With the popularity of Twitter and the proliferation of symbiotic applications designed to feed off the Twitter phenomenon, it’s becoming increasingly uncommon to see startups taking a stab at creating a totally new “micro-blogging” platform. That’s why it’s always fascinating to see how people are trying to reinvent the Twitter wheel. TribeHQ has launched its own twitter-like platform, but with a twist. TribeHQ is a “micro-jobbing”platform: a micro-blogging social network that enables members from the same occupation (or “tribe”) to converse with each other and with employers about potential job opportunities.
Unlike Twitter, which uses ungainly hash tags (#hashtags) as a convention to indicate what a particular Tweet is about, TribeHQ uses job-matching algorithms to align members seeking a new job with opportunities that match their career goals. Employers can post jobs and profiles of their companies. Tribe members can then have real-time conversations with employers (but only using 140 characters or less) and are automatically matched with jobs available to members of their tribe. TribeHQ integrates with Facebook Connect to import contacts. TribeHQ’s real-time conversations with employers is forward thinking when it comes to Track, because it combines real-time updates with filtering and mining of content.
When you sign onto the site, you can join a tribe, a.k.a job profession. For example, I joined the “Journalists/ Reporters/Correspondents Tribe.” Unfortunately, there were no other members of my tribe on the site. And there were no job postings for my tribe. In fact, there were only three job postings, in sales, recruiting and web development. If the site is going to gain a following for recruitment purposes, it needs to post more job opportunities.
TribeHQ’s idea of offering a niche platform for micro-blogging job postings and connecting people in the same industries is definitely worth a try. But the website has a few hurdles to jump before it can become viral. With the massive popularity of Twitter, that has become the go-to platform for pretty much anything to do with micro-blogging. It’s going to take some significant marketing efforts to convert job seekers and employers to add a new platform. This is why so many startups are focused on creating applications based off of Twitter’s API. TwitterJobSearch is a good example of this. TwitterJobSearch uses semantic search to figure out the content of a tweet and gives you job postings based on job type and job title etc. TribeHQ is also trying to add the element of professional social networking into the mix, which LinkedIn has already mastered. But TribeHQ has a good idea. With enough followers and job listings, it could really take off. Maybe it should think of tapping into Twitter.
What is TribeHQ http://www.TribeHQ.com from TribeHQ on Vimeo
I find myself more interested in this than twitter right away.
Smart move, LinkedIn was able to survive & thrive in the Facebook era, so TribeHQ seems viable.
I see huge needs for this. Good move for tribeHQ
is it just me or are there only four jobs on this site? ..it could just be me
also ^^ lol@astroturfing
Why not sell this idea to twitter and not reinvent the wheel anymore. I honestly don’t think twitter has found a monetizetion model, why not acquire something with potential to make money. Such as job listings… Just an idea
This is where it will be interesting with Twitter, all the innovative uses.
Doesn’t seem like smtng that will take off. Too easily replaced by other services + what recruiter wants to receive a whole bunch of 140 ch. messages from people saying smtng like “yep, i’m interested. i’m cool, hire me”. As far as I know they just want your resume, 2 min video pitch or smtng like that. It’s much richer in info and they’ll schedule a phone call or a meeting to get to know you better. Sorry Tribe HQ, think you should dedicade your brains to smtng else. good luck…
If they tap into twitter and borrow the idea of “one resume” link + one video link + a few words for anyone to tweet up (to twitter), it may have a real good chance.
Import contacts from Facebook? Sorry, but who uses Facebook to keep in contact with business partners or even potential employees / employers? Or do I want to share my party photos with my future boss?
On 26 of March, we launched Microjobs.ro, a job board based on Twitter messages. We currently feature job requests and job offers from advertising, Internet, media and sales. We plan to implement a matching system between offers and requests and also to go for International coverage.
Great writeup! Currently TribeHQ is free to post jobs for advertisment. If you have job openings and want some interaction with a highly targeted audience, feel free to post jobs on TribeHQ now!
Does every single new social networking site need to have a Twitter-like micro posting component? Like the idea but the UI is boring and the main sell is stolen from Twitter. The Twitter model is not the end all of communication ideas, lets move on!
that is the beauty of all the valley’s me too companies. innovation is dead.
Interesting. They might be better off using Twitter as a foundation layer to host their career-specific application. That way they are adding value to an existing platform without spending time reinventing the wheel.
We recently added Twitter feeds for user activity on a new career site (http://www.zTalent.com) we recently launched for tech professionals. The idea on zTalent is to give tech professionals an easy way to showcase their skills and substantiate the claims on their resume. We hooked into Twitter to automatically publicize our user’s successes on their behalf.
That sounds like smtng REAL to compete with: actual proof of skills. didn’t visit your site yet, but will do soon. you could apply this idea outside the programming area. good luck with it!
Well, I tried 3 times to join using Facebook Connect to login, and got an error message. How am I supposed to mock TribeHQ if it won’t even let me login? FAIL.
Thanks Facebook User for alerting us – we are getting massive hits to the TribeHQ site at the moment. Please try again – should be fixed now. If it continues please email support@tribehq.com
A b2b twitter is brilliant…. came up with it a year ago, too bad I suck. – Even Jason said it was a great idea when I apped for tc50, but no working model = fail. I Am still working on a niche b2c twitter clone.
Nice work TribeHQ -
Foldier has also been making inroads with micro-blogging. It is worth checking out. It is combining twitter and blogging.
Social networking has definitely had its impact on the way we do things. Employers are searching for facebook/myspace profiles to find discrepancies after interviews. Classifieds have evolved from newspapers to iList.com. Even dating has been impacted, no need to ask likes and dislikes, they’re all in a facebook profile.
The fact that twitter can inspire so many more ways to connect people to numerous things will heed some interesting results in the future. I like the idea of a job-hunting social network. But the minute it turns to Twitter Personals I’m off this boat.
oh geez, i knew this was coming; we’re going to have micro-blogging startups out the waazoo.
Niche micro-blogs and niche social networks zero in on what’s important to a person. FB/MS/Twitter is big because they have branded themselves so well. Another name I remember who branded themselves well too was Netscape. Time will be these giants’ judge. But my bet will be on niche networks.
Made an account, joined a tribe, logged out and tried to log back in but it won’t let me. I changed my password and still not working. I am guessing they are getting hit so hard their log in is failing. They need a WHALE! – I tried to leave feedback to help them, but had to sign up for get statisfaction. No thanks, don’t need to sign up for one more thing, will just post it here and wait till all the East coast to go to bed.
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