Getting started with employer branding on social media is a topic we enter into frequently with our customers.
Often times there is a lot of confusion with what to do and how to go about because employer branding is considered to be the same as recruitment marketing. But it is not.
One of the challenges employer branding brings to us is the time it takes for us to recognize impact. Recruitment marketing is mostly short term campaigns ending to the deadline for applications. Employer branding is a long game. The results look different than in recruiting.
That’s why it really pays out to plan and prep your employer branding activities before you start. Otherwise you might find yourself in a situation 6 months, 12 months down the line where you have no employer brand -related results at all.
Modern employer branding is goal oriented, planned and measured. When you follow your plan, you cannot go wrong.
How do I start with employer branding on social media?
The first and most important step is to shake away all your thoughts about hiring, recruiting, job posts, career paths and so on. I know this sounds surprising. And if it does, this might be career-life changing for you! It was for me!
Now that you’ve shaken off the recruitment angle, focus on talents our there your company will want to hire, let’s say a year from now to 2 years from now. Employer branding is paving the way for future hiring success of your company.
When recruiting and recruitment marketing is about harvesting what is available right now, employer branding is about putting in the seeds and nurturing those seeds up until it is time to harvest.
When recruiting and recruitment marketing is about harvesting what is available right now, employer branding is about putting in the seeds and nurturing those seeds up until it is time to harvest.
So you start by shaking off your current beliefs about employer branding.
Then, you take a piece of paper and a pen. Or open a fresh page of Word on your computer.
Making a plan for employer branding for social media
What you will need is a plan. Anyone who decides not to make and follow a plan will fail in employer branding, anywhere. Not just social media.
The good thing here is, even a very simple plan will do. You are able to squeeze it into one page if you like. And to be honest, I recommend making plans not more than 5 pages. Otherwise they become impossible to actually use every day. You’ll end up hiding them somewhere, and then you do random things as in not follow a plan. What happens if you don’t follow a plan? Your employer branding will fail. I guarantee you this.
The purpose of a plan is to act like a map for you. It gives you directions and helps you to stay on course to make it to your destination. Following your plan means you are less likely to get lost. Another great thing about following a plan is that you can say not to requests that are not in the plan. A plan gives you control and helps you to stay on course.
What a simple employer branding plan covers?
- The target audience. Definition of the talent audiences you want to impact and influence.
- The goals and objectives for your employer brand and this work.
- Key messages. What is it that this target audience must think of you as a place of work once you have an employer brand in their eyes?
- Decisions on which social media you focus on. What is the social media your audience actively engages with and you are able to regularly work with?
- Resources you can have for this work. We are talking about things like budget, time allocated on a weekly basis, skills and knowledge available.
You might have to plan this a bit. But that’s why it is called a plan. The more time you put into making this plan, the less likely you are to make a wrong plan and have to change it later.When we help our customers, we do both social media & content marketing plans for employer branding as well as employer branding strategies (based on the Modern Eminent Employer Branding method because it covers all the best practices).
What happens after the plan is ready?
Once you have the plan in place, the execution starts. Execution means you start to do activities required to get your plan in action.
Employer branding in social media requires content always. So the next step is to start creating content.
Learn more about content creation from these following posts:
Content marketing in employer branding >>
3 tips how to do smarter content marketing >>
Content that works for your audiences >>
How HR can use the company blog for talent marketing >>
How to create content marketing in a smarter way? >>
In this episode of Building a Modern Employer Brand, I will give you a few tips on how to get started with modern employer branding on social media.
Episode length: 27:35 min
The episode-content:
- What steps to take to get started with modern employer branding on social media
- How to know which social media to opt for?
- What to post on social media?
- How often should you post?
You can currently listen to this podcast on the following platforms: