Social job seekers have high expectations. Are you sharing what they want?
You may remember in part one that I explained that social recruiting is a balance of social sourcing, socializing your employer brand, and sharing your jobs in a way that doesn’t repel your followers.
But if you don’t think sharing your employer brand is important, I urge you to go and check out your company’s online reputation. And watch out for the sites where your ex-employees can rate you, as I’m increasingly hearing of incidents where job seekers arrive at interview holding a copy of negative reviews.
What does your online reputation say about you?
Google makes it easy for job seekers to check out your company, employees and reputation. But you don’t need to sit there worrying about what they’ll think; you can take ownership of it.
Let them see in…
As mentioned in part one, don’t hide behind a logo or a photo of the building. Come out of hiding and let them “meet” the team.
Start with your LinkedIn profiles and inject some colour through files, images and video. Like Becs Wells has done here for Bizzby.
She’s then taken it through to their company page… How cool is that office?
If you have a company Facebook page, you could do what Marriott Jobs and Careers has done with their banner image, it’s personal and clever. Plus I added a comment and they answered in minutes, impressive!
Caveat: I usually recommend that companies don’t have a separate Facebook jobs page because people will be less inclined to like the page in case their boss sees it. It is better to have one company page and use a solution like Work4.
Peer-to-peer
Nobody buys into polished management speak; so let your staff do the talking.
Check out Rentalcars.com careers site. They have taken their main roles, and created 4 short videos that give their employees a voice and job seekers so much more than a bland job spec.
They can now add them to YouTube, LinkedIn & Facebook, tweet them out regularly and pin them on Pinterest.
Look no further than Geico’s YouTube channel for great employer branding. They’ve used a photo of their staff and created plenty of playlists to keep job seekers informed.
YouTube has 1 billion users and is the 2nd largest search engine after Google, could your company benefit from being there?
Keep it real!
Recruiters often tell me of their fear of being overwhelmed with applications or sending out the wrong message, and that’s why it’s important to keep it real.
You’ll always have disgruntled ex-staff but as people are the building blocks of any company and they may share something that could transform your company, which is what Gorkana is benefiting from, a few changes now will make future recruitment easier.
By sharing genuine insight you give job seekers the opportunity to deselect themselves. If you work 8am – 8pm, don’t pretend you don’t. If your offices aren’t as pretty as Bizzby’s, don’t pretend that they are. Let your team talk honestly to future recruits through social channels.
By socializing your employer brand you are letting job seekers decide if you are the right stop for them. And isn’t that better than losing them 2 months in?
Katrina