- January 23, 2018
- Posted by: Rosemarie Harvey
- Category: employment, facebook, independent contractor, job, Marketing, social media, support, twitter, virtual assistance, workforce
Over eight years ago, I wrote about using Twitter as a source to find and engage passive and even active candidates. Since then, many other social media platforms appear regularly as tools in sourcing plans. Keep in mind that not only can you search for people on social sites, you can also post jobs. Two popular social media platforms with job posting capabilities are Facebook and Reddit. Along with posting on Facebook, creative recruiters take it a step further and design graphic job posts for Instagram (owned by Facebook).
Facebook’s job posting template is close to that of a regular job board. When publishing a job post on Facebook, in addition to inputting the job title and location, you can do any or all of the following:
- Upload images
- Add salary information
- Select job type
- Create screening questions
- Receive applications by email
After you’ve published the job posts, you get the option to set your own budget and boost the jobs for more views. You can also target your audience to make sure the right people see your job. However, be careful with targeting and always keep EEOC guidelines in mind.
Presetting instant reply for when candidates apply helps ensure the candidate gets a response. Make sure to follow up by using Facebook posts or by moving the conversation from the platform to other methods of communication, e.g., phone/text, instant messaging (IM), chat, and email.
Another social media site that facilitates job posting is Reddit. There are important things to remember when using this site:
- Post your jobs in the Hiring section and click on the green Hire a Redditor button to prevent them from being removed.
- Read their General Rules carefully before posting your jobs.
- Do not post a link instead of text!
- Do not use shortlinks.
Reddit’s guidelines are straightforward, and I encourage you to follow them.
When posting the job, you will be able to add location and the job title in a separate field. The template does not offer options for additional job detail like Facebook does.
Reddit requests that you communicate via private message (PM) only. Don’t include personal information in the job posts.
It is currently free to post jobs on Facebook and Reddit. The response volume is not comparable to regular job boards; however, they are worth adding to your sourcing mix for your hard-to-fill or specialized positions.
Rosemarie Williams Harvey is Senior Talent Acquisition Adviser at RH Business Support focusing on helping employers find top talent to increase their competitiveness.