Employer Branding on Social Media: How to Do It Right

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Employer Branding became quite a buzzword in recent years.

With so many open positions and not enough talent, companies began to compete for the best employee. To find a sweet spot, Employer Branding became one of the most demanding HR activities. Even more so on social media. 

While all companies advertise their offerings online, very few promote themselves as great employers.

Today, we’ll share guidelines on how to build your employer brand on social media, why it’s important, and examples of companies that nailed it.

❓ Why social media matters for your employer brand

HR and marketing are actually way closer than you might think.

While the latter is all about attracting and retaining customers, the former does the same for employees.

And just like content and channels are at the heart of any marketing strategy, they are at the heart of any employer branding or recruitment strategy.

Social media apps are a great place to reach your talent where they already are. It is a simple, and an affordable way to attract more candidates. Surely, there’s more to this than what meets the eye. Here are several more benefits of promoting your Employer Brand on digital platforms. 

Recruiting

If you want people to notice your company’s open positions, social media is the place to be. Whether it’s a promoted post on Facebook or a simple tweet — they’re the fastest way to get your messages liked, shared and retweeted. 

The benefits of using social media apps like Facebook definitely outrun traditional job posting websites. They’re cheaper, more efficient, and absolutely easy to manage.

Facebook’s advanced targeting tool, for example, connects you with people that could be a great fit to your open position.

Chances are, you’ll meet your passive candidate here while they’re enjoying their morning coffee and browsing your ad. To make these ads and posts run more smoothly you can use Facebook publishing tools to get better results.

People want to work with great companies

Social media apps are the starting point for a candidate to learn more about your company’s reputation.

Things like your company’s work culture, diversity, ethos, play an important role in their decision-making process.

Give them a sneak peek of what it’s like to work at your company. Posting pictures of your events, happy employees, milestone celebrations, and successful projects help create a valuable online Employer Brand. 

In the end, you need to make it engaging or tell a story. The more creative and desirable you make it, the more likely it is for candidates to visit your Careers page. 

Internal branding and employee value proposition

The process of Employer Branding starts from within. By this, we mean creating a high Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

Bring your employees on board by promoting your company’s values, mission and vision, and goals.

Understand their needs, offer support in ways they can benefit from. Such small things go a long way in retaining your employees. 

And, when your employees feel satisfied and secured, it will easily reflect on social media, making your brand and logo design popular. They will follow your account, share your content within their professional network - who could translate into your potential candidates.  

📈 The role of social media: how it can promote your brand

Here are three ways social media management helps you attract talent who’s a perfect fit for your organisation. 

Attracts more candidates

On average, a typical job opening receives around 250 job applicants. From which, you will interview only 4-6 people, and hire the one best suitable for the job. Of course, your aim is to get as many candidates as possible because in reality, 250 isn’t a lot, especially if you’re hiring remotely and globally.

To simplify your hiring process, you’d only want to attract candidates that are a good match to your job profile. Facebook’s word-specific targeting gives you the freedom to filter your search based on geographical location and specific roles (example: Marketing Manager). This way, you spend less time on unqualified candidates, and your ad budget is invested at the right place.

Meet candidates where they are

Job search is a passive activity that candidates pursue during coffee breaks, or after-work hours. This is when they spend time scrolling on social media, looking for a potential job opening. Making it a great opportunity for you to get their attention through your job search ads.

We found an interesting fact from Jobvite research — only 14% of candidates that come from job boards stay for three years or more, compared to other sources.

This is because the motivation of a candidate to apply via job search websites is limited to the job itself. With social media, it’s quite likely they’ve been following your page for some time, and are interested in being a part of your corporate family. 

Engage existing employees

One of the best ways to show off what you do and how is through your social media channels. Besides reaching potential candidates, you want to engage your current employees. Most of them probably aren’t aware of what their coworkers are doing and what their day looks like, so why not show them?

Culture

A high employee retention rate is just a manifestation of a great work culture. And one should bank on this to maximum by promoting it on social media. It’s good to have social media posts that reflect your company values, culture, work gratifications and more. 

While all companies are offering unlimited paid time off, gym memberships and various perks, your Employer Branding is the only differentiating factor that will put you above the rest.

💡 Tips for your social media employer branding strategy

If you understand the importance of Employer Branding on social media, you’re probably looking for some practical tips to get started today. Here are some of our suggestions that will help you.

Focus on the right network(s)

Social media platforms with the highest users doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best place to promote your company. For all you know, the candidate you’re looking for, might not even be actively using that app. Before you reach out to your candidates, actively research where they’re spending time. Is it TikTok? Or Instagram? Learn about your demographic in-depth before promoting your ads on social media networks. 

Create relevant content

Finding out what your target audience likes to consume can be challenging. As mentioned before, you should have a good idea of who you want to talk to. Ask questions like: what kind of social issues are they most concerned with? Do they prioritise a healthy work culture over recreational benefits? Understand what’s trending amongst your audience and create content accordingly. 

Besides social media, blog articles are a resourceful source for your prospective candidates. Try not to spam these articles with SEO-focused content. Tell a story of your company, walk your audience through your work culture, share anecdotes of team building events, and more.   

Engage with your audience

Your journey to building an Employer Brand on social media doesn’t end at posting pictures. Well, that’s just the beginning. So what’s next? Engage with your followers — how’re they reacting to your posts? Do they have any doubts or questions? Always dedicate a few minutes per day to respond to their comments. Even more so when they’re negative. You never know, one of the people you respond to just may be your next top employee.

Be authentic

One of the best tips we have for creating content that “clicks” with your audience is: ‘Just be yourself.’

You don’t have to emulate the social media strategy of Nike or Coca-Cola. What works for them, might not necessarily work for you.

Focus on capturing moments your company lives through every day. Something your audience and employees would be able to identify with.

Otherwise, you will create a false impression and disappoint your future employees with unmet expectations.

You should also be authentic with your visual images when you create a logo and decide on typography.

🎥 Types of content to focus on

Creating any content is easy. But creating one that your audience can connect with, is a long thought-process. Here are some touch points you can use to create content that’s unique to your organisation.

Work culture

Remember how culture is one of the most important elements of Employer Branding, yet it’s difficult to define and shape it? Every company has its own culture, and so does yours.

The way you unify all your employees through events, recreational activities, or how you show support by understanding their needs — define your work culture. 

Let’s take a look at Bluecore. They start building career paths for employees even before they become one. A lot of their resources and focus is spent during their recruiting process.

Then there are companies like GTreasury that prioritise team bonding. They unite over celebrations like birthdays, weddings, Halloween and other holidays. Each chance they get for a new meetup - they share it on social media.

Get employees involved

Step inside your office and see what’s happening. A quick glance and you’ll instinctively know what kind of content to post. You’ll see your employees interacting with another during Happy Hours, or they’re collaborating over a project. Maybe they’re celebrating their colleague’s promotion! Capture those candid moments or share the BTS - authenticity is your power card here. 

Alternatively, ask your employees to share some of their own videos and images that they created in the workplace. Whether it's during a lunch break or a meeting, people will be able to see your company’s culture through the eyes of your employees instead of a social media manager.

Office/workplace

Sharing office photos and videos was a fun activity even when everyone worked at the office. If you feel the atmosphere has an interesting vibe, share it! 

Since all of us are working remotely, this is your opportunity to get more creative with your content. Many companies around the world have gone on a mission to share their employees’ home office setups. Here is an example from Toggl, which has been a fully remote company for years now. All the way back in 2016, they shared their employees’ desks as a part of their employer branding strategy.

How your company handles remote and hybrid work matters a lot.

Consider these questions: How did you adapt your onboarding process? How well implemented are your hybrid work schedules? Let your potential employees sneak a taste of your company’s work culture. The more familiar they feel with real-life situations, the more inclined they will be to actually experience them themselves.

Recognition and perks

Everyone loves to see a good story of a company valuing and rewarding their employees. But awarding a bonus on their next paycheck or giving extra days off, don’t really make for interesting Instagrammable content.

There are so many other things you can do to show recognition, making for an interesting photo op. For example, you can use a company like Blueboard to give your employees something from their bucket lists - such as a kayak trip or a drive in a race car. Alternatively, there are services such as Caroo, where you can hand-pick unique gift sets for your employees.

📱 Employer branding difference by social media platform

The type of social media platform you use, will dictate what kind of content you need to create, and how to share it. While you don’t have to be present on all social media apps, it’s important to figure out which ones have a great pool of potential applicants.

For instance, if you’re a B2C company, Instagram could be your most profitable social media platform. While your best candidates could come in from LinkedIn or Facebook. You should adjust your content, depending on the goal you wish to achieve from a specific social media network.

Employer branding on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is known as the “corporate” social media platform where companies and individuals engage in formal conversations. As a result, the type of content you post here would be concerned with your culture, work processes, celebrating your achievements and awards, promoting your best employees, etc. 

Of course, there is nothing stopping you from posting a funny video with Zoom bloopers but the majority of LinkedIn’s audience isn’t the type who would be impressed by this. Bear in mind that to unlock LinkedIn’s full potential, you need to go beyond content creation.

You need to make sure that your entire profile is filled out - from Careers page to the About Us section. Encourage your existing employees to keep their profiles updated so that they show up under your company tab too. Through this, people will get a feel of who they will be working with.

Employer branding on Instagram

Speaking of Zoom bloopers - this is a great place to share them. Instagram is one of the trending social media platforms, a melting pot of diverse applicants you can reach out to.

This is a visually driven platform so sharing quality images and videos will surely gain attention. Don't forget to include engaging captions to your content. You can write one from scratch or use an Instagram caption generator to create one.

If you have pictures of your employees at work, events you attended at your offices, post them here. The more creative you get, the better.

‍Nextiva is a great example of a B2B company that shares a myriad of images, and new job opening posts on their Instagram channel.

Employer branding on X (Twitter)

Even though it’s been shadowed by Instagram in recent years, X (Twitter) is still a powerful platform with 500 million+ users. Don’t be put off by their character limitations, it’s still a great place to share your story and promote what you do.

Do a little research on what hashtags are trending and see how you can connect it with your office culture. It’s an open stage to get as creative as you want to. For instance, the use of humour can go a long way here. Not only will you have a great relationship with your customers, but you’ll also show yourself as a lighthearted employer to your potential employees. 

Glassdoor

Every company these days has a Glassdoor profile. If you haven’t heard of it, Glassdoor is a review site where people/employees can review their experience of working at a company. 

While you can’t exactly create content here, managing your Glassdoor profile is crucial for your company. This is where your previous, new and potential employees will leave feedback on your company management, culture, hiring process, and more. Each review reflects a different aspect of your company. Making it a great database for your potential candidates. 

Forums, websites, social media

The internet is a vast place and your company will get mentioned quite a few times on different websites, blogs, forums and communities. While you can’t spend an entire day browsing on Google to look yourself up, there are other ways to maintain your Employer Branding on third-party websites.

Media monitoring tools like Determ monitor all mentions of your company across social media websites and the internet. They alert you every time your company name is mentioned - in a blog article or a review written by your employees.

Grab a screenshot of Facebook mentions and other platforms and use it as new content for your social media channels.

Given that media monitoring is a great marketing activity on its own, using it as an Employer Branding tool will help you stay on top of all of your mentions. This way, you can respond to them in real-time, and engage with your potential employees. 

➡️ Wrapping up

Today’s candidates are digital savvy, using social media networks to look for potential employers. And if you want to reach out to them, creating a valuable Employer Brand on social media is a must. While it doesn’t require months of preparation, the process of Employer Branding starts within your organisation. See how Zavvy’s tools can help you create great onboarding experiences and employee engagement activities — resulting in an enriched work culture. 

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