The most important talent channel you’re probably missing: social media

Therefore, the ‘great resignation’ became redefined as the ‘great reshuffle’. After all, most people aren’t leaving their jobs with nowhere to go; they’re just looking for a better fit.

In this job market, the power is in talent’s hands, so they can afford to be picky. They’re looking for companies whose values they can really get behind; packages that fit more flexible lifestyles; and reputations that will reflect well on them.

People know what they want, and are not willing to settle for less, but we’re still shocked to see that so few employer brands, HR teams, or talent teams are fully harnessing the space where talent is really tuning in: social media.

The gap in the (talent) market

According to Glassdoor, 79% of candidates are using social media as part of their job search. So almost eight out of 10 people are visiting your LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok to make an informed decision about where they want to work.

Careers sites and job descriptions only say so much. If you want to be heard, social media brings an employer brand to life in a way that actually speaks to your talent pool.

It’s not just impacting your talent pipeline; employer branding also affects your bottom line. A recent study by CareerArc found that 64% of consumers have stopped purchasing a brand after hearing news of that company’s poor employee treatment. With 4.7 billion users across the world and growing, social media is arguably the most visible part of your employer brand, so make people want to stop and listen.

Social teams need to approach employer brand marketing in a totally different way from B2C or B2B. Your customer isn’t trading pay slips for game consoles; they’re trading the bulk of their year, their education, their social life, their values and their experience for one, single role.

You’re trading marketing with one of the most valuable commodities: time. Your content on social media needs to have an impact that reflects that.

Give the people what they want

That impact lies with adding real value. Social media is transactional, thanks to the algorithm. Without value, there’s no engagement, leading to less visibility in people's feeds, followed by a downhill spiral toward perpetual irrelevance.

One of the simplest ways to break down value on social media is by splitting it into three buckets; entertainment, education and inspiration. Think about the last few posts that you’ve engaged with from a brand on social media: I bet they fit under one of those categories.

Adding value isn’t only about what you post; it’s about where you do it. It doesn’t cut it to have a single LinkedIn page anymore. While LinkedIn is still important for providing talent with thought leadership and company updates, it’s Instagram and TikTok that give you the glass-box effect, sharing an authentic look into what a day looks like from the inside.

Signed, sealed, delivered

This is where the real fun begins. To boost your employer brand, what should you add to those three value buckets? The first, entertainment, is all about sharing content that gets people going: videos of internal events, snapshots into your culture, or fun gamified experiences of what a day in the life of your office could feel like.

For education, provide value for early talent, letting them know exactly what they should put in their first CV. Point experienced talent toward books they should read to upskill in your sector or create a thought leadership piece to show you’re at the front of the pack.

And finally, make them feel inspired. Share the career journeys of people who have flown through the company, show what you’re doing for charity to demonstrate your values, or shout about the amazing accomplishments your people are making outside of work.

From likes to applications

In the feed, you’re not up against other employer brands. You’re up against celebrities, huge media publishers, and that friend whose life story you know but you never actually see in real life. Your content must compete on that level.

There’s so much room for value, but there’s a lot of noise. You’ve got to be tactical with content if you want to convert likes to applications.

Value-driven content doesn’t only boost applications; it places you in the hearts and heads of talent so that even if they aren’t actively looking for a job, you’ll come to mind when the time’s right for them.

This is a new era of employer brand marketing, we’ve worked with partners across the globe like Kraft Heinz, Knight Frank and King to inject life into their employer brands on social media, so maybe it’s time for you to jump on board as well. Make the biggest impact in the shortest time, for both your talent pipeline and your bottom line.