With These 9 Tips, You Can Achieve Successful Employer Branding on Social Media

Although all companies advertise their job offers online, very few advertise themselves as a great employer. Do you know this problem? No problem, here we provide a guide on how to build your employer brand on social media. We also show successful best practice examples of companies that have already managed to become an “employer brand”. Let's go!

 

What is meant by employer branding on social media?

Employer branding has become a real “buzzword” in recent years. Growth poses challenges to Germany's HR departments - integrating new employees , corporate culture & skilled worker recruitment. Open positions, lack of talents - many reasons why companies are currently competing for the best employees. Employer branding has thus become one of the most demanding recruiting activities. Even more so in social media.

Employer branding refers to an employer's reputation towards its own company. Employer branding is about presenting yourself as an attractive employer. It is about attracting good candidates and positioning the company as a popular employer.

Why is employer branding on social media important for companies at all?

Why become an employer brand? Quite simply: With a strong employer brand, you become a magnet for applicants! Social media platforms are a great way to reach undiscovered talents right where they are. It is a simple and inexpensive way to attract more qualified candidates for your own company.

Of course, other advantages arise from promoting your employer brand on social platforms. Example: If your social media strategies are aligned to promote employer branding, they not only help in attracting new talents, but also in employee retention, lowering recruitment costs, a positive company image, and overall corporate culture.

People want to work for respected companies

Social media is THE starting point for candidates to find out more about your company's reputation. Things like work culture, company values, and employee benefits play a critical role in decision-making. Give your potential employees an impression of what it's like to work in your company. This includes, among other things, posting impressions and pictures on social media (e.g. of company events, satisfied employees, anniversary celebrations and successful projects). Exactly this kind of social media content contributes to becoming the best employer brand in your industry.

Ultimately, you have to present yourself as an attractive employer brand or tell a story. The more creative and attractive you make this story, the more likely it is that candidates will visit your career page.

Which social media platforms are suitable for building a good employer brand?

The type of social media platform you use also determines what type of content you need to create and how you share it. Companies don't have to be present on all social media channels, but it's important to find out which platforms have a large pool of potential candidates. If you are a B2C company, for example, Instagram could be the most profitable social media platform for you. The best candidates, on the other hand, could come from LinkedIn or Facebook. You should always adapt your content to the goal you want to achieve with a particular social network.

Employer Branding on Instagram

Instagram is one of the hottest social media platforms, a catchment area for various candidates that you can appeal to. Being a visually oriented platform, sharing high-quality images and videos or so-called Reels will definitely attract attention. Whether it's a company event or everyday office life - the more creative you get, the better.

Employer Branding on YouTube

Whether it's image videos, testimonials or viral marketing. Video recruiting is more important than ever when it comes to reaching the young target group of digital natives. In times of video-based social media like YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram Stories it becomes clear what a high relevance videos have in the daily media consumption of the younger generations.

Example: McDonald's - On the yellow couch

The YouTube talk: “On the yellow couch" is a video series in which apprentices and dual students exchange views about typical prejudices towards McDonald's in a question-and-answer game - brutally honest and authentic. The goals of the campaign: To draw attention to the training and study program, to dismantle prejudices and to improve the image of McDonald's and the system gastronomy.

Employer Branding on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is known as the largest professional network in the world, where both companies and personal brands and individuals exchange and “social selling”. Content posted here usually relates to work culture, workflows, successes and awards.

Are you already active on LinkedIn? If so, pat yourselves on the back because you've already taken the first step to being able to find top talent for your company. Some of your potential candidates may not be actively looking for a job. However, as soon as they follow your company's activities on LinkedIn, they will be knocking on your door (provided they like it and are actually considering a change).

Are you asking yourselves: How can we improve our company presence on LinkedIn?

1. Be active, interact with other profiles and thus increase your presence - The more your employees participate in conversations on LinkedIn, the greater the chance that the employer brand will grow. Following LinkedIn influencers, joining groups, and publishing blog posts.

2. Use the company page as an official “LinkedIn hub” - Most candidates look at your LinkedIn company page when they have heard of a job offer and are trying to find out more about your company. The perfect place where you can showcase your positions and shine as an employer brand!

Employer Branding on Twitter

Even though Twitter has been overshadowed by Instagram in recent years, with over 200 million users it is still a powerful platform. Don't be put off by the character limit. Twitter is still a good place to share your company story and advertise for open positions.

Tip: Research which hashtags are in vogue and consider how you could associate them with your company. Here you can be as creative as you want. For example, using humor can do a lot. This way you not only have a good relationship with your customers, but also show your potential new employees that you are a humorous employer. 

9 simple tips on how to successfully implement your employer branding on social media 

1. Focus on the right network!

Social media platforms with the most users are not always the best place to advertise your company. It may be that the candidates you are looking for do not actively use a channel at all. Therefore, before addressing potential candidates, you should actively research where they spend their time. Is it TikTok? Or Instagram? Get informed before you place ads on social networks!

2. Create target group relevant content!

Finding out what your target group likes to consume can be a challenge. As already mentioned, you should have a good idea of who you want to address. For example, ask yourselves the following questions: What social issues are potential candidates most concerned with? Is a healthy work culture more important to them than leisure pleasure? Try to understand what is trendy among the target group and create the appropriate content. 

3. Interact with your community!

Building an employer brand on social media does not end with posting pictures. What's next? Super important: Run community management and interact with your followers - How do they react to your posts? Do they have any doubts or questions? Take a few minutes each day to respond to their comments. Especially if they are negative. You never know, maybe one of the people you respond to will be the next top employee.

4. Get your employees involved in digital employer branding!

 Whether the employer brand actually keeps its promises can only be judged by the company's own employees. This is often forgotten. Among other things, employer branding aims to increase employee satisfaction and strengthen emotional ties. How do employees experience their own company? There must be constant dialogue. Ideally at eye level and without performance pressure. If you involve your employees and colleagues in the entire process, they will also become your brand ambassadors.

5. Show your diversity and be creative!

To attract top talent - especially in fiercely contested areas - innovative, unusual recruiting strategies and recruiting measures are helpful. That means you need to review your current hiring process and ask yourselves the following questions:

• How can we become more creative as a company?
• How can we attract the attention of the right people?
• What are our competitors doing and what can we learn from them?

Best-Practice: Bosch does it right! With the HR campaign from 2021, Bosch presents itself under the claim "Work #LikeABosch" as an attractive employer to attract young IT or software talents for the company.

6. Define your company values clearly and distinctly!

In today's digital and consumer-oriented work world, company culture can no longer be hidden with clever campaigns. On career websites like Glassdoor and Indeed, employees find a protected and anonymous forum where they can share how "real life" runs at their workplace. Company culture is now visible to everyone. This influences the employer brand of a company through its so-called “work culture”.

7. Communicate your benefits!

Benefits, benefits, benefits - As a good employer, you should make sure that your employee benefits and benefits meet the requirements of the job market. They should set themselves apart from the competition and above all meet the individual desires of employees. Whether it's stock options (financial) or parental leave (vacation), benefits bind employees to the company in the long term. How? By literally investing in their future life!

8. Give an insight “behind-the-scenes”!

You should build an individual career page that is specifically aimed at your candidates. Therefore, no stock photos, but real insights and information. This is where pictures of your own employees (with their consent, of course) and the real workplace belong.

9. Be authentic!

Stay authentic! You don't have to imitate the social media strategy of big brands, because what works for other companies doesn't necessarily have to work for you. Just focus on capturing moments you experience in your everyday work life. Things that your target group and employees can identify with. 

These tools support you in building your employer branding

Social media tools for planning, creating, and analyzing monitor all mentions of your company on websites, social media, and the internet. They notify you whenever the company name is mentioned - in a blog article or a review written by one of their employees. 

You can also create social reports with tools like e.g. Hootsuite, Fanpage Karma, facelift, Falcon.io or Emplifi. Among other things, you can collect all data from various social media profiles on a single dashboard and create reports. You can customize the dashboard so that the social media KPIs, which you consider relevant for your social media report, can be tracked.

Are you still looking for the right software to get started in employer branding on social media? You can find more tools in our Social Media Monitoring category on OMR Reviews, where verified users share their experiences with tools from various areas. This helps you make good software decisions.

How to successfully control your employer branding measures on social media

For successful employer branding, as with all other social media marketing measures, it is very important to review and optimize your own measures. It makes sense not only to keep an eye on reach and engagement rate, but also how often and in what context your company is mentioned. The so-called "share of voice” says a lot about brand awareness and your own image compared to the competition.

Especially interesting in digital employer branding and recruiting: How many users came from social networks to the career page and/or applied directly via social media? And of course, it is informative for KPI optimization of social employer branding to see which content promotes particularly many interactions and which less.

What else should be considered in social media employer branding?

Normally, the goal of an employer branding campaign on social media is to lead users to a career website, to attract the attention of potential candidates and subsequently generate a large number of applications. Increasing the click rate can be one of the indicators of a successful campaign that arouses interest. Despite the success measurement, it is important to remember that there is no magic formula that simply turns your HR activities into masses of qualified applicants. 

Overall, the topic of employer branding has gained massively in importance. The construction of a strong employer brand is more important online than ever. We live in the age of real-time communication and social media makes it quick and easy for any company to build a strong employer brand.

Your company is great. Your employees are great. You know it. Your employees know it. Why not show it to the rest of the world? Give your employees a voice and use authentic people in your job postings. Don't talk about how great your company is - show it!