How Facebook Could Transform Talent Attraction... But Its Gonna Cost

How Facebook Could Transform Talent Attraction... But Its Gonna Cost Newspaper job  adverts  are dead, long live radio! Radio talent attraction is dead, long live job boards! Job  boards are dead, long live LinkedIn! LinkedIn is dead, long live… Ok, I know LinkedIn is far from dead, but the way many recruiters have used it, it may just be dying out with new changes. So, what’s next? There is one thing for sure,  whatever it is, it aint  gonna be free! And it might just be any one of the dead channels above, or a completely new one.   As a recruitment marketer, I am always keeping my ear to the ground on the new methods that can be used to deliver great ROI. So, what’s on my radar at the moment? Things like: LinkedIn: Ads platform and pixel Facebook: Ads platform, pixel and messenger bots Programmatic: Companies like Adroll,  Adbeat and Jobs The Word So, let’s take a dive into how we can use the tools that marketers use on Facebook  to deliver  their campaigns, and how we can use the same tools as recruitment marketers. Facebook targeting When starting to advertise on Facebook, it can seem like a bit of a confusing  minefield. For a start, it is a tad more difficult to create your audience than using the similar tools on LinkedIn.   So, why bother? The  audience is huge and active.   To be precise, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly users…I will let that soak in for a second…2 BILLION…compared to LinkedIn’s 25% active monthly users meaning circa 125 million. On Facebook, you can still target industry, job title, location and other demographics. Also, at the moment, you can advertise on the dodgy ad boxes on the right of your Facebook newsfeed and directly in a user’s newsfeed. Soon, you will be able to push messages out through messenger as well. Whilst the Facebook ads platform is more complicated, you are led through by being offered specific advert types based upon your intention. You will also find that Facebook ads cost very little compared to the platforms, but the key here is converting traffic into known candidate leads. Doing so will require more effort. Facebook pixel audiences An integral part of any marketer’s toolbox is the  Facebook pixel. The  Facebook pixel is  installed on  your website and tracks your visitors. It then lets you push  adverts to this audience on Facebook. Here are a couple of great  strategies to build audiences that you might consider: Track everyone who visits a specific type of job on your  website and then re-advertise relevant jobs to this audience in the future meaning you are pushing adverts to people that are interested. Target people that visited  your website once but have not done so in the last 6 months. This  could be a valuable asset when planning how to keep your audience engaged and compliant for the new General Data Protection Regulations coming in the year 2018. Stage targeting  The secret sauce This is where  you can get  really smart. Let’s be honest, people will visit your site and drop off  before applying for jobs.   This could be for a number of reasons…they  don’t know you as an employer of choice, you  didn’t have the exact role they want to apply for, they got distracted…and lots more. By building out your pixel strategy, you can deliver a campaign of employer branding  content to your audience based upon how engaged they are. This might look something like: Becoming aware  High level branding, information on your  services, locations, cool products, your teams and thought leadership Once they aware we can educate the audience on your  employer brand This will include content like awards, team stories, employee profiles, relevant white papers and news on local careers. Now they are educated, let’s help them  consider  This is where you highlight your value propositions…why should they work for you,  rather than for a competitor. Show them videos and  stories about what their job and career progress would look like.   When a group of people are actively considering you as an employer, use this  audience to invite them to an open day, interview day, apply for jobs, a careers  webinar… do you get where I am going here? So, there you go; a great few ways to use Facebook to target your required audience, segment your audience into talent pools and to deliver the right content to them to help them consider you as an employer of choice. But, of course,  all of this will cost. Every time you promote a post to your  audience on Facebook, you will be paying to do so.   But,  don’t panic as Facebook’s advertising platform can return a great ROI if you carefully plan your messaging, content and candidate lead conversion tactics. Will Facebook be the new king? Who knows, and who cares? As long as we stay on top of what’s new, we will be there to find out.