Samara Parker

Mobility is very important. Which is why I do yoga, even though I think it's kind of boring. I would much rather play a rousing game of one-on-one basketball with my husband (even though he thoroughly trounces me every single game — I blame the height difference). Take care of your mobility or you'll miss out on all kinds of fun! Such as: dancing like a crazy person, scaling the shelves at your local grocery store to reach your favorite chocolate bar, or taking advantage of killer recruiting opportunities. If your social media strategy isn't mobile-compatible, you're missing out on candidates. It's as simple as that. We know that more and more candidates are using their phones and tablets to look for job opportunities. According to this awesome recruitment Infographic, it's around 86% (Although, even I'll admit that seems a tad high.) But still, If your Career Site isn't optimized for mobile, the candidates that do find you via tablet or phone are probably not going to return to your site. In fact, according to this survey 46% of mobile users will not return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone! We believe that being optimized for mobile, means more than having a Career Page that doesn't break when candidates try to access it on their phones. A truly mobile-friendly site is responsive, which means it is flexible enough to work on a range of different devices. We really focus on this, because our app is built for Facebook and the amount of Facebook users accessing the social network via mobile just keeps growing. We also help employers recruit via social networks like Twitter, and through job boards, which have also seen a huge jump in mobile users. Candidate experience aside, mobile compatibility even matters for SEO — big time! Google recently announced that if sites are not mobile-optimized they will be demoted in search rank. This makes a lot of sense considering that 1 in 5 of their users are accessing the web from mobile devices. Google will be using a speed ranking for mobile, and they also highly recommend avoiding Adobe Flash as it's not smartphone-friendly. Wow. I think that's our most serious Link Love to date! Mobile isn't all stats and business though. It is also super fun. Remember when we made a Vine recruiting video? That was hilarious. Nowhere near as awesome as these incredible Vine videos by Ian Padgham though. Well, that's all the links for today. Hopefully they inspire you get a bit more mobile. If you have any tips or advice for mobile optimization, or on how I can improve my basketball skills, let us know in the comments!

We’ve been talking a lot about staying relevant on the blog lately.

Because, when it comes to social recruiting, staying up to date on all the latest trends in media and technology is crucial to being successful.

Right now nothing is more relevant than mobile.

Last year alone saw the use of mobile increase by 103%. More than 2 out of 3 Facebook users log on via mobile, and even more importantly, about 1 in 6 users use Facebook from mobile exclusively.

And not only are people using mobile more often, they are using it specifically to hunt for work. According to a recent article on Mashable, 77% of  job seekers surveyed were using mobile for this purpose. This is not only because of the increased use of smart phones and tablets for searching in general, it is also because people do not want to look at career sites from their work computers. They use personal devices to keep their searches private from their employers.

If you want those candidates to apply for, or even to view your job posts, you must optimize your Facebook Career Site for mobile.

And yet, far too many Facebook Career sites are not. In fact, in a recent survey, we found that only 1 in 20 of the career sites we looked at were mobile-friendly.

This is why we think it is so important to provide mobile optimization for Jobcast Premium users!

Facebook won’t allow apps to work in-site on mobile devices, this makes mobile tricky. To work around Facebook’s rules, and ensure that your job posts are mobile friendly, you can use Jobcast to set up a fully-branded custom URL.

Your custom URL is smart, so when a candidate clicks through it, if they are using desktop, they’ll see the desktop version of your job post, and if they are on mobile, they’ll be directed to the mobile version of your Facebook Career Site.

The mobile version of your app uses ‘responsive’ design.

Responsive design means that your Career Page will detect the gadget that your visitor is using, how big or small their viewing screen is, and then responsively redraw the Page to make it easiest to read.

This is extremely important because job seekers are looking at your posts from all different sizes and types of devices, so responsive design is essential to candidate experience.

No more awkward, squinting, pinch/zoom job hunting!

The easier it is for candidates to find jobs on your Page, the more applications you’ll get. It’s as simple as that. As we’ve already shown, more candidates than ever before are searching for jobs on Facebook using mobile devices. This means you need your Facebook Career Site to be responsive and optimized for mobile.

Here’s how to get your own custom Smart URL!

First, pour yourself a cup of delicious tea, hot or iced, it’s up to you.

Go to your Facebook Company Page and click on your Career Tab. This will direct you to your Career Page.

If you are logged in as an admin (which you must be in order to make changes) you will see an Admin Menu Bar. Click on Manage Jobs.

This will bring you to the Job Management section of Jobcast. Click Customize at the top of your screen to go to the General Settings page.

On this page you will see a space to enter your very own custom URL.

Enter your desired domain name.

HOT TIP: Make it the name of your company, otherwise applicants will be very confused!

Share this new custom URL with everyone you know, link to it on your company site, put it up on LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram, and Tweet the heck out of it.

Yesterday, Facebook webcast its first shareholder meeting live.

This meant that anyone with access to the internet could sit in and observe. Pretty crazy, especially when you think back to 10 years ago, when it was barely possible to stream low-res cartoons.

For today’s Link Love, in honor of our ability to watch Facebook do business in action, we thought we’d highlight some cool Facebook news from around the web.

This article goes into some detail about the recent Facebook shareholder meeting. It shows their current stock performance and explains Zuckerberg’s strategy (which basically boils down to : THINK LONG TERM.)

Something that should make stockholders happy is Facebook’s increased focus on improving services for businesses. According to this article, one way in which FB is going to do that is by giving Facebook Ads a big face-lift. Which kills two birds with one stone by making businesses happy, and by setting up that terrible pun!

Speaking of ads, this blog post by Joe McCormack explains the science and art of getting Facebook Ads just right. He also references the Amazing Spiderman, thus providing our quote of the day:

“With great power comes great responsibility”

And as if a Spiderman quote isn’t amazing enough, this next link takes a look at what successful brands are doing right on Facebook, and brings them to life as personas. Okay, so that sounds less amazing than the Spiderman thing, but trust me, it isn’t. This article is hilarious and brilliant. My favorite persona is the “Game Show Host”. Check out Carrie Kerpen’s article to find out which one you like best (or most resemble).

This last link is just for fun. I can’t believe how many posts we’ve done on Facebook, and yet we’ve never featured a link from the ever hilarious Failbook. It could have something to do with the fact that much of what they post is completely inappropriate for work… But this one is G-rated, so click away!

Happy Facebooking!

What better way to learn than by studying other successful people?

I've learned everything I know by imitating comic book characters and Jamie Oliver. Hence my fantastic salad making abilities and wicked crime fighting skills.

When it comes to learning new tricks, examples go a long, long way.

We're always paying attention to companies who are super at social recruiting because it's the best way to take your Facebook recruiting practices to the next level.

Unlike cooking and rescuing redheaded reporters from danger, Facebook recruiting is still relatively new. But luckily there are still lots of innovative early adopters to learn from.

We put together some examples of specific best practices employed by family-run business Gordon Food Service, hospitality giant Hotel Marriott, and the province of Saskatchewan. All three of these businesses provide fantastic examples for any employer interested in giving Facebook recruiting a try. We'll explain how you can learn from their example and apply their strategies to your own recruiting.

Gordon Food Service

Gordon Food Service has made their Facebook Career Page a place where people can get a more in-depth look at what their company culture is really like. How their staff interact, what their values are, and what the company prioritizes are all showcased on their Facebook Career Page.

GFS uses Facebook to communicate their brand message not just to candidates, but also to current and potential customers. This is why they make branding a key part of their Facebook Career Page.

What can you learn from Gordon Food Service's strategy?

Use your Facebook Career Page to express company culture and promote your brand.

All of Gordon Food Service's content is valuable, in that it is useful to clients and potential candidates. The GFS Facebook Career Page is fully branded with company colors and a custom banner to maintain brand consistency. They post updates about community service projects, fun staff activities, and sponsored events. GFS also posts food-related questions to their fans, topical articles, and great tips on new trends in food. GFS engages with their fans by creating dialogue and asking and answering questions, which has garnered them a very loyal Facebook following. Check out their Company Page and you'll find tons of positive comments and thank yous from their customers and employees.

Follow their lead and your Facebook Career Page will grow your brand and your talent pool.

Next up, Hotel Marriott

Hotel Marriott turned the social recruiting world on its head by using a social game to recruit thousands of hourly workers for their massive expansion outside of the U.S.

Potential hires create their own virtual restaurant, buy equipment and ingredients on a budget, hire and train employees, and serve customers. Gamers earn points for happy customers… and lose points for poor service. Players' success is based on their operation turning a profit.

What can you learn from Marriott?

Experiment

I'm not suggesting you invest thousands in creating a virtual game - far from it! But trying new social strategies will set your employer brand apart.

Try out different kinds of content, posting on different days or at different times, and maybe even make a short recruiting video. You won't know what works best for you unless you experiment.

And last, but most definitely not least, Think Sask Jobs!

The Think Sask Jobs campaign is an effort to brand the Province of Saskatchewan as an awesome place to live and work, in order to fill the many new jobs created by its booming economy. Phoenix Group has been incredibly successful in using Facebook to create an Employer brand for Saskatchewan. Their page has over 5,000 Likes and their average daily reach is around 1.7 million users.

What can you learn from the Think Sask Jobs campaign?

Have a Game Plan

Much of their success is owed to the creation of a brilliant and specific social strategy. Phoenix group researched how frequently they should post, what days and time work best, and what kinds of content are the most appealing to the workers that Saskatchewan needs.

They then created a game plan based on their research.

For example, the content posted on the Think Sask Company page is divided evenly into three categories: job postings, posts about how to get hired in Saskatchewan, local culture and fun lifestyle-related content. That way they know exactly what kind of content is needed each day.

Even the choice of Facebook as a medium for their social recruiting effort was based on solid research into where potential candidates were looking for jobs.

Researching before beginning a social recruiting campaign is a must (you can start with this article about how to use Facebook for recruiting), as is creating a plan to guide your efforts.

What do all three have in common?

All of these businesses uses metrics to measure their success. Tracking what works and what doesn't is an important part of any recruiting campaign, social or not! That's why the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app supplies an easy way to view reports and statistics. You can't move forward without knowing where you've been, so make sure you keep your metrics up to date. For that we recommend using the super effective combination of the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app and Facebook Insights.

Hopefully these awesome Facebook recruiting examples inspire you the way they do us, happy social recruiting!

If you want to be popular you need to stay on trend. Personally I find this very difficult to do. I do not enjoy fashion magazines or shopping. I am also quite short, so I often end up in the children's section of clothing stores. And trust me, nothing says "this chick is not hip" like a pair of velcro sneakers with Dora the Explorer emblazoned on the side. Not only am I not a particularly stylish dresser, but my taste in general is "pretty lame" (according to my hipster friends at least). I still get really excited by board games, and haven't updated my gym playlist in years. Why would I? What could be better than Will Smith's Getting Jiggy With It for getting your pump on?! Thankfully, when it comes to social media, I actually enjoy trend watching. Every morning I sit down with a cup of black coffee and skim through Feedly to see what's trending in the blogosphere. There's always some awesome new app to check out, or Facebook update to complain about, and sometimes if I'm lucky, there's a gorgeous new Infographic for me to download and save as the background for my iPad (Looking at you Leader's West!) Catch-up time means I'm usually pretty behind when it comes to world news, but I make up for that by compiling links for the Jobcast blog's Link Love Wednesday. I figure, if I share enough cool stuff in our Link Loves, you'll forgive me for not knowing the results of Pakistan's latest election. So here is my humble plea for forgiveness, in the form of Links that will help you stay on trend: Trends are in a constant state of flux, as it's the nature of the beast! Just when you think you've got your social media strategy down, some new social network comes along to shake things up. The only way to deal with this constant flow of new technology is to stay open-minded and curious. Easier said than done! Which is why this piece on accepting change in a fast paced world by HR Bartender is so awesome. Staying open to new things is a great idea in general, especially when they can save you time and money! This is why I highly recommend embracing the new move towards sharing platforms. Both because they are a great way to save your hard-earned dollars (three cheers for Airbnb), and also (at least according to Cameron Scott) sharing platforms are the next revolution in social technology. I have to say, I think he's on to something. Speaking of revolutions, apparently the next wave of innovations in recruiting will all have to do with improving candidate experience. Fistful of Talent shares some companies and apps looking to spearhead this movement by making job applications less complicated and the candidate experience less stressful and more fun. Occasionally (okay, often!), being hip has a bit of a dark side. That dark side is blatantly apparent when it comes to the new and controversial web site, Beautifulpeople.com. Basically, the site is a place where employers can go to hire good looking candidates. And really, if the classic American film 'Zoolander' has taught us anything, it's that being incredibly good looking makes you trendy and popular. Hiring only attractive people seems to work well for companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, but this site still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth! A more tasteful, and far less shallow, way to boost your popularity is by improving your SEO.

Here's how to get your site on the front page of Google's search results by updating your SEO. These tips are pretty straightforward, and accurate according to my very own SEO guru (i.e. my husband). Alright hipsters, happy link loving! Oh, and one last tip for being cool, remember these words the next time you're doing some networking: "Be there, be awesome, be gone"

I don't know about you, but I still get squeamish every time I see someone in their early twenties sporting a neck tattoo. Don't even get me started about face tattoos. This isn't because I don't like body art. I've been sporting some (IMHO) pretty lovely tattoos on my right arm for the last 8 years. I think tattoos are gorgeous... well, maybe not all tattoos, but I certainly enjoy the art-form in general. The thing is: my tattoos are easily covered. I think that my grandparents aren't even aware of their existence (thankfully they do not own a computer, so my secret is safe!) A face tattoo is not. And I am simply not hip enough to accept that having a giant ice-cream cone tattooed on your cheek isn't going to get in the way of the more conventional career aspirations that you might develop in the future. This is probably because I am getting old. The twenty-one year-olds who hang out at my local cafe think I am ridiculous. According to them, by the time they'll be looking for a "grown-up" job, everyone and their grandma will be sporting tattoos, piercings, and Google Glass. Some how I doubt it. Google Glass totally confuses old people. But, they have a point. Staying relevant matters. Especially when it comes to social media. We've dedicated entire posts about how to stay up to date with Facebook updates, there's a new social network emerging every five minutes (I'm looking at you Snapchat!), and there are HR gurus who specialize entirely in recruiting generation #, or whatever letter of the alphabet we're onto now... So how do you stay relevant as an employer? How do you make your Facebook content appeal to younger generations with tastes that you (and I) don't even begin understand? And should you even bother? Well that last question is pretty easy to answer. Of course you should bother. Especially if you are interesting in recruiting younger workers, but not exclusively. Trends that appeal mainly to the young and hip today, will be the same trends that appeal to the general public in the future. I remember when "skinny jeans" were worn exclusively by skinny hipsters with horn-rimmed glasses, but now they're pretty much the only option available for purchase at H&M (much to the chagrin of those of us with athletic quads). Staying on top of emerging social media and recruiting trends helps keep you relevant, prepared, and engaging. It's also not particularly difficult, so I'll walk you through a few ideas. Know what's out there

You don't have to watch Bob's Burgers nor find PSY's dancing particularly entertaining, but it's important to be in the know about current pop culture. Memes, TV, music, and design shapes people's worldview, and dictates the kind of content they want to engage with.

• Use a content aggregator to compile popular content from the web for you, so that you don't have to spend hours surfing the net and randomly googling "what are the kids into these days?".

• Alltop is awesome!

• Organize, and keep tabs on your favorite sites with online "Reader" apps like Feedly. Apps like this help prevent you from missing important content and updates.

• Diversify the sites you follow. If you only check out content related to HR, company branding, and business, you're not being exposed to anything all that new. Yes, you'll get important tips on running your business / hiring (like these ones!), but you're not going to find out about the next big social network, or hilarious new memes. A few sites I highly recommend are: Know Your Meme, Co.Design, LifeHacker, and TheNextWeb. But there are so many more... your can discover them with your new-found content aggregator!

Embrace quirky

No, I'm not telling you to track down Zooey Deschanel and smother her with hugs. You would be promptly arrested if you did. Trust me. Not fun. What I am suggesting is heading off the beaten path a little bit. It has worked wonders for companies like Arena Flowers, whose completely ridiculous, non-flower-related Tweets have garnered them a huge cult-following and majorly increased their sales. It's also the reason that so many Facebook marketers are turning to Someecards to engage their customers. Companies like Ford, Bravo, and ABC are using branded e-cards to make their advertising pitches more engaging with humor. Someecards work, because they push the boundaries of acceptable professional interaction, they are hilarious, and they are totally different from the type of ads people have grown used (and immune) to. These same points are all totally relevant to recruiters. Using witty, boundary-pushing Facebook content to reach out to potential candidates is more engaging than business-related content. It also shows that your company culture is experimental, interesting, and fun (important traits to younger and older candidates alike).

Try things

So, as previously alluded to, skinny jeans don't really work for me, but I gave them a shot. Converse high-tops, on the other hand — totally perfect. They are comfortable and cheap, and even more importantly they make me look edgy and help to offset my less-than-cool mom-jeans. Basically, they are everything I've ever wanted in a shoe. In order to find your social media version of high-tops, you'll need to try things out. Maybe Pinterest doesn't fit your strategy quite right, but Twitter is perfect. Tumblr leaves you feeling less than confident, but Facebook makes your employer brand shine! You'll never know unless you try. Trying out new strategies is pretty easy and you can even try using some of these tips to help you navigate most social networks successfully. Just make sure to track your social recruiting metrics, so you can make informed decisions about what works for you and what doesn't. Happy Facebook recruiting!

Measure twice post once. Except that you actually have to post more than once in order to effectively grow your employer brand... At least, that's what most of the Infographics floating around on Pinterest say. Moving on, and far away from that terrible analogy, today's Link Love is all about metrics. Every employer (and their cat) knows that metrics are super important when it comes to recruiting. Mostly thanks to Monday's article explaining the importance of metrics for Facebook recruiting. You're welcome. That article also gave some pretty solid advice about what metrics employers need to track, and how to best make use of the collected data. Double you're welcome. But, and I do not say this lightly, there are other worthwhile resources out there to help you better understand, track, and use your hiring metrics. Shocking! I know. As much as I would like to ignore those other resources, so as to remain your sole source of information on all things Facebook recruiting, I couldn't live with myself if I did that. I link because I love!

So let's get to it

Firstly, here's a great (i.e. short) list of which hiring metrics to track, and why you need to track them. These metrics apply not just to finding more candidates, but also how to improve the future of your company culture through improved staffing. Secondly, more metrics you should track! The first list is super short, so a few more won't hurt — you'll be fine. TLNT shares what data you should measure to make sure you're hiring great people. Thirdly, for those of you who want a more in-depth understanding of Facebook data tracking, AllFacebook explains the essentials of Facebook metrics. Fourthly, there's an app for that! Not for creating fourth links, but for tracking metrics. Kissmetrics can help you track all kinds of data, and they even have a specific service that works with Facebook analytics. They also put out an abundance of awesome Infographics. You simply can't go wrong with more Infographics. Fifthly (is that actually a word?), I think we can all agree, the content put out by LifeHacker is pretty darn great. Their guide to working harder, better, and faster is no exception. Especially this section on how to organize your data, because if you don't organize the hiring and social media metrics you gather, you'll never be able to put them to good use! And put them to great use you shall, with link number six (because sixthly just sounds wrong): Heidi Cohen's advice on how to assess and reassess your social media strategy to make it better. We hope you enjoy these fantastic articles as much as we did. If you have any great tips about hiring metrics, let us know in the comments. We shall track that data and use it to provide you with even more great blog posts. Teamwork!

No metric exists that can be applied directly to happiness. Don't even try! Unless your happiness is causatively related to your success at Facebook recruiting. That's just basic science. Recruiting is tough, anything that makes it simpler is bound to make you happier. Not just because it means finding more and better candidates, but also because when your recruiting is more efficient, it frees up time for you to focus on other things. Such as employer branding, achieving inbox zero, and napping. So, if you want to spend more time catching up on beauty sleep, I highly recommend you make metrics your best friend.

Metrics are important 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 social recruiting campaigns were successful (or not) is fundamental for improving your future endeavors. Employers need to track hiring metrics in order to gauge a return on investment for their talent. Understanding recruiting metrics will help you cut time and costs spent on recruiting by showing you what's working (and, of course, what's not). For Facebook recruiting, this means using Facebook Insights. Facebook Insights provide you with data about your Page's performance. You can use Insights to gather demographic data about your audience, see how people are finding your content, and get an overview of how users are reacting to what you post. You do need to have at least 30 Likes in order to use Facebook Insights. If you don't have at least that many likes, I highly recommend reading this post to get more Facebook Likes and improve engagement. We know that people are flocking to Facebook in search of work like never before, but in order to attract these job seekers, you must put out engaging content. The more that a fan interacts with your content, the more likely it is that Facebook will send them your future posts and updates — unless you want to pay for promoted content, but that's a whole 'nother story. So, upping user engagement is a must if you want to improve your recruiting. That's why tracking how users react to your content is so important. Facebook Insights provides the info to make this possible. Facebook provides two types of Insights:

User Insights

• Total Page Likes, recent Likes/Unlikes and their sources, daily active users, demographics, and Page views/unique Page views.

The information provided by this type of "Insight" helps you garner a greater overall picture of your Page's progress. Who you are reaching (demographics), if your Facebook employer brand is growing steadily (Page Likes and views), and whether your Fan engagement is climbing or not (daily active users). This info is important to track so that you know whether or not your Page is progressing in the right direction. Interactions Insights

• Post Likes, post comments, impressions per post, Page mentions, and wall and video posts.

This is where you glean information about specific posts. Interaction Insights are incredibly important when it comes to content. You need to know which posts are getting the most Likes, Unlikes, comments, and impressions (how much your post has been seen) in order to determine how to shape future content. You can experiment with posting at different times of day, using different types of images, and even trying out different word choices. Then check Insights to see what works best to engage your fans. For example, try using a specific "Call to Action" in your job posts, and see how that affects engagement. For more about what Insights you need to be tracking, check out this great article. Using Facebook Insights to track and measure how people are responding to your posts is the best way to figure out how to adjust future content to make your Facebook job posts more effective. But, but when it comes to recruiting, you also need to understand where your applications and hires are coming from, and that's where the Jobcast app can help. The Jobcast Facebook recruiting app supplies users with 3 types of reports to let employers know which social networks work best for their recruiting: Job Views by Source, Applicants by Source, and Hires By Source. All three matter. While it is great to get the most eyes possible on your job posts, knowing which sites facilitate the most applications, and which sites reach the right candidates, is also important. If Twitter gets you the most views, but LinkedIn gets you the most applications, then you should probably focus your efforts on LinkedIn. Unless you notice that while you do get a lot of applications from LinkedIn, you still end up mostly hiring candidates who've applied in response to your Facebook job posts, then it's Facebook recruiting for the win! One quick note before I end this post and take my well-deserved siesta: In order to use the Hires by Source Report, you must remember to mark your candidate as "Hired" within the app when you close your job post. Otherwise you won't be able to track where your hires are coming from and will never be able to take a nap. And nobody wants that. Happy recruiting!

Good advice is great. It informs, motivates, and generally helps us do things better. Monday's blog explored advice from the most fundamental source imaginable... Parents! Typically advice from parents is about hygiene, savings, and not riding motorcycles. You know — annoying advice! My parents are no exception, hence my sad lack of motorcycle skills. But they have both been working in HR for over 30 years, so they know a thing or two about recruiting. Which means they are an awesome, but unconventional, source of wisdom when it comes to all things HR. This almost makes up for the motorcycle. Almost! Todays links are all about advice and lessons from places we wouldn't usually think to look. Like surfers. Yup. Surfers. What, you ask, do surfers have to do with business? Well, other than motivating us to finish up early so we can hit the beach. Not much. Oh, except maybe how to put an end to procrastination, learn to except failure, and generally get more stuff done in a day. Okay, I take it back, that's a lot! Next up: cartoons. I'll admit it, I've learned quite a bit from cartoons over the years. How to fight crime, look good in tights, and the importance of masks... But for most normal humans they are not a staple source of advice. These HR-themed cartoons presented by the Harvard Business blog may change your mind. They are a great little reminder of stuff we already know, but tend to forget. I'm especially fond of the first one, which reminds us not to get carried away by fancy titles and qualifications when recruiting. What matters is finding the right candidate for the position. It is also hilarious! One of the biggest hurdles we face when it comes to getting our jobs done is energy. No employer wants to be so tired that they forget to post new job openings on their Facebook Career Page, forget a candidate's name, or worse, fall asleep mid-interview! Embarrassing. If this sounds too familiar, then maybe it's time to seek the advice of a nutritionist. According to Inc. Magazine, the food we eat can make us more productive and energetic. Here's a list of foods you should snack on to boost productivity. All of them look super tasty too, except maybe flax seeds... but hey, chocolate made number seven! This last link is my favorite. Yes, it even beat out the article advising higher consumption of dark chocolate (though I am currently munching on cacao nibs!) This blog post is about how you can learn to be successful on the internet by watching Family Guy. You heard me, Family Guy! Even better, it recommends taking a cue from an episode of Family Guy referencing Star Wars. Nerd-heaven. So there you have it. Go surfing, read the funny pages, eat more chocolate, and watch Family Guy. Not only will your life be more awesome, but you'll up your productivity and garner internet success!

This past week, I found myself smack-dab in the middle of the most intense HR/social recruiting conference in the history of the world.

I’m calling it Parental HR SmackDown 2013 (#psmack2013)

Yup, my parents flew all the way out to Holland, stayed with us in our tiny loft apartment, and (very kindly) answered all of my questions about recruiting. They also ate a lot of cheese, walked the canals, and enjoyed Belgian beers.

.. but back to the recruiting.

Why would I choose to devote any of this precious family-time to talking shop? Well, you can only say so much about canals and cheese before you need to shake things up. And, even more importantly, my parents have over 60 years of HR experience combined. They are certified HR nerds.

When it comes to finding great candidates, coming up with effective interview questions, drafting contracts, and pretty much anything to do with HR, my parents know their stuff. Since covering all of these themes in a single blog post would be crazy, let’s focus on a topic that gets my parents pretty fired up.

Wait for it…..

Job posts!

Told you they were nerds.

So without further adieu: How to write a job post that will make your my parents proud!

Rule #1 Make a list

We’re going to start with the most important thing you can do, according to both of my parents: Write down what you picture your ideal candidate to be. Make a list of what qualities you are looking for, what your deal breakers are, and what level of education you want them to have.

“You would not believe how many times I’ve been brought in to consult, asked what skills and qualities I need to screen for, and been told by clients that they’ll know it when they see it”

Said my pops, obviously rather frustrated.

“You will not know it when you see it!”

Starting a hiring campaign before you know exactly what you are looking for wastes time. In order to write job posts that will attract the type of candidates you want to hire, you need to know who those candidates are.

Smack… Down!

Rule #2 Tailor your posts to your desired audience

Seeing as you already know what you are looking for in a candidate, now all you have to do is figure out what they want from you.

According to my mother, the best way cut down on resumes from the non-ideal candidates and to attract the ideal ones, is to highlight the right aspects of your company culture and of the position on offer.

For example, studies show that young professionals now rate flexible hours over salary in order of importance when it comes to accepting a position. So, if you offer flexible hours, make a point of saying that in your job post. If you are trying to hire more women, point to your awesome daycare program. If you’re looking to hire young hourly workers, talking retirement plans isn’t going to peak a lot of interest; Job perks (like staff meals) will.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you have a specific management philosophy, strong company values, or cultivate a specific kind of company culture, make sure you address it in your job posts. Doing so will attract candidates that are the right fit for your company, which is hugely important when it comes to retention.

Rule #3 Include salient details, but don’t forget the basics

Daycare, flexible work hours, vacation plan, lifestyle perks, and other positive things you offer candidates should be included in your job posts, but so should the less exciting stuff.

Salary, location, hours, education requirements, a specific description of basic duties, if uniforms are required, and any other pertinent information should be disclosed.

Even if you aren’t offering the best wages out there, you should still include salary in your post. People are actually much more likely to respond to job posts that disclose salary, even if that salary isn’t the highest on offer.

Even more importantly, being upfront and clear about the basic requirements you need candidates to meet cuts down on time spent interviewing people who are not a good fit. Which means cutting down on how much you spend on hiring consultants… like my dad. He’s retired now, so it’s safe to print that!

Rule #4 Call them to action!

When posting jobs on Facebook, end with a strong call to action. This last rule is entirely my own. It’s a little more recruiting 2.0, but my parents vetted it, so I feel safe including it.

The best way to get Facebook users to do what you what them to do? Tell them to do it. If you want people (other than your parents) to engage with the content you post on Facebook, you need to include call to actions in your posts.

For example:

We’re looking for a talented graphic designer, who has hands-on experience in the field of app development, and enjoys a fast-paced and challenging work environment.

Does this sound like you? If so, apply now!

And there we have it. If you want to attract candidates, keep hiring costs down, and earn the respect of my parents, just follow those 4 simple rules.

Have any tips on writing more effective job posts? Tell us in the comments!

(See what I just did there?!)