A good article in Professional Recruiter about web recruitment mentioned that, as you wouldn't take your quarter page in the Croydon Advertiser and use it word-for-word for a TV campaign, why do exactly that (as most people, let's be honest, do) with net advertising? The key is to follow some simple rules:
- the online job hunter is seeking very specific information. There are thousands of vacancies on line but they want the ones that suit them exactly. And they want them quickly as most of the time they are having a sneaky surf at work. Write your vacancy with this mind.
- remember all job sites search their own databases in slightly different ways. Ask how the site you are about to use does it (better still, ring us and we'll find out for you - hard selling Mooners). Adapt your ad to this when/if you can.
- The best info a search engine has on what the applicants are looking for is the string of keywords they type in. The engine then looks for ads where these words are prominent. So think like your candidate and list the words they will be using. Make them prominent and be particularly vigilant over the job title - keywords in there will help. Bottom line is that a candidate searching "C++" will click the rather dull "C++ experts needed" well before he clicks "Fantastic IT opportunity".
Give the candidates as much and as little info as they need. There are far more vacancies and choices online so the easier candidates can assess their suitability the better. Be specific about location and salary (ads with clear salary get 40% more views than those without). Finally concentrate on what you expect them to achieve rather than on their past. This makes it easier for them to see if the vacancy is right and stops you losing good people through arbitrary selection criteria.
