Each Facebook employee has 30 days per year that can be used to switch departments or work on a personal project that would offer the company a new feature or an innovative option – a phenomenon that’s been referred to under the name of “hackathon.”
Such is the case with one of Facebook’s latest features which was designed during an internal hackathon. Even though most of the crazy ideas that pop up while engineers are encouraged to think outside the box, some of them actually see the light of day – or the skin of your Timeline.
It turns out the social networks has decided to borrow a feature that was originally displayed on LinkedIn: profile tags are reportedly undergoing testing and social media analysts are not in the least surprised.
Facebook has made a controversial reputation for itself, becoming the common criminal that doesn’t mind ripping-off other platforms’ ideas. It’s not the first time this social network has stolen a feature; the Trending bar was taken straight from Twitter, and Poke? It had Snapchat written all over it.
The profile-tags feature is very useful when it comes to searching for jobs, as it allows users to describe themselves in words or phrases, such as “bookworm”, “hard-working” or “extreme hiker.” Even though Facebook isn’t the platform that marketers or employers scout, that might soon change – “expansion” seems to be the word to describe the number one social network.
However, the feature has other applications as well, like enabling users to find other people that share their interests. Facebook confirmed that it is working on profile-tags, but there’s no word on whether or not they will actually roll them out to the public.
Some think adding more filling options to the already cluttered Timeline profile is a recipe for chaos, while others look forward to finding new friends via the new feature. However, even if friend-to-friend connections is what Facebook has done best for years, the company is now looking into expanding in other branches, such as news, business and maybe even employment.
If employment is on Facebook’s radar, it would be a direct attack on LinkedIn, the universally-renowned business and social network. Facebook as one billion more users than LinkedIn, which means marketers and employers should embrace the platform’s feature that allows easier candidate-finding.
One problem will surely take years to be resolved: the fact that a lot of Facebook users don’t want to mix their social and business life on the platform. At the same time, there are few users who would turn to Facebook when they are in need of a place to work. That’s what LinkedIn is for, right?
Image Source: DBA Designs
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