When you look for candidates online, do you head to LinkedIn? You probably do at some point. It makes sense to use LinkedIn because it’s a social network full of professionals who have their job histories listed.
But what about Facebook? Do you use that social network to find candidates? If not, you should consider starting. You could be missing out on about 17 times the candidates by not using Facebook for recruiting.
Why you should do Facebook recruiting
Facebook has far more users than LinkedIn. As of January 2017, Facebook had over 1.87 billion active users. LinkedIn only had 106 million active users. When you use Facebook for recruiting, you have a huge pool of candidates to pull from. You can definitely benefit from having more candidates.
Facebook is more diverse than LinkedIn in user age, gender, and location. Facebook also has users with a wider variety of professions. Workers who typically don’t create LinkedIn profiles will make Facebook accounts.
Overall, you will have more variety while recruiting through Facebook. You just need to learn how to use Facebook for recruiting.
How to recruit on Facebook
There are two main routes to find candidates on Facebook: searching and posting. The two options are explained below.
Facebook search
Not everyone on Facebook is actively searching for a job. These people are passive candidates. To recruit passive candidates, you need to find them.
Luckily, Facebook has a powerful search bar. Similar to a Google resume search, you can type in specific details about the candidates you want to find, and Facebook will show you precise results. You can search by job title, location, current employer, and more.
Here are examples of some things you can search:
- People who work at [Company]
- [Job title] who live near [Location]
- [Title] who speak [Language]
- People who like [skill] and live in [Location]
- [Title] at [Company]
- Friends who like [skill]
- Friends of friends who work at [Company]
Don’t feel limited by the examples here. Try a combination of terms in your facebook recruiting strategy. Also, try both broad and narrow searches. What works well in one search might not work in another.
The Facebook search tool is based on your friends, which is a downside to recruiting via facebook. The results will show you people based on your immediate and mutual friends. To find more people, you can collaborate with other recruiters and peers, who will have different search results.
Once you find a promising passive candidate, you need to contact them. Preferably, contact the person off of Facebook. If you can, find an email address or another way to contact the candidate. If you message someone on Facebook without being connected, the message will go into an alternative inbox. The alternative inbox is not easily visible, so the person probably will not see the message.
You can try using a mutual friend to reach a potential candidate. Have you heard of the six degrees of separation? It turns out; there are only 3.46 degrees of separation between U.S. Facebook users. Odds are, someone you know is connected to a candidate you want.
When you find a candidate, look at your mutual friends. Ask a mutual friend to make an introduction, creating a warm lead. The candidate will be more likely to respond if someone they already trust reaches out to them.
Another downside of recruiting with Facebook is your inability to weed out unqualified candidates before you contact them. Facebook users don’t always list their full job history, skills, and experience like most LinkedIn users do. You will have to determine if more candidates are unqualified after your initial outreach.
Facebook job postings
You can post jobs on Facebook to attract candidates.
You can post jobs in Facebook groups for job seekers. When you join Facebook groups, make sure you read the community guidelines for the group. Make sure you follow the rules; otherwise, you might be removed.
If you have a business page for your recruiting business, you can post jobs on there. You can put the job opening in a regular post that your followers can see.
Beginning in February 2017, Facebook allows businesses to post jobs directly on their pages through designated “Jobs” tabs. Look for a jobs section in your business account to find the latest capabilities.
Don’t be afraid to use your personal Facebook account to find and friend candidates. By friending candidates, you can easily keep in touch and show them the latest postings.
If you do use your personal account for facebook recruitment, don’t worry about spamming your friends and family with job postings. Also, don’t stress about candidates seeing too much personal information about you. You can create lists on Facebook that divides your friends into categories. When you post something, select the list you want to see the post. By using the lists, the right people see the right posts.
Encourage your Facebook friends to share your job postings with their friends. Or, you can ask your friends to tag someone who might be interested in the position. By having your friends help you out, more people will see your post.
Tips for recruiting on Facebook
On Facebook, everyone can see you. As you are checking out candidates, they are looking at you, too.
Facebook is a place where you can build your reputation and social influence as a recruiter. Post carefully and think about your personal brand. Monitor your interactions with others. Strive to build relationships with candidates, not just one-time contacts that disappear on your friends list.
Remember, Facebook is a social network. People expect interaction. Respond to all applicants and people who reach out to you, even if it’s a rejection. Track your messages and comments to make sure you don’t miss anyone. If you are slow to respond or don’t respond at all, you might receive bad reviews.
Once you find more candidates through Facebook recruiting, what are you going to do with them? You can use Top Echelon’s Recruiting Network to combine your resources with other recruiters. By sharing job orders and making split placements in our split fee recruiting network, you can cash in.