Last week we discussed what employer branding is and why it’s important to your recruiting agency. Hopefully, you’re convinced that you must have a strong employer brand to attract and keep top talent on your team.
But let me guess—you don’t have a ton of resources you can pour into this. I get it, especially as some employer branding ideas sound like they require a new full-time employee just to get off the ground.
Today, we’re discussing employer branding tactics you can use today, with the resources you have at your disposal.
1. Everyone should optimize their LinkedIn profile
With 562 million users, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional social network. From your company page to your personal profile to every last employee, everyone’s LinkedIn profile should be optimized. This is the “excellence at every point of contact” precept.
First optimize your own profile, and then hold an internal workshop to get your people up to speed. A solid LinkedIn profile has:
- A professional headshot. The key word here is “professional”—no Sunday barbeque pics with your baseball cap on backward. According to LinkedIn, profiles with a photo receive up to 21 times more views and up to 36 times more messages.
- A strong headline. The LinkedIn algorithm seems to consider the headline heavily for search results, and it’s also the first thing users see about you. Customize it beyond your job title and tell readers why they should click through. Instead of “Owner of Recruiting Company X,” try something like, “I Connect Employers to the Very Best Talent.”
- A concise summary. Include the important details of your current priorities and goals. Make sure to include keywords here and throughout your profile (naturally and relevantly, though—no keyword stuffing); it’s another important ranking factor for LinkedIn search.
For more information on getting the most out of LinkedIn, read our post, “10 Power Tips for Finding New Clients via LinkedIn.”
2. Ask employees to make videos
Employee videos are the near-perfect branding tool. They showcase your culture and convey authenticity, plus everyone has a video recorder on their smartphone, so you already have the equipment. There’s also lots of free editing software to leverage.
What’s to record? Try showcasing:
- Employee testimonials
- Company perks in action
- A “day in the life” of your agency and its employees
- Celebrations
- An office tour
- A company meeting
3. Go live
Relatedly, you can livestream company events such as parties and fun meetings. Facebook Live is probably the most popular option, but Livestream and Live are good too.
4. Start snapping
Encourage everybody to take pictures frequently and share them to an “Employee Images” folder on Drive, Sharepoint, or whatever asset manager you use. When everyone thinks to snap one or two pics at a fun company event, you are bound to get a few great shots. Then, share them to your social channels to showcase company culture.
Hootsuite is one brand that’s killing it in this arena. Their Instagram is filled with images and videos showcasing their employees and what it’s like to work there.
5. Get blogging (and ask employees to contribute)
We’ve said it before—your recruiting agency should be blogging regularly. It gives Google more content to crawl, boosts traffic and engagement, drives leads and positions you as an authority in the industry. It’s good for your employer branding efforts, too—potential and current employees look to your blog for information about the company and its culture.
And let your employees contribute content. Publishing their thought leadership shows that you value them and their ideas.
6. Start a hashtag campaign
This is an effective and virtually free way to drive conversations about your agency on social media. While hashtag campaigns can be used for other social efforts (market a new campaign, run contests, request user input, connect your firm to a trending topic), they are particularly effective for employer branding purposes, especially if you ask your current employees to participate.
This post from HubSpot has several examples of great brand hashtag campaigns to attract talent.
7. Provide enhanced email signature files
Standardize the email signatures across your firm. This goes back to the “excellence at every point of contact” idea. The space at the bottom of your emails is a good place to promote your agency’s values.
Make the signatures are highly visual, and be sure to include social links. For inspiration, check out this Pinterest board of email signatures.
One word of warning, though: Don’t skimp on the designer. Unless you have someone on staff who’s also a talented graphic designer, contract this job out to a freelancer.
Bonus tip: Improve employee engagement with technology
Every employee can become an advocate for your firm if you give them the tech they need to succeed in their jobs.
Tracker RMS is a high-touch, service-oriented relationship management system created specifically for recruiting agencies. It comes with onboarding tools, full mobile access, analytics and sales reports, and a dedicated customer success team. Request a demo today.
