• Building your brand on social media can be a surefire way to recruit the best talent and stand out from the crowd. Check out 7 perspectives from the professionals. 

Businesses, big and small and irrespective of budget, know well that in today’s highly competitive, global marketplace employer branding is essential. Why? To give your company a clear identity, make it stand out above its competitors and ‘sell’ itself to both prospective employees and clients. But what’s social media’s role in this?

Well, most obvious is its reach. What better way is there to potentially connect instantly with an infinite number of people across the globe? There’s much more than this boosting its value though.

Perhaps the most convincing way to give credibility to social media’s use for this purpose is to defer to the professionals involved in employer branding currently. 

Seven perspectives from the ‘coal face’ of employer branding - quintessential quotes:

The consensus agrees that social media is imperative to your employer branding strategy. However, there are those who believe dependence on this alone is a mistake. Let’s take a closer look at what a range of them have to say. 

1) ‘Social Media plays a critical role in listening, engaging and influencing target audiences in the most effective manner as it’s a two-way communication platform unlike any other.’ (Global Social Recruiting and Talent Brand Manager)

2) ‘Social media paints an authentic and compelling picture of life inside your company. Crafted ad campaigns can’t come close to the connection people can get to our employer brand by searching our hashtag…’ (Senior Director of Global Employer Branding)

3) ‘It’s a very cost-effective way to get personalized messaging to target audiences…put effort into the channels your employees are spending time on online…get them involved…people believe other employees more than brand messaging.’ (Recruitment Operations Manager)

4) ‘Social media is the number one tool in our online presence that allows us to be transparent and real-time interactive with our direct audience…we are able to cast very specific ‘nets’ and have real-time conversations with the exact talent we are looking to engage.’ (Global Employment Brand Leader)

5) ‘Social media democratizes opportunity. You don’t need to arrive first, sign up first or be in the inner circle to learn and take advantage of what companies are offering.’ (Global Employment Brand Director, Royal Bank of Canada)

6) Social media has been used ‘to change perceptions of our company from a boring corporate dinosaur…to make people aware of us as a great place to work…Through amplifying our employee voices, we were able to up our ‘trust’ factor.’ (Social Media Head and Talent Brand, Cisco).

7) ‘The role social media does not play in the employer brand…it’s NOT the destination. Rather it’s part of the infrastructure of employer brand activation…there’s a danger of relying too much on social media…marketing metrics are nice but what is the actual impact on your employer brand?

Most quality hires come from referrals, from your career site and maybe even job boards [however] do use social as a way to amplify your employees’ voices and project the culture on the inside of the business.’ (Employer Brand Consultant and CEO). 

Key take outs:

Social media platforms play a pivotal role in employer branding today. To promote your brand, choose platforms specific to your ideal candidates whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat etc., and create your own company blog tailored to your target audience. You need to maintain an active presence to keep followers engaged and interested. As a recruitment tool, taking advantage of social media extends your reach exponentially.

Encouraging employees to post online company reviews through social media sites, will build up a credible range of viewpoints on your firm. To optimize the value of this, you need to provide constant online feedback for all reviews, positive and negative. This shows you care about your employees, the company brand and candidates, especially if responses are from significant managerial staff, such as the CEO or department heads.

So, get amongst it on social media to up your employer brand game.