Why a company’s presence in social networks is not a ‘can’, but rather a ‘must’

Employer attractiveness is playing an increasingly important role in the battle for the best talents. Apathetically listing your company’s benefits in job advertisements is no longer a sufficient means of making yourself stand out. Talents tend to get information directly from companies that they already know and are of interest to them first, before possibly expanding their search afterwards. For this reason, the goal should be to reach out to candidates well before they begin their first direct search, draw attention to yourself in advance and make them see you as an attractive employer so that you are the first point of contact when they make the switch from a passive job search to an active one.

And what better place to do that than in your free time, when you do not get lost among a hundred other job postings? If you compare the search for candidates to a race, the top companies with big names and good reputations are in the first heat of the race. And this is where the magic term ‘employer branding’ comes into play. If you cultivate your employer brand beforehand so that it effectively reaches the general public, you can secure a place at the front of the pack, even as a lesser-known company.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is part of social recruiting and includes the following building blocks:

Content marketing and employer branding

This refers to active placement on social media via regularly posting images, texts and videos in order to attract the target group’s attention and strengthen your profile as an employer. This forms the basis for further social recruiting activities, as they often require an active social media presence. As a fixed touchpoint in the employee journey, we can no longer avoid presenting our company on social media these days. The more relevant the presented content is for the target group, the more likeable and interesting the employer brand appears.

Active sourcing

Active sourcing is the active search for talent based on information published on social networks. It is particularly popular on professional platforms such as LinkedIn or Xing. However, this method requires a lot of manual effort and is hardly feasible for other networks due to a lack of information regarding the users.

Referral marketing and influencer marketing

We trust authentic and approachable people significantly more than we do an unknown, faceless company. We let our network of employees, customers, business partners and associates speak for us through referral or influencer marketing. Due to both their reach and expertise, these influencers can be relevant opinion leaders that not only make the company visible but also give it a face.

Career pages and job postings

Implementing a career page or individual job offers in the social networks, for example, via organic postings, paid ads, story links, etc., allows you to draw attention to job vacancies in a very targeted manner. It is also a way to reach those who are not yet actively looking for a job and therefore cannot be reached via traditional job portals.

The mix leads to the finish line

I recommend employing a mix of social recruiting tactics in order to ideally market yourself online as an employer. Doing so would cover both short- and long-term goals as well as awareness and performance measures. The results are not immediately visible, especially in content marketing and employer branding. It can take a few months to build up a satisfactory reach and achieve initial success.

A company should see social recruiting as a long-term investment on which future measures can also be built and that, much like the company’s own website, should represent a permanent point of contact. The younger generations no longer use Google to search, instead, they use social networks. Therefore, not having a presence on social media can even harm the company in the long run – especially when using social ads. If someone takes interest in the ad, the freshly gained attention leads to a dead end and therefore to a negative user experience.

The shortage of skilled workers is becoming increasingly worse. Those who do not make long-term and sustainable investments in their corporate visibility now will struggle in the battle for the most important part of the company.

The advantages of social media for companies

So in summary, we can say the following: a professional corporate presence on social media makes it possible to

• stand out from the competition,
• reach potential candidates who do not even know that they want to try something new yet,
• reach top talent via modern and compelling communication,
• communicate benefits and expertise,
• reach a larger target group,
• optimise awareness of the company as well as the company’s image,
• demonstrate agility and flexibility in communication as well as in the application process,
• use the platforms’ various targeting options (filtering the target group according to place of residence, age, interests, education and so on) to address the target group in a way that is specifically tailored to them,
• effectively reduce the fluctuation rate by utilising open communication in advance, conveying the company’s values, presenting an authentic representation of everyday work life and creating realistic expectations,
• recruit employees who can more strongly identify with the company and are therefore a better fit for the employer,
• increase the loyalty of existing employees by creating identification options and a better corporate image,
• and strengthen the company as a brand.

All beginnings are difficult

All beginnings are of course difficult and, as with all projects, a foundation on which you can safely build should be laid first. If no employer value proposition (EVP) exists, it should at least be defined in advance what the company stands for, what values it wishes to convey and what it offers its employees. That being said, the employer branding efforts should be consistent with the overall brand. Both have to be thought out together, or at least work together, because the brand image also has an effect on the company’s attractiveness as an employer. Awareness for the target group should be created. On which channels can they be reached with which content? Most users will not perceive Instagram or Facebook as traditional employment platforms, so the content has to be creative, exciting and entertaining. Partner up with a specialist with whom you can define your strategy and create visible content that will win you converts!

So how do we proceed from here? With a foundation: a strategy development process in which the goals, target groups, measures and channels are precisely defined. The next step is implementation – step by step. No matter to what extent you want or are able to tackle the topic of employer branding on social media, think long-term and be authentic.

Whether strategically, creatively or in regard to the continuous implementation of your employer branding measures, we will happily utilise our specialist expertise to advise and accompany you on this journey.

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