Now that we are in a modern digital era, building your employer brand on social media has become a standard practice among organizations.
Yet, not only is it becoming more of the norm, but it’s also necessary for companies to invest time and resources into employer branding on social media.
With over 3 billion people on social media networks, it’s the easiest way to start building your brand as a trusted source and as a great place to work. But ignore strengthening employer brand on social media and your company will get left behind.
In this in-depth guide, we are going to cover:
- Why Employer Branding on Social Matters
- How To Build Your Employer Brand via Social
- Employer Brand Social Media Examples
Employer Brand + Social Media
Before we dive into what your company’s employer band on social matters, it’s important to have some context into social employer branding.
We previously wrote a full employer branding statistics post here if you want to further dive in. But below is a snippet of some those statistics as it relates to social media.
- 75% of U.S. respondents believe that companies whose C-Suite executives and leadership team use social media to communicate about their core mission, brand values and purpose are more trustworthy. (Glassdoor)
- 68% of Millennials visit employer’s social media properties specifically to evaluate the employer’s brand, 12% more than Gen-Xers and 20% more than Boomers. (CareerArc)
- 76% of companies choose social media to communicate the employer brand. (TalentLyft)
- Companies believe that social media marketing will be the most in-demand HR skill by 2020, 2nd being data analysis, followed by predictive modeling skills. (CareerArc)
Again, there are a lot more statistics than the above. And ones that not only are about employer branding but also how social media is closely connected to the effectiveness of it.
Why Employer Branding on Social Matters
Say what you will about social media, but for building your company and connecting, it’s a huge driver of success.
Before it was nice for brands to claim their social profiles and share some content. But that has shifted over the years and social media continues to gain more momentum.
This is why your company should be paying close attention to building the employer brand through social networks.
Here are a few reasons why employer branding on social matters.
Boosts recruiting
Probably one of the top reasons is the ability to recruit top talent. Job boards can still somewhat work, but they can get expensive.
Your own company website can also be great for job listings, but if people don’t exactly know you exist, it will be hard to build your recruiting pipeline.
That’s where social media comes in. By distributing job openings, work perks, and various other work-related items you’ll get job seekers interest.
Even when you are not posting career opportunities, if you build an engaging employer brand on social, you’ll drive more interest and outreach from talented people.
And, people are using social media to find jobs and develop their careers. For example, job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource compared to job boards, job ads, recruiting agencies, and recruiting events. (CareerArc)
There is also one more stat, which is also growing that is worth noting. 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search. (Glassdoor)
People want to do business with great companies
Having a great product or service is always important to your organization’s success.
But, if you are deemed untrustworthy, aren’t treating employees well, or there is a lot of negative news about you, potential buyers will be more reluctant to do business with you.
People want to do business with great companies who they know will treat employees and customers well. That’s where showcasing this on social media becomes valuable.
Think about sharing insights into the work culture, highlighting employees, community service initiatives, work benefits, customers, etc. All these social posts and spotlights can impact buyers decisions and opinion of your brand.
Saves your company money
Creating a positive employer brand can save your company money. How? For starters, having to spend money promoting your open job positions on various sites. Some can get pretty pricey and still do not always attract the best candidates.
When you have a company social identity that is positive and talked about, your company will be inundated with top talent from all over. It makes your company’s job pool grow, with a better selection of people who will be a great cultural fit.
It also helps your company retain your talent, with more employees engaged and vested in the brand. This reduces turnover rates and costs, as well as hiring costs as you no longer have to continually replace employees.
How to Build Your Company’s Employer Brand on Social
A core part to not only developing your employer brand on social is developing a strategy of content that will have the biggest impact.
There is no exact science to it, but many of the below areas will be crucial to building your employer brand on social media.
Great content with perspective
By great content, I don’t mean your marketing or sales blog content. Sure, this is something your social channels should certainly have, but it does little for your employer brand.
Customers and potential hires want to read content from real people who are associated with your company. Some of the best forms of content are employee-generated content and user-generated content.
Employee-generated content is any form of content that is created and distributed by your company’s internal workforce, aka employees. This content can allude to the company’s mission, values, and benefits. Learn more about it here.
User-generated content is material that is created and produced by the customers a company or organization serves. It puts the customer in the marketing driver’s seat and allows them to become an ambassador for your brand. Learn more about it here.
Work culture
A glimpse of your work culture may come from employee-generated content, but it’s also something the corporate handles should fully be promoting too.
Job applicants, customers, and potential buyers like to see what it’s like at your organization. If your employer brand isn’t clear, they may wonder why that is, if there are underlying issues, or that your company generally aren’t concerned with it.
This can turn people away which causes missed top job candidates and social media traffic to your profiles.
Post and promote content on these channels that are designed to highlight your employee advocates, reflect the brand, and show what the work culture is all about.
9 out of 10 candidates would apply for a job when it’s from an employer brand that’s actively maintained. (Workable)
Get employees involved in social sharing
Employees are the most trusted source of truth and are more likely to already be sharing about their company online. Besides helping with employee-generated content, employees actively sharing via social media can be a huge boost to employer brand.
Your corporate handles are good but sometimes lack the human element. Also, having the C-suite share on social media is also great, but sometimes they also are not trusted as much either.
That’s where employees come in and running employee advocacy is beneficial. Give employees access to all your great employer brand materials and let employees share to their networks. It keeps your organization informed and engaged, but also increase the reach of your company culture.
Employee voice is 3x more credible than the CEO’s when it comes to talking about working conditions in that company. (Edelman Trust Barometer).
Your company’s employees also have various connections (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) that your brand might not be reaching. Think of the impact 100, 1,000 or 10,000 employees actively sharing employer branding content, careers, and work-related material that your company provides can have.
This also does not mean spamming audiences every day. Quality over quantity always wins, so make sure employees have access to the very best and allow them to become the face of your brand.
Employer Brand Social Media Examples
One of the best ways to figure out your employer branding on social media is to look to others for inspiration! You probably have come across companies with a great employer brand and social media presence.
Whether they are promoting events, the work environment, their culture, workspaces, employee highlights, etc. employer branding on social media is everywhere.
Here are just a few examples of great employer branding on social media.
Vanguard: The financial institution is well-known and regarded in the investing space. But the company also focuses on employer branding and social media. If you are connected or come across some of their employees, you’ll see them sharing work culture with the hashtag #LifeAtVanguard
Electronic Arts: The popular video game publisher also focuses heavily on their employer brand, social media, and employees on social. They use EveryoneSocial to help ignite their global workforce and spread brand awareness of their work culture to audiences.
They use the hashtag #WeAreEA which you can follow along on social networks and see all the great content from employees and the brand.
Adobe: Everyone is probably familiar with Adobe, but if not, here’s a short company synopsis. Adobe is a multinational computer software company historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more recent foray towards digital marketing software.
Just like the previous two examples, you can follow along with their popular hashtag #AdobeLife and see employees actively expanding their employer brand and culture.
Final Thoughts
As you can gather from the above content, building your company’s employer brand on social media is crucial for business success.
Not only are potential hires checking social media and company profiles regularly, but current employees, customers, and prospects.
Having a unique and interesting employer brand on social media gives everyone valuable insights into how your company treats employees, customers, and what it is probably like to do business with your brand.
It’s now essential for businesses to focus on their employer branding on social. Otherwise, your brand image may suffer and left behind in the digital dust as your competitors crush their social initiatives.
