Small Business Tips
Could Facebook Be a Recruiting Tool for Small Businesses?
There’s no doubt that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been a huge boon to small businesses across the nation. With these sites offering free ways to connect with existing customers as well as reasonably priced options for reaching new ones, there are plenty of reasons why maintaining accounts is a must for any entrepreneur. Now Facebook is looking to further assist business owners by providing them with a new tool: the ability to find and hire employees via their page.
As TechCrunch reports, Facebook has quietly started testing a new feature for business page owners that allows them to post job openings and accept resumes. Such an offering not only takes aim at the more business-minded social network LinkedIn but could also prove to challenge other job posting services like ZipRecruiter. This begs the question, could Facebook really become an effective recruiting tool?
One of the biggest things going for Facebook’s plan is the platform’s massive audience. With nearly two billion users and, as of December 2015, more than 50 million business pages, there’s no doubt that there is potential for businesses to cast a wide hiring net. Unfortunately just having a Facebook page is no guarantee that people will actually see it. Because of this results will likely vary as the company develops this product and presumably makes postings available for advertisement.
Another foreseeable problem involves customer education. After all conditioning job seekers to start their search on Facebook may prove to be a tall task considering what the site is already known for. Furthermore, with so much other content on the site, some might find it all too overwhelmingly distracting to be used as a serious tool. Then again there is always the chance that users could stumble into a perfect job posting that they wouldn’t have found otherwise, making it worthwhile for both Facebook and business owners.
Since these features are new there aren’t a ton of details available. However, as TechCrunch describes what Facebook has built, it does sound like a fairly impressive start. One nice touch is that applying for jobs through the platform helps the user fill out the application by automatically entering data from their profile. However one downside is that applications are submitted as messages to the business, increasing the possibility that they could be overlooked in a mix of other customer notes.
At the end of the day Facebook’s latest experiment could very well change the way that small businesses do their hiring. With access to the network’s massive user base, the volume and quality of applicants that businesses receive could surely get a boost when compared to smaller and more specialized platforms. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for this new offering and trying it out for yourself.
