How to Achieve List Bliss (When Building Thriving Talent Communities)

If you read my recent ERE article on how to use a squeeze page to grow discipline specific talent communities, you may be wondering … now what?

Once you’ve built a compelling squeeze or landing page that is attracting passive talent to your content 24 hours a day, and have captured the emails of the viewers via a voluntary opt-in, you’ve now moved into list nurturing mode.

The goal of this exercise is to help the audience or “list” know, like, and trust you and your organization.

We are not asking for one’s hand in marriage here. We are wooing.

5 Tips to Charm Your Way Into an Employment Relationship:

Get them interested. Start with your best content to show your value up-front or they will swipe left. This could be a video or webinar from a thought leader in your organization. Having trouble finding “process excellence” talent? Invite your master black belt to share lessons learned on a transformational change initiative. The sky is the limit in terms of the enchanting content you can create.

No stalkers allowed. Plan your communication strategy or editorial calendar. Are you emailing the list weekly, monthly, etc.? Continuing with the process excellence example, you may opt for a monthly lean report outlining trends. You may choose monthly themes such as 5S, six sigma, value stream mapping, etc. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. What frequency builds the know, like, trust without becoming annoying thus prompting the wrong outcome.

Mix it up! A blog post may be the equivalent of dinner and movie. A quick, compelling team photo with an engaging (and funny) caption may be your “coffee date.” Think about winning over the hearts and minds of your list. Sprinkle your content with human elements such as team pictures, fun event videos, or a shout out to a team member explaining their big win in the context of process excellence. Show who you are in a multi-dimensional fashion.

Be authentic. This is not a bait-and-switch exercise. Great employer branding and marketing magnetizes those who align to your values and what you stand for, while having the opposite effect on those who are not right for the organization. This is the desired outcome. Otherwise you are simply opening the floodgates to those who will not survive in your culture. This is your opportunity to provide a peephole into the employee experience. If your process excellence team is on the shop floor most of time, sharing video that creates the belief of strictly an office environment creates a false impression. Talent that wants to be close the action to truly understand the process will have their interest intensify. Those who wish to be desk bound will rightfully be deterred from the opportunity.

Flirt with the occasional job postings … hair flip … hee hee. You can share a job posting here and there, but this is not intended to be a job alert. Did a PE role just open up and you are calling all black belts? Share, just don’t over share. Weave the opportunity in to the content as a whole. For example, share a picture of the team in a cool challenge and you can caption “There is room here for another PE guru. Calling all black belts!” with a hyperlink to the job posting.

You want them to say “I am in like with you. Keep sending me this awesome content.” One day when they’ve “grown apart” from their current employer, you will be in stronger position to “pop the question.”

Peace, love, and meaningful careers.

5 Tips to Charm Your Way Into an Employment Relationship:

Get them interested. Start with your best content to show your value up-front or they will swipe left. This could be a video or webinar from a thought leader in your organization. Having trouble finding “process excellence” talent? Invite your master black belt to share lessons learned on a transformational change initiative. The sky is the limit in terms of the enchanting content you can create.

No stalkers allowed. Plan your communication strategy or editorial calendar. Are you emailing the list weekly, monthly, etc.? Continuing with the process excellence example, you may opt for a monthly lean report outlining trends. You may choose monthly themes such as 5S, six sigma, value stream mapping, etc. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. What frequency builds the know, like, trust without becoming annoying thus prompting the wrong outcome.

Mix it up! A blog post may be the equivalent of dinner and movie. A quick, compelling team photo with an engaging (and funny) caption may be your “coffee date.” Think about winning over the hearts and minds of your list. Sprinkle your content with human elements such as team pictures, fun event videos, or a shout out to a team member explaining their big win in the context of process excellence. Show who you are in a multi-dimensional fashion.

Be authentic. This is not a bait-and-switch exercise. Great employer branding and marketing magnetizes those who align to your values and what you stand for, while having the opposite effect on those who are not right for the organization. This is the desired outcome. Otherwise you are simply opening the floodgates to those who will not survive in your culture. This is your opportunity to provide a peephole into the employee experience. If your process excellence team is on the shop floor most of time, sharing video that creates the belief of strictly an office environment creates a false impression. Talent that wants to be close the action to truly understand the process will have their interest intensify. Those who wish to be desk bound will rightfully be deterred from the opportunity.

Flirt with the occasional job postings … hair flip … hee hee. You can share a job posting here and there, but this is not intended to be a job alert. Did a PE role just open up and you are calling all black belts? Share, just don’t over share. Weave the opportunity in to the content as a whole. For example, share a picture of the team in a cool challenge and you can caption “There is room here for another PE guru. Calling all black belts!” with a hyperlink to the job posting.

Peace, love, and meaningful careers.