Sarah Palin vs. CareerBuilder on Facebook TalentHQ.com

With hundreds of investments you can make with online advertising, the CareerBuilder ad deal with Facebook, hasn’t proven to be one on the top of my list. What was touted earlier this year as an innovative way to break into the social media and networking space hiring – and the next big thing for CareerBuilder clients – is proving otherwise on the surface.

From Super Bowl ads to the iPhone application, they deserve some credit for trying. But better placed ads on Facebook haven’t induced a high level of attention from job seekers on this popular social networking site.

When you break down the results, here are 5 reasons this might not make the top of your list:

8,613 fans to date. Given the amount of advertising, ads and visibility this was going to bring – 8,613 fans doesn’t cut it. Consider that in a few months, the “I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin” group grew to over 250,000. Even “My Pet Rock is more Qualified than Sarah Palin to be Vice President” has almost twice as many fans.

According to recent hitwise data for CareerBuilder, Facebook is #14 on the list, accounting for 0.66% of upstream traffic.

Why would you compete with other employers on the CareerBuilder page – and not just create your own page? This will allow you to engage with job seekers directly, via your own site, vs. sending candidates to CareerBuilder for a broader job search. Check out companies that have done this on their own including E&Y, Microsoft, and Best Buy.

The average employer viewed today on the CareerBuilder-Facebook page today has 330 fans.

You just need to check out the posts on the wall of the fan page… The wall, 53 posts in total, say it all.

If you are looking for ways to breaking into cost effective ways to attract and engage with talent online, there are alternatives. Check back next week to explore some other ideas. In the meantime, here are a few resources to jump-start your own career site:

5 Questions to ask Yourself About Your Career Site

Seriously? This a Candidate’s On-line Experience in a Web 2.0 World?

A Career Site Conversation with Benjamin Yoskovitz, CEO of Standout Jobs

Danny Brown says:

November 10, 2008 at 4:36 am

Great example of why Facebook isn’t high up on the list for many Internet ad or marketing campaigns. I think that people have just become too blase about blatant online advertising now – just look at the Twitter backlash against the Magpie advertising idea.

Although I don’t know the full scope of CareerBuilder’s social media approach, on the surface it looks like another company jumping on the social media bandwagon without any clear strategy.

This is where so many businesses are falling down. Just because you’re on a social media site doesn’t mean you actually understand how to use it effectively. Something that’s sadly all too true for a lot of businesses.

Kris Rzepkowski says:

November 10, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Thanks for the timely update Jason. As we all head into the budgeting season it’s helpful to get a reality check on the “hundreds of investments you can make with online advertising”. Nice review!

Jonathan Duarte says:

November 12, 2008 at 7:06 pm

I’m always amazed at what some people will buy!

I’m even more amazed at the sales people selling it. Great job for them!

You hear all the time about companies who “Don’t have the money…” “Don’t know what to do..”, and then you see the bought an $10,000 “targeted email campaign”, or a $15,000 “Custom Branding Page” on one of the big boards… of course ROI, tracking, and results never came up in the conversation.

I agree… why would you ever pay a job board to get traffic from Google, for free, and then turn around and sell that same traffic to you, and all of your competitors?

It just doesn’t make sense…
(And yes, I acknowledge that job boards ad da lot of value, other than just selling click thru leads for 10 times what you can get them for on Indeed, SimplyHired, or any of the other PPC vendors. )