As I slowly empty my in box I finally get  a chance to answer Paul’s request to give tribehq a mention. He in actual fact sent me a press release, which is below if you wish to read it, but if I was you I would just jump straight in and have a play.

To date there have been far too many web application aimed at the jobs market, in truth it is over crowded which can mean that a genuine contender could get lost with all the competition. Therefore when you come across a real gem it is important to get the word out and I think tribehq will be one of them.

Having had a quick play myself it became instantly obvious why it should succeed, because they have taken the best bits of twitter and Linkedin and combined them. The idea is the simplicity of Twitter but with the ability to connect quickly with people within your industry or as they put it tribe. A tribe could be made up of doctors, recruiters or even a Amusement and Recreation Attendants tribe!

Although it may be a great idea, but without good marketing or momentum they may not survive, still they have started with an excellent produced video, but they will need to up the viral effect as they have only 33 in the recruiter tribe at the moment.

What is TribeHQ http://www.TribeHQ.com from TribeHQ on Vimeo.

Press release (24 April 2009):

With Twitter rapidly morphing into a mainstream, mass media, celebrity sensation, a new micro-blogging platform with a professional twist has launched.

TribeHQ http://www.tribehq.com is the world’s first purpose-built “micro-jobbing” / ‘social recruiting’ platform for people within the same occupational tribe (eg IT professionals, nurses, teachers, engineers, recruiters). Tribe members form alliances, share ideas and knowledge, and get close to the current issues and tribal buzz in their profession, both locally and globally. Members can converse directly with employers and ask questions about their work culture and job vacancies prior to applying.

TribeHQ is breaking new ground and challenging a number of long-standing recruitment conventions, effectively re-engineering the online job search model.  Instead of a job seeker going to a directory-based job board or putting their career credentials on a social networking platform, TribeHQ uses job-matching algorithms to automatically align tribe members seeking a new job with opportunities that meet their career preferences. Companies can promote their employer brand and tap directly into a targeted community of talent, ensuring they reach the right tribes and tribe members. Tribe members can enter into a real-time conversation with employers, asking questions about the job or the company. This conversation encourages applications from better informed candidates and ultimately maximizes the candidate-job-employer fit.

“We developed TribeHQ to combine the concept of niche talent communities with micro-blogging,” say founders Paul Jacobs and Tim de Jardine, who have recruitment technology and employment communication backgrounds.

“We’ve noticed over the years a lot of clutter on job boards and we didn’t believe that merely listing job vacancies on a social networking platform and hoping someone will find you using a hash-tag was the way to go,” says de Jardine.

“Our goal is to humanize recruitment.  We believe recruitment should be conversational. The top employers are realizing this and are engaging with their target audiences in their own territory,” says Jacobs.

The founders also see TribeHQ as a very real opportunity to reach occupational groups, some containing many millions of professionals worldwide, who have not traditionally involved themselves in other networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

The TribeHQ platform continues to be developed with a number of core features and innovations soon to be released. Job listings are free for a limited time.

TribeHQ carves out fresh territory in social networking and recruitment.

For more information, please contact Paul Jacobs, Co-founder, TribeHQ on +64 274-892-662 or paul@tribehq.com