Three weeks ago I started the search to replace a long-term employee. He left on a Monday and I immediately started my search that afternoon. As it was in years past, I expected my search to be tedious. To my dismay it was harder to find a “help wanted” sign than a good candidate.

My Gardner location is two doors down from a hardware store. On my way home Monday I stopped in to buy a couple signs to put in my windows. “We don’t sell them,” the clerk explained, “we had to buy them online when we needed employees.” I offered a few dollars for their used signs and was given two.

With the help of industrial tape I fastened them to my sandwich board sign in front of my store. Figuring traffic in front of the store was adequate to catch someone’s attention, I placed them prominently over my store’s logo. A week went by and nothing, not even an inquiry.

Tuesday evening I placed an ad on Craigslist figuring I’d get a few decent resumes. My ad requested potential hires copy and paste the contents of their resume into the text of the email. I specifically requested this to weed those who mass email resumes or simply can’t follow instructions.

Within a day my inbox was full of potential new technicians. Many clearly didn’t fit the bill; however, a handful stuck out as people who could follow basic instructions and actually wanted this job. During the first week I interviewed several candidates and invited a few back for extended interviews. Unfortunately, none fit who I was looking for.

I remembered seeing a help wanted posting section on Facebook while I was setting up my last campaign. Instead of paying for advertising on Facebook I created a help wanted advertisement to spread the word. Based on a test run I calculated it would cost me $100.00 to reach approximately 20,000 people.

Long story short, I made it to about 18,000 newsfeeds and received about 100 inquiries from qualified individuals. My ad was very basic and addressed specific requirements. With the help of Facebook I was able to narrow my list to six candidates very quickly. By linking to their page I was able to get a basic idea of who they were before starting my interviews. Call me a stalker.

So we’re on the same page, my employee quit on a Monday. By the following Sunday I had many interviews under my belt. The next Monday morning I brought in my last candidate who I eventually hired. Facebook and the internet made hiring good talent very easy and took much of the headache out of the process.

Apparently “help wanted” signs are another thing of the past that technology replaced. Thankfully I discovered this early on in my process so I was able to use technology to my benefit. In the blink of an eye I was able to target those who had an interest in computers, technology professionals and retail professionals relatively quickly.

Rather than wait for the right person to drive by, I was able to send out a technological fishnet and recruit the exact candidate I was trying to find. My new hire was eager to move from his current position and was persuaded to contact me by other friends who also had the ad plastered on their feed. Before you waste a few bucks on help wanted signs for your next opening, spend a bit more and save weeks of agonizing interviews.

(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)