Let me quickly add thoughts about the last three, since they have been covered in depth on various industry lists, and all of them were discussed in another post on my blog two years ago, but then move to more detail about Jigsaw. Spoke does not have the informational depth or quality of LinkedIn, because it's web-spidered data, whereas LinkedIn's are profiles created by actual people. ZoomInfo uses spidering, but its depth is stronger than Spoke thanks to their data-processing algorithms.
Each of these sites has their value, but it depends in part on the types of passive prospects you seek. The more publicly-visible someone is (think executives and marketing roles), the more likely you will find a critical mass of info on the spidering-based services. Otherwise, LinkedIn or Jigsaw will probably work better.
What may not be clear from the two posts about Jigsaw.com below is that you can also use its functionality for free. It's called the "PLAY" (rather than "PAY") option when you first register. The catches are:
- you need to input your credit card as insurance against possible future charges, should you convert to PAY status (though I can verify I've never been charged on it for 2+ years)
- you must add the professional contact info of 25 contacts each month to the system (who are not already in there) or you can add more (e.g., 75 would cover you for 3 months).
- again, it must be professional contact info -- if you try to add the contact's AOL or Comcast home email, the entry will be rejected.
You can then retrieve the contact info of as many contacts as you put in. And you don't actually give up the corresponding points from your account until you have run your search, clicked on the blinded version of the business card (it shows company, job title and location, but not name, phone or email) and then agreed to redeem points.
As Jigsaw puts it, "Most members add contacts that are correct but have little business value to them. They then get contacts of extreme value for their business purposes. The contacts that they add to Jigsaw can then give great value to another user and their purpose."
Here are two of many methods used by recruiters on Jigsaw. Your ethics will determine which ones you feel comfortable employing:
1. Whenever you receive a resume from a candidate that you don't have an immediate need for, ask if you can share their information with others who may have opportunities. If they say yes, many recruiters say you have the mandate to post them on Jigsaw.
2. If you're generally ok with #1, but don't feel comfortable inputting their primary work contact info, realize that many people now have web domains for their freelance, etc., pursuits (e.g., a personal website at www.joesmith.com) and you could list joseph@joesmith.com and whatever phone # is on the website as an acceptable Jigsaw record.
Yes, occasionally you will come across some obsolete contact info when you redeem points for someone, but then you can report it to Jigsaw, and once your challenge is validated, you get your points back. All in all, it's a pretty good system!
P.S. Jigsaw had an incentive program where you could actually sell your extra points to others for cash, but that was terminated last month. The site reports a new incentive program will be introduced soon.
