager or recruiter displaying a message about a job opportunity in the same group:

If‚ you currently use‚ Plaxo,‚ you may already‚ be seeing the benefits. For those who‚ have not joined yet, I‚ recommend it, and believe it to be‚ a nice compliment to your LinkedIn networks and a solid‚ place to gain some‚ extra traction for your recruiting and sourcing efforts.

As a follow up to a post on Facebook from late last year, I discovered that joining groups within Facebook is another great avenue for recruiters and sourcers to use daily. What I found‚ was that by joining groups in Facebook, you could network with other members, join in on discussions and promote yourself in the community. What I didn’t realize was‚ that many‚ recruiters and sourcers‚ were starting to utilize these groups in much the same way‚ they use Yahoo Groups, Google Groups and MSN Groups to advertise their current job openings and find‚ job seekers. Check out what I mean:

I joined a group called Web 2.0 (Entrepreneurs) inside of Facebook which currently‚ has 34K members.‚ I see two places‚ in the “Discussion Board” and “The Wall” where those members are posting up messages with full‚ details and links to job openings.‚ 

Here are a few examples of job postings that I found:

and…

Facebook has‚ numerous‚ groups to join, and lots that are very niche and specific to a certain subject, topic or theme. Take a look for yourself if you are a member of Facebook.‚ I suggest joining groups where you think that you may be able to attract talent that best fits your job requirements, and also groups that welcome and allow posts for job openings.