Samara Parker

I just entered an Instagram contest.

I feel very mixed about it.

Not because I don’t think contests are great, but because I work very hard at keeping my Instagram account lookin’ good. I do so by being extremely diligent with the content I post.

I use select filters (almost always Walden, because I am a hipster, and a girl), only post my own pics, and try to stick to sharing images of attractive subjects, like farmer’s markets, my friend Monika, and shots of espresso with exceptional crema (told you I was a hipster!).

I refrain from posting shots of me watching MMA, baseball, or the food I eat that is not attractive (i.e. nothing starring ground beef).

This is because I believe that cohesive, well thought out content makes for a better social media presence.

So, disrupting my usual content flow to re-post another user’s neon-text-splattered image made me wince. But the prize is lots, and lots of fancy treats. And fancy treats trump my personal branding resolve any day! I did, however, use a filter to make their text less neon and a slight blur… Hopefully that doesn't rule me out.

For those of you who, like me, value content in the same way that most people value diamonds, here are some links you are really going to love:

Our first link is to an article by Beth Hayden at Coppy Blogger. Her post explores the importance of keyword research. I love how she makes the point that trying to smoosh every single keyword you can think of into your posts is both a waste of time, and disrupts the cohesiveness of your content. She then gives some great advice and links to a free e-book about how to find and utilize keywords for SEO optimization and better content.

The next link has to do with a different kind of content altogether. The kind of content found on your phone. More specifically, it has to do with your voicemail recording or lack thereof. The HR Capitalist; Kris Dunn presents a witty little rant about the less than optimal ways in which people handle their distaste for voice messages in the age of email. If you want to learn by example how to write pithy, sarcastic, and hilarious commentary, I highly recommend doing so by studying Kris’s blog.

Getting back on our usual employer-themed track, let’s talk employee performance goals. Andrea Devers over at Blogging4Jobs presents a smart article about the trouble with using SMART Goals. This article will have you questioning what you thought was true about setting goals for your staff. It also provides some fantastic tips for improving both your goal setting, and the way you communicate the goals you set to your staff.

This (almost) last link explores two types of content: the content of a recent Gallup poll and the content of your future hires' resumes. According to the poll, employees who have college degrees are less engaged than those who don’t. China Gorman explains why this information may be completely invalid, and yet still worth considering the next time you’re contemplating what kind of education requirements to include in your job posts.

For the grand finale, I present to you; This Season’s Biggest Fashion Trend at Work according to the one and only Cynical Girl, Laurie Ruettimann.

Happy Wednesday!

If you have any cool links to share, let us know in the comments.

The world's favorite method of searching the internet has finally come to Facebook!

No, not Google. Facebook is still partnered up with Bing, as Bing+ does not exist, so the search engine poses zero threat to FB's manhood network.

I'm talking about that wonderfully useful little symbol, the hashtag.

Google Plus' introduction of hashtags to their user interface seems to have lit a fire under the posteriors of our friends over at Facebook. They've rolled out hashtags in full force for all Facebook users, including those using mobile!

Reception has been surprisingly warm and devoid of the backlash FB interface upgrades usually receive. We're all pretty happy about it here at Jobcast and so, it seems, is the rest of the social recruiting world. If I remember correctly, my exact reaction upon hearing the news was “finally”. Okay, so that's not exactly warm, but, tardy or not, I'm happy that Facebook has jumped on the hashtag train. Yay hashtags!

Why are we so happy about hashtags?

Besides making it easier to search for posts about teacup-kittens, it's because we care about you. Seriously. The addition of hashtags to FB's interface is awesome for recruiting and employer branding. Which is, in turn, awesome for Jobcasters!

No, it's not going to revolutionize recruiting or anything like that, but it will make it easier for candidates to find your content, and for you to find theirs.

How you ask? Well…

Hashtags included in status updates and wall posts are clickable, thus hashtags provide a means of grouping messages. You can search for a hashtag to view a set of related messages all containing that tag. This means your hashtagged posts will be linked to other similarly tagged posts, creating a sort of conversation.

For example, if you click on #RyanGosling, you'll instantly see all of the “Hey Girl” posts made by people in your network, assuming they are doing their hashtag duty, of course.

(Facebook is a closed network so, if you click on a #hashtag, you’ll only be able to see conversations started by users in your network. Just another reason you should build up your Facebook talent community!)

More importantly, if you are looking to hire a new server for your restaurant, you can hashtag your job posts #serverwanted or #nowhiring, thus making your post clickable. This means users will see your post when they search those terms. You can also use hashtags to improve your overall reach and employer brand in a similar fashion.

Pretty darn cool. Especially because you don't even have to change your recruiting strategy to start using this new feature.

Just start hashtagging keywords, locations, and terms related to your industry.

Let's go back to our restaurant example. We’ll call our hypothetical restaurant Sam's Waffle House (my article, my restaurant! And waffles because they are the best, obviously).

Here are a few ideas for content I could share on my branded Facebook Career Page:

Sam's #Waffle House #restaurant is looking to #hire a new #linecook at our #Gastown location in #Vancouver #applynow

or

Click here to see our #delicious new #restaurant #menu items, including a #hotfudge #sunday #waffle and #peanutbutter #milkshake

and

Looking for #work as a #server at an #upscale #restaurant ? Sam's #Waffle House is #hiring. Make #great #tips and enjoy a #fun work #atmosphere

You can also include hashtags at the end of your posts. Either in addition to posts like the ones shown above or to non-hashtagged posts if you prefer to keep your content free of tags, as some do. Use whichever format appeals to you and, as usually, experiment with different tags and setups until you find what works.

For example:

Check out all of the great jobs available for servers, and hostesses at Sam's Waffle House in Vancouver. Go to our Career Page and apply now!#nowhiring #hiring #needajob #apply #lookingforwork #serviceindustry #jobs #hostess #server #restaurant #Vancouver #downtown #kitsilano

Don't worry too much about overtagging if your main goal is letting people know you're hiring. What's important is that you use keywords related to your field, the jobs you need filled, and your location.

Here are some more tips about using Facebook hashtags to improve your reach.

FB just keeps adding more cool stuff for employers and recruiters to supplement their Facebook recruiting arsenal. Graph search is proving to be a great tool for sourcing passive candidates and hashtags look to be equally promising.

These new features go hand-in-hand with Facebook encouraging users to share more of their salient information such as skills, education, and interests, that employers can use to build talent communities and source candidates. Not only that, but the social network's userbase is expanding, as are the numbers of users using Facebook specifically to hunt for jobs.

It's a pretty exciting time for Facebook recruiting, which makes us especially happy to be able to offer the best Facebook Recruiting App on the market.

Click here to start recruiting with Facebook right now.

“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

Everyone likes a good fight.

Some of us prefer physical battles : boxing, MMA, shark vs. bear, whilst others prefer the more intellectual skirmishes : political debate, heated philosophical discussion, and Amanda Bynes vs. Everyone on Twitter.

But I think we can all agree that a little conflict from time to time keeps things interesting, and, when handled properly, can even spur creativity and improvement.

This is why some of the best reviews and blog posts out there pit one product or concept against another. Comparing and contrasting their best and worst features, practicality, and general usefulness.

Today’s links are all about conflict, as it relates to social media of course, and to kick things off, I present to you:

Entelo vs. Falcon

Jim Stroud’s Cool Tool Cage-match: Falcon vs. Entelo. This is basically Jim making up for how disappointing the recent Anderson Silva fight was, by pitting two well-rated Chrome extensions that are popular for sourcing /social networking against each other. Thank you Jim! This post is awesome; it goes through the pros and cons of both apps with screenshots and commentary, and ends with Jim choosing a winner. You’ll have to read the article to find out which app reigns supreme!

Bloggers vs. Common Sense

Bloggers love to take on common sense. No, not because they are crazy and weird, but because it makes for great headlines and more interesting articles.

This past week brought us two stellar examples of this kind of journalism.

We’ll start with a piece on Inc.com, where Drew Greenblatt argues against promoting exceptional employees. Yup, that’s right, Drew says that if you have an awesome employee, who’s doing great at their job, you may want to keep them right there doing the job they are so very good at. You’ll have to check out his article if you want to know why, but I’ll admit he makes some very strong points. And, hey, just because you may not want to promote these employees, doesn’t mean you can’t give them a raise!

… annnnnnd, just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier, those recruiting rebels-without-a-cause over at Fistful of Talent posted a blog by Jason Pankow that argues in favor of hiring “idiots”. The article is pretty sensationalized, but the gist is that hiring less than intelligent employees means improved productivity, as they will not question your orders. It’s based on this Swedish (of course) study, which the author admits to not having actually read (of course). This is a must read. We’d also love to hear your opinions on the matter!

Buzzfeed vs. Facebook

Buzzfeed recently posted an article criticizing Facebook for not informing their users about how many people actually see their posts. According to the article “feedback is crucial for the system to work” and people need to know how many people see what they are posting in order to better understand just how interesting they actually are.

Facebook shot back saying that most of their users (Company Pages not included of course) do not care how many people have seen their posts, only how many of them have clicked the Like button. According to Facebook, not sharing things like reach and ratios of Likes to Views keeps the user experience positive.

As much as I think it is important to track reach and stats for Company Pages and recruiting, when it comes to personal accounts, I have to side with Facebook on this one.

What about you? I’m sure you have an opinion, let us know in the comments!

This is ridiculous.

Doesn’t Facebook know that summer is for lounging about, eating too many hotdogs, and watching summer league baseball?!? Apparently there’s no good baseball or highly processed meat-like foods available in Silicon Valley.

That’s the only explanation I can think of for all of the changes and updates Facebook has been rolling out over the past month.

Really guys, we are not amused! Well, at least I’m not.

But, fear not. I have sacrificed a whole day’s worth of grilling salmon to bring you guys up to date on all that’s new in the world of Facebook and how it will affect your recruiting.

Don’t worry; I’m not going to bore you with Victoria Harbourcats stats, or updates about my friends’ new dogs. I promise to only bore you with the important stuff that will affect you directly.

.. like …

Facebook pulling the Question tool for Pages

Yes, sadly this tool is no longer available for most Pages, although FB has stated that certain Pages may be allowed to keep using Questions, specifically those related to news and media. FB says that the tool is redundant due to the ability to posit questions via images and video, but I know quite a few of our users are unhappy over losing what they found to be an effective tool for engaging fans.

What can you do about it?

Roll with the punches and take this change as a sign that it’s really important to start focusing on posting more great pictures. Although it’s always sad to see familiar tools go, the ability to roll questions into images is awesome, as images do improve engagement quite a bit.

Instavideo

This one started a whole bunch of Team Twitter vs. Twitter Facebook mud-wrestling rumors, which were sadly proven false. But, if those rumors had been true, Instagram video would have been the clear winner as, according to Simply Measured:

· Instagram videos are being used by twice as many brands, and more videos are being posted [than Vine].

· Instagram videos are seeing significantly higher (over 2X) engagement than Instagram photos, suggesting brands should focus more time and energy on them.

Not only that, but Facebook has now made Instagram photos and video embeddable, so they are likely to garner even more attention.

What can you do about it?

Jump on board the Instagram train, but only if it makes sense for you. If you have a lot of staff events, or a cool break room, then post pics and video on Instagram. You can also take super short Instavideos of staff members, either talking about how great their workplace is, or playing foosball in the cool break room.

If you don’t have a lot of interesting stuff going on in your workplace, or you’re mostly targeting candidates who are a little more mature, don’t worry about Instagram — just focus on the basics like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Hot Tip: If you do decide to make Instagram a part of your social recruiting and employer branding, do not go overboard with filters. Choose a few (1-3) that have a similar vibe and stick with them for all of the images you post. This will keep your feed looking cohesive and attractive.

Graph Search for everyone

We have already written about how Facebook Graph Search is going to change the face of recruiting, and now this awesome tool is being rolled out to the general public! I don’t know about you, but I’m super excited.

Graph Search lets you search FB’s databases for people, interests, photos, and places. Graph Search uses “long-tail” searches, which means the more detailed you are, the better your results.

So you can, and should ask specific questions like, “which of my friends like baseball and meat-on-a-stick?” and perform more detailed searches, such as “women with great social media and writing skills living in Holland”. Graph search also promises to be faster, easier to use, and to be better at selecting relevant results than its predecessor. It is also integrated with Microsoft’s web-search engine Bing.

Those using Facebook in U.S. English should have seen their search upgraded last Monday.

What can you do about it?

Other than wasting countless hours hunting down hilarious photos of your high-school crew … LOTS!

First, update as much information about your company as possible, as this will make you more searchable.

Second, think about using the content you post to make your company more searchable. Note that the causes you support, the news you post, and the links you share, all add to your companies profile on FB’s social graph. Ask yourself what you can share that will showcase your company culture and values in a way that will attract the candidates you want to hire.

Third, use Graph Search to find talent with highly specific skills. Because FB users share details about past jobs, interests, education and volunteering on their profiles, Facebook’s Social Graph has access to all of this info and now, so do you. You can use detailed searches to source niche candidates like never before. Pretty darn cool!

But, before we get too excited, remember, this is dependent on those candidates updating their profiles with all of their relevant information. Luckily, Facebook has been making a concerted effort to encourage users to do just this.

Thank you Facebook!

This article has gotten rather long, so we’ll continue next week with more cool new Facebook stuff, like the addition of hashtags and much, much more.

I don't know about you, but I am seriously in love with the internet this week.

This is mostly because my best friend just got a dog, so my Instagram feed is extra cute. But that's not all!

Facebook Graph Search is rolling out, which is going to be amazing for Facebook recruiting (and internet stalking), Jobcast is offering 30 days of Premium, completely free, and there are a ton of cool links to love. It really can't get any better than that.

Something I enjoy almost as much as the internet is weightlifting, which is what earned this article the number one spot in this week's Link Love. It's a surprisingly fascinating look at CrossFit's social media strategy. I'll give you a hint — it's even more intense than their notoriously brutal workouts.

On a lighter note, Tim Sackett explains why he actually loves hiring people who'vebeen fired! This article is hilarious, but also makes some very important, yet often neglected points about the hiring process. He reminds us that any candidate with a decent amount of experience will have made some mistakes, and that people who have something to prove work really, really hard. Hard workers make for awesome employees — some pretty interesting logic and definitely worth exploration.

On the subject of recruiting, if you want to land the best candidates, you have to ask yourself what those candidates are looking for in an employer. Or, you could just ask Francesca Fenzi. Her latest article for Inc. outlines some of the key things top performers look for when considering a job offer.

Human resources does a lot more than just fill job openings — trust me. Both of my parents are HR veterans (we've even featured their advice for writing better job posts on our blog), so I know a thing or two. People in HR also play tons of solitaire and make sure the office has decent coffee! Just teasing. Here's a fantastic break down of what HR really does from Fistful of Talent.

And, just to keep with the "fabulous lives of HR" theme we've got going on, this last link is a video following one week in the life of a sourcer by the ever-entertaining Jim Stroud.

Happy hump day!

I communicate for a living. I am communicating with you right now. And now. And now!

But still, every single time I visit my doctor for a check-up, all of my communication skills go right out the window. I can barely manage to convey my age, let alone what ails me.

I have always had the gift of the gab. It's what I credit for the success of my previous career in sales. I can pretty much talk to anyone about anything. Unless, of course, that person is wearing a white coat and a stethoscope.

This is most likely due to the fact that doctors have always made me nervous. No matter how kind their eyes, or soft their bedside manner, I fear their authority and tongue depressors as much now as I did when I was a kid.

So, whenever I have to make a trip to the doctors office, my husband supplies me with both a pep talk and a list of talking points.

What does this have to do with social recruiting you ask?!

Well, social media and technology in general still makes a lot of people nervous (myself included, if I'm being completely honest). These nerves can make communicating difficult, and social recruiting doesn't work without good communication. You can't attract candidates through Facebook and Twitter without engaging with them.

Luckily, there are quite a few ways to make communicating via social networks easy. In fact, once you have a good formula down, engaging with candidates is a breeze!

Let's start with the basics. These concepts apply to pretty much any social network out there, even the image-based ones!

Make your posts relatable

People engage with posts they can relate to. That's why pet pictures, food pictures, and articles about procrastination get so many shares. These are concepts most people cant relate to. I would highly advise sticking with these kinds of posts and avoiding Tweeting about how you're drinking Cristal on a yacht, unless you are looking to recruit Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island!

Post funny (inoffensive) comics on your Facebook Page, pics of staff parties on Instagram, and Tweet a recent article you thought was awesome.

Check out this article for more tips on how to engage candidates through social media.

KISS it

You don't have to overcomplicate things, in fact, it just confuses people! Respond with clear, simple language, and keep it short. Don't assume people know what anagrams like ROI, or KISS mean. Oh wait... (It stands for Keep It Simple Silly)

But, even if your writing isn't perfectly concise, just making sure that you respond to questions and comments in a timely and friendly manner is all that really matters.

Make like Goldilocks

Find that bowl of porridge that is neither too hot, nor too cold. I love this analogy. Mostly because I love breakfast. But also because it's a reminder of how important it is to experiment a bit, find your sweet spot, and then go with it.

Try using a "Call to Action" such as "If you're an awesome graphic designer, then Like this job!" or asking more direct questions. Experiment with different voices, wording, and post lengths. This will give you a feel for how your community responds to different communication styles, and a better understanding of much you need to interact.

Check out this post for more on how to find your social media sweet spot.

Be chatty

Unless you are communicating with a group of "experts" or other professionals in a similar field, it's important to maintain a casual tone.

Communicating via social networks is different from communicating via email. It's more casual, relaxed, and conversational. I'm not suggesting that you interact with potential candidates or customers the way you would with your pals at a UFC fight night, but remember that communicating on sites like Facebook is a conversation — not a monologue.

Hopefully these tips will have you chatting candidates up all over the internet or maybe even in real-life (God forbid)! Just promise you won't use any of them for dating, as advice columnist Ask E. Jean and I have a strict non-competition pact, and I don't want to get on her bad side!

Happy recruiting!

In the world of social media, if you can't communicate an idea, it's almost as though you don't even have one at all. Sad, but true.

For anyone not blessed with the gift of gab, social media can be a tricky thing to navigate. You just can't attract viewers without engaging people, especially on networks like Facebook and Twitter.

So, improving your communication skills is a great way to improve your social recruiting. And luckily, the web is abuzz with ways to make you a better communicator.

From improving your sales pitch to simply writing better comments on blogs and forums — these links have you covered!

Need another reason to chill on the couch and watch a movie? Well, according to HR Capitalist (Kris Dunn) you can learn a lot about how to communicate for better sales from "Boiler Room", which he quite aptly describes as Gen X's version of Glengarry Glen Ross. If you're too busy enjoying the summer to watch movies, never fear! Kris breaks down the main sales pitch tips he learned from the film on his blog.

But what if you are trying to sell your idea to someone high up on the corporate food chain? Jessica Bruder of Inc Magazine has you covered with this great article explaining how to pitch to VCs without incurring their wrath, which we all know Vice Chairs are famous for.

This article deals with a topic very close to my heart : internet commenting. If you ever want to feel depressed about the state of humanity, just spend a few minutes reading Youtube comments. If, on the other hand, you are interested in making the internet a better place, check out this awesome article about how to leave productive blog comments, that people will actually want to read and respond to.

You can take the knowledge you learnt about commenting on blogs from the previous article, and then use it to up your Facebook-commenting game as well. Then you can elevate that game even further by using Facebook hashtags. Facebook is now making a concerted effort to have users hashtag their posts, by suggesting possible tags. This is great for search-ability and recruiting passive candidates!

Say what you will about the addition of video to Instagram, but moving pictures are undoubtedly a fantastic way to communicate. I mean, yes, we already have Vine, but why wouldn't you want to at least try out this new feature on Insta? This blog post explains why using both Vine and Insta video together is a good idea, and how to do so without duplicating content.

Now that your brain is full of knowledge, give it a rest by feasting your eyes on this gorgeous Infographic. The Communication Prism is a beautifully designed map of social media websites by Brian Solis and JESS3, enjoy!

If you know any awesome blogs we should feature, let us know in the comments!

Happy Wednesday

Timing really is important.

This is especially true when it comes to social media. In fact, other than open-heart surgery, I can think of no other instance in which timing is so crucial. Well, maybe Olympic track and field, or high speed car chases, or…

Moving on.

It’s not just the content of your post that determines how many views, shares, or likes that it gets. The timing matters too. Frequency, day of the week and time of day all play an important role in determining who sees the content you share. The same is true of your job posts.

Your job posts are more effective if they are seen by more people. So, determining when your audience is most likely to be online and posting in that time-frame is a great way to improve your social recruiting ROI.

You can read the article that we posted last week, for a simple guide to finding the best times to post on your Facebook Company Page.

.. but what if you aren’t at work during the hours you should be sharing those job posts? That’s where scheduling tools come in very handy! The Jobcast Facebook recruiting app includes a scheduling tool for all premium members.

Our scheduling tool allows you to set up your job posts to be shared at the optimal time for engaging candidates. It’s also super easy to use.

Here’s how:

Start by going to your Facebook Company Page and clicking on your Careers Tab.

This will direct you to your Career Page.

Next, from the Admin panel, select ‘Manage Jobs’.

This will take you to the Job Management section of Jobcast. From there, click on the “Customize” button, located in the menu at the top.

This will bring you to the Settings Tab. The panel with the gear is where you can create a customized URL for your Career Page. The clock icon will let you schedule a job post.

Click on the clock!

Next, select Add Scheduled Post and choose the network you’d like to share your post with.

For this demo we’ll choose to schedule our post to be shared on Twitter.

From here you can fill in a message that will be used for your Tweet. For example: Jobcast wants you!

There is also space here to attach some hashtags to your Tweet.

Then you may choose to only share jobs from a particular category.

And to only post jobs that are located in a specific country, state, or city.

Next, select the days of the week you want to post on.

Then you can select the frequency. This will stop you from appearing to be Tweet-bombing your jobs, and instead will stagger them out. Believe me, your followers will appreciate this.

You can select a ‘sharing window’. This means that the jobs will only be automatically Tweeted between these hours on the days you have specified.

Finally, decide if you’d like your previous jobs to be re-shared if no new jobs are available (a great option to keep your Page looking active)

There you have it. Regularly scheduled posts to effectively target the candidates you’re looking to attract.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.

It's LinkLove time!

We've got some good ones for you this week, hopefully they'll brighten up the mid-week slump and keep you entertained until Friday. If not, you can always follow us on Twitter for more great links, witty quotes, and twit pics of our handsome CEOs.

Our first link sets the bar very high. Which is something we've come to expect from Sharlyn over at HRBartender! This week she wrote about the importance of companies embracing mobile as a part of their corporate culture. Mobile optimization isn't the future — it's now!

Speaking of the future, this cool Infographic puts the history of the internet into visual form. And in doing so, accomplishes two very important tasks: supplying us with interesting facts to quote at networking events, and making me feel old.

Another thing that makes me feel old is my dislike of Instagram video. Why did they have to go and mess with a good thing, and force me to re-think an app I'm just now getting comfortable with? Remember the good old days, back when there was only Vine video? Well, here's everything you need to know about Instagram video.

If Insta-vids (you heard it here first folks) wasn't enough to keep you on your toes, check out Potluck. Potluck is an entirely new link-based social network that's being touted as "A house party on the internet." A BYOD house party, of course!

And just in case you thought you could get through one of our LinkLoves without a single debunked myth, we had to share this awesome debunking of recruiting myths by Tina Iantorno. Apparently recruiters and employers still "post and pray"! Sad, but true. If you don't want that to be your recruiting strategy, I highly recommend using a recruitment app with built-in metrics.

To finish with a bang, let me ask you this very, very serious question: What if John Lennon were to compete on the Voice? The John Lennon! Would he have even made it past the preliminary rounds? This article is worth a read, but the commentary that follows is what really steals the show.

Read any fantastic articles lately? Let us know in the comments.

What were you doing at 5 a.m. yesterday morning?

Hopefully you were either in bed, fast asleep, or at a really, really amazing party.

Hopefully you were not like me, and totally unable to sleep, hyped up on caffeine, surfing Instagram all night long. The worst.

And all because I decided to schedule a coffee date/meeting for after dinner. Caffeine after three is never good for me (although it apparently makes me a better poet!), and neither is neglecting timing when it comes to your social media content.

Scheduling is a key part of social strategy. Understanding what days of the week, what time/times of day, and how frequently to post content is fundamental to your success.

It’s also a rather simple formula to master. Which is very nice considering how tricky social media can be.

There are a million great articles floating around the internet to help you understand how to time your content.

But here are a few of the basics, just in case you don’t have time to read a million articles this morning.

Twitter

Tweets have a very short “lifespan”, which refers to how long they remain visible to your followers. You should post hyper-current, trending content on Twitter, as that’s the type of content most likely to get you re-tweeted and followed.

Scheduling Stats:

• Monday through Thursdays are usually best, although participating in #FollowFriday is never a bad idea.

• Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. is the usual recommended Tweet window.

• You should generally aim to post content at least four times per day. Spread your posts out evenly so as not to “Tweet bomb” your followers. By my own logic, I really ought to Tweet more!

Facebook

Facebook content, like Twitter, should be current. But they do not have to be quite as trendy as your Tweets. Your Facebook posts should be very specific to your industry and company brand, whereas with your Tweets, you have a bit more leeway when it comes to content.

Scheduling stats:

• Wednesday wins best day to post, hands down!

• Aim for between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

• Post content at least once a day. You can be a bit more active, but the beauty of Facebook is that content has a longer lifespan there, than it does on Twitter, so you can  post less and focus more on making those posts count!

Google+:

Confession, I have been neglecting Google Plus lately, even though Google+ is great for social recruiting and employer branding. I’m going to remedy this as soon as I’m done writing this post, taking nap, then checking my Instagram.

Scheduling Stats:

• Weekdays are best, especially for social recruiting and business.

• The best time to post, give or take an hour, is around 10 a.m.

• How often? Well, personally, I would recommend playing it by ear a little with G+. Post whenever you have a new blog post to share, job to list, or find an article that you think is super pertinent to your Google Plus community

LinkedIn:

Oh LinkedIn — so persnickety! Your content should be relevant, but does not necessarily need to be current. You can get away with posting older articles, so long as they are on point.

Scheduling Stats:

• Tuesdays through Thursdays are best. Mondays and Fridays are not worth your time, according to most statistics. LinkedIn is just weird like that!

• The best time to post is around 8 a.m. give or take an hour, and then again from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m. Don’t post after 6 p.m. though, unless you want your content to disappear into the deepest, darkest recesses of the inter-web — never to be seen again!

• Depending on how important LinkedIn is to your strategy, you can post once a day or once a week. A happy medium is to post an article (brownie points if you wrote it yourself) once per week, and comment on other peoples’ posts once per day.

Your own personal blog:

Staying on trend will help your blog posts, as trending topics are more likely to be posted to Facebook and shared on Twitter. But, you need to also focus on writing what’s often referred to as “evergreen” content. This means content that will stay relevant for several years. This is because blog posts have the longest lifespan of any other social media content you produce — they are the social media version of a gift that just keeps giving!

Scheduling Stats:

• Choose two weekdays that work well for you. Mondays and Wednesdays work well, as they are earlier in the week, giving you more days to share them through other social networks.

• Posting in the morning will also mean that you’ll have more flexibility for sharing throughout the day.

• As previously mentioned, two times per week is perfect for blogging. Any less and you’re simply not putting out enough content to stay relevant with your reader base. More than that  is great, if you have some extra time or ideas kicking around, but two posts a week has the best return on investment.

Check bit.ly for more great stats on content timing

As with all things in life, your social schedule is unique to you. These suggestions are a general guideline.

Once you’ve been actively scheduling posts for a while, and built a bit of an audience, try using an app like followerwonk (for Twitter), to assess what times are most effective for you personally. You may be shocked to learn that posting content at three in the morning is actually the best possible time for your gluten-free taco truck business… Or that your Facebook Fans are very active on Sundays, and that’s a perfect day for you to post new jobs.

In order for your content and job posts engage and convert, make sure to use a scheduling tool like the one included with the Jobcast Premium Facebook recruiting app. That way you can make sure you’re posting at the best possible times to get your jobs seen.