RecFest: Text-only advertisements ‘dead’, says digital strategy expert
13 June 2014
The art of persuasion, and particularly the form of text-only recruitment adverts, are “dead”, a digital strategy expert has said.
Fri, 13 Jun 2014 | By Matt Bodimeade
The art of persuasion, and particularly the form of text-only recruitment adverts, are “dead”, a digital strategy expert has said.
Speaking at in-house recruitment event RecFest yesterday [12 June], Matt Alder, a digital, social and mobile strategist at digital strategy consultancy Metashift, said that “text-only adverts are dead” and that they have been “killed off by mobile”.
Alder recommends now including pictures and videos in job advertisements, to help recruiters attract “the right type of candidate”. A video is able to give a job advert more flavour, as the applicant can see someone in the role or chatting about the role.
“Recruiters always tell me how busy they are, but are they so busy because they’re attracting the wrong type of candidate? If recruiters are attracting the wrong type of candidate, they need to alter their strategy to attract the right type.”
To do this, Alder went on to recommend a persuasion framework to use when creating a job advertisement. The framework spells out the word success:
- Simple
- Unexpected
- Concrete
- Credible
- Emotional
- Story
He said that creating an emotion and building a story around the advert would allow a candidate to “connect” with the role they are applying for.
Although most delegates in the room agreed with Alder’s views, in the roundtable discussions after the presentation, one delegate went on to conclude that the art of persuasion “is alive and well, and certainly not dead”.
Speaking at in-house recruitment event RecFest yesterday [12 June], Matt Alder, a digital, social and mobile strategist at digital strategy consultancy Metashift, said that “text-only adverts are dead” and that they have been “killed off by mobile”.
Alder recommends now including pictures and videos in job advertisements, to help recruiters attract “the right type of candidate”. A video is able to give a job advert more flavour, as the applicant can see someone in the role or chatting about the role.
“Recruiters always tell me how busy they are, but are they so busy because they’re attracting the wrong type of candidate? If recruiters are attracting the wrong type of candidate, they need to alter their strategy to attract the right type.”
To do this, Alder went on to recommend a persuasion framework to use when creating a job advertisement. The framework spells out the word success:
- Simple
- Unexpected
- Concrete
- Credible
- Emotional
- Story
He said that creating an emotion and building a story around the advert would allow a candidate to “connect” with the role they are applying for.
Although most delegates in the room agreed with Alder’s views, in the roundtable discussions after the presentation, one delegate went on to conclude that the art of persuasion “is alive and well, and certainly not dead”.
