No one can argue that Facebook is the most popular website in the US. As of February 2012, Facebook had over 845 million global members, 100 billion connections, and owned one out of every five page views on the internet. As a social recruiting consultant, I have worked with three health care organizations that have had the same dismal results after one year of using Facebook as their stand-alone recruiting vehicle - an average of 87 Facebook likes and very few hires. How is this possible with the popularity of Facebook?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Your Facebook job postings and Facebook content articles are not SEO optimized. Google's new Panda search algorithm and the recently added Facebook timeline have made you all the more difficult to find. If your active and passive candidates don't know you exist, how can they apply for your open positions? Google is the new yellow pages, not Facebook.
Don't Sell to Your Social Network
Your followers want to engage with you and your organization; not be sold to. Use Facebook to post your blog articles to keep your audience engaged and set up a separate career tab for job seekers. If you provide good content that benefits your social network, they will eventually look at your career opportunities because you have demonstrated that your company is a leader in your industry.
Facebook is Just a Piece of the Social Media Recruiting Puzzle
An effective social recruiting program uses all the social media channels along with inbound and outbound marketing to build a social network. Relying on just one channel is too risky and doesn't work. Instead, mitigate your risk and use all the social channels to first build a following and then think about advertising your jobs.
Mayo Clinic Gets It
Is there a correlation between Facebook likes and a successful recruiting program? To answer this, visit Mayo Clinic's Facebook page with over 90,000 likes. Mayo truly understands social networking and successfully uses all social media channels. They blog, tweet, create daily YouTube videos, and use Facebook to engage and interact with their social network. The lesson? Build your social network first; then work on your Facebook recruiting program. Mayo did it, and so can you!
What is your experience with Facebook as a recruiting tool? Please comment below or contact Chris directly at [email protected]