A consistent and positive brand message is the key to a loyal and expanding customer, client, or candidate base. But your branding doesn’t just affect who engages with your products — it also affects the caliber of talent that engages with your company for jobs and career opportunities. Your employer brand is just as critical as your overall brand, especially when you need to hire top talent fast.
Firstly, we’ll start by defining employer branding; we’ll then discuss how social media plays a powerful part in promoting your employer brand in order to attract and recruit the right people for your organization.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is how your organization appears to non-employees as a place to work. When you think about great places to work, which companies immediately pop into your mind? Perhaps Google, who emphasizes a focus on work-life balance, or Microsoft, whose employees regularly highlight the positivity that comes from working in a diverse environment.
What is it like to work at a company? The very answer to that question is a simple way of understanding an employer brand. There are many factors that shape an employer brand and how a company is perceived; some key considerations include:
- Workplace culture
- Organizational values
- Diversity and inclusion
- Social values and community impact
- Work/life balance
- Communication
- Transparency
It can be difficult for applicants to uncover all of the different facets of a company using traditional recruitment methods, but social media is helping to close that gap. It provides an incredible outlet for organizations to proudly display their values, their employee stories, their internal culture and workplace ethos. Using social media is a creative and proactive way to develop loyal brand followers and engage future employees — a clever, and often underused, recruitment marketing tool.
Why Social Media Matters
In research conducted by Aberdeen, 34% of “Best in Class” companies recruit through social media more than other channels. Perhaps these innovative and socially savvy organizations have realized the trend, as data showed that 73% of job applicants aged 34 or under found a recent job through social media.
Job seekers are using their mobile devices (and consequently social media) more than ever, especially in our post-COVID world. In parallel, most job applications are completely digitalized and remote job interviews via Zoom or FaceTime have become commonplace. Job seekers are not only searching for the most suitable employer brand, but for ease and accessibility of the job application process; social media, then, ties the two seamlessly together.
Promoting your company as a great place to work via social media requires a slightly different strategy than utilizing traditional recruitment sources, like job boards and career sites. In order to engage candidates who are often focused on finding the right corporate culture and environment, your social content should engage in dynamic ways centered around people and experiences. Share a video tour of an office floor or department; showcase a team-building activity that involves collaboration and personality; highlight employee stories or employee journeys; showcase cool amenities or perks; incorporate employee testimonials about their positive experience working at the company. Create content that is fun, authentic and engaging.
Social Media for a Better Reach
The most powerful aspect of social media as it relates to employer branding is reach; over 58% of American consumers follow at least one brand on social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn give you access to millions more potential viewers than simply using your company website and blog. While some social media platforms target much younger users, there are strategic ways in which employers can utilize these channels to showcase their relevance, innovation, and creativity as it relates to recruitment and employer brand.
Remember: social media is founded on the idea that ideas worth sharing ought to be shared. Hence why promoting brand photos, videos, and creative content via social opens up the opportunity for fans and followers to share content to their own channels, furthering outreach and increasing brand awareness.
5 Ways to Use Social Media for Employer Branding
Create Shareable Content
Going viral isn’t just great for product marketing campaigns. It can also help you find talent that you simply wouldn’t discover via traditional recruitment methods. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other source. Take advantage of that by creating compelling content about your organization and why it’s such a great place to work.
Show off Your Company Values and Culture
People work more passionately – and are more likely to want to apply – when their own values align with the values of their employer or potential employer. That’s even more true when those values are lived, day in and day out, rather than being performative or just words on a page. Share content, particularly video content, showing off your organization’s culture and values. That could be work you’re doing in the community, charity initiatives, a focus on diversity, celebrating Pride, or even how the projects or products you’re working on make a positive impact in the world.
Give Your Employees a Voice
Potential employees trust current employees more than any other source when it comes to information about an organization. Get ahead of the curve by actively encouraging employees to speak about their experiences and share them on social media. Instagram Reels and IGTV are great platforms for this as they generate a lot of exposure to a highly diverse audience. Your current employees will also feel valued, which increases morale and promotes positive employer brand awareness via word of mouth. They’re also likely to share the videos with their own friends and family, increasing your reach even further. Consider having an Employee Takeover Day where you let your staff run your social media for a day to encourage some genuine peer-to-peer interaction.
Embrace the Online Event
As well as showcasing your brand for social media users, you can hold virtual events where prospective candidates can get to know the company better. Using digital tools like Facebook Rooms or Zoom allows people to gather together and see the human face of your company in real time. This is also an opportunity to present your organization as flexible and forward-thinking, not tied to conventional methods of meeting and recruiting.
Utilize the Stories Function
Employee stories are a wonderful way to engage future talent, and one of the most engaging features on social media is the stories function. Bring the two together and create a series of employee stories that tells your brand’s biography from the inside, in a way that’s accessible to just about anybody.
If you want to start making more employee stories you can’t wait to share on social media, you need the best people for the job; people who can’t wait to become a part of your amazing organization. Hire top talent with Bayard, and find out what we really mean by Transforming Talent.
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