The Facebook residual effect – and how to get it

The average Facebook user has 300+ friends.

When a user likes, shares and/or comments on a post, the action is displayed in the newsfeed to their friends.

The same is true for a post brought to the forefront of a user’s newsfeed via paid promotion. When a “friend of a friend” likes, shares, comments or tags someone on a promoted post after seeing their friend do so, it does not cost you anything.

This is the Facebook residual effect (title drop – roll credits).

More and more, we find that our clients are eager to use Facebook for recruiting. For example, a single campaign run for a client by NAS achieved 5,256 likes on the post, 705 shares of that post, and 5,984 likes for the page. Great, right? Hold on…“likes” alone do not necessarily create the reach you want in a Facebook recruiting campaign.

Let’s go through the additional steps necessary to really take advantage of this snowball effect.

1. Paid Promotion Matters

Facebook pages without paid promotion are doing themselves a disservice by limiting their reach. As you can see above, there is no guarantee your posted content will reach your audience. And yes, as proven by the graphic below, even people who already like your page will likely not see your content.

That’s why you need paid promotions. Paid promotions could be a link, photo, status update, video or any content that you can share in a Facebook wall post. Promoted posts are also incredibly useful for promoting events or specific opportunities.

2. Content is King

Paid promotion is not the whole solution – it only gives you access to the massive Facebook audience of over a billion users. What a page does to win over that audience and make the most of the spend is what’s really important.

Pages need a plan in place to post content that is useful to the candidates they are trying to attract. Posting engaging content and alternating between job information with fun and/or educational material is essential to continued success via the retention of your core audience. By creating a demand for the content you’re supplying, you’ve earned the loyalty of the fans you already have.

You’ve also created a scenario where people who are not fans are now spreading that content.

3. Targeting Takes It Up A Notch

One of Facebook’s greatest strengths is the ability to target to a specific audience. Promoted Posts distribute the items you post to your fans, their friends or even non-fans through interests or other criteria within the newsfeed, right-hand side bar and even Instagram. Make sure you are targeting the right individuals. It takes experience to do this right, so you might consider partnering with a social media expert or agency like NAS to handle this part of the process.

4. See the Big Picture

Content and paid promotion will only get you so far. You need to take the time to create a well-thought-out strategy across all media – and make Facebook (and other social platforms) an integrated part of the plan. Your goal should be a strong content strategy that works with everything else you are doing to reach candidates, not just a series of one-off promotions that try to achieve results in isolation.

It’s only by seeing the big picture and creating a harmonious plan that takes advantage of the strengths and opportunities of ALL potential media channels that you will achieve the successful candidate pipeline you desire.

Contact us today to learn more about Facebook for recruiting.

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