Content Creation is the Future of Employment Branding

By Jessica Miller-Merrell 

If you’ve worked on building your employment brand or are considering how to do so, you probably know there’s only so much of it that you can control. You can influence your brand ambassadors, provide information that favors your company and engage across multiple platforms, but we certainly don’t own our employment brands any more than we own someone else’s opinion. However, there is one opportunity to shape your employment brand that you may not be taking advantage of yet: content creation.

Content is the future because we are information and resource seekers. We are all leveraging technology to find answers to our questions, and as employment brand leaders, we should be making the most of it. Creating great content can transform the way in which candidates see you and make a big impact on your recruiting efforts.

It’s your time to shine

No one likes to toot their own horn but when you’re creating content, you have a perfect opportunity to do so. You can feature stories about what you’re doing in the community, where you’re recruiting, awards your organization has received and even perks your company offers. With the right story framing, you can feature just about anything that highlights what makes your company great. These types of human-interest stories typically do well in social media and also act as a resource for candidates to understand your company culture.

The chance to set your organization apart

Original content certainly gives you the chance to brag a bit, but it also allows you to set your company apart from competitors. If you know your competitor’s areas of weakness or source of discontent for their employees, you can address the issue, set yourself apart and keep it classy by featuring what makes you different in that area. Also, simply offering great, consistent content sets you apart from the many companies who may not see the potential in has.

Increase traffic

The content you create doesn’t just look great on your careers page. It can also help to drive traffic to your website or social media profiles with every read, share or retweet. In the same way that many product and service providers have long used content as a way to drive sales, your content can attract new candidates and drive them where you want them to be. Disseminate your content across all your channels to get the most mileage and don’t forget that the text of the content itself can be used to link to other posts, your job openings page or your social media.

Be the answer

We are all looking for information, answers and resources, and your candidates are no different. Help them cut through the clutter that is a random web search and be the go-to source for your industry. By being seen as an expert in the field, you’ll eventually have a built-in audience that you can recruit over time. Providing information about your company and using the content to paint a picture of your organizational culture can also impact where candidates go to find answers about the company. It puts you in the driver’s seat rather than sitting back and letting someone else control the conversation.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.