The Future of Facebook for Recruiting Professionals: 4 Facebook Updates You Can’t Ignore

May 2013
4
The Future of Facebook for
recruiting professionals:
4 Facebook Updates You Can’t Ignore

Share This Whitepaper The Future of Facebook for Recruiting Professionals // 2
INTRODUCTION
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
Actually, scratch that. It wasn’t all that long ago, and it happened in a galaxy that
looks pretty similar to the one we’re sitting in now:
Recruiting used to seem a lot simpler. Or at least a lot more straightforward. People
were looking for jobs, and your job was to find those people. Nothing about this
has changed fundamentally; the major difference between “then” and “now” is the
technology and networks we use to connect people and jobs.
Since the explosion of social media (LinkedIn in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in
2006, et.al.), myriads of networks now keep us connected 24/7 to millions of our
closest acquaintances.
And while much has been written on the virtues of social media marketing,
recruiting with social media is still a vastly unexplored territory--especially when it
comes to recruiting on personal networks like Facebook.
Sure, there have already been many very successful employers who have
connected with candidates using the power of the Force (and a strong Facebook
branding strategy), but some recruiters have held back due to concerns about
efficiency and efficacy.

We’re here to bring you the good news: not only is recruiting on Facebook and
other personal networks both efficient and effective, but the best time to start is
now! With the recent slew of updates to Facebook’s user interface, it has never
been easier to find, engage, and hire your next top candidates.
So consider us your Obi-Wan and join us, young recruiting Padawan, on this
journey to harnessing the power of Facebook for your recruiting strategy.
According to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is composed
of three pillars: Timeline, Graph Search, and the Newsfeed.1
Each pillar
represents a major feature of the user interface--and a tool that you can
use to recruit better.

CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
© 2013 Work4 Labs, Inc.
All rights reserved.
The Future of Facebook for Recruiting professonals:
4 Facebook Updates You can’t Ingore
Timeline
Graph Search
Newsfeed
Bonus: Facebook Ads
Sources
About
5
7
9
11
13
14

Timeline
Remember way, way back to March 2012 when
Facebook first rolled out Timeline for brands? (It
feels like eons ago to us, too...) Timeline was the
first of many major changes that Facebook has
made or is making to its user interface, and it’s had
a significant effect on the way that users interact
with companies and brands on Facebook. That’s
all well and good for your marketing team, but
what does this mean for talent acquisition and
employer branding professionals?
Timeline streamlines your employer branding
process, and makes it easy for you to own your
company’s recruiting message. Your brand is
the first thing your candidates see, and it’s the
message (both visual and textual) that they
associate with your company and your careers.
Why does this matter?
Employer branding affects how potential
candidates feel about your company (and, by
extension, your jobs). A good brand--one that
is transparent about its company culture, its
history, and its engagement with its employees,
customers, and fans--can make or break the
number of applications you receive. This is
especially pertinent in this “social” era, when
every company is only a Facebook search away.
And as that Facebook search grows ever more
important (we’ll get to why it’s so important in the
next section), your candidates will search for you.
You must put care into how you present yourself,
from a well-designed cover and profile photo,

Timeline to carefully chosen apps, to the material you
choose to share with your followers and at what
frequency you share it.
Even something as simple as completing your
Timeline and “About” info by adding company
milestones and up-to-date contact information
cannot only better engage potential active
candidates who seek out your page, but also
inspire confidence in those who search for
your company, because this shows that you
take pride and invest in your company’s image.
After all, your employees have a stake in that
company image, and candidates want to know
that, should they become your employees, they
can proudly proclaim that they’re a part of your
company culture when they post their new job
on their Timelines.
And while a good brand may be the final
selling point for an active candidate who is
researching your careers, it can also be the first
impression that converts a Facebook user into
a potential candidate.
These passive candidates can be attracted by an
ad, through a recommendation from a friend,
or through interaction with your company as a
customer or client. If a Facebook user comes
across a branded Timeline that is complete
with a prominent “Work for Us” careers app or
consistently updated with career information,
then he or she will be introduced to your talent
community and perhaps even be enticed to
stay and learn more. Just like that, your Timeline
becomes a fantastic opportunity to start sourcing
candidates who may not have even planned on
finding a job when they logged onto Facebook.
Key Takeaways:
Active candidates will use your Timeline to
research your company
Passive candidates will use your Timeline to
discover brand and your careers
Branding is key for instilling confidence
in your company and fostering a thriving
talent community

Graph Search
In January of 2013, Facebook announced its
exciting new “Graph Search,” which allows users
to search for and interact with the people in
their networks like never before. Graph Search
is an intuitive search feature that helps users to
discover everything from music and restaurants
that their friends like to people in their networks
who went to their university or work for a certain
company. (We’ll let you guess which ones we
think are most important for recruiters!)
Graph Search has the potential to be a hugely
important tool for social recruiting, because
it allows you to easily search for and target
potential candidates who are already in your
extended network.
While Facebook is not trying to position itself as a
direct competitor to the professional networking
site LinkedIn, even Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged
during the announcement of the new feature that
Graph Search has the potential to open up an
exciting new avenue for social recruiting.
At the time of this writing, Graph Search is slowly
being rolled out to all of Facebook’s users. Once
it is in your hands (and on your screen), you’ll be
able to search for anyone from “IT professionals
who live in San Francisco” to “Female members of
Phi Beta Kappa who went to Harvard University
and like the Economist, Apple, and Angry Birds.”
(You may not need to get quite so specific, but if
you do, you can consider some of your toughest
sourcing challenges solved!)

Graph Search As Work4’s CEO Stéphane Le Viet wrote in an
article for Forbes after the release of Graph
Search, “Relevance is the most exciting part...
Graph Search is about discovering people...and
using that discovery to recruit better.”
Relevance is the most exciting part...
Graph Search is about discovering
people...and using that discovery to
recruit better
This relevance means that you’re more likely to
discover candidates who are not just a “resume
fit” but also a culture fit. More than simply filtering
a search by location or educational history, you
can find candidates who “like” certain companies,
products, organizations, or even styles of music.
(After all, it’s no use hiring someone who won’t
enjoy the office-wide “Reggae Friday!”)
With this new feature, your hiring initiatives--from
graduates to veterans, gender to diversity--along
with your “hard-to-find” candidates for specialized
positions--are only one Graph Search away.
Graph Search also has implications for growing
your talent community. Facebook’s vision for
Graph Search is to give users a way to better
explore their own networks, operating on the
principle that people are more likely to be
interested in something that their friends “like.”
This means that your branded Timeline may
show up in an active candidate’s search
(“companies my friends work for near me”) or
a passive candidate’s search (“companies my
friends like”). Graph Search makes it just as easy
for your talent to find you as it does for you to
find them.
Key Takeaways:
Graph Search allows you to hone in on
talent in your extended network
Graph Search gives you a way to discover
candidates with relevant interests,
backgrounds, and skill sets
Graph Search can be used both as a
recruiter’s sourcing tool or a candidate’s
research tool

Newsfeed
Although Facebook’s Newsfeed has been around
since 2006, it has gone mostly unchanged but
for minor tweaks since its inception. Originally
used for sharing personal status updates, the
Newsfeed has evolved over the years into a place
for posting photos, articles, “check ins,” ads, and
much more.
As the Newsfeed has adapted to handling more
content, we’ve begun to notice a curious trend:
people are more likely to engage with (like, share,
or comment on) content if it’s visual. In other
words, people like photos and videos more than text.
Facebook took note of this trend and introduced
its new, visually streamlined Newsfeed in April of
2013. This Newsfeed should actually be referred
to as “Newsfeeds”, because it grants each user
the ability to filter into different feeds the content
in which he or she is most interested.
This means that users can choose to look at
content based on friends or companies they
follow, types of content they are interested in (like
photos or music), or groups and games in which
they take part. But what does this mean for you?
As a recruiter, you want to make it as simple as
possible to have your recruiting message read,
seen, or heard by your potential candidates,
both passive and active. This Newsfeed gives you
several different ways to make sure that your
recruiting message is spread:
The Newsfeed now prioritizes visual content.
Photos and videos will now appear larger and
more spectacular than ever before--taking up
almost the entire screen. This means that if you
have branded photos, career videos, recruiting
ads, or even visual job descriptions, you will be
more likely to catch the average Facebook
On average photos get 180% more engagement and videos 120% more engagement than a text-based Facebook post.2

*Sponsored Stories are ads that show users
the brands and content that their friends
have “liked.” Sponsored Posts are posts
suggested by Facebook to relevant users
based on intelligent ad targeting.
Newsfeed user’s eye. And if you use your branded
material, you will be doing double duty in
spreading and reinforcing brand awareness for
your fans and followers.
If you don’t want to be “filtered” out, then posting
visual updates and recruiting ads (more on that
in a second!) will give you the advantage. Not only
will users see your company if they check out
their “Following” feed, but they will also see you
in the “Photos” feed--and, if you’re running ads
called “Sponsored Stories” or “Sponsored Posts,”*
then you’ll show up in users’ “Friends” feed as
well. New filters give you more visibility, because
they allow users to narrow down the news to only
the most potentially relevant content.
Just as with Graph Search, so the Newsfeed
is about serving relevant content to the right
people. That means that, with some great
content and a little bit of elbow grease, you
can make your talent community go viral. Your
recruiting message includes all of the content
you post, which is not limited to your open jobs,
but includes every piece of content you put out
on Facebook, from targeted ads, information
about your latest products or services, employee
interviews, to simple, funny branded photos and
videos. (Even The Most Interesting Man agrees
that Facebook is a great way to engage your
talent community!)
Whether your content is seen by passive or active
candidates, it has the potential to be tremendously
relevant (or at the very least engaging) when it
appears in a user’s new Newsfeed. You want to
hire people who are committed to engaging with
your company; your candidates want to work
with a company that makes them feel wanted.
Sharing relevant content gets the candidates who
are most interested in and best fit your company
culture to commit to becoming a part of your
talent community, subscribing to your email list, or
applying for your jobs. Talk about a status update!
Key Takeaways:
The Newsfeed favors visual content--like job
ads and visual job descriptions
Avoid being “filtered out” by providing
relevant, multimedia content to your talent
community
People who commit to engaging with your
recruiting message are more likely to fit
your company culture and commit to
applying for your jobs

Bonus: Ads Facebook ads are not technically a “new”
feature; however, Facebook has rolled out
many new options while improving the
ability to target candidates and optimize
campaign spend against ROI. Here are a few
of Facebook’s recent innovations in advertising
that have huge implications for the success of
your recruiting strategy:
Custom Audiences
If you’re just getting started with social recruiting
(or if you have been social recruiting but also rely
on traditional recruiting methods), chances are
you have an email list. Or a candidate database.
Or a talent pool collected in your ATS. If you
want to target those candidates with ads on
Facebook (but don’t want to spend hours Graph
Searching and personally messaging each one
with a “please-like-our-Facebook-page” plea), then
Custom Audiences are for you! These ads target
Facebook users based on a preexisting list.
Why You Want to Use Custom Audiences
Companies have seen over 5X the return on
investment of their advertising dollars while
marketing to a Custom Audience on Facebook.3
Lookalike Audiences
As a recruiter, you know better than anyone
the kind of candidates who would best fit your
company culture and the open roles for which
you’re hiring. Lookalike Audiences let you
target user profiles most similar to your ideal
candidate profiles. This can bring in many new
quality passive and active candidates, because
the ads are shown only to the users for whom
you are looking.
Why You Want to Use Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike Audiences have already brought in
huge ROI for marketers: one site saw a 74%
reduction in cost-per-action while another saw
a 94% reduction. Use Lookalike Audiences to
increase conversion and lower your rate of
applicants-per-hire.4

Bonus: Ads
Partner Categories
Although Facebook ads have always been
uniquely valuable for their targeting capabilities,
the introduction of Partner Categories makes
Facebook’s targeting even more intelligent.
Now, you can target demographics based on
specific purchase and browsing histories.5
With
the ability to target by specific demographic,
you can even further hone your ad campaign
while still scaling your recruiting message to
Facebook’s vast network.
Why You Want to Use Partner Categories:
With even more ways to narrow down your
targeted demographic, you will have more
control over the types of people who are served
your recruiting ads. Your ads will have better
potential for being seen by the people you want
to hire.
oCPM
Don’t worry about the details on this one, but
rest assured knowing that your Facebook ads
have now been optimized. “oCPM” simply means
“optimized clicks per thousand impressions,” or,
in layman’s terms, “better return on investment
for every click per thousand ad views.” All this
means is that the bids you made on ads will grant
you an even better return than ever before--
which is good news for your campaign spend and
for your recruiting budget.
Why You Want to Use oCPM
Optimized. Advertising. Spend. Enough said!6

Use the force The three pillars of Facebook (and the network’s
intelligent ads platform) are great foundations for
a successful recruiting strategy. The next step is
finding the right tools.
But you don’t need a lightsaber where we’re
going: you’ll need strong employer branding,
relevant and visually compelling content, the right
kind of advertising, and a good guide to bridge
the gap between your ATS and the world’s largest
social network.
Are you ready to answer the call to start
recruiting on Facebook?
If you properly leverage the opportunities
provided by the network’s newest updates, then
recruit on Facebook successfully you will!
For more information about recruiting on
Facebook, check out www.work4labs.com or
contact your own personal social recruiting
Yoda today!

SOURCES
https://twitter.com/mashable/status/291245509031632896
http://tracksocial.com/blog/2012/06/optimizing-facebook-engagement-part-1-text-
links-photos-or-videos/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/11/facebook-custom-audience-ads/
http://www.jonloomer.com/2013/03/26/facebook-lookalike-audiences/
http://fbppc.com/advertising/facebook-ads-how-objective-stacks-up-against-
optimized-cpm/
Images
https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch
https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
contact@work4labs.com
+1 (877) 509-0403
CONNECT WITH US
www.work4labs.com
www.facebook.com/work4labs
www.linkedin.com/company/work4-labs
www.twitter.com/work4labs
ABOUT
WORK4™
Work4 develops the #1 Facebook Recruiting Solution, which enables tens of
thousands of companies — including VMware, Gap, and L’Oreal — to hire qualified
candidates across industries, geographies, and pay-grades. Our award-winning
products help recruiters easily launch branded corporate career sites on Facebook
and mobile devices, and drive traffic, job applications, and employee referrals from
the network’s 1 billion users. Work4 was founded in 2010, and is headquartered in
San Francisco with an additional office in Paris.
Read:
ENJOYED THIS? WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FACEBOOK RECRUITING?
Facebook Recruitment and Employer Branding: Best Practices and Ideas from the
World’s Top Companies

The Future of Facebook for Recruiting Professionals: 4 Facebook Updates You Can’t Ignore

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Featured

Featured (20)

The Future of Facebook for Recruiting Professionals: 4 Facebook Updates You Can’t Ignore