What if you made your employees an active part of your hiring process?
What if you gave them the chance to participate in, and expand your social strategy?
What if you could inspire them to become social media brand ambassadors for your organization?
Social media is made powerful by people.
The more people spreading your message, the better.
If you can engage your entire team in the process, harness all of their social channels, and leverage their connections; then you have successfully gone viral and you’ll see your social reach soar!
Consider these three examples, and I’m sure you’ll agree, socially engaged employees are one of the best assets a company can hope to have.
Brand Ambassadors
Train your employees in social media best practices: show them how to engage with customers online, explain to them the importance of reaching out to clients through social channels, and make them aware of all of the different networks you use.
Then give your team permission and incentives to get involved. They may make the occasional blunder, but with proper encouragement and training, most of your people will handle all this technology like pros. Just make sure you keep things fun, positive, and offer treats or other incentives to let them know their help is appreciated.
With an inclusive social strategy like this, it won’t be long before you start seeing them jump in with a positive response when a disgruntled customer leaves negative feedback on your Facebook wall, or jump at the chance to answer a potential client’s question about your product.
This kind of engagement makes everyone involved feel good!
Social Proof
Nothing is beets social proof when it comes to building a trusted employer brand, or any kind of brand for that matter!
Think about it like this: when you’re interviewing candidates what would make a bigger impact, the candidate telling you that they hard working and highly skilled, or, a former colleague of your candidate describing them as such?
The colleague’s opinion holds more weight because they have less to gain from praising their former co-worker. The same is true for branding.
You can shout from the rooftops that your company is a great place to work, that your company culture is awesome, and your employees are happy, but as far as your audience is concerned, you have to say those things because it is your job to do so.
If, on the other hand, your employees share their own positive experiences working for you, respond to potential hires’ questions about your company culture with enthusiasm, and Like and share the content you post, their actions “prove” the authenticity of your employer brand message.
Referrals 2.1 (Because 2.0 is totally passé)
Referrals are still the number one most effective way to boost quality of hire. You know what one of the best ways to boost quantity of referrals is? Social media!
Social networks are just that, networks. They provide an easy, effective way for your employees to reach out to their connections and share job opportunities.
Instead of getting on the phone, or setting up face-to-face meetings in order to set up referrals, with social media, your employees can reach out to entire groups with a single post or message.
Your team members can even create permanent groups on Facebook of connections who they think are a good fit for your organization and reach out to those groups whenever a new position opens up.
Another huge bonus feature of social referrals is that they make it extremely easy for your employees to make introductions. They can simply begin a group chat and connect you, or your recruiting team, with potential hires.
Successful companies around the globe are already building their social employee culture. They know that in today’s socially driven world, leveraging employees’ connections and networks isn’t just a good idea; it is an essential part of staying competitive.
To get your people on board won’t be easy, you’ll need to give them training, incentives, and, most importantly, trust. But, if you do, you’ll see that a social employee culture will improve your employer brand, your hiring, and your retention.
Tags: recruiting, recruiting advice, recruitment, social recruiting
