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You want the truth?! Well, that's awesome; because I'm pretty sure you can handle the truth. Maybe not the truth about corruption in the armed forces, or extra-terrestrial life… But the truth about Facebook Recruiting? No problem. Last week's Link Love was a long one, so to balance things out, this one will be as short as Tom Cruise sans-lifts and as sweet as Mission Impossible 1. It will also be more useful than both of those things combined, although slightly less entertaining. These links provide some true facts, pertinent stats and straight-talk about Facebook recruiting. Well start with the meatiest link. This survey about the American workforce and Facebook recruiting, put out by Jobvite, shows that job seekers are flocking to Facebook to find work like never before. It also reveals that Facebook is the leading social network in the American workforce, mostly because of stats like this one:

“52% of job seekers use Facebook to help find work.”(2012)

Our next study, by Simply Measured, explains the positive impact of Facebook Timeline for brands. It’s a great little chart that squeezes in a lot of detail, but still manages to be easy to understand. The major takeaway is that “brands receive on average 46% more engagement per post with Timeline.” Getting back to stats that are specific to recruiting on Facebook, here’s a case-study showing that Facebook is an effective tool to recruit for the restaurant industry. Next up, a great piece by Business 2 Community which compiles a huge amount of Facebook marketing stats that can be applied primarily to employer branding, but also recruiting. The most interesting, in my humble opinion, is the one stating that “80% of Social Network Users Prefer to Connect with Brands through Facebook.” Our last link is not for the faint of heart, or anyone with a short attention span.  With this in-depth study, Pew Internet gets into the nitty gritty of how social sharing works on Facebook, and Facebook’s user demographics. The link will take you to a chart of who’s using Facebook, and what they’re using it for. The chart is very large, and very detailed. I suggest you grab a cup of coffee before clicking through!

Facebook can be a very needy social network at times! If you want your Facebook posts to be seen and your employer brand to grow, you have to give it what it wants.

Easier said than done!

Thank goodness saying it is super, super easy, so actually doing it is just plain easy. This article will show you how to get Facebook on your side, but first let’s get on the same Page (pun intended!) about what exactly Facebook wants from you. Hint: it ain’t flowers…

What Facebook Wants

Image-Based Content

Facebook doesn’t want you to send a bouquet, but posting an image of a floral arrangement on your timeline is a completely different story!

Facebook has been pushing advertisers for years to incorporate more photos and video into their content strategy. The recent updates to FB’s link share ads and organic posts take these demands for visual content to the next level by upping the ideal image size for these posts to 1200 pixels x 627 pixels, and setting the minimum to 560 x 292.

Timeliness

Just as you don’t want to be the person still talking about the Britney-Madonna music awards kiss fiasco, once everyone else has moved on to the breaking news that is Miley Cyrus’ twerking abilities (or lack thereof!) I mean really, just writing that has stamped a date on this blog post. Facebook posts, much like today’s pop stars, become irrelevant with age. Old posts get pushed to the bottom of Facebook Newsfeed, never to be seen again.

Engagement

Facebook gives priority to content and Pages that are engaging, and they determine engagement by measuring interaction and popularity, or as Facebook refers to it, Affinity and Weight.

Weight is how popular your content is. The amount of shares, Likes, and comments that any given post you share receives (there are a few more nuances that affect the amount of Weight Facebook gives posts, but we’ll tackle that in the hows.)

Affinity is basically how much users interact with your Page. Facebook uses this information to gauge how interested a particular user is in the content you share, which determines how often your posts show up on their feed.

How to Make Facebook Happy

Post ALL the Pictures

This one is kind of a no brainer, but we still see so many employers and recruiters who do not include image-based content as a part of their Facebook recruiting strategy.

A really great way to include pictures, while staying professional and true to your employer brand, is by creating and sharing employee profiles. Use a large-scale image of an employee (you can just use your smartphone, or theirs — no excuses!) accompanied by a short blurb about who they are, what they do, or why they love working for your company. The picture will make Facebook happy, and employee profiles make your company more likable in general. Win-win!

Logitech Careers has some great examples of employee profiles on their Page.

Follow the Rules

Remember how I mentioned earlier that the process by which Facebook decides how much Weight to give the content you share was kind of complex? I hope you do, as it was only a couple hundred words ago! Facebook gives more Weight to posts that follow the rules. Both spoken, and unspoken.

You can find clearcut rules posted on the Facebook Blog. These usually focus on desired image size, amount of characters used, and specific language. It’s also a very good idea to follow InsideFacebook.com for frequent updates, as Facebook really, really loves to change up the rules!

As far as the unspoken rules of Facebook go, I’ll give you a short list:

• More Weight is given to content you upload yourself, i.e. not through third party apps like Youtube or Flickr. So, if you’re going to post a large image, do so directly through the Facebook interface in order to maximize its effectiveness.

• Images and video content get more Weight than links; links get more Weight than plain text.

• You get what you pay for. Promoted posts, ads, and sponsored stories get more, if not the most, Weight. This makes sense as that’s where Facebook makes its money.

Create Your Own Buzz

Boosting engagement can be a tricky thing, especially when you’re first starting out with Facebook Recruiting. We highly recommend using Facebook Ads to improve your reach, but there are a few more tactics you may want to use as well.

First off, get your employees, family, and friends on board (hi mom!). Ask them to share, Like, and comment on your posts as much as possible. If your employees are reluctant to engage with your Company Page, bribe them with pumpkin spice lattes, or smoothies!

Next, tag everyone and everything. Tagging people in posts boosts your popularity points, and alerts them and their friends, which will then hopefully lead to more Likes and shares. Don’t tag people in posts that have nothing to do with them, or they will get grumpy with you, but anytime you post images of staff functions, or employee profiles, then tag everyone involved. Another nice way to include more tags is to post content suggested to you by your staff, and tag them in a ‘thank you’ note. Everyone likes to be appreciated after all.

Be nice to Facebook and Facebook will be nice to you. What are you waiting for? Get out there and get your Facebook recruiting on!

It’s smack dab in the middle of the work week, which means it’s time for some Link Lovin’ to help us get over the hump that is Wednesday. This week has been pretty great for HR and social media related content already, so there’s a lot to choose from, and I want to share ALL the things with all of you! Sadly, this is about as feasible as fitting every, single flavor of gelato into one small sized cone. Which is why I always choose a large cone, and why this week we're going to share 7 links instead of 5. You heard me! It’s about to get crazy:

Crazy relaxing that is! First up is my very favorite link of the week. It’s my favorite for two very obvious reasons: it’s and Infographic, and it’s about napping. The science behind taking a perfect nap has been compiled into an Infographic  and published by the Wall Street Journal, so you know it’s legit. Napping boosts happiness and productivity, which is why better napping will make you better at your job and a better coworker. Big thanks to Jim Dougherty for bringing this cool graphic to my (and now your) attention! Now for something a little more serious, but still pretty darn cool! Did you know that Facebook daily active user (DAU) numbers in Europe grew from 127 million to 182 million DAU. Ad revenue in Europe went from $245 million to $451 million from 2011 to 2013? Talk about global reach! To help companies capitalize on this crazy growth Facebook’s ad goals for the future are to become even simpler and more worldwide. The article linked does a great job of explaining these goals and what they mean for you. Do you find yourself easily distracted by simplicity and pretty colours? That’s okay, so do I, and, according to Laurie Ruettimann so do most humans. This is why Laurie has laid out some great advice for choosing HR software without being sidetracked by flashy design. Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest impact. Productivity is so important; we all want to be more productive all of the time. Sites like Lifehacker, books like The 4 Hour Work-Week, and apps like The Jobcast Facebook Recruiting App are all a response to this need. But it’s also important to remember how basic things, like taking notes with pen and paper, are often just as important for productivity as any high tech tool.

Bullet Journal is a great reminder of just how great a simple notebook can be. Speaking of technology VS old-school methods, Morgan Hoogvelts’ latest article for ERE.net advises recruiters to remember the basic principles of hiring. It’s true, love Facebook recruiting, but he makes some darn fine points with this post.

LinkedIn is gearing up to add more bells and whistles to their platform. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy LinkedIn and am really looking forward to the improved communication these updates will bring, I just wish they would improve their mobile app first! The final article is from Inc Magazine and contains the Link Love quote of the week!

“People aren't engaged by programs; they're engaged by people.”

Important words to keep in mind when using social platforms to recruit, and when trying to get employees on board with your Facebook recruiting strategy and employer branding endeavours.  The article from which this quote is pulled explains why most employee engagement programs fail, and what to do about it! Happy Link Loving, if you have any articles you’d like to share, let us know in the comments.

Facebook is a brilliant tool for marketing, as many companies have already learned. This is why more and more big brands, like Coca-Cola and American Express, have been diverting significant amounts of their marketing budgets into Facebook marketing. And their results have been fantastic. What makes Facebook the number one choice for these brands, and why does it work so well? Facebook does what 140 character Tweets simply can’t: it allows brands to tell stories. Stories like the ones that Dove shares on their Facebook Page. From their Real Beauty Sketches campaign, to their recent wedding-themed posts, Dove is giving their customers what they want by crafting interesting, often heartwarming, stories, that people can relate to and be inspired by. Facebook is perfect for brand storytelling because the content that is shared has a longer shelf life, lasting for several hours, unlike Tweets (which disappear within a few minutes). Because of this relative longevity, brands are able to chain posts together, creating a narrative as they unfold. This narrative can seamlessly integrate text, links, video, and images to hold fans' attentions and keep them coming back for more. Brand storytelling does a lot more than just sell products; it establishes a company’s identity and builds up their loyal customer base. The same is true for companies looking to recruit and grow talent communities. An employer brand story is one of the best ways to illustrate to potential candidates why they should want to work for your company. Since the introduction of Facebook Timeline last year, it has become critical for employers, if they want to increase engagement, to make the shift from simply blasting out messages, to creating meaningful stories. Facebook Timeline presents Company Pages in a much more visual way, with a focus on interactive content. This has changed how employers and recruiters must interact with potential hires and applicants to successfully engage with them on the social network. In fact, since the introduction of Timeline, successful branding on the Facebook platform has become pretty much entirely dependent on creating, and elaborating upon stories. A focus on storytelling is effective because it creates a more meaningful relationship between employer brands and their Facebook community. Engaged talent communities participate in social sharing, which helps employers grow their reach and expand their talent communities even further. Here are three ways you can share your employer brand story on Facebook

Talk about your past

More specifically, tell the story of your company’s history. Talk about when and why your company started. Explain what motivated its creation and whether or not that motivation remains the same.

For example, Gatorade was originally made by researchers at the University of Florida to help replenish the electrolyte stores of athletes and was named for the assistance it provided to their football team: The Florida Gators. It was also, according to Gators alumni, completely disgusting. Every company has an origin story and sharing yours is a fun way to show off your employer brand’s roots. Share your causes

If your company has a cause it supports, or a mission statement that shapes its decision making, show it to your potential hires! People want to work for businesses they can be proud of. If your company participates in fundraising, has a really progressive equal rights policy, or is making the world a better place in some other way, tell that story! I’ll use Dove as an example again here, because they do the best job of this that I’ve ever seen. My husband actually emailed me the Youtube video of their Real Beauty Sketches campaign with the caption: “this made me cry, you have to watch it.” They also use their Facebook Page to discuss the terrible body-images issues plaguing so many women today, which tells a brand story of compassion, and support for women. Telling an employer brand story in this way is inspiring to potential candidates, because everyone wants to make a positive difference with the work that they do. Tell your brand story through your employees

Years ago I worked for a super hip restaurant. They had their Twitter account, Instagram, and Facebook branding down pat. So, when I told them I was going to compete in the infamous Tough Mudder obstacle run, they made sure I was sporting a branded t-shirts and trucker hat, and they shared updates of my adventure through their social networks, joking that I was powered by pork (it was a BBQ Joint after all!) When your employees do interesting things, share them! Post images, quote them, make them a part of your story. This is a great way to let potential hires get to know your team, and create original content for your Facebook Page that will appeal across the board. Check out what Earl's Restaurant has done with their "Earls Wants You" Facebook Recruiting Campaign for an awesome example of employer brand storytelling.

Although it’s probably a terrible idea to date our blog content this way, I just can’t help myself…

September is here; it’s time to go back to school. Recruiting School that is! (So cheesy, yet so satisfying.)

This week’s Link Love will get you educated, and you won’t even need to sign up for an online course, or community college, or play beer pong!

From recruiting millennials, to not horribly offending your potential hires, each of these articles is a wealth of information for employers and recruiters alike.

Let the learning begin!

Millennials 101

Millennials are the new black, and not because they are trendy, but because they now make up a large percentage of job seekers. So, it’s important to know exactly how Gen Y feels about social media in the workforce and this article will teach you everything you need to know on the subject.

Millennials 102

Delving further into the topic of Gen Y, Dan Schawbel’s latest article for Harvard Biz is entitled: You’re Probably Wrong About Millennials!

I love, love, love Dan’s advice “to drop generational stereotypes and give Gen Y employees a chance to prove themselves.” And his down-to-earth tips for getting the most out of your millennial employees.

Facebook Edgerank 101

Warning, it is extremely helpful to re-visit Facebook Ads 101 before enrolling in this course!

In this excellent post, Meredith Soleau, breaks down exactly how you can beat Facebook Edgerank to get your job posts seen, liked, and shared. This article is mandatory for any student looking to pursue Facebook recruiting.

Tutorial: Avoiding Interview Disasters

Recruiting doesn’t end at converting candidates into applicants. You also have to interview those applicants and convince them that they want to work for you!

Here’s how to avoid the 7 deadly sins of the interviewing process by Ken Sundheim.

Employee Satisfaction 300 Level

Now that you’ve learned how to reach candidates, convert them into applicants, and interview those applicants like a *baws*, it’s time to talk about retention. Here’s how to reward employees the right way, and to make them feel appreciated while boosting retention.

Stay tuned for next week’s Link Love, where we discuss how to pack healthy lunches for recruiters, and how to keep office bullies at bay!

Unless, of course, I decide to cover a topic that is slightly more pertinent to our readers… Speaking of pertinent, if you have any links that you think we should feature, or ideas for blog topics, let us know in the comments.

Do employers actually reach candidates through Facebook, and, if so, what are the numbers?

I know you’ve all been waiting for the last two weeks, with bated breath, for the answer to this question! Sorry that I made you wait so long, but our interview with Jessica Slusar about Earls’ Facebook recruiting strategy was so awesome, we just couldn’t wait to publish it. I would also like to say, that the stats and advice we shared in that interview do a pretty good job of showing just how effective Facebook recruiting is.

Yes, Employers do actually convert candidates with Facebook recruiting.

Read our interview with Jessica about Earls’ super-successful Facebook recruiting campaign, or head on over to the Leaders West Blog to check out a case-study on Earls’ super-effective employer branding, and you’ll see just how well it does work.

What? You want even more proof?!

Okay, I aim to please:

52% of job seekers used Facebook to look for work in 2012. (Mashable)

So, yes, there are real candidates on the social network who want to apply for your jobs. This is especially true of younger demographics, so if you are looking to hire for customer service and other hourly positions, Facebook is an especially useful tool.

22 million people surveyed used social media to find their last job in 2012. That’s up from 14.4 in 2011. (Jobvite survey)

Okay, so that stat is not specific to Facebook, but it is relevant. It’s pretty safe to assume that quite a few of those 14.4 million were using LinkedIn, but it’s also important to point out that recent grads, those looking for work in trades and construction, and people looking for hourly positions, are not LinkedIn’s traditional user base. So, if you are looking to fill positions within those demographics, Facebook is a far better choice.

84% of job seekers have a Facebook profile. (Time Business)

That’s a huge talent pool to fish from! And please, please excuse the terrible, terrible metaphor. But it is a huge pool — in fact, it’s more than double the number of job seekers with active accounts on Twitter (39%) and LinkedIn (31%), and yet more employers post jobs on those other social networks than they do on Facebook.

Which brings me to our next stat:

Only about 60% of hiring managers are actually using Facebook to recruit. (NAS Recruitment)

This means less competition, which makes Facebook recruiting a huge win for employers looking to hire in competitive markets. We highly suggest you get started with Facebook recruiting immediately, because more and more employers are starting to implement social recruiting strategies. The sooner you build your Facebook Career Page and start recruiting, the more time you’ll have to build your employer brand, establish social proof, thus give you an edge over latecomers.

Now, stats are all well and good, but honestly, I think examples are always better.

Earls Restaurant recently decided to make Facebook the main focus of their social media recruiting strategy with their Earls Wants You Facebook recruiting campaign. They chose Facebook for all of the reasons mentioned above, but also because it allowed them to convey their company culture to potential hires in a way that neither Twitter nor LinkedIn (let alone any job boards) allowed.

Being able to show candidates what an awesome place Earls is to work at, through recruiting videos, and pictures of staff events, gives the restaurant an advantage over other restaurants. This aspect is very important to Earls, because they are doing a significant amount of recruiting in an extremely competitive market (Calgary and British Columbia in particular).

Earls’ decision to focus on Facebook recruiting has really paid off.

In less than one month they increased their Page Likes by 500%, their main Youtube recruiting video (embedded on their Facebook Career Page) got 1,449 plays, and they received over 200 applications from qualified candidates.

Just in case you were wondering, Earls used the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting App Enterprise Plan for this campaign.

So there you have it, Facebook recruiting works; it’s efficient, effective, and takes less time than traditional recruiting methods.

Get started with Facebook recruiting now.

If you have any questions that you’d like us to tackle on the Jobcast blog, let us know in the comments!

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!