How to attract candidates using Facebook

Recruiting through Facebook can be a cost-effective and efficient way of attracting and employing candidates.
Using social media can be a useful tool for sourcing, candidate engagement, and recruitment marketing. With 2 billion users per month, we can see that your recruitment outreach has the potential to reach large volumes of people and therefore help build your brand and gain followers. You can also use the new job and application service which has been made even easier to use. Employers can post jobs, manage applications, and schedule interviews without leaving the site. A perfect tool to maximise your recruitment reach.

When to use Facebook

Facebook is a great tool and there are great benefits that come with using all types of social media for recruitment. However, to get the most out of your recruitment campaigns, you need to use specific social media sites for specific roles. For example, we would advise using LinkedIn when looking to recruit professional salaried roles (see how to recruit using LinkedIn). For weekly paid volume recruitment Facebook would be more effective. With the large traffic volumes that the site generates and the thousands upon thousands of community pages, workgroups, social groups it is a great platform to attract industrial workers. You can share and post advertisements to draw people into your recruitment campaign that will reach thousands of people. You can post these into specific groups or communities to narrow down your audience and create recruitment or industry-related content.

An important thing to remember is that Facebook is where people spend their free time and therefore a lot of its users will be passive candidates. Content is how you will gain followers to your business account and this will change passive candidates into active job seekers.

Content is key

To unlock the door to your recruitment campaign on Facebook you will first need to create a page. Smaller businesses recruiting for odd roles can get by using the standard pages, sharing vacancies, and asking current employees to do the same. You will need a business page if you are hiring for multiple roles it is important to have a dedicated page where you can control the career content. Creating a Facebook page is simple enough but a few essentials to include are call-to-actions that will take followers to your pages, contact information, applicant tracking system, and videos and images. As with other job boards, it is about raising awareness of your business through engaging industry-relevant content, this is how you build your followers and increase the reach and exposure of your recruitment drives. If people do not know who you are or what you do, they are less likely to apply or even know about any vacancies. Your content needs to show your best. why should someone want to come and work for your company? What makes you stand out? What are the benefits? You can include customer and client testimonials, behind-the-scenes videos with some friendly welcoming faces, and even company events/retreats. Photos and Images are important on Facebook they account for 93{9c466e1a76ca68d5c5ce7638f762b68ec76c3db922e8be83d2a8f5c8ec0ba196} of the most engaging posts and boasts an 84{9c466e1a76ca68d5c5ce7638f762b68ec76c3db922e8be83d2a8f5c8ec0ba196} click-through rate.

Targeted Ads

Facebook has a plethora of targeting and demographic options. To be effective in your candidate search you need to get the most out of your paid advertising by narrowing in on your audience. The market you are about to advertise to is known as the “audience” on Facebook and you can target specifically by things like location, job title, and education. Targeting your audience will grow your followers and exposure as you draw users in with your specific relatable content. The options are endless which makes targeting ads a pivotal tool for recruiters to attract candidates. This is not to say there are not organic ways of gaining followers. With the right content and consistent sustainable posting, you can capture your target audience.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are a treasure chest of free candidate leads for recruiters. There are thousands of local and regional job search pages across Facebook. They provide a job board full of job seekers and recruiters, and people will tag their family and friends to make them aware of potential opportunities.

Facebook is a great tool for recruiters to use, but it is about being consistent and building a brand profile as with any social media or online recruitment. Have a broad social media presence using all platforms at your disposal. This is how you become one of the first names that come to mind when people are looking for a new opportunity or career change. Ad Warrior can help maximise your chances of attracting the right candidates. If you take out a package with Adwarrior it will include advertisements on Facebook and LinkedIn.