Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.

If you didn’t already know, SmashFly Technologies is part of the MassChallenge Start-up Competition and as part of the 2nd round event yesterday, we were tasked with making a 10 minute pitch for SmashFly at Microsoft’s NERD center in Cambridge.

As we were starting to create this presentation, we quickly realized 10 minutes wasn’t a whole lot of time. There was so much we wanted to tell about SmashFly but the time constraint meant we needed to identify the most important talking points about SmashFly.

Does this process sound familiar because it should? With any job ad that you post online, you are essentially facing this same problem. You need to tell the candidate about your company and convince them it is great opportunity in the time it take’s their attention span to wane (which most likely is under 10 minutes.) So what do you need to include in this precious amount of time, here are a few ideas:

What does the company do: Right from the start you should let potential candidates know what your company does. This can and probably should be the first sentence in your job description (i.e. Our Company is…) Qualified candidates will want to know what your company is all about before they submit their resumes.

What is the position: You need to clearly describe the position and what the hired candidate will be involved in at your company. Bullets work great for this!

What skills are you looking for: When it can be avoided job descriptions should list skills desired for a position rather than qualifications. Any candidate that you bring in will have to learn your company’s way of doing things and it will be the skills they have that enable them to succeed, not necessarily their 10+ years of experience in project management.

Why your company: This is probably the most crucial. In your job description you need to tell candidates why your company is a special opportunity and what makes your company different. High quality candidates are inundated with lots of great opportunities and you should make sure to communicate why your job opportunity stands out from the rest!

How can I Stay Connected: Build your Talent Network by directing candidates to your social networks (Facebook group, Twitter profiles), career blog or your email subscription form (create one if you don’t have one) to let them know the best way to interact with your employer brand and provide them updates about future job openings. These candidates may not be candidates for this particular job but may be perfect for your company in the future so you want to keep in touch with them. (***This is probably the biggest missed opportunity I see on career sites and job postings.)

When you are creating your recruitment marketing messaging always remember you are under a time limit to get your point across. Focus on what’s important and qualified candidates will come calling!

About the Author: Chris is the Marketing Analyst for SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform called WildFire that enables companies and staffing firms to easily distribute and more importantly measure the performance of their recruiting efforts online.

The WildFire recruitment marketing platform offers every tool you need for your recruitment marketing needs all in one centralized solution including Real-Time Recruitment Metrics, Job Ad Distribution (job boards, social networks, SEM, email & SMS campaigns), Recruitment Opt-In Database, Recruitment CRM, Web Commercials / Micro-sites and Resume Sourcing services.