C#7 of Social Recruiting: Content Marketing — Addressing real people

This post is part of a series describing the nine "Cs" that drive a successful social recruiting strategy and started with You do social sourcing. Now start your social recruiting strategy!

We have already discussed:

 C#1 Continuity,

C#2 Consistency or the art of following-through your branding,

C#3 Culture — your core values and credibility,

C#4 Courtesy and Candidate Centricity,

C#5 Conversation — Live video screening and discussions and

C#6 Curation — Pre-recorded interviews/questionnaires

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Your network is not just an "audience." It's a group of individuals. You can't stick to a broad general marketing message. HR Marketing must be far more granular and personal: it must be context-driven content for the people you have attracted and whose interest you want to sustain. The quality of your content marketing strategy is what will make you stand out in the war for talent.

Understanding the mindset of a follower who morphs into a candidate

Your HR department or talent acquisition team must take advantage of the general branding and messaging that your marketing organization and social media group have created. However, that's not enough. For a simple reason: the very same person whom you attract as a brand changes mindset when she becomes a candidate. All of a sudden, this person is not a spectator of your company any more. She wants to be part of it. As a candidate, her reality check on your company gets deeper. She hears and reads your messaging differently.

As an example, let’s take one of the greatest slogans: Nike's "Just Do IT." This slogan is exceptionally energizing and makes you want to buy as a consumer. In a way, you identify as one of their athletes, no matter how much of an amateur you may be. When you are a job candidate, however, you don't simply want to imagine that you are going to be an athlete. You typically ask yourself "How Does it Do IT for me." You want to know more. You want specific information.

This is where your HR content marketing strategy must take it a step further. Your "Just Do IT" follower has surreptitiously morphed into a "How Does it Do IT for me" candidate. Understanding and addressing this change is a critical dimension of social recruiting: this is why you must develop a content marketing strategy.

Powering your content marketing strategy 

Content marketing is the ability to create targeted messaging to individuals or groups of people who share a common interest (communities). Content marketing demonstrates your expertise, enables you to share information and respond to questions that people may have. Developing an HR Content Marketing strategy using TalentCircles is easy, leveraging our mass email, blog, document posting or webinar capabilities.

Targeted blog posts in circles/communities

Segment your network into circles. You can have public circles (to which candidates subscribe based on their type of interest) or private circles (that candidates can join only if they have been invited). In all cases, a circle is an entity where you maintain a targeted pipeline of people who have something in common and will be addressed in the context of that circle.  Your circles can reflect functional areas, as well as diversity initiatives.

Once you have set up your circles, you can adopt a focused communication via blog posts or webinars. Posts can be written by anyone you allow: your team, employees, candidates, luminaries, etc.

Candidates have the ability to comment and share these posts (in order to read these posts, people must first sign into your network).

Webinars

You can also pursue this content marketing strategy using Webinars, within or across circles — or by inviting a selection of members of your talent network based on any criteria of your choice. These webinars can be "Invite only," but also can be shared by the members of your network, which enables you to grow your candidate network organically.

The value of your network is predicated on your ability to develop a relevant content marketing approach. Passive candidates will maintain interest in you if you become an industry resource through insight and leadership, provide solutions and advice to people in the real world and strengthen their trust in what you can offer.

In short, social recruiting is the art of making the human person of the brand live and breathe inside your talent network, not about sales pitches disseminated around public networks.

The purpose of content marketing is to showcase what it is for real people to work in your organization, and give them a real reason to come and work for you, or share with their friends what you offer.