Steve Evans, managing director of Net Natives, told Recruiter that those who drag their heels are missing an opportunity to have a platform to reach their community as well as demonstrate their expertise and knowledge of a particular sector.

“Anyone can build a Facebook page but the problem is that anyone can build a Facebook page,” he said, explaining that only 25 fans are required on the social media site to claim the name of a specific group. “It is important agencies are aware of this and unless they take the lead, direct recruiters - or someone else -; will do so,” he said.

Net Natives recently launched a new service that helps recruiters and job boards build a Facebook presence and recruit from inside the page. The first to sign up was the job board British Medical Jobs and Net Natives is currently working on five more pages, including those for specialist medical recruitment firm Nationwide Locum Services and the recruitment and training consultancy, the Synergy Group.

British Medical Jobs managing director, Andrei Shelton, told Recruiter that as a new entry into the market, the Facebook page has already helped the company to build trust in the brand. “We have been able to quickly build a loyal following by delivering interesting industry content which is encouraging casual browsers onto the main site,” he said. “By using the social media channel to promote our support of the industry through relevant content and an engaging page, we are already seeing increased sign-ups and candidate conversions on our job board from our Facebook page.”

Evans believes that creating a page and providing candidate communities with compelling content can help to bring back some of the old-fashioned approaches to recruitment that have been lost in the era of the job board.

“There’s so much you can do with a Facebook page. You can contact the community, tell them about a career fair, let them know about key trends, give information about salary surveys and get feedback from candidates,” he said, adding that the big advantage such a page also has over traditional recruitment media is its viral nature.

“If I see something on a job board, unless I forward it to a friend no-one else is going to know I’m there,” he said. “But if you create something and people click ’like’ on Facebook, it is shared with everyone in the community.”
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