Communicate Like Your Applicants Do Using Social Media
Today’s topic, for the second installment of my applicant conversion blog series, is about how to use social media in your efforts to convert more visitors to applicants. As I mentioned in my last blog, Use Analytics to Convert More Career Site Visitors to Applicants, using analytics is certainly a great first step in continuing to improve the number of career site visitors who end up submitting employment applications. As you consider other action steps discussed here and in my next few blogs, those analytics will allow you to gauge the effectiveness of content on your careers portal as well as external sources that refer traffic to your site
Give Applicants Options On Your Career Site
One of the biggest missed opportunities for engaging visitors on your careers page (and ultimately converting them to actual applicants) is the failure to provide those potential applicants any options beyond applying or leaving your career site. It’s very common for these potential applicants to be presented with an “Apply” button and nothing else. Or, in a best case, there may be the option for them to “Email this Job to a Friend.” Helpful to potentially let others know about your open position, but useless for possibly converting this visitor to an applicant anytime soon.
At ExactHire, we’ve seen the trend toward social media in recruiting coming for some time and have worked hard at developing our applicant tracking software tool so that it can help our clients leverage those options. In our opinion, actively allowing your applicants and potential applicants to stay connected to your organization through various social media channels is invaluable.
Make it Easy for Visitors to Follow and Like Your Company
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how social media can drive more qualified applicants to your site. This is certainly true, as capitalizing on the social relationships of your current employees and recruiting team is an excellent way for many passive applicants to become aware of your organization and the positions for which you’re hiring.
Today, however, I want to focus more on how critical it is for you to allow your career site visitors to “follow” your organization. If a potential applicant (active job seeker or passive candidate) visits your career site, you need to have an option for them if they aren’t quite ready to hit the “Apply” button. Maybe the time isn’t quite right for them. Or, maybe they don’t see an opening right now that is the right fit for them — even though they are very interested in working for your company. The last thing in the world you want at that point is for that person to leave your site. If they do, the odds of them coming back again anytime soon are extremely slim.
This is where the “follow” option can be invaluable. For those site visitors who don’t elect to move forward with an application right now, consider giving them the ability to be notified (at their request, of course) when you have other openings available. For this to work as well as possible, be sure to let these potential applicants follow you in whatever way is most convenient to them — email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Our solution provides this functionality, which gets very positive feedback from our clients.
Creating an Engaged Audience for Your Job Opportunities
Now, these potential applicants stay tied to you. They know when you’re hiring and whether those positions hold interest for them. If they’re presently employed but not 100% happy, you have the opportunity to continually “drip” on them in a meaningful and unobtrusive way. If they’re actively looking for work, they will know immediately when you have an opening that is of interest to them. Either way, when the time is right or the job is right, your odds of converting that visitor to an applicant improve dramatically.
Think of it this way…when you visit any B2C site, you’re intent isn’t always to buy something at that time. However, if you see something that interests you (new merchandise coming, an upcoming sale, etc.), how much easier is it to “like” that retailer on Facebook or follow their Twitter feed vs. reminding yourself to go back later when the new merchandise is due to arrive or when the sale is supposed to start. What I’m proposing here for your career site visitors is the same thing…make it easy for them to stay connected so there’s a better chance of working together down the road.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our solutions help you leverage social media to convert more applicants, then please contact us today. Don’t forget to like ExactHire and follow us @goExactHire.
Image credit: Pixeden
