Your Candidates Are on Facebook. Why Aren’t You?

If you have haven’t yet established your social careers page on Facebook, I have one question for you: why not?

With more than 1 billion people who are already logging on to the network multiple times daily, connecting with companies on their brand Pages and Newsfeeds, and even sharing about their job searches with friends, families, and acquaintances, why not build your talent pool where the talent is?

You may be asking yourself, “Why would anyone bother ‘liking’ a staffing agency on Facebook? Isn’t Facebook just a place where brands can hold contests, share coupons, and gain customers?”

While I’d reply that, yes, Facebook is an ideal platform for marketing to consumers, it is also an ideal platform for building an active, engaged talent community and a home for your careers.

How does Facebook work for staffing? Many staffing agencies have already created pages specifically for their careers. Don’t assume that people don’t want to see your jobs on their personal social network — 80 percent of jobseekers say that they would like to see companies post jobs on Facebook. With so many people on Facebook who are involved in trades and industries from technology to healthcare to clerical to sales, there’s a very good chance that the talent you are looking for is already there, waiting to connect with you.

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For example, when one staffing agency that specifically hires for high tech/IT positions decided to create a careers page on Facebook, it was easily able to grow a talent pool of almost 8,000 likes in just 3 months, using targeted Facebook ads to reach new talent and providing engaging content for those potential candidates and employees who “liked” the page.

The advantage of social referrals. In staffing, the nature of the beast is to have a constant influx of open jobs — which means the need for a constant influx of new, qualified candidates. How can you quickly and easily reach a larger number of candidates who will fit the bill?

To this I say, “Take advantage your employee networks!” Those who have already gotten a job because of you know the power of your services–and most likely know others in the same industry or with the same educational or work background who might be open to a new job.

Making your jobs shareable, such as turning your job descriptions into images or Facebook posts, is an excellent strategy for building a bigger talent pool and having your jobs seen by the most qualified people in your extended network–qualified people who will be most likely to apply for your jobs or join your talent pool.

Score with staffing on Facebook!  If you’re just getting started, or think you’d like some more direction as you set up your Facebook recruiting strategy, you’ll want to head over to the Social Recruiting Score and see how your company stacks up in terms of its social reach, referral potential, and mobile compatibility. (You’ll also get some personalized strategies for scoring higher based on your company’s social accounts!)

Once you have your score, let us know how you did and what areas of your Facebook recruiting are working–and what you’d like to improve upon!

MORE: How Facebook is changing the sourcing of candidates