Staffing professionals need more than great staffing software to help them do their jobs. They need to know what other tools are out there and how they can be used for top-notch recruitment.

I recently learned about Quora, a social networking site that describes itself as “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.” Once you register (it’s free), you can type in any question.

While you’re typing, a list of similar questions appears, much like similar search words appear as you type in a Google query.

For example, while typing “How can I recruit employees?” I could have immediately jumped to “Do I recruit employees for my tech startup?” or “How can I hire ex-Yahoo employees?” And yes, even “How do you use social media for recruiting?” appeared.

If the question is new, you can post it and wait for answers. If you choose a question already on the site, you get to read and respond to the answers already there. It’s kind of like Wikipedia, except the information is aimed precisely at your query, you can follow up directly with the people who answer a question, and you can sharpen your query endlessly. It’s sort of like thousands of forums under one tent.

Quora was founded in mid-2009 by two ex-Facebook employees who wanted to build an e-community held together by several conversations, active participation, and quality control. From what I can see, it’s worked thus far. And they’ve made a smart move early on by linking seamlessly with Facebook and Twitter; whatever you find on Quora can be easily shared with all of your friends and followers.

What does this mean for staffing professionals? One thing is obvious: if a lot of people are there, it’s a forum for recruiting – just like LinkedIn and Facebook. Bottom line is the jury is still out on whether or not Quora will be the next social media recruiting hot spot but I do think there is potential there.

If you have ideas, leave a comment below. Maybe I should also post the question on Quora…

Follow this blog if you are interested in employment issues, staffing software, and up-to-date news in the recruiting and staffing industries.