Employee brand advocates posses a genuine affinity for working at your company and in the culture that you foster. These gems speak positively on behalf of your organization without any incentive – often creating and sharing twice as much content on social media sites as the average Web user.
Some employee brand advocates will even defend your company against negative comments – supplying unsolicited testimony that peers find more credible than corporate messaging alone. In fact, BzzAgent found that brand advocates are 70% more likely to be considered a reliable source of information among active and passive talent. So how do these employee brand advocates impact recruitment? Here are four of our favorites (and we’d love for you to share your own in the comments).
4 Ways Employee Brand Advocates Help Recruitment
- They are complimentary and boost candidate referrals, the number one source of quality hires for most organizations.
- They share experiences in naturally-occurring private networks, generating positive buzz for your employer brand in communities otherwise out of reach.
- They answer questions about your culture, benefits and more, adding a credibility factor to your recruitment marketing messages.
- They create free, authentic content for your brand – often posting photos and videos that help your company stand out by showing what you and your people are all about.
Encourage employees to speak positively on behalf of your brand and thank them often for participating. Invest in employee referral tools that help employee brand advocates use existing social networks to refer friends and family to open jobs. Develop recognition programs or beef up employee referral incentives to reward the most enthusiastic supporters of your company.
Want to see brand advocates in action? Check out SCA’s Facebook page and Zappos’ Facebook page where customers and employees regularly share the love. Or, if this sounds like your company, share a link to your page!
Photo credit: Sportschump.net
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