Facebook is an incredibly useful hiring tool. Not only does it have a massive user base, but Facebook also provides a wealth of sourcing and recruitment friendly tools such as graph search, and targeted ads.

“84% of job seekers have a Facebook profile”

This is why so many employers are flocking to the social network in an attempt to use Facebook to win the war for talent. Unfortunately many of them do not get the results that they are hoping for because they do not understand how to use Facebook effectively to get the results they want; applications from qualified candidates.

Why do they fail? That’s easy; they don’t have a strong Facebook recruiting strategy. Most of them have no strategy at all!

But not you. You’re smart, you’re reading this blog, doing your research, that fact alone already puts you ahead of most employers and recruiters out there! Now let’s put you even further ahead.

Building a strategy for your social recruiting is a crucial process, but it doesn’t have to be a complicated one. In this article I’ll provide you with the fundamental steps you need to take in order to successfully recruit candidates using Facebook, I’ll also include sources for further reading in case you want to discover more advanced tactics. Although, I doubt you’ll need them!

Here we go:

3 Basics of Facebook Recruiting Strategy 

Facebook Page

Your company Page is the heart of your Facebook presence. You must build it wisely.

If you are a smaller company, you’ll want to use your main company Page to build your brand so that you have a larger network to work with. You can simply ad a careers section to your current Page and combine your recruiting efforts with your existing marketing. They’ll actually complement each other very well!

If your company is larger, you have a recognizable brand, and a larger following already, then you’ll want to create a separate company Facebook career Page that is entirely focused on recruiting.

 Earls Restaurant has both a regular company Page and a Facebook career Page dedicated to recruiting

No matter what sized organization you have, your Facebook Company Page should have a look and feel that is consistent with both your online, and brick and mortar brand. Make sure and that your message is the same no matter what channel you are using to share it.

Your Page should also have a high quality banner, photo galleries, and, whenever possible, recruiting videos. Social job seekers are more likely to engage with video than any other type of content.

Employer Brand

Did you know that 58% of employers reported that building a strong employer brand has increased the quality of their applicants?

Employer branding has become one of the most important elements of recruiting. Nowadays the first thing job seekers do when considering a future position with a company is Google them, so having a positive social media presence is crucial.

Facebook is an incredible resource for employers and recruiters looking to improve their employer brand.

Along with Job listings and basic information about your organization, you can share content that expresses your company culture.

Posting recruiting videos, photos of staff parties, updates about your company’s community involvement or charitable efforts, and employee profiles to your Facebook Career Page. Sharing this kind of content will not only help you recruit quality candidates, but it is also a quick effective way to grow your employer brand, and your company’s social media presence.

Create an effective content strategy for Facebook recruiting with Reg Hamilton of Phoenix Group

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are the social network’s gift to recruiting.

Their ROI is five times higher than that of regular web ads, and they receive on average 20 times more clicks!

The absolute best way to reach the talent you want is by created targeted Facebook ads. Facebook ads not only get your job posts seen by more candidates, but more importantly they get them seen by the right candidate, which means more quality applications. They’ll also improve your brand visibility, drive traffic to your Facebook Page, and help you build up your Facebook talent community while they’re at it.

Once you have your employer branding established, the first thing you’ll want to do is focus on creating targeted Facebook ads to promote your content and job posts. Make sure you use all of the targeting options provided, such as: skills, work history, and interests. The more specific you get, the more likely your ads are to reach the hires you want.

Guide to creating Facebook ads for recruiting

These basics are really all you need to get started with using Facebook to hire. Now, if you want to take your Facebook recruiting to the next level, using a top rated Facebook recruiting app is another awesome option that I highly suggest you consider.

60% of employees will share a job with friends or family members

What interests you most about Facebook recruiting? Have you tried using Facebook ads? Are there any other topics you would like to see covered on this blog?

Let us know in the comments!

The post 3 Essentials of Facebook Recruiting Strategy appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

The shift towards a labor market comprised of younger candidates requires a shift in recruiting strategy.

This generation of candidate has very different expectations of their potential employer than the generations before them had. Traditional recruiting methods simply aren’t enough to win the war for millennial talent.

Here are 3 things you can do to attract, engage, and recruit millennials:

Make your recruiting social

Millennials use social media for everything, including their job search. In fact 83% of millennials reported using Facebook to look for work in 2013 (Jobvite). This is why social recruiting is one of the best ways to reach younger talent.

To get started with social recruiting you will need to build a presence on at least one social platform. As Facebook is the number one choice for millennial job seekers I suggest you start by using a recruiting app to create a career section on your company Facebook Page. Twitter is another excellent social platform for recruiting millennials. You can use Twitter to share the jobs you post on your company Facebook Page to get your post seen by more potential hires. Use tags like #hiring and #recruiting to make your job posts searchable. It is also a good idea to include a location in your job Tweet.

Check out Jobcast for an effective Facebook recruiting app and TweetMyJobs to help improve your Twitter recruiting.

Make your recruiting mobile

Millennial job seekers expect to be able to connect with potential employers via mobile. In fact approximately 77% of job seekers reported using mobile to look for work in 2013 and most of the job seekers who reported doing so were millennials. This is why not having a mobile friendly career site is huge problem for employers looking to attract younger candidates.

In order to make your recruiting more mobile you can either re-structure your career site so that it is mobile friendly and responsive (works on a wide assortment of devices), or you can use the social recruiting strategies mentioned above. Having a Facebook and Twitter presence means you also have a mobile presence and, if you have a Facebook career section, the jobs you post there will also be visible via mobile device.

Appeal to millennial’s values

Surprisingly salary rates significantly lower on millennials’ list of work life values than it does for boomers. The potential to progress and grow with a company is much more important to millennials than the promise of a high salary. They also value flexible working arrangements and hours, training and development programs, and a company culture that is in line with their own values.

To better attract millennials you should highlight the aspects of your company culture that reflect these values. If, for example, your company offers excellent training opportunities and provides employees with flexible work options, you should be sure to highlight this in all of your job posts, in your interactions with potential hires, and in all of the content you share via social media and job boards.

There are many more ways to appeal to millennials, but these three techniques are extremely effective and should serve you well to start. For more detailed information about millennial candidates you can check out this survey by PWC.

The post 3 Effective Ways to Recruit Millennials appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Recently Facebook added a “Professional Skills” section to user’s profiles.  This addition is extremely exciting for both employers and recruiting for many different reasons, some more obvious than others. Before we get into those reasons, let me explain what exactly this new feature is.

Facebook’s new ‘Professional Skills’ option shows up under the ‘Work and Education’ heading in the about section of a user’s profile. The new feature allows users to add a list of their professional skills to their profile similar to how they would on LinkedIn. That information is then available to their connections, and with Facebook Graph Search. What’s even more interesting is that when a Facebook user adds professional skills to their profile, the list does not remain static. Facebook takes the information and links users to relevant groups based on each skill they have entered.

Here are 4 reasons why Facebook Skills will benefit your recruiting:

Groups Give Recruiters a Foot in the Door

Linking users’ skills to groups automatically fosters engagement and allows employers to interact with potential candidates without it feeling forced. By introducing these skill-based groups, Facebook is giving recruiters and employers a foot in the door with candidates, even if they are not connected to them in any other way. This means you should update your profile as well, so as not to miss any new and helpful connections.

Facebook is Going Professional

Facebook has lost traction amongst younger users (tweens and younger teens). In response, Facebook is growing up and becoming more professional. In fact last year 52% of job seekers surveyed reported using Facebook to look for work (Jobvite). The social network is becoming more focused on forging connections with others in your field, and showing off accomplishments and professional skills.

This shift in focus is bad news for companies using Facebook to advertise to a younger demographic, but fantastic news for recruiting. The introduction of Facebook Skills is changing how users perceive Facebook; they are becoming more open to it as a place to connect professionally, which makes them more open to being contacted by a potential employer (you).

Encouraged Information Sharing

Every time Facebook rolls out a new feature, users receive a series of prompts urging them to check it out. Prompts that encourage users to fill out the skills section of their profile also encourage them to update the rest of their profile information. The more information users make available to Facebook’s Graph, the more employers and recruiters have to go on when searching for candidates.

Facebook Skills will help make recruiting passive candidates for difficult to fill positions easier.

Better Targeting for Facebook Ads

More searchable information available on users’ profiles means you can get even more targeted with your Facebook Ads campaigns. We already know that Facebook Ads are the most effective tool for social recruiting. We also know that the reason that they are so effective is that they allow you to target talent based on demographics, work history, occupation, education, location, interests, and now, professional skills! You will now be able to use Facebook Ads to target potential candidates based on the specific skills the position you’re trying to fill requires, like “joinery skills”, “CSS skills”, etc…

Check out this tutorial on targeting candidates with Facebook Ads, download the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app, and get recruiting! Heck, if you read through the tutorial and decide that using Facebook Ads is too much of a hassle, just sign up for Jobcast Enterprise and Jobcast will handle your whole Facebook recruiting campaign for you.

The post Better Recruiting with Facebook Professional Skills appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

Facebook recruiting is still relatively new to many employers, but luckily there are still lots of innovative early adopters to learn from. This article will look at specific best practices employed by family-run business Gordon Food Service, hospitality giant Hotel Marriott, and the province of Saskatchewan. All three of these businesses provide fantastic examples for any employer interested in giving Facebook recruiting a try. We’ll explain how you can learn from their example and apply their strategies to your own recruiting.

Gordon Food Service

Gordon Food Service has made their Facebook Career Page a place where people can get a more in-depth look at what their company culture is really like. How their staff interact, what their values are, and what the company prioritizes are all showcased on their Facebook Career Page.

GFS uses Facebook to communicate their brand message not just to candidates, but also to current and potential customers. This is why they make branding a key part of their Facebook Career Page.

What can you learn from Gordon Food Service’s strategy?

Use your Facebook Career Page to express company culture and promote your brand.

All of Gordon Food Service’s content is valuable, in that it is useful to clients and potential candidates. The GFS Facebook Career Page is fully branded with company colors and a custom banner to maintain brand consistency. They post updates about community service projects, fun staff activities, and sponsored events. GFS also posts food-related questions to their fans, topical articles, and great tips on grilling. (louisvilleroofing.com) GFS engages with their fans by creating dialogue and asking and answering questions, which has garnered them a very loyal Facebook following. Check out their Company Page and you’ll find tons of positive comments and thank yous from their customers and employees.

Follow their lead and your Facebook Career Page will grow your brand and your talent pool.

Next up, Hotel Marriott

Hotel Marriott turned the social recruiting world on its head by using a social game to recruit thousands of hourly workers for their massive expansion outside of the U.S.

Potential hires create their own virtual restaurant, buy equipment and ingredients on a budget, hire and train employees, and serve customers. Gamers earn points for happy customers… and lose points for poor service. Players’ success is based on their operation turning a profit.

What can you learn from Marriott?

Experiment

I’m not suggesting you invest thousands in creating a virtual game – far from it! But trying new social strategies will set your employer brand apart.

Try out different kinds of content, posting on different days or at different times, and maybe even make a short recruiting video. You won’t know what works best for you unless you experiment.

And last, but most definitely not least, Think Sask Jobs!

The Think Sask Jobs campaign is an effort to brand the Province of Saskatchewan as an awesome place to live and work, in order to fill the many new jobs created by its booming economy. Phoenix Group has been incredibly successful in using Facebook to create an Employer brand for Saskatchewan. Their page has over 5,000 Likes and their average daily reach is around 1.7 million users.

What can you learn from the Think Sask Jobs campaign?

Have a Game Plan

Much of their success is owed to the creation of a brilliant and specific social strategy. Phoenix group researched how frequently they should post, what days and time work best, and what kinds of content are the most appealing to the workers that Saskatchewan needs.

They then created a game plan based on their research.

For example, the content posted on the Think Sask Company page is divided evenly into three categories: job postings, posts about how to get hired in Saskatchewan, local culture and fun lifestyle-related content. That way they know exactly what kind of content is needed each day.

Even the choice of Facebook as a medium for their social recruiting effort was based on solid research into where potential candidates were looking for jobs.

Researching before beginning a social recruiting campaign is a must (you can start with this article about how to use Facebook for recruiting), as is creating a plan to guide your efforts.

What do all three have in common?

Each of these businesses uses metrics to measure their success. Tracking what works and what doesn’t is an important part of any recruiting campaign, social or not! That’s why the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app supplies an easy way to view reports and statistics. You can’t move forward without knowing where you’ve been, so make sure you keep your metrics up to date.

Happy social recruiting!

To make recruiting with Facebook even easier, try using the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app. Jobcast works with BC Jobs, so it’s easy for you to sync your BC Jobs posts with the app, and start using Facebook to find awesome candidates.

For more information about making your recruitment better using Facebook, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ryan by email at ryan@bcjobs.ca or by phone at 778-331-2122.

The post Learn Facebook Recruiting Best Practices from the Masters appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.