Samara Parker

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Just don't go making any copy-right infringements and pointing at me when you get in trouble...

Moving right along. When it comes to social recruiting, there really is no better way to learn than by observation. Sure, tutorials and webinars are great; you'll learn the basics, the technical stuff, the rules, but it's not the same as seeing a great social recruiting strategy at work in the real world.

Observing a company’s employer branding and Facebook recruiting firsthand gives you a much better idea of what a good campaign looks like as a whole. An example lets you see the bigger picture, unlike most tutorials that simply explain all the specific parts of Facebook recruiting.

We recently interviewed Jessica Slusar, the “People Solutions Specialist” for Earls Restaurant about how the chain has been so successful with their employer branding and social recruiting. Her candid advice can be applied by any employer or recruiter looking to improve or even just start using social media and Facebook. Earls Wants You is a fantastic example to learn from... but a few more great examples can't hurt!

Today’s Link Love will showcase a range of different Facebook Employer and Career Pages. From tech, to retail, to construction, each of these companies is looking for a completely different kind of candidate, but all of them are using Facebook effectively to accomplish their goal.

Corporate and Upscale

The Corporate Recruiters Facebook Career Page screams professional. Their logo is large and in charge, and they've used bright yellow to make it stand out against a backdrop of grey to keep things classy. They also have a great recruiting video alongside their job postings. Of course recruiters would know how to make a super slick Career Page! If your employer branding is more business than casual Corporate Recruiters are a great source of inspiration.

Quirky and Fun

Esquel Group's Facebook Career Page is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Corporate Recruiters. Absolutely nothing about their Page says corporate, and this is a good thing as they are an apparel company!

What makes Esquel Group stand out is their decision to highlight company culture in a wonderfully quirky way. Their color scheme is bright and fun. Their banner shows employees looking smiley, and holding signs expressing what they love about working for Esquel. They also put up tons of fun pictures from company events. This is all great social proof for potential hires that Esquel is a great company to work for.

Young and Hip

VMInnovations Career Page is cool. Their Employer Branding portrays the company as forward thinking, and makes it clear that they are looking to hire people who fit that description as well. They are extremely direct in the way that they deliver their recruiting message:

"The only thing you will regret is that you didn’t join our team sooner!"

Which is perfect for targeting the type of candidates they are looking for. This message is consistant throughout their branding, but is most apparent from their choice of images and wording. Check 'em out!

Stability and Legacy

In contrast to VMI, PCL Construction's Facebook Career Page highlights the stability, family values, and long-term benefits their company has to offer. They do so with their imagery, but even more importantly in their profile write-up, which is heartfelt and well written. There message is a perfect way to appeal to candidates who are looking for longterm employment, with a company that they can grow with, and an environment that encourages co-workers to become a family, and work together, rather than compete with each other. Their Page is just plain heartwarming!

All four of these companies have done a great job of branding their Career Pages to appeal to the type of candidate they are looking to hire, and to showcase what matters most to them. They are all completely different, but each one is perfect for the company it represents.

To learn more about creating your own Fully Branded Facebook Career Page, check out the Jobcast Recruiting App.

I remember going to Earls restaurant when I was a kid — it was awesome. Back then, there were two huge, brightly colored parrots perched astride the entrance, and a train that circled around overhead while you ate your burger.

It’s still an awesome restaurant, but it’s nothing like the one I visited as a kid.

Not only does the award-winning restaurant chain now have 60 plus locations across the US and Canada, but Earls has gone through a major branding pivot that has taken the restaurant from brightly colored parrots to exposed brick gorgeous.

Their re-brand is one of the best I’ve ever seen, and they didn’t just stop at their marketing, menu, and interior design.

Earls has embraced social recruiting wholeheartedly, with a well-designed Facebook Career Page, professional recruiting videos, and an extremely effective Facebook Ads campaign.

This recruiting video by Earls has received over 1,750 unique video plays. It is also an awesome example of effective video recruiting!

We were very lucky to get a chance to chat with Jessica Slusar, Earls’ People Solutions Specialist, about Facebook recruiting, employer branding, and what advice she would give other employers looking to get social.

To preface the interview, we’d like to first share Earls’ employer brand philosophy:

“Great guest experiences begin with great partner experiences … At Earls, our people are our most important resource in delivering irresistible food and engaging experiences that build relationships for life.

By practicing the principles of integrity, authenticity, commitment to a cause greater than oneself, and being cause in the matter, we nurture, challenge and reward talent for the benefit of the individual and Earls, People Grow Here.”

This emphasis on finding amazing employees is made apparent through the attention to detail they’ve paid to their social recruiting strategy.

Jobcast: What spurred Earls to start using social media for recruiting?

Jessica Slusar: We realized that this was, and is, quickly becoming the new reality for recruiting. Traditional job boards and career sites are no longer the most effective avenue for getting your “we are hiring” message out there. We also noticed through our research, that very few restaurant concepts have devoted a full social platform to just recruiting. What we see most is that companies are using their corporate sites and pages to push out job postings, so we felt that if we started up social platforms that were solely devoted to recruiting, that would make us stand out. Everyone is mobile and has a device or tablet that they are attached to, so what better way to get them to hear about us then on social media, because we all know that we are all on it everyday.

Jobcast: Which social recruiting sites does Earls use for recruiting?

Jessica: We use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram currently.

Jobcast: Facebook is obviously a huge focus for Earls’ social recruiting. What makes Facebook recruiting so appealing?

Jessica: Facebook is nice because we have more than just 140 characters to work with. This was a big draw for us, because we have more space to tell stories. Our philosophy of “People Grow Here” (i.e. the development and career trajectory we offer at Earls) is one of many things that make us unique and we like to tell those stories with text, pictures and video.

Also, the fact that we can build photo albums (e.g. our Earls Experience Recognition Gala, US East Coast expansion plans) means we can keep people up to date on what’s going on. We know our people like to be in the loop! And what we have found, is that our fans and followers tend to engage more with visuals and familiar language. They see their friends liking it, they share it, comment etc.

Lastly, when we get into launching targeted campaigns, FB is a great tool to utilize for drilling down and reaching our target audience (who we want to reach) with each of our custom posts.

Jobcast: Have you found Facebook Ads to be an effective way to increase applications?

Jessica: Facebook ads have been an extremely effective way to bring awareness, interaction and engagement to our page. We are unique in how we recruit (for example, we don’t have candidates submit applications via a career website). Instead, we direct them to our Earls Wants You career website so they can download an application and find their nearest Earls location to apply to in person. We want to make a genuine and authentic connection with each of our partners and we feel that by meeting with them face to face we form a unique relationship from the initial interaction.

Jobcast: How has the targeted nature of Facebook Ads affected the quality of the applications you receive?

Jessica: Facebook Ads are fantastic for reaching our key partner demographic, starting from the high school grad getting their first job with no experience, to an experienced hospitality veteran looking for a change. It’s also great in challenging and emerging labor markets like Calgary and the US.

Jobcast: Were there any obstacles or roadblocks you had to overcome when transitioning from typical recruiting methods to Social and Facebook recruiting?

Jessica: What we noticed is that we couldn’t just keep doing what we had done with typical job boards. We needed to find a way to take the traditional job ad and role description and shrink it down to something cool, catchy and relevant. Now, we really think about the content we send out, making sure we add value to our followers feeds while still accomplishing our ultimate goal of getting people in the door to apply. There was a lot of trial and error, test campaigns, and strategy adjustments halfway through. Being flexible and changing it up is how we have started to see some of our successes.

Jobcast: Can you share a few of your Facebook recruiting successes?

Jessica: We found that enlisting our existing partners and leaders in spreading our messages was the first step to success. Word of mouth is a powerful message, so we got our existing partners to start Liking, sharing and talking about Earls Wants You on social, which helped articulate who we are and why we are different.

The second thing we did was research and learn from the success stories out there. We started following and talking with brands that were executing their social recruiting presence well. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Third, successful social platforms take a lot of time, so the huge win for us was partnering with a company that offered a breadth of social expertise (the Jobcast Recruiting App). Our first campaign was just a test run in Calgary and Edmonton (Alberta is a notoriously tough labor market) and we thought that if we could achieve reach, interaction, and engagement from a targeted campaign in challenging locations, then we could see future success in our other regions.

Jobcast: What tips can you offer other companies looking to get started with Facebook recruiting?

Jessica: Initially, do your research and start following, watching, and learning from other successful brands that do it well.

Once you’ve gotten started, establish what your brand is, what your message is, and what makes you unique and engaging to your followers. Recognizing what is valuable information for your followers is critical for brand perception and long-term engagement. You want to offer value to every potential partner.

Jobcast: Earls has an amazing brand on and off-line. How did you manage to transition your brick and mortar branding to Facebook so well?

Jessica: For Earls, we are genuine and authentic in our relationships. How we show up in person is how we should show up online. So we took our Earls Experience, Partner values, mission and vision, how every partner and leader in the entire company functions every day, and brought it online. We wanted to show a glimpse of what they can expect to see when they walk into our restaurant. By telling stories, sharing partner profiles, images, videos and the passion for what we do it adds that level of personal connection for our followers, fans, alumni and potential candidates.

Jobcast: What does Facebook offer your brand that other mediums don’t?

Jessica: The great thing about social media and FB is that we can reach candidates all the time. Unlike traditional job boards that are successful for the active candidate that is pursuing the search, social media helps to reach that passive candidate in a subtle, non-invasive way. By posting great stories, pics, videos and job information, we splash across candidate’s news feeds as many times as they check their phone. It’s proactive vs. reactive.

Jobcast: What advice would you have for other companies looking to improve their Facebook employer branding?

Jessica: Don’t just push out job openings… it’s boring. Engage with your followers and fans, build relationships — that’s what social media is all about. Stay fun, fresh, cool and relevant. Always keep learning and evolving your strategy.

Jobcast: What makes Earls a great place to work? What should potential employees know about the Earls’ company culture?

Jessica:

• People Grow Here, you will see this in a lot of our posts and it’s true. We can take someone with very little, to no experience, and provide them with all the training and tools they need to become successful in whichever role they are in. There are so many great examples across our company of partners who have started as hostesses and dishwashers and are now President and GM and Chef.

• We have Soul — as I have mentioned before, we are all about genuine and authentic connections and building lifelong relationships, with each other, our partners and our guests.

• Your opportunity is limitless — there are so many exciting things happening with Earls right now and the sky is the limit for our people. We are expanding to new markets in the US, so there are so many opportunities for movement and growth and development.

• We have passion for what we do and why we do it — we deliver irresistible food and drink, and engaging experiences, and have a whole lot of fun while we do it.

Jobcast: Company culture is a huge part of the Earls brand. Could you share some tips for other employers looking to show off their company culture on Facebook?

Jessica: Be real, be authentic and engaging. Don’t try to be something that you aren’t.

We couldn’t sum up the essence of Earls’ employer brand any better ourselves… that’s why Jessica is the specialist! We want to thank Jessica Slusar and Earls for answering all of our questions and being such a great company to work with.

For some incredible Facebook recruiting inspiration, check out the Earls Wants You Facebook Career Page — it’s truly fantastic. And don’t forget to check out how the Jobcast Enterprise plan can take your Facebook recruiting to the next level.

August is officially half way over. Summer is coming to a close.

But rather than mourn the fact that there are only four weeks left of backyard BBQs and adorable, pint-sized salespeople hawking lemonade at every corner, let's celebrate the time we do have.

No, not by going to the beach, or working on our tans, but by recapping some of the best articles and Facebook recruiting tools to have come out this summer.

So unwrap a popsicle, grab your laptop, and plunk yourself down on the closest beach blanket you can find. Well, the closest beach blanket you can find with access to wifi that is!

Coolest new(ish) tool for social recruiting

Facebook Graph Search hands down! Because it gives recruiters and employers the ability to access the information people share with Facebook, in order to connect with passive candidates. Graph Search rolled out a while back, but is only now becoming truly effective for recruiting as the Facebook team successfully encourages users to share their details, and have made it universally available.

Blog post that taught the most

So technically this post came out in Spring, but I think we can overlook that, considering its awesomeness. China Gorman's "Data Point Tuesday" features are some of the most informative articles online. In this particular piece, she breaks down survey data on social recruiting from SHRM. What makes these posts different from most of the info you'll find on the internet is China's ability to explain what the statistics mean, why they matter, and also to pose thoughtful questions about what the information will mean for the future of recruiting.

Hottest Infographic

This Infographic on social media demographics is hot in more of a librarian kind of way... but the brain is the sexiest body part right?!? The imagery may not be as flashy as some of the Infographics floating around the web, but the information is relevant and clear. We're linking to the Leaders West blog post, since Jim Dougherty does a great job of commenting on the information presented.

Facebook feature that is most effective for recruiting

The award goes to (the recently updated) Facebook Ads. If Graph Search is bronzer with sun protection, then Facebook Ads are the 'SPF 50 long lasting'. Facebook Ads are definitely less shiny, but are waaaaay more effective. We've found that, for our clients, the use of targeted Facebook Ads is the best ways to increase applications from qualified candidates. No contest. The newest incarnation of FB Ads provides better targeting and analytics. Here's an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to use Facebook Ads for recruiting.

Best way to recruit on Facebook

Okay, so it's pretty obvious what I'm going to say for this one! The Jobcast Facebook recruiting app. Best app ever. What may be new to some of you is the recent addition of Jobcast Enterprise to our plan roster. Enterprise gives you all of the amazing branding, ATS integration and mobile optimization options of our Premium plan.

What makes it so much cooler is, that with Enterprise, we do everything for you. EVERYTHING. This includes creating targeted Facebook Ads. If you want to see an Enterprise client's Career Page in action, check out Earls. In just a month of using Jobcast Enterprise they've increased their Page Likes by 500% and received applications from over 200 qualified candidates. Also, their branding (and burgers) are freaking amazing.

Come to think of it...

I'm getting pretty hungry, I think it's time to wrap this up and go get a burger myself!

Feedback is really really important.

Sometimes it hurts, like when I was told that I simply cannot pull-off maxi dresses without looking like a small child who was let loose in her mother’s wardrobe (thank you, Stephanie). Sometimes feedback blows your mind, like when it was revealed to me that my dead-lift grip was too wide, and I narrowed it, and then I was able to throw an extra 20lbs on the bar (thanks, jacked guy at the gym). And sometimes feedback reminds you that not everyone is on the same wavelength. This is the most constructive kind of feedback you can get, as it gives you a much needed perspective shift, and can help you to better communicate with other people.

I got exactly this kind of feedback last week at the passive recruiting webinar, that we hosted with our pals over at Identified. It came in the form of two questions asked by business owners who were contemplating adding Facebook to their recruiting strategy.

Question 1: Does Facebook recruiting make sense for small businesses?

Question 2: Do employers actually reach candidates through Facebook, what are the numbers?

These questions may seem pretty basic, but for me they were a reminder that not everyone is yet sold on the concept of Facebook recruiting. I know, I know… DUH!

But, hear me out!

While writing for the Jobcast blog, I tend to focus on explaining what makes social recruiting different from traditional recruiting, on giving our clients tips for improving their Facebook recruiting, and, obviously, showing off how awesome the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting app is. (Have you checked out our new Enterprise plan yet? It’s pretty much the best!)

For this reason I’m constantly reading Facebook recruiting stats, assessing how well Facebook recruiting works for our clients, and following social recruiting blogs. Basically, I’m so immersed in the culture of Facebook recruiting, it’s easy to forget that not everyone else is too.

It’s like when someone tells me they don’t like chocolate, or Bruce Willis movies. It does not compute!

But these are really important and reasonable questions for employers to ask. I thought it might be a good idea to answer them on the blog, because, as school teachers love to say, “for every one person asking the question, there’s ten more thinking it.”

My answer to question number one is pretty obvious : YES!!! Facebook recruiting totally works for small businesses.

But, that’s far too simplistic an answer to do anyone a whole lot of good, so let’s look at why Facebook recruiting works well for small businesses :

Facebook recruiting doesn’t take a lot of manpower

You don’t need a huge HR team, you don’t need to hire a social media guru, and you don’t even need to enlist the help of your kids to use Facebook effectively. We have a ton of step-by-step tutorials, complete with screenshots that you, or your HR team, can use to get started. With a Facebook recruiting app, the process is even less time-consuming. Good apps will offer plans that let you sync your Facebook Career Site with your ATS or company career site, so that you only have to post your jobs once.

Facebook recruiting has an extremely low entry cost

Facebook recruiting can fit your budget, no matter what that budget is. In fact, the only cost to getting started with Facebook recruiting is about an hour of your time, even less if you use the basic version of Jobcast. You can create a Page, post jobs, and share content completely free. Then, as your business grows, and your need for qualified hires along with it, you can invest more into your Facebook recruiting strategy and improve your results.

Facebook recruiting has great ROI

The smaller your business, the more important it is to make every investment count. The ROI on Facebook recruiting is boosted by the fact that when you use the social network to recruit for specific positions, you’re also growing your employer brand. This builds social trust, which is beneficial for future campaigns and even marketing. It also helps you build online talent communities to draw on for your future recruiting needs. Jobcast Premium offers you the ability to make a fully-branded Facebook Career Page, complete with a banner, custom color scheme, and embeddable video to make your Page stand out from other employers.

Facebook recruiting is targeted

Facebook let’s you target specific demographics with your job posts, in a way no other social network, or traditional recruiting method does. This is great for smaller businesses, who often find their efforts drowned out by larger-scale recruiting campaigns. The best way to reach the candidates you want is by using Facebook Ads. From what we’ve seen with our clients, Facebook Ads are often the difference between just a few applicants, and a landslide of applications from qualified candidates.

We have a simple guide to targeted recruiting with Facebook Ads, complete with screenshots already on our blog, so you can learn how to make them a part of your recruiting strategy. If, on the other hand, you want someone to do all of that for you… The Jobcast Enterprise plan includes full branding, ATS Integration, and the creation of targeted ads and sponsored stories. We’ll take care of everything.

Example Time!

Another thing I learned from the webinar is that examples are very helpful to everyone, all the time. So, here are some examples of businesses making Facebook recruiting work for them:

Corporate Recruiters use Facebook for their own recruiting! They also have awesome branding.

Esquel Group make their Career Page stand out by showing off their company culture and using video.

VM Innovations have used a great banner and custom color scheme to enhance their Facebook employer brand. They also have great pictures, and video, of employees.

Apparently that tiny little question was actually kind of huge! I will save your eyes and answer question number two next time. It will be a shorter answer, well maybe just a little shorter, or possibly twice as long…

Jobcast out!

PS

If you have any questions about Facebook recruiting, employer branding, or Bruce Willis films ask us in the comments!

This has been quite a week for the Jobcast team. Mostly because Ryan "Our Fearless Leader" St. Germaine hosted the first ever Jobcast sponsored webinar! Ryan shared his in-depth knowledge of passive recruiting live, to a huge turnout of recruiters and employers, hence the nickname. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. And I do. We had such a great time working on this webinar that I'm sure we'll do more of them in the future. Which is pretty amazing when you think about it, as Ryan lives in Vancouver, I live in Holland (most of the time), and there were people in attendance from all over the place. Thank you technology! It's still amazing to me that connecting with people like this is even possible. Technology has really changed our ability to interact on a global scale, engage with each other, and, of course, how we recruit. Always gotta bring it back to recruiting! So, to celebrate our very first webinar, this week's links are all about technology, what's new, what's cool, and what it means for employers. Google Glass is about as new as it gets when it comes to tech, well for me it is anyways... Blogging for Jobs recently posted a great piece about the impact of Google Glass on HR by Mike Haberman. Apparently there are a ton of legal issues that will need to be addressed as Google Glass becomes a more commonly used technology. Mike's got you covered, I'm still trying to understand exactly what Google Glass does?! With great technology comes great responsibility, and a whole lot of data. Chris breaks down how to tackle all that Big Data you've got access to these days. Google Glass may be new and shiny, but the most important area of tech for recruiters to focus on is mobile, without a doubt. But if you did still have some doubts, check out this infographic about the importance of mobile, brought to us by Leader's West. Then there's that old standby of recruiting technology: job boards. They certainly aren't dead, but they're not exactly alive and kicking either. According to Raj Sheth's article for ERE, job boards are just plain boring! Although I would love to point you towards the Job Board Doctor who has quite a few ideas about how to fix that. Our favorite recruiting and employer branding technology for recruiters is, you guessed it, Facebook. Shocking, I know! But what I didn't know was that apparently, according to a recent announcement by the social network itself, over one third of Americans use Facebook every day. That's a huge talent pool right there, just sayin'. And if you want access to all those passive candidates, might I suggest a certain awesome Facebook recruiting app?

There's always something new popping up in the world of tech. If you have any hot tips about what the next new bit of tech that's going to come along and "revolutionize" how we look at recruiting, or you just want to share your opinion, let us know in the comments!

I don't know about you, but summer makes me lazy.

It's hot, the beach is nice, it calls out to me saying “come sit on me, eat a bunch of nachos, then take a siesta… you know you want to!”

That's why I think setting summertime goals is so important.

Sure getting shredded for summer is all well and dandy, but you can't just let it all go as soon as the nice weather arrives!

Setting some goals for your Facebook recruiting will keep you motivated to get things done, and act as a buffer against the beach's siren song.

What kind of goals are we talking about? Well, that's up to you of course, but, because we are all rather bossy and think that we know best, the Jobcast team does have a perfect answer suggestion…

Tighten up your content strategy

Not a very specific goal is it?! Well, let's work on that.

Assess your situation

Before you can make a specific strategic goal, you need to know where you're at. This means looking back over your analytics. If you use Jobcast you can go back over the reports we've sent you, and combine that information with the metrics provided by Facebook Insights. If you don't use the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting App then shame on you! I'm kidding, I'm kidding, you can use the info provided by Facebook Insights alone, or combined with any other reports you may have access to.

(This article explains why metrics are so important for successful Facebook Recruiting, and you should also check out Google Analytics, the basic version is free!)

Go over your reports, and make some notes paying particular attention to what kind of content you've been sharing, how consistent you've been with your posts, when and how many times per day you post, and how often you share image-based content like photos and video.

You should also take note of how your community tends to react to the content you share. Pay attention to what type of content gets the most engagement, what time of day your community is most engaged, and whether you notice any correlation between the frequency of your posts and increases in Likes for your Page.

This information will inform how you determine new goals for your Facebook Recruiting content strategy.

Content, still king

The most obvious area to focus on when it comes to content is, drum roll please… content!

Hopefully your handwriting is a lot nicer than mine, so you can check your notes and figure out what kinds of content gets the most engagement from your community, and what gets the least.

From that information you can set up a content ratio goal. Sounds professional huh? I totally made that term up, but feel free to use it in conversation.

For example, we find our clients get the most engagement from job posts (obviously), and posts that express company culture, especially if they include large-scale images or video.

(Check out this cool Webinar, The 3 Pillars of Passive Recruiting, for more info about setting up content ratios)

The reason it’s so important to share images and video is not just because people tend to engage with visual content more, but also because Facebook gives preference to visual content when determining what makes it onto a user’s News Feed. True fact!

One way to really capitalize on this is by sharing an image, then including any content you want to link to in the commentary section, rather than just sharing a link and selecting an image to accompany it.

“Love knows not what time is.” But your Facebook community does

It's important to post consistently and at the right times if you want your content to be seen. Use any data you might have about previous campaigns and this article about how to schedule your Facebook posts in order to set up a solid posting schedule based on when your Facebook community is most active. Then stick to it!

You must be consistent if you want to increase your reach and grow your Facebook community. Now don't be afraid of all the bold lettering and the word 'must'. I'm not suggesting you post every 15 minute, in fact I would highly recommend you don't! But you do need to maintain a social presence by posting regularly.

You’ll definitely want to use a good scheduling tool so that you don’t have to interrupt your day every few hours to put new content up on your Facebook Career Page. We highly recommend using Jobcast Premium for this purpose… But Hootsuite and Buffer are also totally awesome!

Engage

I'll keep this last one short and sweet. Keep tabs on your Page and respond to comments, shares, and Likes in a timely fashion. A simple thank you or even a smiley face emoticon is usually enough to make people feel heard. Make sure to answer your community member’s questions, and always stay positive.

Alright, so that’s actually quite a few suggestions! But, honestly, I probably could have rambled on for twice as long, if it weren't time to hit the beach…

Before I get (swim) suited up, I just want to remind you guys one more time to sign up for The 3 Pillars of Passive Recruiting free webinar on Tuesday August 13th at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern.

It's going to be awesome! It was awesome!

Tooooo late! The webinar has come and gone, but you can still see the slides from The 3 Pillars of Passive Recruiting and you can always email us at social@jobcast.net, tweet @jobcastnet or find Jobcast on Facebook, if you have any questions 😀

Do you ever have one of those weeks where absolutely nothing works? "Nope, never have, never will" - Said, Nobody Ever! I am writing this on Tuesday, only one day into the week, and I've already had a Mailchimp disaster, broke a pair of headphones, and dropped a dumbbell on my foot (this actually happens to me pretty regularly, but still!) The broken headphones and slightly damaged toes are pretty easy to recover from, but Mailchimp mistakes, like diamonds, are forever! If you subscribe to our newsletter, we are very sorry [Insert Name Here], merge tags are finicky beasts! So what better topic to cover in today's Link Love than social media blunders! Everyone makes mistakes. It's the choices you make in trying to correct them that really matter. Don't do what I did and bury your face in a bowl of coconut milk ice-cream, do what these fantastic articles suggest you do instead.

Link Time!

This lovely article by Sharlyn Lauby of hrbartender fame is a great reminder that, no, we can't "unring the bell", but we can definitely ring it again! She does a great job of reminding us that recovering from mistakes is all about moving on and doing better next time. I'm also going to link to her rant about how

"sorry is not a customer service program", because it is hilarious and very, very true! If you recruit in the 21st century, then you probably have a career site. If you don't, here's how to get start a Fully Branded Facebook Career Page. Otherwise, read this awesome step-by-step guide to fixing landing page mistakes, if not for the information it provides, then at least for the hilarious cartoon it features. Recruitment guru Jim Stroud explains what the top HR mistakes are and how to fix them on his blog, The Recruiters Lounge. This is probably the most serious post I've read of Jim's, although that may be because I usually prefer to watch his awesome and hilarious video blogs. But what if you've made a recruiting mistake so terrible you can't bare to face the repercussions? You've hired someone who really, really isn't working out and now you have to let them go. Thankfully, I've only ever had to do this once myself. It was horrible. I cried afterwards. A lot. If only I'd had a better game plan, like this blog post by Ron Ashkenas, explaining how to fire someone the right way.

Or even better, if I'd had access to Tim Sackett's hypothetical "iFire" app to do the dirty work for me! "Slip-ups are inevitable, especially in the fast-paced, gut-reaction world of social media." No matter how many preventative measures you may take! But, fear not, Mashable has you covered with this post about how to bounce back after a social media disaster.

They also include some of the WORST social media PR facepalms to have graced the interwebs, which will make you feel much better about any slip ups you may have made yourself. Unless you tweeted topless vacation pics from your company account... Then you may as well just start in on the ice-cream ASAP! Hopefully these articles help you as much as they've helped me, and hopefully Tim can find a developer for his app.

Targeted Facebook Ads are one of the best ways to reach passive candidates.

Passive candidates make up about 86% of the US workforce (United States Labour Bureau). These candidates are NOT on job boards, simply because they are not looking for work, but EVERYBODY is on Facebook. This is what makes Facebook such an awesome recruiting tool. In fact, we've found that Facebook ads can often mean the difference between zero applications and a landslide of quality applications.

We've already written a step-by-step tutorial on how to use Facebook Ads for recruiting, but we thought we'd share a few simple ways that you can make your ads even more effective.

How to get the most out of your Facebook Ads campaign:

Know thy enemy candidate

Before you log into your fully branded Facebook Career Page, before you even turn on your computer, but definitely after you've poured your first cup of coffee, take some time to think about your ideal candidate.

Whether you're looking for an experienced project manager or hourly workers for customer service position, spending an extra ten to fifteen minutes beforehand writing down what qualities, skills, and level of experience you want those candidates to have will save you hours later.

(More on this and other recruiting tips that will save you time)

Once you have your list, write down how the characteristics you're looking for in potential hires are expressed on Facebook.

For example: You are looking to hire young, well put-together, high-school graduates to fill serving positions at your swank new restaurant. It's a plus if they have a lot of energy and the ability to lift large boxes of food stuffs. Well, you can't exactly type all of that into Facebook and expect to find much of anything.

But you could search for: Women and men between the ages of 18 – 25 who “Like” Banana Republic, Jamie Oliver, and Gold's Gym. Makes sense right?

Now that you know what you're looking for…

Target target target

Why Facebook Ads work so well is that you can specify exactly who you want to reach.

Are you looking for seasonal employees to fill warehouse jobs? Do what Amazon did in one of their recent recruiting campaigns and target RV drivers (of course I would suggest you take it up a notch and target RV drivers that “Like Gold's Gym”)

(More examples of how to target candidates with Facebook Ads)

To take it a step further, you want to target the content of your posts as well.

For example: You can create two Facebook Ads. One that showcases your company culture in a way that will appeal to these candidates, and the second as a job post that is written using the kind of language and tone you think will most appeal to this audience.

(A great example of how to create targeted Facebook content and more on how to write better job posts)

Leverage your lists

Use “Custom Audiences”. This refers to an audience that you've built yourself, by inputting candidate information from networking events, your ATS, Email lists, or random street encounters! This is a great way of continuing contact with potential hires to grow your Facebook talent pool and convert them into applicants.

(A more detailed description of how to use Facebook Custom Audiences)

Lookalike Audiences!

Have you ever seen Double Impact starring Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD)? If not, do it now. Your talent community can wait. It's worth it.

Okay, so now that we're on the same page. (i.e. We know that lookalikes kick twice as much a$$.) Let's talk about Lookalike Audiences.

Lookalike Audiences are built to target Facebook users who have similar characteristics to the candidates you already have. Okay, so that's totally confusing. Let's use an example:

You're looking to hire babely Judo masters to hunt down evil villains. You already have some interesting looking candidates on file, they have awesome martial arts skills, hilarious French(ish) accents, and look amazing in tight black pants.

But you need more applicants since, let's face it, there are a lot of evil villains out there that need defeating!

So, you can use Facebook Ads to target a Lookalike Audience that will reach Facebook users who have similar characteristics to the applicants already on your list. You'll have an army of JCVD-caliber candidates in no time!

(A more in depth explanation of Facebook Lookalike Audiences)

I could probably go on forever. Seriously. There are a million more ways to amp up your Facebook Ads and recruitment strategy, but, who has time for that?! These tips will give you the best bang for your Facebook Ads buck!

That means you'll have lots of time left to improve other areas of you recruiting strategy, like for example, by attending this cool, free webinar on the 3 Pillars of Passive Candidate Sourcing! All the cool kids are doing it.

Tooooo late! The webinar has come and gone, but you can still see the slides from The 3 Pillars of Passive Recruiting and you can always email us at social@jobcast.net, tweet @jobcastnet or find Jobcast on Facebook, if you have any questions 😀

I am woman, hear me roar.

Okay… so I don't actually roar, although I do heckle pretty loudly at baseball games, if that counts for anything? (and believe me, it does).

Luckily for me, and you, there are lots of fantastic women roaring HR advice, employer branding tips, and social recruiting know-how from the rafters, so no one has to suffer my attempts at creating Facebook-themed musical covers of old baseball chants.

This week the women of social recruiting have been especially prolific. So much so, that without even realizing it, every article we've chosen to feature in this week's Link Love was inspired by women in the industry, or written by a female blogger.

How cool is that?!

Our first featured article, Saving Sandcastles: Determining Worthwhile Endeavors, comes to us from Blogging4Jobs. In it, Rayanne Thorn provides you with some critical questions to ask when deciding whether or not to attempt a new project.

In case you didn't know, we love Facebook here at the Jobcast blog. That's why this article by Meghan Kelly got us so excited! In it, Meghan explains why Sheryl Sandburg is so excited about Facebook's killer advertising quarter. Facebook ads are an awesome way to attract candidates, and grow employer brands, which is why they're getting lots of attention from marketers and employers alike.

Speaking of Sheryl Sandburg, apparently a management supervisor at a certain fairly well-known San Francisco agency has decided to take a new approach to finding a husband, inspired by Sandburg's book “Lean In”. She's decided to start a referral program to fill the position, and is offering a $10,000 prize to whoever manages to introduce her to the perfect candidate. Talk about being proactive with your goals!

Women are often said to be great communicators, which is probably why there are so many women in HR. Margaret Heffernan's latest piece for Inc. is about how what you do before you open your mouth determines how effectively you'll communicate your thoughts. She explains how to use the mantra “Think. Breathe. Speak.” to become a better communicator.

The most girl-powery article award definitely goes to Stacy Donovan Zappar's latest blog post. In it, she reviews the documentary She++ and gives her take on how we can get more women working in the field of technology.

And how could we do a Lady themed Link Love without featuring the Cynical Girl herself, Laurie Ruettimann?! Well, maybe if she hadn't written such an interesting article about what motivates us to go to work, and the taboo of office romance. Laurie's article asks you to “open your eyes. Take a look around you. Is your workplace all about sex and death?

And now I'll ask you, how can I possibly compete with a such a racy topic?

Well, I'm pretty sure I can't, so, that's all folks.

If you've read any great blogs by or about women in HR, employer branding, or social recruiting that we should feature on our blog, let us know in the comments.

The internet is a magical place. A place where you can find videos of cute animals you never knew existed, recipes that probably never should have been invented, and “fool proof” health plans to help you recover from said recipes in 7 days without diet OR exercise.

Magical!

The internet is also host to lots of useful stuff like email, Google calendar, and informative blogs about recruiting written by geniuses.

When it comes to recruiting, the web has provided employers with one of the most useful services ever invented: Facebook. Not only that, but there are a wealth of amazing new tools and resources available online that can make your Facebook recruiting and employer branding easier, more effective, and less time consuming than ever before.

Something we harp focus on a lot, here on the Jobcast blog, is about engaging candidates.

Engagement

But how are you supposed to know that your talent pool is engaged? An opinion poll of course!

Everyone likes a good poll. They are satisfying to fill out and make you feel like your opinion is important, and who doesn’t want to feel important?!

Polling your fans is a great way to get their feedback on your latest endeavors, the state of your industry, and, most importantly, who makes the best chai tea latte in your town. Polling your fans/talent community also keeps them engaged with your Page. It’s a win-win situation.

One of the better free(ish) apps on the market is Poll. Aptly named, Poll allows you to easily post opinion polls on your Facebook Page, and stores all your data right on FB so you don’t need to bother creating a separate account on their website. The free version is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. If you want to customize your opinion polls, and remove ads, you can upgrade to their Premium version for a reasonable $99/year.

Check out these other great Facebook polling app options reviewed by Jeff Bullas.

Get ’em Subscribed

Gathering intel on potential hires and passive candidates, in order to keep them engaged and convert them into applicants, is one of the main goals of social recruiting. Using a Facebook app to collect email lists is a great way to accomplish this.

MailChimp is pretty much everyone’s favorite email subscription app on the market. That adorable monkey icon is ridiculously cute and their user interface is easy-to-use and beautifully designed.

Okay, so you probably knew all of that already, but did you know that you can use MailChimp to sign people up for your mailing list through your Facebook Page? Well, if you didn’t, then this simple tutorial for integrating your Facebook Page with your MailChimp account is going to blow your mind! If you did know all of that then: A) You get a social recruiting gold star and B) Please move on to the next tool.

Attention Grabbers

Someecards. I know, I know, this recommendation is a little bit out there, but trust us, it’s worth trying! If you haven’t come across these hilarious e-cards already, be forewarned, many of them are NSFW (not safe for work) and some are pretty politically incorrect, but that is what makes them so effective.

LG, Ford and even Home Depot are using Someecards to grab Facebook users’ attentions, and it’s working. People love these fantastically sarcastic cards, which mean they get a lot of Likes and Shares, making them a great way to increase engagement, while making your employer brand a little more fun. You don’t have to post anything over the top, and you definitely shouldn’t go against your company values, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come up with some pretty hilarious cards.

Check out this one used by Ford:

See? Totally funny and inoffensive.

Facebook Recruitment

Last, but not least, no social recruiting campaign would be complete without a Facebook recruiting app. Annnd not to brag or anything, but Jobcast is pretty much the best recruiting app on the market.

At Jobcast we have over a decade of experience in social recruiting, so we know how to get results. That’s why we created our Facebook recruiting app.We truly believe that Facebook is the best place to attract, engage and convert candidates, and that our app is the most effective Facebook recruiting tool. Just in case you’d like a slightly less biased opinion, check out this review by The Undercover Recruiter which ranks us right at the top as best value for a Facebook recruiting app. Or this quote by a satisfied Jobcast customer:

“I have been using a lot of tools for online/social recruiting, Jobcast is by far the BEST. Thanks guys for this great tool! Looking forward to the upcoming features!”

– Ruben A. Rabines

Sign up to start recruiting with Jobcast now!