Facebook and Google run the world. If they want to get into recruitment marketing, would you bet against them? Facebook has over two billion active users, while Google seemingly has its footprint in everything these days. Now they have entered the recruiting industry aiming to make a major play at the traditional recruiting sites.
For the past 20 years, online recruitment marketing has been beneficial to companies’ recruiting strategies, allowing them to reduce the time it took in the hiring process. But they seem to have reached the limit of their ability: Companies are now spending too much money and gaining too little in online recruitment. They need a way to jumpstart recruitment marketing investments.
With billions of people using Facebook and Google each day, they hold an immediate advantage over other recruitment sites. It’s time to take advantage of Facebook and Google to take online recruitment marketing to the next level.
Improved efficiency
The tools provided by Facebook and Google allow for much greater efficiency than other websites. The main way to improve efficiency through these mediums is by leveraging the respective capabilities of each network. Roughly 70% of job searches begin on Google. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how this can be used to your advantage – go to where the candidates are. Search engine optimization (SEO) can improve both the quantity and quality of a company’s results on Google — in fact, a company can obtain dozens of leads in a single day!
Facebook’s main benefit is its massive daily user base – it’s the biggest talent pool in the world. Simply put, Facebook is a goldmine waiting for companies to fully tap into it. Well-placed marketing campaigns can reach the exact candidates that a company desires, making Facebook an efficient and easy means to attract candidates.
Furthermore, Google recently started using its geolocation tool to its advantage, allowing searchers to customize the distance of the job postings in their searches. Facebook also allows this feature, giving users even more flexibility when they are searching for jobs. It has become easier than ever to find candidates within a specific city, state, or country.
Capturing engaging candidates
Many times, especially with the prevalence of “quick apply” features, candidates applying to a company aren’t very engaged. Some don’t even know much about the company or even the job that they are applying to, resulting in a huge waste of company time and resources. An additional side-effect of unengaged candidates is the trend of “ghosting,” where companies schedule an interview with a candidate and never hear back from them again.
With Google, companies can use AI to pre-qualify candidates by reading the job description and screening potential candidates, making sure they are right for the job. This type of candidate search typically results in much more engaged candidates who do their research and are truly interested in the job — leading to lower ghosting rates, as well.
Automation at a much larger scale
Recruiting through Google and Facebook also allows recruiting teams to save much more time than by traditional means. Most recruiting teams are already doing some sort of social media recruiting campaign right now – typically through individual, manual efforts or through traditional “paid” banner ads or clicks.
However, the true potential of Google and Facebook comes through recruitment automation at a much larger scale. No longer will individual recruiters have to advertise their company at a tailgate with a beer in their hand. As the technology engages with the candidates all recruiters really need to do is connect the pipes and watch as engaged, talented candidates flow to the company’s recruitment team.
In addition to SEO optimization and AI candidate qualification, recruiters can use robotic process automation (RPA) to take advantage of the scope of Google and Facebook in order to reach the most people. Automation of more menial tasks frees up time for recruiters to spend their time with strategic tasks that require critical thinking.
When Google or Facebook announces they are entering a new industry, the world listens. It may go against what companies think they know about recruitment, but using big tech to their advantage is the best way to get smart about recruitment in the 21st century.
Byline: Othamar Gama Filho, CEO at Talentify, a recruitment marketing automation platform
