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!