Each month, I look at the most liked recruiting content over a seven-day span on Facebook, the most retweeted recruiting tweets on Twitter, and the most-viewed recruiting videos on YouTube. Here’s how three top brands are effectively engaging job-seekers on social platforms — and how you can emulate their success.
Northrop Grumman Takes a Week Off From Facebook — and Gets Lots of Love for It
One of the most popular Facebook recruiting posts of the week was truly unusual. On Christmas Eve, Northrop Grumman Careers posted a simple statement: Our employees will be spending the holidays with their friends and families Dec. 25 – Jan. 1. Our community managers will reply to your questions in the new year. Happy Holidays!
Basically the company was telling fans that it wouldn’t be posting content or responding to queries for nine days (since January 2 and 3 are weekdays). A nice gesture to let job-seekers know there would be a delay. But not exactly a compelling post.
And yet it drew an enormous response. Along with hundreds of likes, followers posted comments like “Loving my two weeks off, thank you Northrop” and “NGC has been good to me for 28 years! Love my job!” Others complimented the company on the extra vacation: “Where I work we don’t have that time off.” A few of the comments drew their own “likes,” adding more engagement to the post and causing Facebook’s algorithm to make it visible to more people.
The final tally: 407 likes, 21 comments, and 12 shares. All for a Facebook post without a photo, video, or a link.
How you can be like Northrop Grumman: Certainly you should let followers know about vacations and holidays that may delay posts or responses. The company made a smart choice by emphasizing its workers, saying “our employees” would be with their families, which is a nice concept everyone can support. It’s worth noting that Northrop didn’t even include a link to their job listings or any sort of message about looking for a job during the holidays. The post is just a friendly, simple message that resonated with the company’s audience.
T-Mobile Captures a Selfless Moment on Twitter
I advise organizations to create great content, whether it’s infographics of employee videos, but sometimes a great social media post comes without warning or preparation. That’s the case for an odd but charming tweet from T-Mobile Careers. The post shows two men working on a car. The text: Our retail teams go above & beyond for each other. @successwithdan‘s manager helped him change a tire! #BeMagenta.
What a lovely, unscripted moment! And perfect for the holidays. It’s unclear who took the photo or how the social media recruiters found out about it, but they made the most of it — tagging the employee’s Twitter handle and adding the recruiting hashtag at the end. The result was five retweets and 15 likes. Not as successful as a polished video, but a great piece of content that reinforces the employer brand. And it cost nothing to produce.
How you can be like T-Mobile: Everyone has a phone — certainly everyone at T-Mobile does! Encourage your employees to capture candid moments like this. Having fun in the break room, attending work events, doing volunteer work, playing with pets or children. All of these humanize your employer brand and show how much you care about your workers. Ask employees to share the images (or videos!) with you, and request permission to use them in your social recruiting efforts. Be sure to credit them or tag them if they wish. It’s almost guaranteed that an employee featured in a social post will share that post with all his networks; @successwithdan — aka T-Mobile sales rep Daniel Lundy — sure did.
Starbucks Highlights Unsung Heroes on YouTube
When most people hear the term “Starbucks job,” they usually think of baristas making coffee. But Starbucks manages an entire supply chain that requires workers with much different skills, far from the public eye. The company’s “Jobs” playlist on its YouTube channel features a great video just for them: Jobs with Starbucks Distribution.
The video runs just 1:10 but showcases four employees as they work a conveyor belt, drive forklifts, and haul packages. It’s not glamorous work, but the employees talk about how friendly everyone is, how interesting the work is, and how Starbucks helps them move laterally or vertically through the company. There are no special effects, very little on-screen text, and one simple music track. You can hear many of the right words in those 70 seconds: diversity, benefits, “bean stocks” (shares in the company).
How you can be like Starbucks: Video content is on the rise and should make a major impact in 2016, not only in marketing but in talent acquisition. Though it has garnered more than 9,000 views, Starbucks’ video looks like it took only a day to shoot; most of it takes place on the factory floor, with a few shots in a cubicle, and testimonials taking place in a hallway. The employees are wearing their full gear. They don’t seem scripted or over-rehearsed.
So you don’t need a huge budget or a large camera crew to film something compelling that highlights employees who, as with T-Mobile, will undoubtedly share the video they star in. Grab your phone, interview your workers, and shoot some “b-roll” of your workplace. Edit it on iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Upload it on YouTube and share on your social recruiting channels. Voila — you’re a video recruiter!