Good old fashioned word-of-mouth has kicked the bucket, with the ability ‘share’ on sites like Facebook creating new avenues for recruitment advertising to literally reach millions.

As more and more people jump on this ‘sharing’ bandwagon, it’s essential for employers and businesses alike to recognize and embrace the potential of this viral marketing.

Leaving out the more obvious forms of Facebook advertising, such as Facebook ads and Company Pages, the ability to quickly and easily ‘share’ information across the web has largely been overlooked by employers.

From adding a simple ‘share’ button to your website, to creating a live Facebook ‘share’ feed, the ability of employers to reach thousands of people within days using an essentially free method of advertising is unprecedented.

With the average Facebook user having 130 friends and more than 800 million active users, Facebook is clearly one of the most widespread advertising mediums and this is only just the tip of the iceberg.

The recent fundraising drive by Employment Office Australia and Diabetes Australia Queensland is set to fully put the power of Facebook sharing to the test with the hope of raising $20,000 for charity.

Managing Director of Employment Office Mr Tudor Marsden-Huggins says he hopes that Facebook will really give their bike-riding fundraiser SoreBums extra legs.

“We’ve integrated a live Facebook stream on our SoreBums.com.au website where riders will be instantly able to ‘share’ their progress on their bike leg and their friends can keep track,” Mr Marsden-Huggins said.

“If we’ve got at least 100 riders, and each person ‘shares’ to their friends, and then their friends share it…the awareness and hopefully donations raised will be much more than someone simply talking about it over coffee,” he said.

“We’ve also set up a FaceBook page to further increase the presence of SoreBums to not just those who are the friends of riders.”

If you’d like to get involved in the SoreBums fundraiser for Diabetes Australia Queensland, or just want to watch a live video stream of riders as the tough it out on the mountain bike, please visit SoreBums.com.au.

SoreBums will officially kick off on the start of Diabetes Week on the 21st November.