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Jul 25, 2018

WhoKnows is a newer tool that has multiple capabilities. To begin, it is a sourcing tool that also has over 307 million candidate database. These candidates are worldwide and ready to go. In addition, using its browser extension will allow you to grab candidates from sites, and add them to your list/folder of potential candidates.

The 307 million profiles it has amassed come from multiple places not the least of which is Linkedin. They have gone out and grabbed the profiles of all the public LinkedIn profiles, enhanced them and created a database. They are pitching themselves as a true Linkedin alternative. That said they are also looking into and starting to grow their database with profiles from other sites such as; Github, Stackoverflow, Facebook, Twitter and more.

These profiles are updated continuously, and all you need is semantic search skills. Pricing goes from free to $100 a month (enterprise level varies).

Let’s start with the search capabilities of the database. Using the advanced search, you get the following search criteria; title, location, skill, industry, keyword, degree, years of experience, time at current company, diversity, experience, education, and relationship. You can choose must have, should have, and must not have to help you search.

Of course, there is also a  quick search ability where you can search on; keyword, name, company, title, location, and skill. So you can actually target companies, or titles, or specific people. Below is what the advance search looks like.

A great added function is that you can cut and paste in a job description and it will create the search and run it for you, making this a sourcers dream to source on. Oh, and did I mention you can save your searches so you don’t have to recreate them every time? Below is a sample result from a simple search for java developers.

WhoKnows also enhances the information of candidates and finds contact information, which is really good as it does have an import function allowing you to add people to the tool and have the tool enhance the data and provide contact information. Given it has this, it should be no surprise it has an API allowing it to connect to any ATS or CRM and enhance the date within.

As I said, you can add candidates to a list. Once you do you can go into the list and search. You can get contact information, you can export to a CSV and you can message them.

Of course, when you look at each candidates profile, you get all sort of goodies. Such as a visual breakdown of skills, and experience list, education breakdown, rankings, and web content on the candidate. Below are examples of what you see on a profile. First the skills and buzz word pictorial.

Next, you would get the work history followed by certificates, education and finally what you see below, web content about the person.

In addition to all of this, you can also create and run email campaigns right from WhoKnows. You can send individual messages on a one by one basis or as a mass email campaign. You can create and save templates, see reply rates, statuses, dates when sent, read, clicked and so much more. What WhoKnows has done is taken the sourcing lifecycle and created a tool that handles the lifecycle from sourcing to engaging.

WhoKnows also has a Chrome extension, which allows you to add new people from other sites to your lists. In addition to this, the extension will find contact information on people, background, education and more. Keep in mind, adding new people can go beyond profiles; it can just include names on an article they wrote or other online documentation.

This is a huge feature as anyone can be found with as little information as their name and a website. WhoKnows will take care of the rest.

One of the most exciting features of WhoKnows is it’s browser reach beyond Chrome. It has an extension for IE/Edge as well as Firefox, so those of you who can’t use Chrome fear, not they got your back.

Below is a view of where to download it, and you can plainly see IE (Internet Explorer). It works exactly the same as the Chrome version. This is huge as this is the only tool of its kind that gives you an IE/Edge extension, opening up things for those who can’t use a Google-based browser or Chrome extensions at work.

There are numerous tools that can do similar things to what WhoKnows does such as Engage Talent, Hiretual, and Seekout. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, but all provide value and you would need to test them all to see which ones work best for you.

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