Brand or Blah: The 6 Advantages This Social Media Tool Offers To Raise Awareness Of Your Brand

 

• Love it or hate it, social media is here, and it’s here to stay.
• Social media is more than just an online plaything where people share what they’re eating for lunch, or the outcome of their dog’s latest haircut.
• Social media tends to inform people about businesses and those who run the businesses.
• This is why your presence on this particular social media tool is so crucial to your success.

 
In some instances it can be said that job seekers are more intelligent than employers. This is because job seekers today are much more informed about employers who are seeking to fill job vacancies within their businesses.

Job seekers take to the internet, look up a prospective employer on social media, and from what they read, decide whether or not they will work with that employer based on what is written on any given social media site.

Of course, it’s not good to have bad online reviews; those will sway any hopeful candidate away from your company and most likely to one of your competitors.

While that’s bad, it gets even worse when you have absolutely no presence on social media.

For a company to not have a presence on social media leaves them distrustful and suspicious, particularly to the more youthful side of today’s job seekers.

In short, there’s no way for job seekers to know who you are, what your reputation is and most importantly, if your company represents a good cultural fit.

Sure, others may post information about you on their own sites and feeds, but their posts could be inaccurate or misrepresentative of you and your company.

No, your only option is to put yourself onto the worldwide web, create a case for yourself as a good employer, and attract your future talent in that manner.

But before you do that, you should be aware of which social media site gets the most play from job seekers.

Keep reading to find out what that site is.

According to an article that appeared on ERE Recruiting Intelligence, 75% of candidates will consider an employer brand before applying.

60% of jobseekers said that research about a company was very or extremely influential in their decision to apply for a position, while the same study stated 94% of jobseekers are more likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages their employer brand online.

This should tell you how important your online presence is. Now to that end, you’re probably wondering what the best online tool out today can boost your brand to the next level.

Many believe that tool is Instagram (IG), which is why this article is focused on Instagram.

And why Instagram? Because it holds many characteristics that compliment human characteristics.

Below are some 6 observations as to why IG can help you close the deal on launching a successful careers feed for your organization through IG.
 

1. Humans are visual creatures: We naturally process visual information in a more comprehensive and efficient fashion than text. Give prospective talent more content to consume than simply review sites. Instagram creates a clutter-free visual storytelling experience that can be both efficient and memorable. And for a more inclusive experience, Instagram has also announced that it is committed to creating a more accessible platform for the visually impaired via automatic alternative text (alt text) functionality. 
2. It’s human and credible: Ditch the perfectly edited stock images and ignite employee pride. Capture real employees in action. Or, better yet, collect employee-generated content to help share your epic story. This can be done by way of social ambassadors who understand the broader content vision and are trained to capture the employee experience. From there, they can be granted posting access. Or for a safer process, route all content to a centralized curation team who can caption and schedule content to ensure it is both on brand and optimized for engagement. Use filters and animation features to humanize any piece of content and show your playful side if your business has a playful side. 
3. It is community oriented: In a time when globalized and distributed work is commonplace, you and your company should create a sense of unity and belonging online. Instagram creates a sense of community both within the career feed and also among a broader business eco-system. From rallying around important causes via compelling visual content and hashtags, to inviting others to share their perspectives and support, Instagram can be a strong digital destination for employees and candidates alike. 
4. You can archive content and create video/image reels: Creating professional video content is expensive and credibility can be questionable if overly produced. Authenticity is where it’s at. With Instagram highlight buttons, organizations can create free video/image reels and categorize them to highlight their employee value proposition pillars (for example: one highlight focused on innovation, another on corporate social responsibility, recognition, etc.). Use content that is raw and fosters trust in the viewer. 
5. It’s global: Instagram is a global phenomenon. Unify your global workforce by speaking a visual language. Captions can be translated according to the user’s settings and preferences. Use the highlight buttons to categorize content according to region and you will have video and/or image reels that don’t exclude more remote parts of the world (for example: one highlight featuring the Tokyo office, another for New York, Toronto, etc.). 
6. There is discoverability: Instagram has great discoverability features helping organizations reach new audiences via geo-location tagging and building hashtag sets. You can follow hashtags and join the conversation.

 
The ERE article suggests that followers of a business will largely be current and former employees. While you may get some candidate followers, chances are that candidates will lurk more than follow, which isn’t entirely a bad thing simply because you’ll still be getting online exposure.

Conclusion

Instagram is great for top-of-the-funnel awareness building and as well as a lower funnel conversion enabler. It can help talent learn more about your organization, inspiring them to sign on the dotted line.  As such, make sure your content is being consumed via impressions and worry less of about follower-ship numbers.

You should instead put yourself in a candidate’s shoes. You would likely be creeping all over a company you are interviewing with but may not hit the follow button for fear they may check out your feed.

After all, candidates love the anonymity associated with social stalking.

Of course you can then counter this stalking by asking your new hires what content they looked at and if they followed or subscribed prior to being an employee.

Who knows, maybe you’ll get some tips as to how you can improve or expand your social media presence, or whether your social media presence works at all.