Better Recruiting with Facebook Professional Skills

Facebook is becoming a much more commonly used tool for recruiting. This is in huge part due to the social network’s massive user base (over 1 billion active users), and the many Facebook recruiting apps on the market, making it easier than ever to attract applicants.

Recently Facebook added a “Professional Skills” section to user’s profiles.  This addition is extremely exciting for both employers and recruiting for many different reasons, some more obvious than others. Before we get into those reasons, let me explain what exactly this new feature is.

Facebook’s new ‘Professional Skills’ option shows up under the ‘Work and Education’ heading in the about section of a user’s profile. The new feature allows users to add a list of their professional skills to their profile similar to how they would on LinkedIn. That information is then available to their connections, and with Facebook Graph Search. What’s even more interesting is that when a Facebook user adds professional skills to their profile, the list does not remain static. Facebook takes the information and links users to relevant groups based on each skill they have entered.

Here are 4 reasons why Facebook Skills will benefit your recruiting:

Groups Give Recruiters a Foot in the Door

Linking users’ skills to groups automatically fosters engagement and allows employers to interact with potential candidates without it feeling forced. By introducing these skill-based groups, Facebook is giving recruiters and employers a foot in the door with candidates, even if they are not connected to them in any other way. This means you should update your profile as well, so as not to miss any new and helpful connections.

Facebook is Going Professional

Facebook has lost traction amongst younger users (tweens and younger teens). In response, Facebook is growing up and becoming more professional. In fact last year 52% of job seekers surveyed reported using Facebook to look for work (Jobvite). The social network is becoming more focused on forging connections with others in your field, and showing off accomplishments and professional skills.

This shift in focus is bad news for companies using Facebook to advertise to a younger demographic, but fantastic news for recruiting. The introduction of Facebook Skills is changing how users perceive Facebook; they are becoming more open to it as a place to connect professionally, which makes them more open to being contacted by a potential employer (you).

Encouraged Information Sharing

Every time Facebook rolls out a new feature, users receive a series of prompts urging them to check it out. Prompts that encourage users to fill out the skills section of their profile also encourage them to update the rest of their profile information. The more information users make available to Facebook’s Graph, the more employers and recruiters have to go on when searching for candidates.

Facebook Skills will help make recruiting passive candidates for difficult to fill positions easier.

Better Targeting for Facebook Ads

More searchable information available on users’ profiles means you can get even more targeted with your Facebook Ads campaigns. We already know that Facebook Ads are the most effective tool for social recruiting. We also know that the reason that they are so effective is that they allow you to target talent based on demographics, work history, occupation, education, location, interests, and now, professional skills! You will now be able to use Facebook Ads to target potential candidates based on the specific skills the position you’re trying to fill requires, like “joinery skills”, “CSS skills”, etc…

Check out this tutorial on targeting candidates with Facebook Ads, download the Jobcast Facebook recruiting app, and get recruiting! Heck, if you read through the tutorial and decide that using Facebook Ads is too much of a hassle, just sign up for Jobcast Enterprise and Jobcast will handle your whole Facebook recruiting campaign for you.