Employer Brand marketing is a hot discipline–and for good reason. Companies in white-collar sectors like ours can’t attract new candidates fast enough. In fact, even in the face of 40-year high inflation and other negative economic factors, companies are still hiring at record rates according to last week’s jobs report.

What’s more, candidates are actively researching your company online when searching for jobs. We know this by now, right? And the stats prove it out. One recent survey claims 80% of respondents are looking up the social media profiles of current staff when applying or even considering a position. And 60% of prospective employees research a potential employers on LinkedIn before applying.

But, are companies pulling the right levers when it comes to their Employer Brand marketing efforts? Here and there. I’m heartened to see more companies talking about their company culture online. I’m encouraged to see more executives on LinkedIn the last couple years talking about the company they’re leading and highlighting teams and individuals that make it great. However, there does seem to be a heavy focus on LinkedIn as a tool. And there still seems to be a lot of companies sharing jobs on social media and calling it “Employer Brand marketing.”

So what would I do if I were starting an Employer Brand social plan from scratch?

1 – Focus on LinkedIn + 1-2 other key channels

Hard to say which channels–they might be different for every brand. But, for example, I’d probably look long-and-hard at Instagram. What a great place to showcase culture and people and interact with employees and prospective employees. Or, what about TikTok? This is a hot employer brand channel right now. Yes, it would require more work given the content, but if we were targeting a younger set, this would be high on my list. Of course, you’d have to be active on Glassdoor–not just populating your brand page with content, but engaging and responding to reviews and other user-generated content. The larger point–Employer Brand social is about a lot more than LinkedIn in 2022.

2 – Focus on more than just awareness

Sure, hitting on awareness is an easy place to focus your efforts. But, I wouldn’t ignore the other pieces of the “jobs funnel”. I’d focus some content on engagement-focused posts–asking prospective employees and our existing employees questions to stimulate conversation about relevant topics (throw in a few polls for good measure). I’d use paid dollars to attempt to drive traffic to our Careers site. I’ve had success with this with other clients over the years–namely, using Facebook as this traffic-driving tool. And, I’d also focus on “leads”–i.e., those interested in applying for a job with our company. This could come in the form of sign-ups for an e-newsletter. It could come directly from those applying for jobs. Regardless, I’d definitely make this a priority and track its progress.

3 – Focus the most content on company culture; focus very few on jobs posts

I would definitely want to promote the fact that my company has open jobs available. But, I would do that sparingly. In the audits I’ve done for brands recently, the jobs posts are ALWAYS the least engaging posts in their feeds. Instead, I would focus much more time and effort on producing content that showcases our company culture. Now, this might be tougher right now with so many people still working at home in certain industries. But, there’s still plenty of room to talk about what makes your workplace unique.

4 – Focus another big bucket of content on salaries and benefits

This is an area very few companies focus on. Oh sure, some companies talk about benefits once in a great while. But not all that often–and certainly not consistently. Case in point: Digital agency Real Chemistry. Did you know one of their benefits is they offer a month-long sabbatical for every 5 years you work? That’s pretty cool. And a benefit I would be talking about a lot in this marketplace.

Or, what about salaries? According to that same survey above, salaries are the number one factor when considering a new job right now. Not surprising. Yet the bulk of all companies share very little (if any) info about salary data on their site or social pages. I’ve never understood this. If it were me, I would go a completely different direction and be as transparent as I could about salary data. I would disclose pay levels. I would have LinkedIn Live sessions with our HR team talking about how they determine salary levels. While everyone else is trying to avoid this discussion, I would dive head-first into it.

5 – Another big bucket of content would focus on the application and interview process

This is another area I’m shocked companies are doubling down on when it comes to social content for Employer Brands. Why not detail out your interview and application process so people know exactly what to expect? This is the number-one question I’ve received when helping companies work on Employer Brand social programs in the past. People just want to know what to expect along the way–from application to when they accept the job offer. All sorts of content opportunities here–from interviews with recruiters to flow charts showing the process from tip to toe.

6 – I’d work to get at least 2 execs active on LinkedIn talking about company culture, mission and vision on a semi-regular basis

I know many companies have worked hard to get execs on LinkedIn since the pandemic began 2 years ago. But many of those same execs are talking about different topics and issues than Employer Brand. Namely, company news and events, and to an extent, issues-based topics and crisis situations. I’d encourage execs to devote at least 1 post every other month to Employer Brand topics–namely culture and people. That’s not asking a lot–and it would go a long way toward educating folks who are considering working for your company.

7 – I’d focus at least 10% of our teams time on community management every day

We know many companies devote very little time to community management for their Master Brand work–I’ve talked about that here on this blog before. And, now in 2022, not much has changed. So, it’s no surprise that many companies don’t respond to many questions on their Employer Brand posts either. I’d definitely change that by devoting 10% of every day to responding to questions on our social accounts (including Glassdoor). That engagement can go a long way toward assauging concerns about the company people may have. Remember, every time you respond to a question on your social accounts, the person asking the question is seeing it–and so is everyone else.