LinkedIn is a social network with incredible and highly specialised reach. It has over 774 million members spread around in more than 200 countries. Since its focus is primarily building business relationships, this allows marketers to tailor their message to the audience in a way that’s difficult elsewhere. This is as true whether you want to develop an employer brand or a better B2B rapport with your clients.
It has a huge potential for forming relationships with prospective candidates, and leveraging employees to do branding for you can have staggering benefits when it comes to employer branding.
What is employer branding? It’s your reputation as an employer. How your current, former, and prospective employees see you.
Since the job market is incredibly competitive, it’s crucial to have a positive employer brand. After all, a good impression is priceless, and good workers are necessary to drive your business forward.
Read on to find out how to leverage LinkedIn to improve it and attract and retain top talent.
Basics of building a better employer brand
Let’s start with the simple things. Employer branding isn’t much different from other types of branding. The essence is in storytelling. You need to craft a good story that will make your company appear desirable. Who wouldn’t want to work at a nice place with good pay, right?
That’s only a part of it, though. You need to be able to attract the right kind of people and that requires some planning and research. It all depends on how you want to be perceived. Is your company a relaxed and casual place where energetic people bounce ideas? Or is it a serious high-powered business where people in smart business outfits make important decisions? These two images will attract vastly different people, and you need to be consistent with your messaging to ensure you don’t get a clutter of unsuitable candidates.
Of course, the story and the messaging are only half of the process. You also have to live the story. It’s not enough to convince people you’re the right employer for them, you have to actually be that. Otherwise, messaging from your former and current employees will reveal that your talk about how great you are is just that, talk.
Your employees are your best ambassadors
It all begins and ends with people and the relationships you build with them. Since LinkedIn functions as a hub of job seekers, potential candidates, and businesses looking to do business with each other, it’s tailor-made for branding of all kinds, and employer branding in particular.
Practically everyone has a LinkedIn profile, and you can use that to make sure your brand is received in the right way. Leverage your employees to be your ambassadors and have them share interesting and relevant content online. You can educate them about proper procedures and have your marketing team organise seminars, and set up the proper infrastructure that will streamline the whole process.
Gamification has been proven to get people engaged, so you can use that to make sure your employees are more invested in the branding process. Additionally, by helping your employees develop their own personal brands online, you increase their own credibility and reach, which feeds into your own value as an employer. If you have successful, happy, and influential people working for you, you must be doing something right.
Ensure your company LinkedIn page is up to date
This is where employer branding on LinkedIn starts. You can use your business profile to build awareness about the company. Make sure you’re perceived as the employer of choice for your field. Talk about your company culture, and, if you have an office, post glimpses of your office environment (company Zoom-call screenshots can be a good substitute) that will showcase it.
Don’t forget to post regularly but not too frequently in order to ensure you’re seen as an authoritative source. This will increase your reach and make you more visible to candidates. Additionally, it will encourage existing employees to share content in order to boost their own personal brand. Check the following paragraph for more information about that.
Update personal LinkedIn profiles of relevant employees
When contacted on LinkedIn regarding a job opening, most prospective employees will check not only the company’s LinkedIn page but also the page of the person who contacted them and those of other relevant people. They will want to learn more about you and your company in order to prepare for the interview or just to get a better feel of the workplace.
This is where your employer brand comes into play. If your employees are happy, they are likely to be active, engaged, and have updated LinkedIn profiles that make it clear what their duties are.
Here are some tips on how a good profile should look:
- The summary section should explain what your organisation does in addition to the role and skill set.
- Use relevant keywords to ensure prospective candidates search for when looking for a job.
- Include photos and videos from company events (if applicable) in order to highlight the company culture.
Make use of LinkedIn groups
LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to increase your brand awareness and business engagement. They allow you to communicate with business partners, employees, candidates, and target demographics on a single platform.
Joining relevant groups and promoting your work and job openings exposes you to countless potential followers. This can substantially boost engagement if done right. Post an informative piece or start a discussion about a problem you’ve had, and you can get a lot of traction in the relevant spheres of this social network.
Alternatively, you can create a group of your own and further increase your reputation as a relevant and authoritative source. By constantly interacting with professionals in your field, you can identify talented candidates that would be a great fit for your company.
Write good job descriptions
Job postings are usually the first contact candidates have with prospective employers. And since first impressions count for a lot, you want them to be blown off their feet. You want your ideal candidate to smile and nod along as they read the job advert, finding themselves in it.
Go for something descriptive that will really bring the organisation’s personality into focus. You want a brand voice that stands out, so don’t be afraid to be more descriptive than informative. Instead of “developed soft skills,” go for “eager to get in touch with prospects” or “loves talking and doesn’t have to feign enthusiasm.”
In addition, the advert should include relevant keywords that will be well-optimised for search engines and that will guide candidates to it. Of course, you don’t want to clutter it with keywords, as that may have the opposite effect.
Wrapping up
Employer branding is a highly variable set of strategies. It depends on the business itself, its goals, and the target demographic. However, some basics are universally applicable, and we hope we got you on the right track towards improving your employer brand via LinkedIn.
