Did Facebook Miss The Boat with the New Job Postings Service?

And once again, Facebook is trying out recruitment services. Makes sense, there are lots of open jobs in the world, lots of people willing to change jobs, and Facebook has a lot of users. Why wouldn't they?

So it's happening. Is it innovative cutting edge stuff? No. You can post jobs there. Oh really? But I can do that in a gazillion places already, where job-seeking is a commonplace activity. So why would I post on Facebook? Well, there's lots of people there. And it's Facebook.

Ok so it's Facebook. However, it's not a new thing, I used to try out postings on my company page when they introduced it years ago. It failed, so they stopped it. Then they partnered to create the 'BranchOut' service, where... you could post jobs against your company page. It failed, so they stopped it.

But it's Facebook. And there's lots of people there, more regularly than any other site in the world. It has to work this time, surely? I mean, there are millions of people there.

I'm beginning to sound like a Social Recruiting guru who doesn't recruit.

You see, there are any number of reasons why job-posting on Facebook might just not work. And most of them start with the fact, it's 2017, not 2010.

If Job Boards are in decline, why would a Facebook Job Board fair any different?

The irony of all this, is that products like Facebook have played a major part in the enhancement and evolution of recruiting, to move away from job posting to better sourcing, targeted advertising and purposeful career communications. By telling us to go back to a method that we've already ditched, they defeat some of the best value of it's own data. Not that it earns any money from that.

What benefit is there, in advertising in places where the most people exist?

Anyone who has advertised on LinkedIn will know this suffering. You have a nice brand, you get 500+ applications. On average you get 150-200. Un-targeted, largely unsuitable applications creating wasted time and negative candidate experience. Without paying for and adopting great programmatic and targeted advertising, there is no added value to this.

Facebook Company Pages kind of had their day.

Yes they are asking us to use a base of the platform that most people don't frequent anymore. Even in their most potent of times, only 4% of your Facebook page 'likers' would ever return to your page. And that's from big brands. In the past 2 years, the level interaction with company Facebook pages has gone down the drain.

What gap in our lives, is Facebook trying to provide with this?

When any aspiring product entrepreneur considers a new idea, a most crucial component is to sense check whether there is an actual need. Has there been a clamour for a new job posting service in recent times - let alone a Facebook job posting services? Do Facebook users sharing their holiday pics and Trump memes stop and consider how lacking Facebook is as a service without the direct filtering of new job opportunities into their feed? I think not. Even recruiters are kind of 'meh' about *another* place to spray and pray.

LinkedIn still has this area nailed. They're bringing in the $millions. Despite the antagonism over the ever evolving UX and differing service offerings, it's a fee generator for agencies and a fee-avoider for direct hiring companies. Nobody is leaving LinkedIn in droves, and I'm hearing many stories from the smarter recruiters in my network, that they are taking up the next level services. ￡50 a month will still generate each recruiter their ￡10-20k of fees per month. It justifies the spend pretty blatantly. I don't recruit every day anymore, however the jump to Sales Navigator was a no-brainer, and I'm enjoying the experience it gives me - albeit with occasional hankering for some old features. But hey, that's change. It happens.

Any moves that Facebook make, will always be hampered by the common assertion that it's a social network, that LinkedIn is not. Human behaviour dictates that we like the difference each presents to our online experience; and business behaviour dictates that we will never ignore the low hanging fruit of live data on business people on a business network platform. Furthermore, a Microsoft owned LinkedIn will always have the capacity to bat back with something bigger and better.

Facebook advertising within the context of programmatic should and will prosper. It's targeted and seamless, and should provide the wow factor that makes people click and buy, because it is targeted and pointed at their actual behaviours. Facebook job postings will merely provide the same meh-factor that job boards commonly present.

I'll be watching it closely - it's my job to do so. I can see the hourly paid, retail and local business sections finding some use for this - and maybe that will be enough - but beyond that, I think it will struggle to make it's mark. Again.

Welcome thoughts & comments.

______________________________________________________________________

Steve Ward is commonly regarded as the first practising Social Recruiter and is now an interim Social Recruiting & Talent Attraction Strategist, helping growth businesses be a magnet to the talent they want. Email me at [email protected] to see if I could help your business, or if you are interested in attending my forthcoming strategic social recruiting masterclasses.