When a company is sourcing an open position, it pays to have as many
tools in their recruiting tool box as possible.
One of the hottest recruiting tools these days is Twitter. Not a day
goes by that I don’t receive a dozen or more blogs, articles and
invitations to webinars about how to use Twitter for advertising jobs
and sourcing candidates. What’s even better, I’m even starting to read a
few success stories.
But truth be told…while Twitter is today’s media darling, its use is
still not mainstream. Twitter is a recruiting tool with tremendous
potential but it currently lacks universal appeal. With time, that
scenario may change.
Nonetheless, I do encourage clients to use Twitter to publicize job
openings and even connect with potential candidates because every little
effort helps in that search for the diamond in the rough. You just
don’t know how and where you’re going to find that next good employee
fit.
Questionable ROI is not the case for Facebook when it comes to
recruiting hourly and entry-level management and sales positions. (For
more senior and experienced candidates, my preference is still LinkedIn
when it comes to social networking sites.) Facebook simply has too many
eyes watching and thumbs typing every day. With a potential audience of
200 million users daily (total Facebook users exceed 400 million and
half of them visit the site daily), a presence on Facebook is just too
good an opportunity to pass up. And remember that the candidate you’re
attempting to reach may not be your initial target. Social networking is
about word-of-mouth. Using Facebook to announce job openings isn’t
about sponsoring ads and posting help wanted ads as status updates. It’s
about letting your network know that you have an opportunity for
someone they might know. Recruiting on Facebook isn’t about just
word-of-mouth but as Erik
Qualman says, it’s “world of mouth.”
But just creating a Facebook Fan Page is not enough. Successful
candidate sourcing on Facebook requires a strategy – a relatively easy,
low-cost, 3-step strategy but a strategy nonetheless.
- Create a Custom
Facebook Landing Page for your company. This can be accomplished
quite easily by installing a free Facebook application called Static
FBML. This application allows you to create a custom
design with basic html code, like the one I created for my client Quantum-Services. A graphic
designer can create an image for you to post to your landing page or
you can use a program like AdKreator. This is a
fantastically easy program for non-graphic designers like myself. I used
AdKreator to create
the ad for my client and my
pages as well. With the Static FBML application, you can then add
and name a new tab such as “Now Hiring” to the menu bar. Facebook users
can click on the tab to apply for jobs. Equally important is that you
don’t have to be a Facebook user to see Facebook Business Pages. These
web pages are public profiles, searchable by the likes of Google and
other search engines. In effect, a Facebook Page is like having a free
website on the most popular networking site in the world. Non-Facebook
users who find your site when searching are directed to any page you
choose. In this case, my client elected to direct visitors to the
recruiting page. But you have the option to direct them to any page on
your Facebook site. You can even create multiple pages and test the
responses. - Engage candidates on your Wall. Good candidates are looking for the
right place to work just as much as employers are seeking the right
candidates to hire. Before they apply, they want to know what it’s like
to work for your company. What’s management like? What are the
employees like? Getting employees to post updates about their daily
activities gives candidates an honest, inside look at the job. Having
employees respond to questions posted by candidates is an excellent way
to engage them at the front-line and differentiate your company from the
competition. - Post video clips of what it’s like to work at your company. Record
interviews with employees. Give a tour of your facility. Demonstrate
what a new hire might expect on his or her first day. These can be added
on the same landing page or by creating a second one. The easiest way
to display videos on Facebook is to upload them to YouTube and link the
YouTube video to a landing page. That pathway also offers the advantage
of your videos getting viewed on YouTube (and searched on Google since
Google owns YouTube.) You can also upload them directly to your Facebook
site. You can also run contests to encourage employee participation in
monitoring and posting updates to the site as well as referrals. The
more activity on the site, the more likely your Facebook Business Pages
rank will increase in the search engines and the more likely candidates
will find you.
Click on the link for a free step-by-step guide to creating a custom
Facebook landing page.