5 Steps for Advertising a Job Opening with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Ads

Post a job on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter

When preparing to advertise a new job opening on the web, most recruiters turn to one of the many popular job boards, or job board syndication services like ZipRecruiter, to post their opening. This is a tried-and-true method of attracting candidates, with varying results.

If you have some time, you may want to experiment with using the paid advertising platforms offered by Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to create sponsored messages that are directed to your target audience.

Different then posting job openings on a social media account you’ve set up (i.e. @mycompanyjobs, or a Facebook page promoting careers at your company), this approach leverages the social media site’s targeting capabilities to put your message in front of the demographic you are trying to reach. You’ll start by posting your job as a status update on any (or all) of these sites as you normally would, but then you’ll tap into the advertising platform to “sponsor” your update with a set budget, timeline and target audience.

Here’s an example of how a large chain restaurant might leverage this technique to attract candidates for a General Manager opening in Seattle, Washington:

1.  Post Status Update

First thing’s first, create your message and post it as a status update using the social media accounts you’ve designated for posting/promoting job openings.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn or Facebook company page, now would be a good time to create one.  Same thing with a dedicated Twitter account for job openings/careers.  Make sure to also post the URL of the application page on your company job board.

2.  Set up your advertiser account on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

If you don’t already have these accounts set up, the process is fairly easy to become an advertiser on these sites.  You may need to enter a credit card so make sure you have approval from your manager.

3.  Choose your target demographic

On all of these sites, you can create your target audience based on a variety of factors.  Each offers different filters – Facebook let’s you select age, location, and various other demographic features, including interests your target audience might have, and even job titles they have.  Use some creativity to find users that like restaurant-related pages  on Facebook, as it’s more likely those users will help spread the word about your job opening to their networks (by “liking” your post).

LinkedIn allows you to target users by industry, job title, location, etc. so it shouldn’t be too hard to find General Managers in the Restaurant industry in Seattle.

With Twitter, you’ll have to be a bit more creative, and choose users who “follow” other users who might be relevant for you.  For example, you might choose to advertise your job to followers of Red Robin in Seattle, as there may be current employees (assuming Red Robin is a competitor) who are interested in a role with your organization.

4.  Set your budget

You’ll pay $200+ to post your job on a traditional job board like Monster or CareerBuilder, so budget for $100 for your first job ad across the social media sites you choose to advertise on and treat it as a test.  Make sure your ad runs for at least 1 week.

5.  Measure results

You’ll know how many interactions users have had with your ad by the reporting offered by each ad platform, and you’ll know how many conversions you’ve had by the # of new candidates that show up in your ATS from each source.   Look for trends – did one site perform better then the others?  Where did you get the most shares/likes?  Which site produced the highest quality of candidates.

Different types of job openings will likely perform better then others, but paid promotion of your job openings through social media can be an effective way to stand out amongst the clutter of job openings on the big job boards, and continue to developer your employer brand, and attract new potential candidates for current and future openings.