Thinking of stepping into the unknown and exhibiting your business at your very first Job/Career Fair? Make sure you do your research before parting ways with that all important marketing budget.
In this article, we outline some key points to think about when choosing what Jobs Fair provider to go with:
-
How long have they been operating? – A clear and obvious one to get us started. How long has said recruitment event provider been around? As usually, the longer the better! You can take confidence from a company who has been in the industry for a large period of time. They will have extensive knowledge on locations, trends and demographics attending Job events UK Wide, and will be best equipped to answer any questions you may have.
-
Do you get what you pay for? – When booking into a Jobs/Careers Fair, you will likely choose a “stand package” for the event. Make sure you read and keep track of the perks you should be receiving. E.g., have they offered your company multi social media promotion? Check after you have sent your advertisements, that they have been published on the various social networking sites promised in the weeks leading up to the event.
-
Social Media Presence – Do not be misled by inflated/fabricated social media followers. If an event company is promoting their social audience as a key reason to book a stand, bear in mind some simple points to ensure their following is legitimate:
-
Engagement – how many likes, shares and comments does each post get. As a company with over 100,000 “followers” should be getting a decent organic engagement level.
-
Existing followers – look at the accounts, if any, liking their posts. If they are mainly from foreign countries, these are fake/illegitimate accounts.
-
Comments on posts – inspect comments on their posts. If they have comments such as “like it”, “love it”, “really cool”, “nice stuff” etc, these are common red flags in terms of them being bot accounts.
-
“Like” count – keep an eye on their social following. If you notice it increasing and/or decreasing exponentially from one week to the next, this is a sign they’ve either bought more fake followers, or the social platform is cracking down and removing fake accounts from the website.
-
-
Testimonials from other exhibitors – check out how many testimonials they have from previous customers, to help you make your decision. We advise looking for picture/video testimonials as written testimonials can be easily manipulated!
-
Pictures & Videos – Look on the organiser’s website for previous pictures and videos relating to the event you want to attend. A gallery for example. Failing that, ask the organiser to send you this information via email. As they say, “a picture speaks a thousand words”.
-
Visit an event – Before paying to attend an event, why not visit one in a job seeker capacity? Walk around, get a feel for the event. Good questions to think about while visiting include:
-
Is it as busy as the organiser claimed?
-
What sort of job seekers have been attracted?
-
How many other companies are there?
-
What industries are they from?
-
Is it what you expected based on your conversation with the Event Organiser prior to visiting?
-
Can you find a representative of the company at the event? If not, it could be down to either a busy event or the fact they are shying away from the room due it being quiet.
-
-
Copycats – After you have investigated point 1 on our list, it is worth thinking about potential copycats in the market. Typically, an organisation who have been around for a while will undoubtedly attract imitators looking to make a quick buck. If you notice key information like stand prices, event times, marketing, and website content are near on identical, its safe to assume said copycats have done a simple copy and paste to get a quick head start!
Thank you for reading our article; we hope you find it to be a useful tool when choosing your very first Jobs Fair event!
Finally, we wish you the best of luck, and welcome to the exciting world of face-to-face recruitment.