By Jean L. Serio, CPC, CMC
It’s shocking but true.
Today with no talent brand you have no identity. And the reality is top talent will ignore you; headed to companies who actually have an identifiable talent brand.
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Shocking, or not, a variety of current reports and surveys show todays savvy job seekers won’t work for companies without a solid talent brand. Why? Because they see established talent brands as knowledgeable, honest and dependable. Companies who will treat them with respect.
That said, if you have no discernable talent brand or a lackluster one at best, one job seekers avoid, how can a thriving online community be developed? Answer: You must first develop your talent brand. One which is likable, relatable and inspires loyalty. One job seekers come to know, like and trust.
What is a talent brand? Not only is it what you say it is, your talent brand reputation also includes job seeker experiences. Such as website and blog interactions, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn post reads, information it discovers regarding your brand’s track record, recruiting approach, known treatment of employees; it’s overall reputation. Added to that is your company, its mission and industry role.
As your talent brand becomes known – as it grows – it begins to inspire trust and likability builds. Job seekers start jumping on board, becoming fans and followers. An online community begins to develop around your brand.
Very importantly, when your brand begins to flourish, you can slowly start marketing available jobs directly to your community. Drawing candidates from that loyal group when it comes time to fill a job. And good news! Without ending up pitting your brand against rivals in the competitive talent rat race to secure a job seeker’s attention. Not to mention you’re cutting costs.
5 strategies for building your talent brand and a thriving online community:
1. Keep your reputation stellar – todays job seekers admit they won’t work for reputationally challenged companies.
2. Be willing to use a variety of marketing methods and tools to reach and build your audience. For example – content and social media marketing, mobile, tablets, videos.
3. Provide free useful resources such as whitepapers, reports, checklists, infographics.
4. Put on a human face – occasionally include funny graphics in your content, relate issues which inspired your growth or that of the company, how you or an employee handled a unique customer situation. Enthusiastically and helpfully respond to all questions, comments and emails.
5. Be regularly engaging them with valuable content which not only tells your brand story, but motivates, helps them reach their goals, inspires trust and shows you care.
A powerful brand is your company’s ticket to winning more top talent loyalty, enlarging your online community, filling job vacancies with top candidates. That said it’s imperative you start focusing on developing it now – defining it, measuring it. And, most importantly promoting it.
Bottom line: The stronger your talent brand is, the easier it is for top talent to make the decision to join your online community.
Join Jean on May 31st as she reveals key strategies for developing an online community. You’ll learn best practices for making your online community a success that serves the underlying recruitment strategy in her live webinar, Online Talent Communities: A Blueprint for Leveraging Digital Platforms to Engage Candidates and Promote Your Brand Message.