How to get started with Facebook Pages for your social recruiting strategy
We all know the scale of Facebook by now - 550 million people on Facebook growing at millions every week - but ARE YOU taking steps to make the most of it in your business? Have you realised you are going to need a social recruiting strategy very soon? Don't for even one second think that Facebook isn't for you - it is for everyone that wants to engage with their candidates and their clients.
And please don't give me the excuse of people saying bad things about you and making derogatory comments on your wall - if you haven't realised they are saying it about you anyway, just in a different place! Don't be naive on that count!
[Note to that effect: you have got alerts for your brand, URL's and key names set up with Google alerts and Socialmention haven't you? If not, how can you say people are talking about you is you don't even know!]
Facebook pages are now becoming a must-have item for companies in the recruitment space. There is now a high level of expectancy from candidates that companies have them - to them it is just normal. Obviously just putting up a Facebook page without thought and objectives isn't the way forward. But creating a simple social strategy including Facebook, and designing rel event Facebook pages for your needs certainly is.
From a recruitment perspective, Facebook pages can be as simple or as complicated as you need to meet your objectives.
You can have a Facebook Fan page that is a branding and information sharing site like this one, you can set up your site to use a Facebook application like Work For Us or you can invest some ££ in a professionally built fully interactive recruitment pages like this one from the awesome Net Natives.
If you currently don't have a Facebook page and are considering setting one up, then you will certainly find these 10 tips from the Facebook Legend that is Mari Smith. Her advice is excellent, and if you are not going to use an external company to create your social recruiting strategy, then please take note of these excellent tips:
1. The design strategy for your Fan page needs to clearly address your objectives for having a Facebook Fan page in the first place. Such objectives might include building your candidate pool; driving traffic to your blog; promoting your products/services; increasing event registrations; getting media contacts and attention; connecting with joint venture partners; establishing yourself as a leading authority; improving customer service.
2. When you create your Facebook Fan page, you need to be very careful about the category and name you select for your page as those cannot be changed.
3. Add custom tabs to your Fan page, especially a custom Welcome tab. A recent study has shown that 47% of those who see your Welcome tab as a landing page will Like your page, whereas only 23% will Like your page if they first land on your Facebook wall.
4. Currently, custom tab content is created mostly in FBML (Facebook Markup Language), which is similar to HTML but with its own proprietary tags and attributes, or through Facebook Apps. At some point in the near future, Facebook will only allow iframe coding, but they’ve promised they will continue to “grandfather in” any tabs you’ve already set up using FBML.
5. A well-designed landing page will accomplish these purposes: Increase conversions, help visitors know immediately they’re in the right place, be inviting and compelling and provide a positive, interactive user experience.
6. There are a number of great Facebook Apps you can use to create tabs for your Facebook Fan page. Apps that push content onto your wall (in addition to updating the tab) are better for engagement because that content is more likely to get noticed by your fans because it’s placed in their feed.
7. You shouldn’t just post content that’s about you or geared to making a sale on your Fan page. Content sources for your Fan page include blog posts, articles, podcasts, videos, photos, interviews (transcribe) along with other people’s content (OPC) available through email subscriptions, ezines, Friends lists, Twitter lists, etc. Fans appreciate content “curators” as it saves them time and allows them to find a variety of useful content in one place.
8. Allow fans to post items. It’s easy enough to remove anything spammy, offensive or off-topic. Respond promptly to Fan comments with personalized comments of your own. Try to provide daily updates to keep your page fresh.
9. Conversion strategies may include: regular calls to action, contests, fan-only content, special offers, coupons, etc. If you mix up your content to add sufficient value you’ll find better acceptance of your promotional content.
10. Remember that Facebook is just ONE marketing channel. You can use a Fan page as a hub for your content or as an outpost. Use your Fan page to educate your marketplace about all that you do, but be sure to enhance the user experience for your fans in the process.
For your social recruiting strategy you should be looking at Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, You Tube and even Flickr as well as Facebook, which all need to be incorporated into your existing recruitment process and (of course) your career site.
If you have a recruitment Facebook page at your company that is working for you, then please share it with everyone in the comments below - Facebook is all about sharing, after all.
If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.
Google+
0Stumbleupon
0
Comments 4
Jon Fernandes
Thanks for that Andy,
I’m a big fan of Mari Smith and Social Media Examiner. Currently here at BLT our social media engagement strategy involves twitter, LinkedIn, youtube and of course our blog. Our facebook page has been neglected as of recent, purely because facebook was always viewed as a networking site for personal use, without much scope to market the company or engage with new candidates. But obviously with half a billion users, its hard to ignore its potential to do just this!
Paul Harrison @Carveconsulting raised the point that smart companies these days don’t see the value in trying to direct consumers to their new websites, and are instead bulding pages on top of existing networks that already house their consumers, ie.facebook.
Recruitment companies need to start taking Facebook pages more seriously (BLT included!).
Christine Popp
Thanks for this timely awakening. But where can I get a good pro to make one for me?
Andy Headworth
Jon,
You are in very good hands with Paul
Amazingly though that many companies are still staying well away from Facebook!!
Andy
Andy Headworth
Christine,
Happy to help - drop me an email and I can happily talk to you about creating Facebook pages for you.
Andy