Here's How Social Media is the Missing Link in Your Employer Branding

Employer branding refers to your organization’s reputation as an employer. It’s how you present yourself to the world and cement your company as a desirable place to work.

According to LinkedIn, 72% of recruitment leaders around the world agree that an employer’s brand has a significant impact on hiring. Job seekers look to an employer’s reputation when choosing which companies to spend their time applying to, so a bad one can be extremely detrimental to your hiring strategy.

Social media provides a fast and effective way to target potential talent while promoting your employer brand. If you’re utilizing your social channels for recruiting, you’re missing out on a huge audience and will likely lose top candidates to your competitors.

Here’s how to leverage social media to improve your brand’s reputation and increase your potential to reach exceptional job candidates.

Why is social media important for employer branding?

To communicate your employer brand and employee value proposition to job seekers, you’ll need to invest in different recruitment strategies and channels to share opportunities at your company.

Social media recruiting involves using social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to communicate your brand’s reputation and attract potential candidates. This should play an integral role in your employer branding strategy.

Here are some key reasons social media is important for employer branding:

1. Attract more candidates to open jobs

There are 4.62 billion social media users around the world. By using social media to share information about open job opportunities, you can attract a huge candidate pool from all over the world.

This opens you up to highly skilled individuals that might not know about your company yet. Over half of all professionals follow companies on social media to find job opportunities so having an active presence is essential.

What’s more, social media is also one of the most cost-effective methods for generating awareness and boosting visibility. It’s much cheaper than other advertising channels and reaches a wider audience, which can help you control ad spend.

2. Define your workplace culture and goals

People are paying more attention than ever before to the importance of workplace culture and a company’s overall values and goals, and social media is a key channel for finding this information.

Social media provides a platform for you to share insights into your company culture, your mission and employee value propositions. You can guarantee it’ll be seen by a wider audience than simply adding a video or description to your website’s homepage.

Showcase your company’s culture with videos, testimonials and company updates about work-related or social events. Doing this will humanize your brand and provide your audience with insight about what goes on at your company.

Another way to do this is to build a community around your brand by encouraging existing employees to share their experience with your company. This provides potential candidates with a trusted source of information and is a great way to bolster your employer brand from the inside.

3. Meet candidates where they are

One of the main benefits of social media is that you don’t have to make an effort to be seen. 93.4% of internet users are active on social media, and they spend an average of two hours and 27 minutes using it each day. That’s a lot of potential for reaching the talent you want to engage with.

Being active on social media and sharing information about new job opportunities and what it’s like to work for your company is a great way to stay on the radar of possible candidates.

4. Set your company apart from the competition

It goes without saying that social media is one of the best platforms for developing your own unique brand voice. Showing your audience what day-to-day life is like at your company is a great way for them to get a feel for what it’d be like to work there.

It’s your chance to show what makes you unique, what sets you apart from other companies and what employees can expect from working with you.

There are plenty of examples of businesses that have used social media to improve their employer branding, such as Microsoft whose Microsoft Life Instagram page provides insight into office life along with stories from employees all over the world.

It’s time to amplify your employer branding with social media

There’s no question about it - social media matters.

The sheer visibility that social media provides makes it the ideal platform to attract a wide candidate pool and to build your brand’s reputation in the eyes of potential employees.

Moreover, you can create a community around your company that engages your existing employees, encouraging them to share their own experiences and inspire others to join the company.

Easy, fast and affordable - social media is one of the best tools for targeting the right people and enhancing your employer brand.