Attract applicants with employee-generated social media content

Cell phone and social media use at work have historically been a big no-no for the hourly workforce. But what if we told you that encouraging employees to post about their jobs can be an almost effortless part of your hiring strategy? 

With social media use more prevalent than ever before, especially among Gen Z and Millenials, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are becoming the best places to attract new employees to your business. In fact, 86% of job seekers turn to social media when job hunting. 

So while you should have some guardrails in place around on-the-job social media use to ensure employees are supporting your business (instead of getting sucked into scrolling), encouraging employees to capture their work environment on social media can be a great hiring tool. 

When it comes to employee-generated content, there are two ways to go about it: get employees to post directly on your company’s social account (hello, employee takeovers!) or have your employees post to their personal accounts, tagging your business. Either way, getting employees involved in generating content has two major advantages.

Authenticity 

Creating storytelling pieces such as day in the life videos provides a compelling, unbiased view of the job and company culture through the eyes of your employees. Positive work culture is one of the top criteria job seekers look for when job hunting. So, such content may attract like-minded individuals to apply for a job in your company.

It also lets job seekers in on what a job is like and what it entails, helping them manage their expectations about the job. And when a job meets the expectations of your new hires, you can hope for higher retention rates in the long run too!

Reach

Aside from showing a more authentic side of your company, involving your employees in your social media strategy can also get your content a wider audience. Whether your employees are posting directly from their own accounts and tagging you or posting through your business account and resharing to their own, cross-promoting content is the easiest way to expand your audience. And if your employees are featured or creating the content, they’ll be more likely to share it. 

This is exactly what Walmart is doing. The retail giant has an exclusive program called Spotlight that’s dedicated to turning its workers into small-scale influencers for the company. Under this program, employees show behind-the-scenes of their jobs and even promote some of the new services Walmart offers.

Now, imagine doing the same but for your hiring campaigns!  

Time

Coming up with creative content that attracts prospective employees can take a lot of work. But your employees live and breathe social media. Coming up with on-trend content comes naturally and quickly to them. By pulling them into the process, you make it easier to collect tons of posts and schedule them out in advance, saving you time without sacrificing quality.   

If you don’t have a social media account for your company, check out our article to get some tips on how you can get started! But if you already do, read on to find out how you can leverage your team to create amazing social content for your platforms.

How to encourage your employees to post work-related content

Make it a part of their work schedule

The easiest way to get your employees to create social content is to build that responsibility into their work. Put a chart in the break room and have employees earn rewards for creating a certain amount of content during a set time period, or reward employees that create content that has high engagement rates. You can even create “social shifts;” an extra hour a week where employees come in solely to work on social content creation. 

But before jumping right into it, ensure that you impose some guidelines on the social media content they can share. Here are some you can start off with:

• Create a list of do’s and don’ts so their content won’t spark any negative backlash

• Share some brand style guidelines, such as how to use your brand logo correctly

• Create an approval process so you get eyes on content before its posted

Give recognition to your employees on your personal accounts

Actions speak louder than words, so don’t just encourage your employees to post but also do so on your account. For example, you can give a shoutout to top performers or repost their work-related content to show your appreciation. 

Doing so not only encourages your employees to post on their respective social media platforms but also helps to build a personal brand for yourself, which is important as it gives a more personable impression of you as a business owner. 

Thus, when users see such content, they are more likely to recommend their peers to your company as they view you as a supportive boss who creates a good environment for their workers.

Provide referral benefits

Sometimes, nothing works better than giving additional benefits! If your employee has a good following, encourage them to post about open positions on their personal platforms. 

Let it be known to your team that a referral benefit will be rewarded should someone get hired and retained through their social post. Don’t forget to create a system that makes it easy for you to track the referrers so that the right people get rewarded!

Leverage hourly employees to create social media content

In this digital age, social media can be a useful hiring tool for you to attract and reach out to job seekers. Many hourly employees are already turning to social media to post about their days on the job, though in most cases, this content isn’t officially vetted by the company or cross-promoted.

Take advantage of your team’s social savviness to attract more employees like them. After all, if you can trust them enough to handle your business, you should trust them to post content on your social platforms. 

Want to learn more about sourcing hourly workers through social media? Check out our recent webinar for more tips.