Going Social For New Recruits

Put your social profiles to work attracting the best talent for your franchise location.

By Karen Spaeder

If your franchise location is trying to recruit top talent, your social media can either help or harm your efforts. Just as a customer might check out your social media prior to doing business with you, potential employees will do the same if they’re considering working for you.

Company culture, product and service information, background on a company’s mission and values and evidence that business is booming are just a few of the things applicants will investigate. If you’re responsive to social comments, messages and reviews, it boosts not only your online reputation, but also applicants’ confidence in your brand. If you’re not, it could drive away qualified applicants.

You can leverage social media as a powerful channel to build a culture-centric, localized online presence — as well as create and boost job posts. Here’s a closer look at the top ways to make sure your social media is aiding your employee recruitment efforts.

Post Local Content to Amplify Company Culture

Upon joining a franchise brand, with its built-in systems and processes, many franchisees think that corporate will handle everything for them, including their social media. While corporate may supply branded content, it’s ultimately the franchisees’ responsibility to build an engaged local community.

In a recent episode of the MODRN Business Podcast, social media expert and 2019 IFA Annual Convention keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk confirms that “vanilla” corporate content doesn’t work when it comes to building a local audience. When you’re recruiting employees, your local social media should provide a snapshot of your culture and what it’s like to work at your company.

When applicants look at your social pages, what kind of culture do they see? Does it look fun, inviting and team-oriented? Is there even evidence of culture? Focus on being genuine and attracting prospects. Behind-the-scenes snapshots, employee spotlights, “inside jokes” about your town and other local content makes your business stand out and builds community. Corporate content does the opposite.

Empower Employees to Be Brand Advocates

Along the same lines, you can invite your employees to be a part of the social conversation. Empower your employees to be brand advocates, and you’ll have a team of loyalists posting user-generated content on their own social profiles.

One study by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research demonstrates the trend toward employee advocacy on social media. Half of the employees surveyed are already posting employer-related messages, photos or videos and more than one-third of them have shared positive comments online about their employer.

Indeed, when your employees are posting positively on your behalf, they’re creating a public perception about your company that trickles down into your recruitment efforts. Create a loyal army of employees who feel compelled to post positive comments about your business and you disseminate a strong message about the type of company you are and what kind of employees you want to join your team.

Engage With Your Audience

Nowadays, social media is the go-to customer service and communication avenue of choice. When customers pose a question on social media or direct message you, they expect quick answers.

Local social provides an opportunity to position your franchise location as a highly engaged, responsive business. When customers post comments, reviews or questions and you respond, it creates a connection with your audience.

Your responsiveness dictates whether or not that customer will walk away happy, particularly if a customer posts a negative review or comment. Furthermore, if you don’t respond at all or if you respond defensively without resolving the problem, not only will you have unhappy customers, but those negative remarks will be out there for the world to see — including potential employees.

Boost Your Content and Job Postings

Posting local content and Facebook job postings builds community and helps you engage with your desired audience. However, even if you have thousands of Facebook followers, it doesn’t mean all of them will see your posts. Facebook’s algorithm decides which content it will serve up based on whether it promotes meaningful connections. The greater the number of shares, comments and reactions, the better your organic reach is likely to be.

When you boost your content with ad spend, however, you greatly increase your chances of prospects and customers seeing your posts. For recruiting, you can build out job posts from your Facebook jobs page, pairing your text with an engaging photo that is representative of your company culture. Select your desired education level, job title, industry, interests, geographic location and other parameters to create highly targeted ads.

When candidates see your post, they can apply through Facebook. Here’s where Facebook Messenger becomes a critical tool in your recruiting toolbox. 

On Facebook Messenger alone, as of May 2018, there were 8 billion messages being exchanged between people and businesses, according to Facebook data. Messenger is helpful not only for quickly communicating with customers, but also pre-qualifying job candidates. Messenger chat bots can launch a conversation with applicants when they click on your job ad. With Messenger’s help, you can have only qualified candidates sent your way.

With consistent effort and minimal investment, your social profiles can become your best recruiting tools. In turn, you’ll create a thriving online presence that attracts new followers, customers and sales.

Karen Spaeder is the Vice President of Communications at Rallio, a SaaS company providing a powerful combination of social technology and local agency. Learn more about Rallio here.