If LinkedIn is the chalk horse for sourcing talents, Facebook is the social behemoth!
You may have a myriad of talent sourcing channels, but if you aren’t using Facebook, you are missing out on thousands of untapped candidates.
With around 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook caters to a massive audience with diverse demographics, experience levels, backgrounds, skill sets, etc. Also, Facebook users are among the most active social media users, with a record of 38 minutes spent per day on the platform.
When sourcing, this massive crowd of active users comes into handy. Data shows that when 94% of recruiters’ first choice is LinkedIn, while only 36% of jobseekers flock on that platform. Also, 76% of candidates have found a job through social media, specifically Facebook.
Overall, Facebook is an excellent platform for sourcing talent, but you can not just jump right into it without knowing the rules of the game. So, here we have brought everything you need to know about “Talent sourcing via Facebook.”
Pros and Cons of Sourcing Talents on Facebook
Each platform has its benefits and drawbacks, and so does Facebook. Knowing them will help recruiters plan out better sourcing strategies and avoid mistakes.
Benefits of Talent Sourcing on Facebook:
- Cost-effective: Posting job advertisements are free for the first three jobs on Facebook. Recruiters can pay extra if they want to target a specific audience. Even after paying, Facebook is much more cost-effective than other job boards providing the same features.
- Easy accessibility: Facebook is a great platform to do mass hiring. Recruiters can quickly find candidates they wouldn’t naturally find on job sites like Indeed.
- Simplicity: Applying for jobs on Facebook is very easy, improving the candidate experience. Unlike other job boards that make the application process lengthy and monotonous, candidates have to put their job history in the application and attach a resume on Facebook.
Drawbacks of Talent Sourcing on Facebook:
- Quality of Candidates: As Facebook is accessible to a large audience, anyone can apply for the job, decreasing the quality of applicants. Candidates who apply for jobs may not be serious or qualified.
- Applicant Tracking: Tracking applicants can be a little demanding and hard to follow on Facebook, especially if multiple jobs are posted simultaneously. Facebook’s layout is not as organized as other job boards.
- Sourcing Genuine Candidates: Unfortunately, Facebook is not built as a job-seeking site, so recruiters can not directly search for job seekers and resumes until they apply for a job role. And even if they can, distinguishing between fake and genuine profiles is like a nightmare.
Despite these drawbacks, here are six strategies for recruiters to make the best use of Facebook:
- Utilize Facebook Graph Search Feature
When the Facebook Graph search feature was launched in 2013, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “One of my favorite queries is recruiting,” signaling its potential for job hunt and recruitment. Since then, this feature has been in talks throughout the recruitment industry.
Facebook Graph Search allows users to streamline and filter their search results whether they are looking for photos, personal information, interests, etc. It uses an algorithm to interpret natural language and search for more precise results for users.
When sourcing candidates, recruiters can refine their search queries by filling in specific details like job titles, positions, education qualifications, etc.
For instance, recruiters can simply type in a query like “People who like Python Programming and live in Brisbane or CS student who graduated from Queensland University in 2014” for sourcing desired candidates.
- X-Ray Searching can Make Your Task Easier.
The X-ray search feature on Facebook is a search method that uses the site: query modifier. Though Facebook’s X-ray search feature is not as customizable as some other job boards, it allows you to search for specific talents to an extent.
The major limitation that arises during the usage of this feature is because of its complexity and facebook’s shallow data.
First, you can not simply type in the query like “site:Facebook.com (“Job Title”) (Location)” that you do on LinkedIn, which is much easier comparatively. Second, not every user adds their locational and professional details on Facebook. Hence results are not up to the mark.
For a better search, your X-ray search query must look like “site:facebook.com (“Job title”) (“Location”) inurl: people.” Just by adding ‘inurl: people,’ you can make your search results more targeted.
- Facebook Business Profile Page Can Give You an Edge
The best candidate sourcing approach on Facebook is to create a business profile page. Make your company’s page public and share information about your business products and services to get more visitors to your page.
To attract fresh applicants, post your job openings on your Facebook page. But remember not to overdo the advertisements. Ensure that you post valuable content for your audience and not just a bunch of repetitive job ads.
By consistently updating the content on your page, you can enhance both your followers and the number of applicants.
Instead of viewing Facebook as a social network for friends and family, start using it as a resource for sourcing diverse applicants. You can rely on getting new applicants from Facebook if you add it to your list of affordable and alternative candidate sourcing options.
- Use Facebook Directory
With Facebook Directory, where you may source for people, pages, groups, and applicants, you can expand your list of candidates. The user’s job history sharing feature is the primary factor in the Facebook Directory for applicant sourcing.
By typing the company name, recruiters can connect with company employees or offer open positions to prospective candidates.
Recruiters can also search for applicants in the Directory by determining Facebook users whose profiles mention their employment positions. They can then direct these profiles through a resume parser or to their Applicant Tracking System for the next hiring stage.
- Leverage Facebook Advertisement Option
A plethora of adverts is featured on social media platforms every day. So why not leverage it to improve hiring?
Facebook marketing and campaigning are simple and highly competent. Recruiters can publish and promote their company and the job profile effectively through advertising.
For a larger audience, recruiters can also purchase and run paid commercials.
With advertising, recruiters can draw in a particular target audience of applicants, monitor their progress, and keep adding more and more to build a robust talent pipeline. You can use a well-featured recruitment software for this or get an amazing Bullhorn alternative.
Many businesses advertise on Facebook for improved hiring, and some even run businesses to improve their online reputation. Through their advertisements’ insights, recruiters can track how many candidates visit their page periodically.
Promotion for a defined period is also feasible and not too expensive. With the available sharing feature, recruiters can simply promote information about a job vacancy via their current employees’ network.
- Join Niche Groups
Among the different ways of sourcing talents on Facebook, one of the most overlooked approaches is joining Facebook groups.
Facebook groups are online communities of like-minded people where they discuss almost everything related to their niche or sometimes, in general, everything.
These groups can help recruiters engage with hundreds, if not thousands, of interested candidates and allow their job posts to be featured in front of their target audience for free.
Make sure that you check the guidelines of the group before joining any. For example, some groups don’t allow off-topic conversations and the promotion of individual services. Ensure that you don’t break the group’s rule, or you won’t be part of it for longer.
If the group doesn’t permit job postings, you can message an admin and arrange for a sponsorship deal with them, or you can simply approach candidates out of the group separately or through the campaign.
To conclude, here are some practical tips for recruiters:
- When contacting your sourced candidate, keep your outreach message as personalized and relevant as possible.
- Since not many recruiters are on Facebook, your outreach message may weird out the candidates if not written correctly. In such cases, you can use confession tactics, like:
“Receiving a job opportunity on Facebook may be a little weird, at least that’s what some of my candidates used to say, but not after they discovered the real deal I had for them. I am sure it will be intriguing for you too. [Introduce yourself and job role] Can we continue our discussion on Email?”
- Be active and respond timely to candidates’ queries.
- Start commenting on your followers’ content.
- Create recruitment-specific content and post them. Ensure that you keep your posts public.
- Use relevant and trending hashtags to expose your content to a broader audience.
