Online job sites losing business to LinkedIn and Twitter?

BusinessWeek has a story about some different online job sites. You can guess who's on the list:

• Dice
• Monster
• CareerBuilder
• HotJobs
• TheLadders
• LinkedIn

What, no Twitter or Facebook? You'd be surprised to know that many people have been finding jobs on social networking sites over traditional job boards. "Twitter is immediate." That's why it's gaining such popularity among job hunters and executive recruiters.

The biggest threat to traditional job boards may come from LinkedIn. Think of LinkedIn as Facebook with a "professional bent." It's essentially a social networking site that has been evolving to compete against traditional job boards. As a result, people are building some incredibly strong networks that are opening up doors of opportunity in various different industries. I've met all sorts of interesting physician executives and have also had the opportunity to do some professional matchmaking. "The networking even 'pushes' candidates to employers who meet preset criteria... while some LinkedIn members may not want to hear froma recruiter, they'll often send a message along to someone else in their network."

So will Monster continue to stay at the top spot?

• The PROS for Monster are: strong brand awareness; deep resume database.
• The CONS are: expensive (for recruiters and companies, free for job seekers); too many unqualified applicants

Perhaps if Monster teams up and forms some type of strategic parternship with a strong social networking platform, they will dominate the online job space.