Indeed Alternatives - Week 3, Social

If you're looking for an alternative to Indeed, one of the critical considerations is scale. While many other job boards and platforms can replicate Indeed's quality and functionality, size separates Indeed from everyone else in recruitment marketing. But there are different ways to get your job in front of a large audience. One of those ways is social media, which we'll dive into today.

For recruitment marketers, social media differs significantly from Indeed or any other job board. For most job boards, having a solid job posting and a sufficient budget will cause applications to pour in. With social media, it's more complicated. If you start posting long text-based job descriptions, you will fail.

To succeed on social media, you must understand how the platform works, what users expect, and what targeting is available to attract the right users.

I. LinkedIn

When most people think of recruiting, LinkedIn is one of the first platforms that comes to mind. Linkedin is unmatched when sourcing highly experienced and specialized white-collar roles. It also provides various tools for recruiters to identify and connect with desirable applicants, including InMail. However, most of these tools require more outbound efforts vs. inbound with a job board.?

LinkedIn still operates in the old "job slot" methodology vs. the programmatic world most job boards have moved to. You can post your jobs on LinkedIn, and in many industries, those posts will perform well, though this strategy is limited when it comes to high-volume recruiting.

LinkedIn does offer programmatic ads to drive job applications. It takes more effort to set up the campaigns. What can be extremely useful here is that Linkedin knows where all their users work, their job titles, and where they are located. This targeting allows for precision in any campaign you choose to run. Remember, there is a premium to access all of those highly desirable candidates, and LinkedIn carries some of the highest CPC in social media, often going above $10.

II Twitter

Twitter has changed substantially in the last year, and some of my experience now feels outdated. Twitter has a highly active and engaged user base. It is also the social platform of choice for many in the tech space, so its audience can be highly desirable. Its content also has a relatively short life, meaning that recruitment marketers can aggressively post jobs without feeling like they are spamming the feed. Additionally, more than any other platform mentioned here, content can go viral.?

You must have a super short and compelling hook to succeed on Twitter. Simply posting a job description on Twitter won't work. You need a compelling reason for a user to stop their scroll and dig more into your job ad. You could make an audacious claim about what the applicant would get working for your company, use humor, or include an attention-grabbing image. Whatever you do, you can't be boring because, unlike job boards, you're not competing for attention against other jobs. You competing for attention against everything. This channel works best for employers with strong brands and big personalities.?

III Facebook

Facebook is my personal favorite when it comes to using a consumer platform for recruitment marketing. Between Facebook and Instagram, you can reach the majority of US adults. Plus, unlike LinkedIn or Indeed, you can get your jobs in front of passive job seekers who may not be actively looking for new roles, greatly expanding your pool of applicants.

With Facebook, you have to work differently. You can't ingest a feed of jobs the same way you can with LinkedIn or a job board, and you can't simply post hundreds of different positions on the same Facebook page like Twitter since posts live longer.?

Facebook works best if you need many applications and have relatively few roles (e.g., nurses, plumbers, delivery drivers) because you can quickly target your ads in any market you are hiring and reach a vast base.

Last year Facebook removed some targeting features, including Lookalike targeting, from anyone running an employment ad. The change did make it more difficult, but if you have the right feedback loop for targeting and craft your ads well, you can still drive a high volume of applicants at prices often below what you'll pay on Indeed. It just takes more work.

Social media is tough to beat if you're looking for scale outside of Indeed. With enough focus and effort, you can unlock a massive new channel in recruitment marketing. However, if you're posting the job description you used on Indeed, it won't work on any of these platforms. It takes different strategies to be successful and a strategic investment to make it work.

That's all for this week. Next week, we'll dive into Nice Job Boards in week 4 of our 8-week series on Indeed Alternatives. Let me know what you think in the comments below.?