I attended a one-day conference this past weekend. Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have noticed.
During the breaks and the scheduled networking sessions, I had the opportunity to discuss with many attendees suggestions on how to improve their personal brands. I also had a very interesting chat with an attendee whose full-time job was as a recruiter for a large company.
He was there for his side hustle but he was also keenly interested in understanding how he could improve his company’s recruitment brand. Like so many other companies, his company continues to do recruitment as they’ve done for years.
As we chatted, I pulled up his company’s website on my phone and together we reviewed the company’s social media accounts. Their last post to Twitter was a month ago and they did not have a blog.
This company’s recruitment brand and their overall employer brand desperately needed an update.
I suggested the following three actions for his company to start improving their employer and recruitment brand.
BE SOCIAL
Picture from: http://goo.gl/yCUZIb
This should be obvious but here’s the thing about social media that companies continue to get wrong all the time.
[Tweet “Social Media is a conversation, not a conversion.”]
Too many times I have visited a company’s social media account only to find nothing recent or repeat links to product pages. It’s ok to be proud of your products but no one is going to buy it because you tweeted a link.
Social media is so named because the point is to be social. Have a conversation with your potential customers. Engage with your audience, answer their questions and above all have some fun.
Instead of posting a picture of your product, post a picture of an event in your local community you supported. Post pictures of your employees at a Habitat build or serving dinners at a local mission.
Post a link to a local meet up or industry event. Post pictures of your employees and your workspace. Ever had an employee go above and beyond? Post a picture of them with a big Thank You title.
All of these activities will help you highlight what a great place your company is to work. This will improve both your employer brand and your recruitment brand at the same time.
Potential candidates will take notice. When they do guess where they will go next?
GET RESPONSIVE
I believe that every company needs to have a blog. For me, this is a must for building an employer brand. However, if the company is still using a website designed multiple years ago (many still do) they can blog until the cows come home and it won’t matter.
I am still amazed every time I visit a website not using a responsive design. While the “pinch and zoom” technique was cool when it was first introduced in the iPad, it is definitely not cool on a phone.
Nothing makes me ditch a site faster than a non-responsive design. Pinch and Zoom to me equal Pinch and Doom. I won’t do it. I’m moving on.
In case you’re wondering what I mean by responsive design, according to the website mobiledevices.com a responsive design implies:
“The formatting of Website design in a way that it most optimal for viewing and navigation across a wide range of devices, including traditional PCs, smartphones and tablet devices”.
This means your website should “flex” with the size of the device viewing it. Here’s an example of a site using the old school pinch and zoom method.
While this might look good in the picture, on a phone it’s not so good. Ironically, this site is a recruiting site and if you look closely at the header and the sidebar on the right-hand side, you’ll find an ad about the Rise of Mobile Technology in Recruiting.
So they are aware of the importance of mobile but apparently not enough to update their website. People will quickly move on from this site. I know I did.
If you are not sure whether or site is mobile responsive, here’s three quick ways for you to find out.
1 – View your site on a cell phone. You’ll know right away if your site is responsive. If it’s not, it will look like a very small version of your website on a computer.
2 – Open your website on a computer. Grab one side of the browser and drag it towards the other side. If the site is responsive the text, pictures and everything else will adjust to the size of the window.
3 – Test your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Enter your website in the box and click Analyze. In less than a minute, Google will tell you if your site is mobile friendly or not.
It’s not an option anymore. Get responsive or expect to lose opportunities and in a recruiter’s case candidates.
START A PODCAST
Picture from: https://goo.gl/YsuDp3
This one will not be as obvious but it is growing in importance because podcasting has been growing in popularity over the last several years. So much so that there is even now an annual conference, Podcast Movement, that caters specifically to podcasters.
Podcasting provides an intimate one-on-one experience between the creator and the listener. It can and does develop deep relationships with an audience.
We’ve all heard this saying.
“People do business with people they know, like and trust”
Podcasts facilitate trust. No other medium allows you to reach potential customers and employees more directly than a podcast. This is especially true if the company offers truly distinctive and targeted programming.
How cool would it be to get insight directly from a company’s CEO or to hear directly from internal managers and employees via a podcast?
Since a podcast does not require “appointment listening,” they can be consumed whenever and where ever the listener chooses. This provides a tremendous opportunity for a company to grow both its employer brand and its recruitment brand.
Before you say a podcast is too technical, I can tell you it’s not as technical as you may think.
If you decide to go this route, contact me and I’ll help you get started.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts? What are some other ways to build an employer brand and a recruitment brand?
