Your content marketing guide for employer branding in 2023

Does it mean your HR department suddenly starts offering employees superficial perks like free lunch or paid vacations? A big no.

Promoting after office party pictures on social media is not employer branding; instead, it delves much deeper and roots from the core identity of your organization. Your employer brand should originate from why you do what you do and how you do it. And not on superficial things added for the sake of branding in your work culture.

So, what do you do?

First things first,

UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPANY’S UNIQUE VALUE AND DOCUMENT IT

When you visualize creating a strong employer brand, you need to know why you exist and what is the objective of your organization. Start looking at your company’s mission, the values you stand for, the bigger vision, and the work culture you are cultivating. Focus on these more important questions and document it. It helps you identify what your business stands for and would give you an idea on the kind of talent you would need to fulfil your objectives.

KNOW YOUR COMPANY’S UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

To create a compelling employer brand, start focusing on your company’s mission statement, values, vision, and culture. Like a moral compass, it will help you identify what your business needs and based on your needs it will help you understand what type of talent you need to fulfil those objectives.

GET AN EMPLOYER AUDIT DONE

Do you have any idea about the reputation you have among job seekers and the professional circle? Or that matter to your employees. If you don’t, it is high time you know about it. Conduct internal surveys, monitor social media mentions, read your Glassdoor reviews, and reviews on other job posting sites.

The audit will help you identify aspects that are loved by your employees and the areas where you lack. You can highlight the positive elements through content and social media. The areas that need improvement can be taken care of by the HR department.

DRAFT AN EMPLOYER VALUE PROPOSITION

Yes, what is in it for employees? What do you have to offer them? Document an employer value proposition that lists everything your company stands for and all the benefit your company provides. Let the employee know where he or she stands in the whole eco-system. This proposition will be your promise to employees and a way to attract new talent. You can use this proposition as a marketing message to be highlighted on your career page, social media campaigns, and other promotions.

Now, that you are done with your top three priorities, let’s move on to the objective of this blog post, and that is-

ELEVATING YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND WITH CONTENT MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Once you lay the right foundation to build an employer brand and have a clear idea of what needs to be put before the audience. You need to know how to put it before your target audience to get the maximum reach and engagement.

That is where content marketing and social media strategy comes in.

While doing the employee audit, you must have realized that a lot of employees mentioned your company on their social media profiles. May be by sharing an after-party photo or a random click on Instagram or by tagging you in their short LinkedIn posts.

“As per Weber Shandwick, more than 95% of employees use at least one social media platform for personal reason, and among those around 50% are already posting about their company.”

Before you start marketing your employer brand, you need to realize that your company employees are the face of your organization. Their social media reach is not only vital to them but for your branding as well. A lot of organization are open to their employees being highly active on social media. If they are not, they are urging their employees to get socially active via employee advocacy programs.

But there is a catch;

Content marketing isn’t as simple as it looks.

Every social media platform is different and caters to a different audience, so that means the content posted on every social media should be different as well. So, you cannot carve your employer brand blindly posting content and asking your employees to share it.

You need a proper content marketing strategy in place that ensures the right kind of content is pushed and shared on the right kind of platforms.

Which brings us to the next question,

WHAT WOULD BE THE RIGHT KIND OF CONTENT TO BUILD AN EMPLOYER BRAND?

Put this question before your social media team or if you don’t have a social media team, ask this question to yourself,

What kind of content will your employees like to share on social media?

If you understand human psychology, you will realize that your employees would like sharing content that resonates to their interests, personal behavior, and long-term goals.

Build content aligning your company’s objective and employee interests.

The general content rule on social media is 80-20.

• 20% you talk about yourself promoting your company on social media and building a proper employer brand.
• 80% of content should revolve around your niche and something that resonates as per the interests of your employees.

The bottom line is, do not blast your social media networks with promotional content. It will turn off your users.

When I say 80% content revolving around your niche, I mean content that addresses important topics in your niche. Blogs and social media posts that build thought leadership and enlighten their audience with valuable pieces of information addressing their pain points and FAQ.

When you create that kind of premium content, your employees would see it as an excellent opportunity to build their brand. Rather than a forced exercise to push promotional content. They should feel inspired to get active on social media.

Become a better employer brand on social media sharing the following type of content on social media and other platforms.

1. Employee generated content

Your employees will always love sharing content that makes them feel good. You should keep this in mind before drafting a content marketing strategy. Ask your employees to come up with different thoughts for different social media platforms of your company and blog posts on your website.

Give your employees ample opportunities to share their content on social media, something that they might have created, and which perfectly syncs with the mission and vision of the company.

The content can be in the form of pictures they took or the videos and podcasts they shot. Give this employee-generated content a platform to shine on your social media platforms. That way, you let your employee connect on a deeper level with your organization, and you get great content to shape your employer brand.

2. Powerful Human Stories

Building your employer brand is not just about highlighting your work, but it is about showcasing compelling, engaging human stories.

An organization is formed by its people who work for it, which makes it essential for an organization to showcase their human side.

Tell your audience, your journey as an organization. Your employees are a part of your journey, and you need to highlight them in your journey.

That way, you show your human side, making it easier for your audience to connect to you.

Tell your audience great employee stories, and that is the best way to gain engagement.

3. Put content that addresses different pain-points

Anyone who loves good content will tell you that content that entertains in the process of educating you is the best form of content.

As a marketer create content that addresses the pain point of your customers.

Content like infographics, webinars, blog posts can go a long way to build your authority in your domain. Your employees would love to share such kind of thought-provoking content and establish themselves as ambassadors of your brand on their social media profiles.

Moreover, informative content will not have any sales element to it, making it easy for consumption helping the audience develop trust.

Now, let’s address an important question!

HOW TO GET MORE EMPLOYEES INSPIRED TO PROMOTE YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND?

You must have seen this meme on Instagram or Facebook, wherein a woman is sitting all upset, and the quote says,

“When someone tells me what I am already planning to do, I don’t feel like doing it then”.

That is what human psychology is all about.

Social media may have become paid in certain aspects, but the real fun lies in the organic process.

If you ask your employees to share something, they will do it due to a sense of duty. Not because they want to, and that will eventually turn them away.

You need to ignite a natural interest in them, and you can do that by breeding a positive social media culture in your organization in the following few steps-

1. Create a well-crafted social media strategy for employer branding

Having a documented plan lays the foundation for long-term success and better ROI. A great social media strategy that has the potential to catapult your employer brand is neither too mechanical or rigorous for your employees.

Sync your strategy with the long-term mission, vision, and branding goals of your company. That will give you a clear picture and precise framework to measure results.

In the process of building an employer brand, make sure you don’t micromanage your employees. Give them their creative space and let them choose what they want to share.

2. Draft a social media policy that inspires

When you are an organization, you need some rules in place so that your employees move in a uniform direction. This philosophy is applicable to social media as well.

Remember, your employees need guidance, not boundaries.

So, when you are drafting your social media policy, make sure it is not a list of restrictions. Rather a list of guidelines that tell an employee on how to communicate to the outside world as a brand ambassador of the company.

Your social media policy should articulate your organization’s social media expectations with utmost clarity on the values you stand for and the universal objective of your existence.

3. Make your employee’s personal brands on social media

It is always better to have a human face representing your organization. It helps people relate to you. People could connect to Apple through Steve Jobs, Facebook through Mark Zuckerberg, Jio through Mukesh Ambani, WordStream through Larry Kim.

When your employees have strong personal brands, it directly impacts your employer brand, and you come out as an organization who have employed experts in their domains.

Field your employees on social media as a subject expert, let them give ideas on the kind of content they wish to post and help them create it.

Your employees would love to grab the spotlight and prove their worth to you in the process elevating your brand as an employer.

4. Hold regular training sessions

Time to time, we need to sharpen our axe to be better at what we do because it is not about doing things but doing it in the best way possible.

Your social media strategy can fall flat if your employees are not well-aware of social media, latest trends, and algorithm updates. Time to time, you need to conduct workshops that teach them the basic etiquettes of different social media platforms, changing trends, algorithms, and the kind of content that would work.

Also, it is always better to go back to basics and go through your social media strategy and policies again. It helps your employees stay in tune with what the organization wants from them as employer branding ambassadors and in this fast-changing world, strategies and policies need to be updated on a regular basis.

If you are an organization who are finding it hard to find human resources, an optimistic employer brand is what you need. Somewhere in the daily perils of revenue generation and pending deadlines, you forgot to see through your faltering image as an employer. The world has become competitive and to thrive your business in the digital era, you need to elevate your employer brand.

And how do you do it? Read the whole blog post again and act.