Candidates connect with your organization through a variety of touch points. They may learn about your district through a Google search, hear about a job from a friend who shared a post on Facebook, or come across an article on a news site about your district’s hiring challenges.
In our digitally connected world, there are many strategies you can use to promote your employer brand online and leverage it for recruitment purposes. To be successful, you need to make your district’s story and brand messages ubiquitous. That means that the information and messages about who you are, what you do, what you stand for and how you do it should be promoted across a variety of media and platforms, as well as to the individuals within your organization who are your biggest fans.
Seven is the magic number
If you’re familiar with marketing concepts, you might know of the rule of seven. This rule simply states that someone needs to see marketing messaging at least seven times before they will take action.
A candidate applying for a job is essentially buying into the idea of working for you. And to convince them to apply, you need to create as many opportunities as possible for them to see your message. That’s the best way to reinforce your brand messaging, inform people about job openings and inspire them to apply for a position.
Eight simple strategies to promote your brand
The following eight simple ways of telling your brand story should result in a job candidate experiencing your brand at least seven times – making them more likely to consider you as an employer of choice.
Blogging
Your district website may include a section for news and events or even blog articles. Blogging is a great way of sharing timely information about your organization’s recruitment needs. You want to blog about the topics your candidates care about, so ask your team what questions they get asked time and again by candidates and write articles on those topics. The topics might include information on recruiting timelines, why your district is a great place to work or supports you have in place for new teachers.
Even Google searches can help you find out what topics to write about. Type your district’s name into Google’s search engine, but don’t click enter. Google will show you the most popular topics and keywords used by people searching your district name.
Employer profile page
Every school district has an employer profile page on Makeafuture.ca. Stand out from other districts by adding your organization’s brand story and personality to your employer page. Weave in images, video and employee testimonials to personalize the experience. Also, highlight the key benefits that your district offers to new hires, as well as to mid-career and seasoned teachers.
Check out how other districts are promoting themselves.
Job postings
When you post a job on Makeafuture.ca, it is automatically cross-posted on external websites, such as Indeed.com. If a candidate finds one of your job openings on Indeed.com and has never heard of your district before, this will be their first introduction to your district and what it has to offer.
That means that when you write your job posting for Makeafuture.ca, you’ll want to include information about your district in case your candidate comes across the posting on a different site where they can’t immediately link to your employer profile. Describe your organization, state how it’s different from other employers, outline the benefits you offer and describe where you are located. Consider adding graphics, video and slideshows to set you apart. Check out this example from Peace River North School District 60 for inspiration.
According to WordStream, a marketing software company, Facebook’s users conduct 1.5 billion searches every day. Facebook is becoming one of the largest platforms people use – not only to connect with friends, but also to conduct research about companies and ask questions. Because of this and its monthly active user base of more than two billion people, every organization should have a Facebook page.
Facebook is an excellent medium for sharing your district’s story, highlights, job postings and positive endorsements through text, images and video updates. It’s a great platform for keeping your organization connected with potential job candidates, as well as with employees, who are your best recruitment source!
Learn how to sign-up for a Facebook page on Hootsuite’s blog.
Similar to Facebook, Twitter is another social platform with a large user base. Twitter is a great way to share real-time information about your organization. For example, suppose you want to portray your organization as an innovator when it comes to adopting technology in the classroom. During the year, you find out that one of your teachers has received an award of recognition for their work in this area. Using Twitter, you can congratulate that teacher, highlight the story and share it with all your followers. By consistently putting out positive news about your organization you are actively shaping your brand.
LinkedIn is known as the social network for career-oriented professionals. Take a look at LinkedIn’s Company Pages – employer profile pages where you can disseminate your brand messaging and provide timely updates about your organization and its hires. One benefit of LinkedIn is that if you post a job on your Linkedin page, candidates can apply directly through that platform.
Read Linkedin’s best practices post on creating a Company Page.
E-mail newsletters
Not everyone is comfortable with using social media, but most of us use email. Another platform to get out your branding messages and stories is an e-newsletter. E-newsletter can be sent out weekly or monthly. If possible, you should set up your email subscription page so that subscribers can opt-in to how often they want to receive your e-newsletters. If it’s a career newsletter, be careful with the number of emails you send, or you may find your email address ending up in the recipient’s spam folder.
Video
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. Organizational recruitment videos are becoming more and more popular because they allow you to paint a vivid portrait of your organization as an employer. If you want to be seen as a professional organization, we recommend contracting out the service to a professional rather than the AV team at the high school. Depending on the length of the video, it may cost from $5,000-$20,000 to produce a three-minute video.
Here are a few examples.
Once you’ve created your video, post it in as many places as possible. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, your district website and at information sessions you hold at universities.
The more storytellers the merrier
Promoting your employer brand is a monumental effort if done alone. We recommend assembling a group of individuals that could include members of the HR department, people in your marketing/communications department, school administrators and teachers. Together, these people can work together to brainstorm ideas, implement initiatives and share the story of what makes your district a great place to work.
A Hubspot article describes a four-step process for creating a team of brand advocates to unleash the power of employees:
- Create a team of advocates and ambassadors. This team should be made up of a cross-section of individuals who are passionate about your district.
- Outline an approach and provide guidelines. Let people know the type of content you are looking for, how you will review it, and how you will be using the writing, images or videos they produce.
- Provide employees the resources they need to create and distribute content. Remember, this is a team effort! People don’t need to be professional writers or marketing geniuses – they just need some tools to get started and the knowledge that the team has their backs when it comes to sharing the content online.
- Motivate employees with praise and recognition. Make sure senior managers and others know the impact the team has made to your district and the exceptional individuals they’ve helped to recruit.