When it comes to next-gen recruitment methods, social media's importance cannot be understated as it continues to take an increasingly mainstream role in recruitment strategies adopted by best-in-class companies. While social media is obviously a great avenue for finding the top talent you need, it is also an equally useful means for establishing, maintaining, and promoting a company's brand identity. These obvious benefits cannot be overlooked.
What is your employer brand? It is made up of the opinions and attitudes outsiders hold about your company. Based on available information, candidates and customers will form an impression of your organization. When it comes to hiring the best people, you will want to be sure your employer brand is attractive enough to entice the best talent.
Recruitment marketing can actually help your company get the word out and spread your branding message. Thanks to social media recruitment, you can reap some of the benefits of a traditional marketing campaign but without the huge costs. While you look for the best people, you can also spread your company's brand and mission statement as you get the word out.
"It really has the opportunity to change everything it touches," LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner told Smart Business about social media. "This goes way beyond brand building and customer outreach, which is how many organizations are using social media at a basic level. Leveraging social platforms is going to fundamentally change the way we work and how business gets done. It's going to really revolutionize and disrupt all of it."
Social media recruitment is not only finding you the best candidates, these tools are also helping you build up your company brand in the digital space. Here are just a few ways social media recruitment can help strengthen your company brand:
Establish A Brand Identity
The social media sphere is a great place to establish, implement, and develop a brand identity for your company. Talented job seekers are not just going to your social media profiles to look for jobs, they are also there to look for information on your company. If you utilize the social realm to tell your company story, even job seekers who ultimately do not submit an application will leave with a good idea of your company culture and organizational values.
Use your company website, social media profiles, newsletters and other update streams to share relevant content, company stories, and organizational messaging. Tap into the trends prevalent in your industry and do not be afraid to ask followers and fans what they think. Start a dialogue with interested candidates where you can not only evaluate their fit for your organization, but also impart a greater picture of your organization.
Never forget to share your company culture and values, whether in a recruitment video or employee testimonials. Let potential applicants "see" inside your company and you'll be establishing your brand identity as you attract the kind of talent your company needs.
Get Your Company Name Out There
It might seem simple, but being seen is the first step to becoming memorable. If you ensure all your corporate social media profiles are consistently branded, you have now gotten your logo and company brand in front of interested applicants and followers.
While you look for the right candidates to fill your open positions, you are also positioning your brand in front of target markets. It is marketing not just for your open positions, which you should use your social channels to push out and promote, but also for your company brand in general.
"Company profiles not only represent who you are and your company's identity, but they enable you to build your talent brands, establish the way in which you're going to recruit and how you recruit, and build word-of-mouth around your products and services," said Weiner. "So identity is an absolute cornerstone."
Show You Care About Employees
You want to develop a company brand likely to attract the kind of talent you need. This talent is looking for companies willing to see them as a human being first and a worker second. Social media recruitment is actually a great way to position your company as an organization where people come first.
Social media engagement means applicants should no longer be just a resume in an applicant tracking system. When a candidate submits their credentials, your social recruitment platform should send out a message thanking them for their interest.
It might be a small thing, but candidate experience matters when building an attractive company brand. In fact, a recent CareerBuilder survey showed 75 percent of job seekers never heard back after applying for a position. By including one simple thank you message in your ATS, your company has now become more personable than two-thirds of your competitors!
You should also use your social media channels to tell the story of your company. Make your social media profiles and branded career site a destination where applicants can find out what the company culture is truly like by sharing stories, pictures, and videos. The more you share, the more you can build up your company's brand identity as an organization that cares about employees.
Utilizing the power of social media recruitment to build up and strengthen your company brand just makes practical sense. By following social media and branding best practices, you can get your profiles and online destinations to do double duty for you.
What are some ways you can strengthen your company brand using social media? Share in the comments!
Sajjad Masud is the Co-Founder and CEO of Simplicant, a cloud-based social recruiting platform transforming talent acquisition and making enterprise-level recruiting technology accessible to companies of all sizes. Connect with Sajjad and the Simplicant team on Twitter and Facebook.