How effective is ResearchGate as an academic selection and recruitment tool? I've informally noticed that ResearchGate seems to have increased in popularity over the last year or so. I also noticed that, while I'm not on the job market, ResearchGate was able to successfully identify an available academic job in my area and in my country and bring it to my attention (for more info see here). 

Thus, I ask the following question as a potential recruiter or as a member of my department who is keen to see the hiring of good applicants.


What was the experience of anyone who has used ResearchGate to recruit for an academic position?
Did you get many people applying because they saw the position through ResearchGate?
How do you think this medium of academic job advertising compares to other options? Do you think it was value for money?
Some mathematicians I know (me included) appear in Research Gate. Many many others don't. As such, in the areas I'm related to, RG is not a significant source of information. It might be significant with respect to a single person who worked on her/his profile, but not representative of the market. When I click on "related researchers" on RG, the omissions in the list are way more significant than the inclusions. 

More specifically to your question, I didn't know that RG had any relation with recruitment. We wouldn't use it because it is not obvious that our target audience is well represented in it.