Successfully Convert Followers into Qualified Applicants

There are powerful ways to use social media for recruiting!

Tons of employers use LinkedIn to perform outreach for professional-level jobs.

But, when it comes to most other jobs... entry-level, new manager, or lower-level management jobs... most of those job seekers simply aren't active on LinkedIn This makes most companies jump to where their target audience is actually hanging out...which is normally Facebook.

The biggest mistake they make is thinking that they need to build a following.

Thinking they can build a big and active enough following on the company recruiting Facebook page to make a difference.

Having a following is important. But, groups of fans combined together and following a certain topic already exist.You don't need to go out and create your own!

A common Facebook misconception is that a job seeker would follow a potential employer for access to their openings and job listings.

This might work for those targeting college kids who are actively in college and looking for work post-graduation.

But let's face it... most active employees who are currently working for your competitors don't want to be seen following a competitor's hiring page!

And, even if you could build up a large following... it then becomes a huge content headache in order to build and maintain a successful group on Facebook. It's not just about building the group and getting people to follow it, you also have to actively post...which means creating content.

There are better ways to use social media sites...

especially Facebook and LinkedIn.

These sites have a ton of users! Plus, most people you know or are interested in knowing are already on Facebook and using it for all different types of things.

Facebook is powerful.

Social media has a unique ability. It can direct someone's mind to something they might be interested in without offending them the way email and texting are known to do.

Plus, Facebook is already overflowing with existing groups of fans around different subject lines.

If you go to the Facebook search bar, focus on groups, and you type in your city, county, and state, then add in a keyword like...

Hiring

Help Wanted

Jobs

Or, a specific industry

You will find hundreds of groups of people all focused on hiring in your area and industry!

Use Facebook to attract your fans and followers!

And, if you want to use Facebook groups to recruit...it is not a post and pray structure.

Most companies are a bit passive with how they engage in these sources. They just assume having them, using them, or simply checking the box for them... is enough to drive lots of applicants into their pipeline.

These power sources that are attracting your fans and followers have an entrance fee.

The entrance fee is consistent and creative effort over time.

While Facebook groups generally don't cost any money to post to... they do require your time, attention, and creative effort if you want to maximize your results.

We need a flywheel.

A flywheel is a process that we follow that continually loops. Once it's set up and we get it spinning, it creates momentum. We're able to drive that momentum to make the flywheel spin faster and faster.

The way that we get the flywheel to spin faster is by doing 1 of 2 things.

1. Adding fuel -- Push the flywheel harder by doing something that drives engagement and excitement.

2. Removing or reducing friction-- This creates less drag while the flywheel is spinning, which allows it to spin easier, and faster.

As we walk through the setup of the social media group flywheel, just keep in mind that once you get it set up and you understand what it is, AND you get it to start spinning...

It's not the end of your effort... It's just the beginning.

What comes after is consistently taking action over time to either... add fuel to drive engagement or remove/reduce friction.

Every time that you do one of those things, it will spin the flywheel faster and faster.

Build your social media flywheel with these 5 steps...

Step one... Identify your groups.

Go in and run searches on Facebook and LinkedIn for your area regarding the type of job and industry you're interested in. When searching for groups, focus on the groups with the highest number of members.

Then, prioritize which groups you want to join and start engaging! Once you've joined a handful of groups, make a list so you know which groups you're a member of based on location or industry.

You can also look for some of the trade associations in your industry. Some of them may have created groups and all the groups that you're going to post to are always jobs and employment groups. We even have clients that have done really well posting their jobs inside of community and yard sale groups.

It's not just the members that will end up seeing your ad. Many of the members are fairly active and will share your job with people they know or tag people they know in the actual ad itself.

This is not a one-time activity. You should be constantly looking for bigger, better, and more engaged groups to be able to post your jobs in.

Step two... Listen.

You should actually listen. Get into those groups and start listening for the types of things that job seekers are posting.

What are they looking for?

What are they asking about?

Those phrases and keywords are going to give you amazing insight into the mind of your potential job seeker.

Step three... Engage.

The best way to think about this is by adding value. Take your expert knowledge into the hiring world... or your industry and add value by answering questions and engaging in some of the conversations that are going on.

This will level up your reputation in the group as someone who is there to help!

Step four... Share and post.

This requires you to step up your content creation. We want to make sure that we're posting a link to an awesome job ad that's on our career site.

You also want to make sure that you have a great conversation starter. This is basically an elevator pitch that drives people to make them want to click on your job link to learn more.

Give them a little bit of insight into what makes you different. Why is this job an upgrade? Add some specifics on the job...

Part-time vs. full time

Schedule

Location (Is there flexibility to work remotely?)

And, Pay

It is not about you. It is about the job seeker in the group.

I'll provide a link to my job ad template that comes with some awesome conversation starters that you can use!

Step five... Answer questions about the jobs you do post about.

Posting a job inside of a Facebook group means that people are going to comment and ask you questions. Inside of all of those questions is what job seekers are thinking when they read your ad.

This gives you the opportunity to go back into that ad and adjust it so that you have those questions answered proactively.

This will not only help you with Facebook groups. It will help when pushing out to Indeed or Zip Recruiter where you have been unable to see the transparency of what people are thinking.It will help you completely dial in to create a better and more streamlined ad.

One last suggestion...

You can also directly message people who are asking you questions. Tell people in the conversation starter to direct message you if they find the job interesting or have any questions.

Once you have everything in place and you're doing it, you keep it consistent over time, set aside a certain time each week or day to engage in your groups.

If you're a bigger company, you might actually assign somebody to do it.

Some companies, specifically my company, push our employees to engage and do the posting. We give them credit through our employee referral program to recognize engagement inside of these groups.

This will help you write an engaging job ad while also helping you come up with conversation starters to will get people excited about your job!

We can streamline this entire process, and help you attract the fans and followers that make amazing employees.