What’s a Dark Post, and How to Use it to Build Infrastructure

During the drive from our humble city in Central Kentucky to Philadelphia for the Craft Brewers Conference I listened to the newest book by Gary Vaynerchuk, “#AskGaryVee”.

Personally I’ve always been fascinated by how companies can utilize social media to their advantage. Platforms such as Facebook clearly spent a lot of years giving users a reason to congregate in one spot online, which we all, as business owners, capitalized from.

Vaynerchuk’s book discusses a Facebook system otherwise known as Dark Posts. These are the posts you can design, develop, target and execute to a group of people regularly without it ever being posted on your actual Page’s wall. His contention is that these posts are getting a little expensive, and where we once capitalized on this great opportunity, it’s time to look elsewhere.

Vaynerchuk admits that Facebook is still the number one driver of individuals to websites. And, while Dark Posts are good for that, I believe they can still empower your business in a different way.

A lot of companies over the past several years have bought into utilizing LinkedIn for job postings. The websites like Monster, CareerBuilder and Indeed have long since delivered us useless candidates or a barrage of people that don’t even take time to read your post.

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For years companies, many of you reading have posted to a careers location on your website. Brewer Magazine does this and has for a long time. The reason we all have posts on our website is because we are searching for qualified candidates that are already bought into our business.

One of the struggles I’ve found using this is driving people to the location on your website. Typically it’s down near the footer and all the goodies on your site are up at the top. I even have consulted for years in web design to eliminate scroll as much as possible. Therefore, even in my own direction I would never lead anyone to the bottom.

One of the greatest opportunities with LinkedIn is the targeting, and professionlism of its users. People go there to discover what others in their industry are doing. Over the past several years, as I mentioned, the job boards on LinkedIn have become extraordinary. You can now find posts from companies you couldn’t before, and you can directly connect with people in that department to learn more about the position.

However, where LinkedIn is frustrating to a small business owner is through price. Spending more than $300 a month on a job posting is risky. Additionally, I might find highly skilled people, but they may have never heard of our brand.

Enter the Dark Post.

Where Dark Posts may have come in at a low rate and become expensive, they can still be much cheaper, or more expensive, than LinkedIn posts. If you were smart over the past six to eight years, you utilized Facebook Adverts and built your audience. More than likely your audience is built of a multitude of individuals, but the vast majority of them can most likely agree love your beer.

There you have it, a built in audience of people that are already bought into your brand! Utlize the Facebook Adverts (Dark Posts) to target those individuals that love your brand and have a background for the position you’re looking to fill.

I’ve found that even the interview is more enjoyable. We’ve targeted individuals that have the skill set we are searching for, but we’re also talking to people that have followed our brand for many years. We don’t really have to explain a ton about what we do and who we are … the people we’re interviewing already know this.

With this strategy you’ll already be targeting people that love your brand. You’ll no longer need that question, “Tell us what you know about us already,” which sounds strange … hopefully who you’re interviewing knows about you. With this strategy you’re going to find people that love your brand and want to be part of your team.

Admittedly No Walls Media and Brewer Magazine are still a small team. Some of our clients think we are a large corporation, but we are small and nimble. I’m continually looking for hacks that can help save us money, but also help us grow to where we want to be.
Next time you’re looking to hire, go to your number one place for posts — your website. Take that link and pour some money into Facebook Dark Posts where you can target people that have the skill set, but also love your brand.

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