Monster.com just launched a new Facebook application called BeKnown that lets users create a separate professional identity profile while on the Facebook platform.

You may be thinking, “I already have a LinkedIn profile for professional networking. Why do I need another one?” While it’s true that most professionals have been using LinkedIn as their main professional networking site, LinkedIn only has one million users compared to Facebook’s seven million. In addition, users tend to spend a lot more time on their Facebook accounts than their LinkedIn accounts. This means that your chances of gaining an introduction through a strong or weak tie could be significantly higher via a Facebook platform than through LinkedIn.

Some of you may have recently heard about BranchOut, another Facebook application that allows you to connect professionally by leveraging the power or social networks on Facebook. I like BranchOut a lot, especially because of its ability to easily show you how you are connected to people at other companies, but BeKnown has some features that neither BranchOut or LinkedIn offer including:

• The ability to claim and manage company profiles.
• The option for employers to make referral payments for hires.
• Specific skills endorsements rather than the generic “Bob’s an employer’s dream.” type of endorsements you sometimes see on LinkedIn and BranchOut profiles.
• The ability to access Monster.com job postings from inside Facebook including jobs posted at friends’ companies.

In addition, the BeKnown app is supported in 19 languages in 35 countries as opposed to LinkedIn (6 supported languages) and BranchOut (1 supported language.

It will be interesting to watch how LinkedIn, BranchOut, and BeKnown compete for users (or even collaborate to build a better platform) and where users’ loyalties will fall. You can learn more about BeKnown here and here.