What: ————————————- Facebook. The New Face of Recruiting.

Recruiting has changed… but trust us, it’s for the better. Facebook is the number one choice in today’s market for good reason.

80% of all internet users prefer to connect with brands over Facebook than any other social platform [[http://istrategylabs.com/2012/12/infographic-huffpos-100-fascinating-social-media-statistics-2012/]]

584 million daily active users [[http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/40-amazing-social-media-statistics-every-recruiter-should-know]]

More job seekers are looking for work on Facebook than LinkedIn http://mashable.com/2012/10/09/jobs-facebook-linkedin-twitter/

• 43% of recruiters who use social recruiting saw an increase in candidate quality73% have successfully hired a candidate through social31% of recruiters using social have seen a sustained increase in employee referrals

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• 52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)

• 1 in 5 job seekers has had a contact share a job on Facebook[[

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Recruiting is constantly evolving, and as technology grows and changes, so must recruiters. This can make talent acquisition more complex, but it can also make it much more successful. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/social-recruiting-trends-for-2013/]]

Luckily for us, Facebook and recruitment make for an incredibly effective combination. And, if used correctly, it can actually simplify your recruitment efforts.

Facebook is the simplest way to connect with candidates directly. Facebook is, at heart, a social network, so interaction and dialogue with candidates isn’t a just a part of the process, it is the process. —————

Why: ————————————

The most compelling reason to recruit with Facebook is its massive reach. Boasting over 1 billion active users, Facebook is where people are. Even more importantly, it’s where people are looking for work.

“52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)”

More people than ever before are using social networks (like Facebook) to find employment. And the number one rule in recruiting? Go where the candidates are.

Facebook is at the core of social strategy for well-rounded recruiting programs because no other platform offers comparable reach, access, or level of interaction.

As Facebook grows, which it continues to do rapidly, so does the amount of people using it as a central part of their job search. As we’ve already seen with additions like Facebook Graph Search, access to candidates just keeps getting better. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/facebook-graph-search-is-the-next-big-thing-for-social-recruiting/]]

————————– Facebook is multifaceted.

When you use Facebook to recruit, not only are you posting jobs, you are also strengthening your employer brand. Posting jobs in newspapers, or on sites like Craigslist, will draw attention to that specific job, but will not draw attention to you as an employer.

Facebook is a game changer.

When you use Facebook to recruit, you create a brand presence that will grow with every job you post. Facebook interactions with fans in the form of comments and Likes strengthens your brand with social proof. [[http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/27/social-proof-why-people-like-to-follow-the-crowd/]]

Your branded Career Page, the content you share, and the image you build will all be visible to Facebook users. So, if a potential hire checks out one of your job posts and decides it’s not for them, all is not lost!

They can still browse your other job posts, learn about you as an employer, and Like your Page, so that if a suitable position becomes available, they can apply right away.

————————— How ———————– How to make Facebook work for you

In order to use Facebook effectively for recruiting you’ll need to focus on these five aspects:

Employer Brand Facebook Career Page Content Creation Community Building Metrics

All five aspects are interconnected. A well-balanced Facebook recruiting campaign must take each into account.

——————- Employer Brand

Know your employer brand.

Creating a strong ,consistent employer brand is important. It will influence your Facebook Page in its design, the content you post, and how you interact with your online community. A strong employer brand is what sets your Page apart from your competitors’.

Everything you do on Facebook should reflect your employer brand. That’s why we cover employer branding first. It will influence everything else that follows.

For a great example of effective employer branding check out this case study. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/why-and-how-family-run-business-gordon-food-service-got-social-with-their-recruiting/]] ——————– Facebook Career Page

To start Facebook recruiting, you’ll need a Facebook Career Page. This is where your jobs will be posted and where you’ll want to direct potential hires.

Your Career Page needs to be fully branded. Consistency with all of your social platforms is important, so be sure that your design and content match.

To help build your brand presence, your Facebook Career Page should include: – A branded color scheme. This should be consistent with your company website and logo. – Attractive imagery. You can use images of your employees, your break-room or stock photos that you purchase online. – Embedded recruitment videos. These do not have to be big budget. Here’s a quick guide to shooting a fast and easy recruitment video. They are a great way to showcase company culture and get people excited to work for you.

Using a branded color scheme, great photos, and video will make you stand out from other Employer Pages, and make a positive impression on talent.

———————- Now that your Career Page is fully branded, it’s time to create content!

The most important content you’ll create will be the job postings themselves.

Think of your Facebook job postings in the same way you would any other content shared through social media networks. Your job postings are just another way to communicate with your online community. Making them relatable, relevant, and easy to consume is critical to your Facebook recruiting success.

Here’s how: -Make them short, clear and fun -Have every post centered around a “Call to Action” such as “If you’re an awesome graphic designer, Like this job!” -Have current employees Like and Share every job post you create

Check out this great article for advice on writing awesome job descriptions from two HR pros. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/writing-effective-job-posts-advice-from-my-favorite-hr-experts/]]

——————————— ——————

Content is about more than just job posts!

In order to grow your employer brand and increase your reach you’ll need to post content regularly. Don’t worry though, it’s actually super easy to do!

One of our most successful clients, ThinkSask, has really mastered the art of content creation. They’ve done so by creating a simple strategy.

Post consistently and stick to the following content ratio for social recruiting:

25% – Job postings 25% – How to get hired 25% – Culture 25% – Fun/Lifestyle

Check out their fully branded Facebook Page for a real-life example of Facebook recruiting best practices. The effectiveness of their Facebook recruiting campaign is truly inspiring. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/branding-a-province-the-art-of-facebook-recruiting-and-social-media/]]

—————————

Build Your Community

A well-maintained Facebook community means tons of benefits for employers. You’ll spend less time and money on job boards and advertisements, spend more time interacting with job candidates, and have the opportunity to give those candidates a better understanding of what your company really does every day.

Your Facebook community is similar to a talent community, in that it provides you with a group of candidates to reach out to whenever a new position arises.

Create a vibrant Facebook Community by: – Posting great content, like the kind we just outlined – Engaging with your Fans directly by asking questions, and always responding to their comments – Interact in a down-to-earth way. Use similar language to your fans, not jargon, and even make jokes with them – Show your face – let your community see who they are engaging with – Figure out what works best for you, through trial and error, and then be consistent

This article gives a more detailed explanation of how to build an engaged Facebook community. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/how-to-win-candidates-and-influence-talent/]]

____________________

But how do you figure out what works? ———————- Metrics!

Metrics are necessary when it comes to recruiting strategy, because without detailed insights about how previous campaigns were conducted, and what their outcomes were, you simply can’t understand why they did, or did not work. And understanding why previous recruiting campaigns were successful (or not) is fundamental for improving your future endeavors.

Recruiting with Facebook makes data-gathering much simpler and more accurate than any other kind of recruiting. This is because the markers of success are so trackable. You’ll need to use every source available, so Facebook’s Page Insights, paired with the metrics of a good Facebook recruiting app is the best way to go.

Every time you make an adjustment to your recruiting and employer branding strategy, make note of when you implemented the changes and check the data monthly to determine whether it was a change in the right direction. Also pay attention to promoted posts vs non-promoted posts, the hours and days your reach is at its peak, and what kind of content garners the most feedback.

This will help guide your future Facebook recruiting efforts and help you continue to strengthen your employer brand. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/facebook-insights-how-metrics-can-lead-to-better-recruiting-employer-branding-and-napping/]]

————–

The solution: —————

Facebook is the future of recruiting.

Everyday more and more people turn to the social network in search of jobs, and smart employers are making sure their jobs get seen. Just follow the steps we’ve presented and you’ll join them in creating a vibrant talent community and strong employer brand with Facebook.

The only thing that can make Facebook recruiting even easier and more effective is a great recruiting app.

The Jobcast Facebook Recruiting app allows you to create a fully branded career page, engage candidates with video and imagery, and provides all the metrics you need to measure success. Jobcast is so easy to use that you can be recruiting on Facebook in as little 2 minutes.

Facebook is where candidates are looking for work. Jobcast is the simplest way to attract, engage and convert those candidates.

Try the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting app for 30 days completely free.

Just click here to start hiring now.

So ...

You’ve rolled out your social recruiting strategy and have begun to see results…

You’re sharing job posts, promoting your company employer brand and engaging with candidates.

What now?

It’s time to let everybody else know about all of the great work that you’ve been doing! Creating a social recruiting report is the most effective way to communicate your progress.

Instead of just telling your boss what you’ve been up to why not show them?

With a social recruiting report you can use visuals to communicate ideas more clearly, charts and graphs to show your progress over time, and statistics as concrete proof of the progress that you’ve made.

Here’s how you can make your own social recruiting report.

Decide what to measure:

The data and statistics that you choose to include will fall into two categories: employer branding and recruiting.

For employer branding you’ll want to track:

• Number of Clicks Per Post - This will show how interested your audience is in what you are sharing.

• Shares/Retweets - This data is great for seeing how your content is received and how engaged your followers are. Shares are awesome because they mean that your brand is getting exposure amongst non-followers.

• Likes/Favorites  - Likes and favourites aren’t just about showing how many people enjoy your content, they also act as social proof to your other followers.

• Followers - How many followers you have tells you the number of people who are interested in your company. Increasing your number of followers improves the reach of your content, your social proof, and increases the likelihood of job seekers finding you.

For recruiting, you’ll want to track:

• Job Views by Source - Where people who view your job posts are coming from. This will help you learn where people are finding links to your job posts.

• Applicants by Source - Where applicants are finding your job posts. This will help you learn which social networks are connecting you with potential hires.

• Hires by Source - Where your actual hires are coming from. This will show you where the highest quality of candidates are coming from.

For each of these areas, you’ll want to gather information about where your social recruiting stands currently, how it has progressed over time, and how you think it will progress into the future.

How to Find Your Social Recruiting Stats and Data

For employer branding:

• Facebook - Facebook Insights will give you all of the information that you need about Clicks, Shares, Likes, and Followers for your Company Facebook Page.

• Twitter - Twitter Analytics are excellent for finding out all that you need to know to create your report.

• LinkedIn Analytics for Business - LinkedIn’s analytics tool (located near the “Home” link on your LI business page) is nowhere near as insightful as those you’ll get from Facebook or Twitter, but it’s still the best/only tool out there for LinkedIn.

• Google+ Insights - Google does a lovely job with their analytics tool and provides a simple, easy to read ‘audience overview’.

For recruiting:

This can be a little trickier!

You will either need to use an ATS that provides you with tracking, so that you can see where applicants come from, or use a social recruiting tool that provides you with the data you want to track.

Jobcast is just one of those social recruiting tools. It provides you with reporting that will show where your job views, applications, and hires are coming from. Jobcast’s reporting can also be used to see just how much traffic your social recruitment efforts are driving.

Creating Your Social Recruiting Report

Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ allow you to export all of your data to a CSV file.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google+ requires a bit more than just clicking an export button to download your data.

This article explains how to download data from Google+ Insights.

Unfortunately with LinkedIn, you will have to create a CSV or Excel sheet manually!

For recruiting, getting the data will depend on the ATS or platform that you use for your social recruitment.

Once your data is ready to use, you’ll need to choose a presentation tool.

You can use Google Docs or Excel to build your social recruiting report, but I would recommend taking advantage of some of the amazing visualization tools available to you.

My favourite tool is Piktochart, as it is pretty easy to use and you can import data from Google Spreadsheets. You can even splurge and upgrade to a pro account to gain access to some excellent social media reporting templates.

Here’s an example of what a social recruiting report can look like with Piktochart.

Make sure to write a quick brief that explains the findings in your report. Explain the trends you see and speculate on why you think you’re getting those results.

After this summary is written, it’s time to lay out what your goals are for the future, and what you’ll need going forward to accomplish those goals.

Use the numbers presented in your report to develop actionable paths to these goals and to prove the ROI on what you’ve done so far.

What tools do you use to make reports? Let us know in the comments!

69% of job seekers would not take a job at a company with a poor employer brand. (Source)

Millennials value a workplace culture-fit more than any generation before them.

And, every year, more candidates turn to social media to assess potential employers and to look for work.

Companies cannot reach today’s candidates without creating a strong, visible employer brand, engaging job seekers on social media, and selling the heck out of their culture.

In short, companies need to start marketing themselves to potential hires if they want to win the war for talent.

The key to marketing is connecting with your audience. To do this with job seekers, you will need to engage them on a personal level, at the right time, and with the right message.

In this article you’ll learn how to create a social recruiting marketing plan that will help you achieve that goal.

Step 1: Create a candidate persona

Before you can even begin to connect with your audience, you need to know who they are.

Do not confuse this step with knowing what you want in an employee!

Understanding your audience is not the same as knowing what qualifications or skills they should have on their resume.

In marketing, this is called creating a customer persona. For recruiting, we’ll just replace the word ‘customer’ with ‘candidate’.

Good marketers study their audience to learn their behaviors and understand their attitudes. They use this information to build comprehensive profiles that detail their customer’s wants, their everyday problems, and their needs.

To create a candidate persona ask yourself:

• What is your candidate's goal?

• What perks matter most to them?

• What motivates them?

• What social networks do they use?

Personally, I like to use a tool called personapp for this, but a pen and paper will work too!

Once you create your candidate persona for your ideal candidate, you can use it to target them with (recruitment) content marketing and your employer branding.

Which brings us to step 2…

Step 2: Perfect your employer brand

Your employer brand is vital for reaching candidates.

Investing in employer brand is shown to cut back employee turnover by a third. A robust employer brand can reduce cost per hire by 50%, and poor employer branding will cut your application volume in half.

In marketing, branding defines the company and how others feel about the company.

In recruiting, employer branding defines your company culture and how job seekers will feel about you as a potential employer.

To create a strong employer brand you must share your company’s story in an authentic way. Your values and culture must shine through in every aspect of your branding.

Your branding should be consistent no matter the medium. From job post to Facebook Page, your message must be clear and cohesive.

Job seekers should feel as though they are getting an inside look at what it’s like to work at your company. Your brand should inspire confidence and trust in them, so that they feel confident that your company is a good place to be.

And remember to always keep your candidate persona in mind when coming up with employer branding ideas.

Step 3: Content Marketing

Content is the core of marketing.

Building your employer brand depends on the content you create, not just on how you promote it.

Content marketing is key to getting job seekers’ attention and building a strong audience. Content is what drives traffic to your career site, gives candidate a positive impression of your company culture, and converts job seekers into applicants.

Remember to use the candidate persona you created when coming up with content ideas.

Think hard about the kind of information that would appeal to your candidate persona and use that to help shape your content.

Share job search tips from a hiring manager’s perspective, career advice, industry news and other articles that will appeal to your audience. Asking current employees about what they would want to see is a great way to get ideas about what to post.

Here are 11 content ideas for social recruiting

Step 4: Get Your Message Out There

This is where social media really comes in handy!

Use social to reach job seekers with your employer brand and new content.

Your customer persona will help you decide which networks to use, and what hashtags will get your posts the most engagement.

Set up a social media schedule and start sharing your jobs, blog posts, videos, and all your other content.

Don’t forget to also share content from other sources, and to engage with your community regularly to keep your social media presence social and not spammy!

Another great way to get your content out there is to contact popular bloggers that your desired candidate is likely to read, and then see if they will publish some of your best content.

Make sure to leverage your team’s social media presence by asking them to share, like, and comment on your posts.

To free up more time, so can better engage with your audience, consider using a social recruiting automation tool like Jobcast.

Step 5: Measure Results

Marketers know that they have to be constantly improving if they want to succeed. They also know that the best way to improve is to know exactly where they’re going wrong and what they’re doing right.

The same is true for social recruiting.

Track engagement and application volume for each campaign that you run. Use the information that you gather to determine what’s working for you and what isn’t. Then make decisions moving forward based on that knowledge.

Well, that’s five concrete, actionable steps that will help you move forward with your social recruiting efforts. We wish you the best of luck, and encourage you to get in touch to let us know what has worked for you.

Happy planning!

Did you know that 93% of marketers are using social media? And the same goes (give or take one percentage point) for recruiter, which makes sense, considering that social media has proven to be an effective tool for both hiring and marketing.

However, of the huge percentage of companies using social media, many focus their attention on a single network and either exclude or neglect the rest.

If this sounds like you, then you may want to rethink your strategy!

Here’s why using multiple social networks is better than one.

1) You’ll Reach More of Your Audience

While Facebook may be the most popular social network out there, Twitter and LinkedIn are also very popular with job seekers.

Chances are, many of the candidates that you want to reach keep their Facebook account totally private or (gasp!) don’t have a Facebook account at all. Having a presence on other social networks is the only way to reach them.

There’s also the fact that, according to Pew research, more people use multiple social networks than use only one. And the number of multi-network users has steadily risen over the last few years. So, you are far more likely to get your message heard through the internet noise when you target job seekers through multiple channels.

2) You’ll Get Better Search Engine Rankings

The more quality content that you have online that points to your career site, the better your site is going to rank. Social media plays a huge role in this, because the content that you share on social networks points back at your career site, and thus will help boost your rankings. The high page rank influence of sites like Facebook and Twitter will help improve your SEO when you focus on promoting your talent brand, company name, and job posts out to multiple sites.

3) Your Competitors are Already There

Social recruiting is extremely popular and, as its star continues to rise, more and more companies are using multiple social networks to reach top talent.

It is definitely worth investigating how your competitors are using social media, and to discover what they are doing that works, and what they are doing that does not.

That last point is not to be ignored!

Just because your competitors are on Pinterest, doesn’t mean it’s doing them any good. So pay close attention to what they are doing and use them as a case study for which networks to use and which to skip.

Instead of letting them reap all of the benefits and potential applicants that you could be getting, adapt your strategy to target all of the networks that are getting them results.

Learn more about how to spy on your competitors’ social recruiting strategy.

Which brings me to my last point.

Multi-channel social recruiting is more effective than focusing on a single social media channel, but that doesn’t mean you should use every platform available.

I recommend starting with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and then, once you’ve mastered those, try experimenting with different networks like YouTube or Instagram and see what works for you!

We’re always curious as to how you balance multi-channel recruiting. Let us know in the comments.

Do the images that you share on social media stand out?

Are they unique, bold… effective?

Creating and sharing clever image-based content can engage your audience on a personal level because people have a stronger emotional response when they are shown instead of told. 

The more job seekers relate to you and your company, the more likely they are to want to work for your company. In this article you’ll learn 4 ways to connect with job seekers using social media images.

#1: Share Your Knowledge With Infographics

The human brain processes visual content 60,000 times more quickly than text, which is probably why we love infographics so much. Infographics allow you to communicate large chunks of information in a captivating and social media friendly way.

For example, this infographic on the nitty gritty of resume formatting by Resume Templates 101 works as both an excellent tool for job seekers and a way for the company to get their name and brand out there.

To make a compelling infographic for social recruiting, you’ll want to pick a topic that you know well and will be of interest to your desired candidates, use some great stats and charts, and conclude with call to action encouraging them to check out your open jobs.

#2: Use Behind-the-Scenes Shots to Show Company Culture

Job seekers see your logo on their social media feed and maybe they’ve even had a look at your Career Site, but there’s so much they still don’t know about your company culture.

How exactly do you treat your team? What office antics go on behind the scenes? Who are their potential new colleagues and what are they like?!

Give job seekers a glimpse of the people and culture that make your company a great place to work with candid images and behind-the-scenes pictures from your company.

This helps candidates to better visualize your talent brand, so they can better connect with your company culture on a personal level.

#3: Action Shots

Invite Jean-Claude Van Damme to your next staff party and take a ton of photos then post them on Instagram!

Just kidding… Unless this is something that you can actually pull of and then by all means go for it!

But in all seriousness, action shots spark the imagination and encourage engagement in a major way.

Use this to your advantage.

When deciding what photos to use, whether stock imagery or photos of your employees, try to select images that suggest movement to spark job seekers imagination.

#4: Just Add Quotes

Quotes layered over photos are an engagement double threat.

You capture your audience’s attention with the image and then get them to slow down a bit and reflect with the quote so that they spend more time with your content.

First choose a quote that will resonate with your desired candidates and represent your company’s values. Then carefully style your post so that both the image and quotation font are cohesive with each other and your brand.

With focus and intention, your images can elevate your social recruiting content to a whole new level! To take it even further, try out Jobcast’s latest feature, Job Cards.

Job Cards allow you to attach images and video to the job posts you share on social networks. Learn more about Job Cards here.

Effective social recruiting looks a lot like content marketing.

An interesting mix of content is what prompts people to follow, Like, and share on social networks. Whether you’re using social to sell sneakers, timeshares, or the latest job opening at your company, follows, Likes, and shares are what will get you the sale.

Companies need to create engaging, targeted content that markets their jobs and employer brand to candidates to accompany their job ads.

The best mix for social recruiting is to post 4 other types of content for every one job posted.

Coming up with different kinds content is one of the toughest aspects of social recruiting… Or social media marketing of any kind.

If you don’t have a Nike sized budget, or a team of creatives at your disposal, content creating can be daunting.

But it doesn’t have to be!

Here are a few ideas for creating social media posts that convert job seekers into applicants.

Employee Profiles

Coworkers matter. We all want to work with people that we like and respect and yet the social aspects of work are very rarely addressed during the recruitment and hiring process.

This is what makes employee profiles such an excellent marketing tool!

Posting images or video of employees talking about their work, their hobbies, even their pets is a great way to show job seekers what an awesome bunch of people they’ll be working with.

How to create employee profiles to grow your employer brand

Company Updates

Posting positive updates and news about what’s happening at your company is a nice way to show off a little.

Employees want to feel proud of the place that they work (especially millennials), so sharing news about awards, innovations, new products, or collaborations is an excellent way to sell job seekers on your company.

Advice for Getting Hired at Your Company

Share tips and insider advice for how to get hired at your company.

Marketers like to talk a lot about content that “adds value” and posts like this are a perfect example of this.

You add value for the job seeker by showing them how to apply and/or interview more effectively and helping them land the job that they’re after.

You add value for your company and your HR team by teaching applicants how you want them to apply and what skills/traits they should highlight.

Cool Stuff About Your Industry

Use apps like Swayy or Buzzsumo to find interesting news about your industry that you can share on your social networks.

Try to share links with a (very) short write up with your thoughts on the subject and a nice accompanying image. If you’re posting to Twitter then always include a relevant hashtag!

Community Outreach and Charity

Posts about the positive things that your company and employees do for the local or global community make for great social recruiting content.

Share stories about your employees participation in charitable events, how your company gives back to the community, or the charitable giving that your organization does.

Day in the Life at Your Company

Job seekers are dying to know what it’s like to work at your company, so show them!

You can follow an employee and create a post based on the highlights of their work day, ask employees to write short paragraphs about their day, or create a video that explores your office.

This Apple recruiting video shows candidates what it’s like to work on developing a new product at Apple:

Apple Recruiter Video

Tour Your Office

Along the same lines as day in the life posts, sharing images or video of your office space is another excellent way to peak job seekers’ interest.

When putting together this kind of post it’s important to make your workplace look nice, but to stay honest.

It may be tempting to hide all the clutter, or only show the nicest offices, but you need to give candidates realistic impression because you don’t want to set them up for disappointment!

Employee Stories

Human interest stories rule social media and luckily for you, you have a lot of humans to draw on for finding this kind of story.

Reach out to staff and ask them if they have anything fun or interesting going on that they’d like to share.

An employee’s stand up comedy hobby, recent marathon participation, or even their amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe are all excellent fodder for a social recruiting post.

Parties and Staff Events

My husband’s company recently took their entire team for a boat tour of Amsterdam’s canals followed by dinner at a super hip restaurant that used to be a pirate radio station back in the 60’s.

The photos and video they took or their staff party would make any millennial clamour for a job with his company!

Even if your staff events aren’t pulled from the pages of Kinfolk magazine, they are still an excellent way to connect on a personal level with job seekers.

Perks

Game rooms, snacks, flexible work spaces and hours, all of these perks can be a part of your social recruiting strategy.

Let’s use flexible work as an example.

Share your own, or another employee’s pic of how they work when they’re not in office. Add a message explaining the post, that you’re hiring, and even a link to an open job.

You’ll also want to add some relevant hashtags if you’re sharing to Twitter such as #hiring, #startup, or #jobs.

Here’s one that I made for us (we’re not currently hiring otherwise I would have included a check out our latest jobs CTA and #hiring for sure!)

Quotes, Kittens, and Memes

Last, but not least share fun stuff! Inspirational quotes, fun pictures, and silly memes may not seem all that relevant, but this kind of content is the backbone of social media!

My favourite way to create posts that fall into this category is to use Buffer’s Pablo app to layer a fun quote on top of a gorgeous image. Works every time 😀

I hope this list provides you with the inspiration that you need to keep your social recruiting content fun!

When researching how to help our users boost engagement for their social recruiting, the most obvious answer was more visual content.

It’s been shown that content which includes images or video gets more engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

So, you’re interested in making your social recruiting visual, how do you go about it. “Social recruiting isn’t an Instagram-ready field, like interior design or fashion!”, you lament.

“How can we best create visual content for social recruitment?”

“How can we make sure that every job post, or piece of employer brand content, that we share is visually-optimized?”

These are great questions. I like your gusto. Let me help.

Here are some of the best practices that we’ve dug out with our research. I can show you how any talent brand — no matter the niche or visual orientation — can succeed in creating gorgeous images for social recruiting.

1. Add a cover image to longform content

One thing that every longform post has, no matter the niche or topic, is a headline.

A headline is a visual element just waiting to happen.

Spinning a catchy headline into a graphical element is a commonplace tactic. It’s a tactic you’ll find on most blogs, but also on career sites like this excellent website from Manpower.

We try to create these for Jobcast blog posts, too.

To make our title images, we use a headline or sub-headline, combined with a stock image. You can also choose to include your company logo to really highlight your brand.

You can mix together a number of different elements to come up with yours:

Another consideration is size.

We build our these images at a 2:1 aspect ratio, which is excellent for both Twitter and Facebook.

2. Build an infographic

One of the most popular types of visual content is the infographic.

Check out our infographics here.

Infographics work across a huge number of topics and niches, and are a wonderful way to communicate with candidates in a fun, engaging way.

So how do you go about building an infographic for your content?

There are plenty of great apps, with more arriving by the day, which can help you build out a stunning visual narrative.

My favourite by far is Piktochart, but Infogr.am, Visual.ly, Easel.ly, and Venngage are some other options you may want to try.

3. Get quotable:

There are so many wonderful quotes out there that you can use to make engaging content to highlight your employer brand.

Remember though, you don’t necessarily have to use quotes from famous people! Quotes from team leaders or team members can even be better.

Ask employees for a nice little soundbite about why they love working for your company and turn it into a lovely visual with a program like Photoshop, or an app like Pablo.

I love using Pablo as it’s super easy and totally free.

Here’s how:

1. Copy and paste your quote into Pablo’s text box.

2. Add a byline or a logo to the image

3. Choose the font you like best

4. Choose a background image (you can even blur the image to emphasize the text more)

5. Download, so you can attach it to job posts or on your company site, or share immediately to your social networks.

Summary

Any brand — visual or not — can create amazing, image-based social recruiting content.

We’re working hard to help our users do this with Jobcast. Case in point, we recently added a new feature called job cards. Job cards allow our users to attach photos and video to their job posts. We do provide a gallery of lovely images that our users can tap into (which is awesome), but using custom images is always better.

And now that you’re a whiz with all the above tips, custom images are a snap!

Now, more than ever, there’s no reason not to get visual. Tell us about your aesthetic wins (and bungles) in the comments below.

Jobcast finally got a makeover.

It took a lot longer than we would have like, as these things always do, but the end result is a social recruitment platform ready for 2016.

When was the last time your HR department got a makeover?

In the last five years, the labour market has done a 180, going from an employer’s paradise to one that is candidate-driven. Millennials have taken over the workforce and HR Tech is actually user-friendly (well, friendlier at least!)

Candidates are starting their job search on Google, watching YouTube videos as a favorite way to learn about potential employers, then using their smartphones to share and apply for jobs.

Your HR department can’t afford to look like it did 10 years ago!

Here are 5 ways that you can bring your recruiting into the 21st century.

Focus on Social Media Collaboration

Social media collaboration is critical because:

• Social recruiting must involve the company as a whole.

• It helps break down the walls between marketing and HR.

• It keeps your brand message unified and on target.

HR needs to take ownership of social media and employer brand, but to do this they must focus on collaborating with marketing to create a consistent message.

By appointing a social recruiting lead who can bridge the gap between HR and marketing, you’ll facilitate dialogue and progress.

Take Charge of Your Talent Analytics

Everyone is always talking about the power of data, but very few actually mine and use the data available to them.

Big Data is great for determining your target audience, deciding how best to reach them, and running large surveys about employee performance, turnover rates, and skills development.

For this kind of data, which is very valuable, you may want to consider hiring a data analyst.

But don’t forget about the small data!

You can track a smaller group of your best performers using a simple Excel spreadsheet or Google Doc and then use that data to help inform your recruiting.

Try putting together a survey with the goal of learning more about what attracted these employees to your company, what social networks they use, and what makes them ss good at what they do.

Then USE the data!

Let the information that you uncover dictate where you look for new employees, how your job descriptions are written, and which aspects of your company culture you choose to highlight.

Start analyzing the data, act on your findings, and start seeing real results.

Make Your Application Process Mobile

Here’s why:

• 72% of active candidates say they have viewed a company career site on their mobile device.

• 30% of mobile users abandon sites after 6-10 seconds if they are not mobile-friendly.

• For 27% of millennial candidates, a career site is not considered ‘mobile-friendly’ unless they can complete the entire application process on their phone.

Can job seekers apply for your jobs via mobile? Can they easily navigate your career site on their tablet? Can they share your career site with a friend from their phone?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you need to reassess your mobile recruitment strategy.

Make Your Recruiting Pretty

Job seekers are way more likely to engage with and share your job posts with their peers if they include a nice image.

So, please make photos and pictures an integral part of your recruiting.

There are so many tools available to you:

• Pablo by Buffer

  allows you to create a simple shareable image in 30 seconds.

• Canva

  is great for making more detailed images and playing with text designs.

• Job cards by Jobcast automatically attach stunning images to your social media job postings.

Your career site, and the application process in general, should also be visually appealing, as job seekers will judge your company based on its cover!

So pay attention to the look and feel of your website and ensure that design plays a deciding role in which recruitment software you choose to use.

Stop Wasting Your Precious Time

Sharing a job post to multiple social networks manually takes more than just the click of a button.

You have to format the job post for each different network, set up the posts to share on each of these networks, add images to each post, and then share them at different times throughout the day depending on that network’s optimal share-time.

If you want to reach your audience on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, then this process can take up to three hours per job. So, 10 jobs per month could cost you up to 30 man hours.

Automating this process with Jobcast takes no time. Really.

Okay, not really, it does take about 10 minutes to set up.  

But after the initial setup, you’re done.

We’ve brought Jobcast into the 21st century, mostly in response to our fantastic users and their suggestions. I hope that the suggestions in this article will help you do the same.

Labor Day means two things to North Americans: a day off and the end of summer.

Oh, and it’s also a day set aside to pay tribute to working women and men, hence the name labor day.

A tradition started by labour unions in New York back in 1892 with a parade, Labor Day is now a national holiday in both Canada and the United States.

We celebrate the holiday with barbecues, sparklers, and blog posts.

Blog posts like this one!

In honour of Labor Day, here are my favourite articles and podcasts about the future of work.

Three Scenarios For The Future Of Work - Jacob Morgan @jacobm

In this article/infographic Jacob explains the concept PWC researchers created around three potential worlds of work we could inhabit in the future.

How the Future of Work May Make Many of Us Happier - Anne-Marie Slaughter

This article describes the future of work as “a dramatically different economy in which most workers will be independent contractors. Freelancers will work on demand for whoever needs their services rather than for fixed periods of time for a single employer.” It also explains some of the positive benefits an economy like this would bring with it.

How Freelancers are Fighting for Their Labor Rights - Dillon Baker

But flexible work isn’t all PJs, cappuccinos, and MacBooks.

Dillon reports on the many frustrations currently facing the growing freelance community.

A tax system that punishes the self-employed—which some classify as double taxing. Little to no benefits, exploitative contracts, and not getting paid for work done and delivered.

In his article, Freelancers Union founder and labor lawyer Sara Horowitz is quoted as saying that nearly half (44%) of their members report issues in getting paid.

Hard Work Is Irrelevant - Planet Money

This podcast is fantastic! It’s about how Patty McCord helped create a workplace at Netflix that runs more like a professional sports team than a family. If you're not up to scratch, you're off the team.

I know it sounds a little harsh, but personally I do think that this would be a bright and productive future.

NUMMI 2015 - This American Life

Another podcast for the list for your future work commute.

This American Life’s piece about the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. is one of their most celebrated works.

“In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. But today, GM cars still don't have the quality of Japanese imports. GM went bankrupt. And in 2010 NUMMI was closed, sending thousands of car workers looking for jobs.”

No matter what you think the future of work is, this podcast shows just how important it is to adapt to that future.

Happy Labor Day!

Pinning Facebook Posts is an incredibly useful aspect of Facebook your profile.

Along with the basics like your profile picture, cover image and customized tabs, pinned Posts offer an awesome opportunity for branding.

Pinned Facebook Posts live at the very top of your Page’s Timeline and, as such, they are the first piece of content visitors to your Page encounter… If you’re actually using them!

Unfortunately, pinned Posts are often overlooked. Many of the Jobcast users I speak with don’t even know that the feature exists.

Pinning Facebook posts will help you get more ROI and better reach for your most important content. The results you’ll see will depend on what you want to measure, but there’s no doubt: pinning tweets should be something you add to your Facebook strategy, today.

You can pin any Facebook post that you want and it will instantly move to the top of your Timeline and stay there for 7 days or until you pin a new post.

How to pin a post

Quick note, you’ll need to be an admin or editor to pin Page Posts.

1. Go to the post on your Page’s Timeline.

2. Hover over the top-right corner of the post and click the dropdown arrow

3. Select Pin to Top.

Your pinned post will move to the top of your Page’s Timeline and a small yellow icon will appear on the top-right corner of the post.

Your post will stay pinned to the top of your Page’s Timeline for 7 days. After that, it will return to the date it was published on your Page’s Timeline.

Keep in mind that you can only pin Posts created by your Page.

You can’t pin Posts that other people add to your Page’s Timeline and you can’t pin Posts to your personal Timeline.

Pinned Posts are not re-shared so they will not reappear in anyone’s Timeline.

What Posts should you pin to your Facebook Page?

Now that you know how to pin here are a few ideas for what you should pin.

What you pin will depend on the main goals of your company’s Facebook Page.

If your Page is specifically geared towards hiring then you may want to focus on promoting your Career Site or specific job openings.

If your company Facebook Page is used by multiple departments then you’ll need to incorporate a variety of different content into your pinned posts and may want to keep your social recruitment posts focused on promoting your employer brand rather than specific jobs.

Here are some specific types of Posts that you can pin:

• Job openings that you need filled right away

• A link to your Facebook Career Site

• Current job listings

• On-going job posts, the ones you always need filled

• Recruitment videos

• Current and on-going promotions

• Time-sensitive campaigns

• Top performing content

• Photos or video from recent company events

• Important company announcements

• Information about upcoming events

My number one recommendation for Pages dedicated to Facebook recruiting is to create a post that advertises your Facebook Career Site and pin it to the top of your Timeline.

In this post, you’ll want to include a nice image, a clear call to action, and a link to your Facebook Career Site.

Here’s how to create a Facebook Post that advertises your Jobcast Career Site.

No matter what you choose to pin, remember to think about why your company is using Facebook and make sure that what you post is in line with your goals!