Facebook could be seen as going for the jugular while LinkedIn sits in stasis following its the acquisition by Microsoft. Microsoft may find itself on the back foot when it finally gets the reigns of the largest job network, LinkedIn. I’m talking of course about the new initiative by Facebook that’ll allow business pages to start posting job adverts.
Facebook are certainly not afraid to take on competitors, like their battle with Snap Inc, via Instagram through the stories feature. Facebook have also been running an aggressive campaign globally to try and get their live features off the ground.
With the global staffing market being worth £429 billion, you can stake on Facebook capitalising on the massive potential of this new initiative.
So what are Facebook doing exactly?
Facebook has released the ability for company pages to post job openings and subsequently review the application they receive, all within Facebook. What makes this more interesting is that you can auto-fill your application with your company details, while communicate easily with the applicants through your company page messenger app, giving you a process that is automated, simple and quick.
In their recent press-release explaining the product, Facebook made it clear they understand the problem businesses have for filing job places with their quote “40% of UK small businesses report that filling jobs was more difficult than they expected.” Facebook then expressed their interest in solving that issue, so could this mean another recruitment killer or an opportunity for the savvy recruiter?
Facebook is a social media platform that is already seeing tremendous growth with a massive 1.87 billion active users. It could prove to be an extremely lucrative platform in which you can fill your job openings. But, the most burning questions is: “Wouldn’t company owners now skip Recruiters, and go place their jobs on Facebook?”
There’s two ways to think of this, the first is as a recruiter you’re offering expertise and superior knowledge in the acquisition of the right candidates, saving the employer time and money through the selection and hiring process. Look at it as a web-designer might. Sure anyone could build a website with one of the many pieces of software that makes is easy, but a smart company would hire an experienced professional in the field who’ll create a truly unique and well-designed product that will make the client money and save them time.
My second way of thinking about this is a true innovative individual always sees the opportunity in danger. Facebook has subsequently opened its gates to a massive database of potential candidates – making your job easier. When this platform comes to Europe learn it and master it, so you can add another string to your bow. Either post your client openings on your Facebook company page for these companies, or get control of their company page and set it up better than they ever could.
Additional Benefits
If you’re working with a high volume of candidates Facebook has said that you’ll be able to download the relevant information through CSV (Excel Spreadsheet) that you’ll then be able to upload into your CRM, and then work your magic on them.
Facebook is great at seeing the monetary gain in their initiatives, so expect some kind of power feature where you’ll be able to allocate some of your budget to get your job postings out to a very specific segmentation of potential candidates.
Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook sees a great majority of its user’s activity during their downtime, away from the prying eyes of their co-workers they’ll be certainly more likely to look at potential jobs that fit their bill. Couple this with the envy of seeing the highlights of your successful friends lives wanting you to peruse a more interesting / high salary job. You’ve got yourself a good number of potential candidates that are engaged and looking for a new job.
Facebooks Algorithm will make your job postings appear often for your biggest fans. To deal with the sheer influx of information that appears on the average persons newsfeed, Facebook developed an algorithm that gives precedence to content from pages and people you engage with. Be engaging with your Facebook activity and create a loyal following who’re liking your content and your posted jobs will be a regular site on their newsfeed.
The new jobs feature gives the company a page a separate tab – Which means savvy employers will be able to use this as a Landing Page, in which they can send out to potential candidates.
The fact you can communicate with you applicants through messenger will be extremely powerful. Facebook messenger has a huge amount of active users, who’ll enjoy the novelty and convenience of communicating directly with an agency. This makes it perfect to get quick concise answers to speed up the turnaround time, placing the right candidate quicker.
Wrap up
Recruitment on Facebook isn’t something that’s entirely new, and many Recruiters have used sponsored posts and large engaged followings to place candidates through this social media platform. Yet this new job feature means Facebook are capitalising in on this missing link, and will certainly throw their weight into making it a success.
We suggest you learn all you can for your Facebook strategies and prepare for this feature to come to Europe. Because if you don’t, you’ll be sure your competitors will.
Could this truly take LinkedIn off the #1 spot?
The staffing market is something that’s been in LinkedIn’s court for so long that they’ve perfected a system that has been successfully used by Recruiters all over the world. With things like their premium Recruiter platform, LinkedIn has capitalised on this market in a big way so don’t expect them to roll over anytime soon, or even lose their spot.
If you require any further support with your Recruitment plans, or want to know more on how we can advertise your Job over social media please send us a DM, PM, IM, email or just simply call 0330 2233 047
- Harriet Davis – The Recruitment Network.
