How Much Time Do People Spend on Facebook?

The social networking site, Facebook.com is the world’s most popular website in the entire world with US adults spending 393 minutes a month updating their status, sharing photos, and chatting with their friends.  While manage HR teams and senior leaders are discussing developing an social media policy, these same organizations can take advantage of the recruitment and candidate engagement opportunities Facebook provides. But the real question is where to begin.

Using Facebook to Hire & Recruit

Your Facebook Fan Page.

•   Chances your corporate marketing team has been cultivating and building a presence on Facebook with the company fan page.  The recruiting team can take advantage by adding a jobs tab or app that displays their job openings, information about the company culture, and what makes your organization different and better than the rest.  This particular strategy resonates with me because it requires little effort.  Plus, it’s highly likely your satisfied customers and fans would make great employee at your organization. (Check out my review of TweetMyJobs and their Facebook app.)

Recruiter Job Distribution.

• Many recruiters use referrals and their personal networks as a strategy to fill open positions.  Encourage your corporate recruiting team to share job openings to their personal network.  Consider offering a specific employee referral campaign for this purpose. Make it easy by creating a featured job of the week for them to share and allow lurkers to learn more about openings driving web traffic to your corporate careers page(s).

Facebook Ads. 

• Companies can target content and conversations on Facebook for very specific job seekers to see.  Focus your efforts for only a few dollars a day by location, degree, professional associations, and interests.  Your ad needs to be short, to the point, and compelling.  Sometimes a simple message like, “Have a nice weekend” is simple and different enough to grab your job seeker’s attention.

Groups that Give.

•   One of my most successful ways of building relationships with candidates on Facebook is through groups on Facebook.  You can either join one of the millions of groups already established or create your own community helping job seekers in a particular target area or niche ask questions, network with each other and learn about openings in your area.  Pick up the phone and talk to the right influencer, and watch your candidate pipeline fill.

Job Openings by Photo. 

• Photos have been an important piece of what has made Facebook such a powerful network. The nearly 1 billion users upload a reported 750 billion photos each month.  Recruiters and employees can easily share a picture ad or inforgraphic of the job opening at their organization.  Sharing photos with one another is easy and takes seconds.  Recruiters can take things a step further using other photo and picture sharing tools like Pinterest and Instagram to engage, promote job openings, and reach a new active and engaged audience.

Facebook & Your  Hiring Strategy’s Biggest Flaw

The downside to Facebook for recruiters is that it is not an effective sourcing platform.  It does provide an opportunity to take advantage of web site visitors using targeted messaging, your employee’s networks, and the social sharing to recruit job seekers creatively and using low cost methods.

This post was originally published on Glassdoor.com where I’m a regular contributor.  Check them out on Twitter @glassdoordotcom.