It’s hard to believe social recruiting has been around for nearly 20 years. I remember back in 2005, working with a brand to launch its first social presence on MySpace. Once you’re done giggling about Tom, your Top 8, and the insane gifs on your page, remember just how far we’ve all come since those days. Thinking back on this, I remember the team working on this, knowing that an audience was amassing on this new channel. It was growing and sticky. We hypothesized that standing up a recruiting presence for a brand could result in attracting passive talent in unexpected ways.
What’s interesting is the proliferation of social recruiting since those first days. We use social media for sourcing and branding. So many employers have Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X accounts, and many are dipping their toes into TikTok. Seeing all this forward-thinking content in multiple social spaces makes me happy; however, finding unexpected places to attract talent and tell your employer brand story is critical.
As we move into the creator economy and things begin to shift again, there is something I want all my employer brand and recruitment marketing people to take a look at and absorb:
If you have a minute this week, look at your social media reports from the channels you’re using. How are your posts performing in terms of engagement? If you’re doing better than 1-2% engagement, you’re above average. Then, look at the engagement on employee stories. It’s going to be higher.
Do you know why? People believe people.
Building on this further, look at your last personal post on any social channel. I bet it was not 1-2% engagement. You’d be so sad if you posted your kids’ back-to-school pics and no one liked it. That’s how your brand content feels. If you want to see a lift in your social content performance, I have three strategies for you to start getting well above 1-2% engagement.
Employee ambassador programs make social content sing. It makes sense because having your employees like, comment, and share automatically increases your engagement rate because someone is engaging with it. Then, their friends will see your branded posts and are more likely to engage. Even if you don’t have employees actively creating branded content for you and sharing it, you can still encourage them to share your company updates on any social channels.
The algorithms favor video, and employee stories in the video really humanize your brand. I have seen engagement rates on employee videos on social media over 100%. One of the most significant barriers candidates face when considering a new job (and to be clear, social media is squarely in the “consideration” phase of the recruiting funnel) is that employee stories break down that barrier. Hearing an actual employee talk about why they work with you and what makes their workplace unique is what they are looking for, and social media is a great place to get that information to them.
The creator economy is real, and it is growing. There are creators out there for every segment and profession. Flight attendants, nurses, software developers, salespeople, marketers, mechanics, and more are creating content about their jobs and sharing those stories online. These creators have a following of people doing their jobs. And these creators see a 20% click-through rate and an engagement rate that you might see on your kids’ back-to-school pics because, say it with me now, people believe people.
Using social media to promote your brand and open positions offers many opportunities to make an impression. Focusing on increasing engagement and click-throughs can yield a real return on this investment of time and energy.
