Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find any successful business without a blogging presence. Whether businesses are truly committed to blogging or not is one thing, but most at least play along because they’ve repeatedly been told that it’s a best practice. But, despite the fact that most businesses have blogs, very few realize just how powerful this platform can be as a recruitment and talent acquisition tool.
“A blog can serve as the foundation for just about anything you want — a personal brand, an enterprise-level business, a multi-million dollar content provider, or a startup,” says Neil Patel, a successful internet marketer and blogger extraordinaire. “A blog is super important.” And while these big-picture concepts are all wonderful, a blog also has the potential to help businesses expand their talent pools.
Check out some of the things you can do with your own company’s blog to bolster your recruitment strategy:
1. Openly highlight your culture
One of the primary goals of your blog should be to humanize your brand. Blogging is a chance to open up and voice opinions and beliefs in a long-form manner that speaks to your audience and engages them over time.
Specifically, you should take the time to openly highlight your culture. What makes your organization so great? What priorities do you have in terms of caring for employees and helping them accomplish personal goals? Is there room for upward mobility? Answering questions like these will help you better resonate with prospective candidates.
2. Discuss job openings in depth
A posting on a job board is one thing. Meticulously discussing the details of that job opening on your blog is another. When you take the time to profile openings and really discuss the details about the position, you end up garnering more interest and getting more qualified candidates. This saves everyone’s time and increases the chances of finding a strong connection.
3. Give employees a voice
Prospective candidates want to know what your organization is truly like. While the owner, CEO, or a hired writer can discuss some of the ins and outs of the company, they ultimately want to hear from the employees. You can honor this wish by giving your employees a voice and letting some of your team members publish testimonials and share experiences on your company blog.
4. Share posts on social media
The only way to maximize the value of your blogging efforts is to share on social media. Not only should you share new posts on your branded social profiles, but you should also encourage employees to share. There’s something very influential about an employee sharing a blog post about why they love their job. Plus, this increases your reach and puts your brand in front of hundreds or thousands of people who could be interested in joining your team.
5. Build thought leadership
Whether you realize it or not, every time your company publishes something on the blog, you’re telling people what you stand for. Hopefully, you’re posting authoritative content that establishes thought leadership. And while thought leadership goes far beyond talent acquisition, it certainly helps in shaping your image.
“Start sharing news that’s relevant to candidates’ professional aspirations,” recruiting expert Laura Byrne says. “By posting about a topic they care about, you achieve two things: 1) you add value by putting news on their radar, and 2) you show them your company shares their interests.”
Are you leveraging blogging?
While your company is probably already posting a few times a month, are you fully leveraging your blog to its maximum capacity? Blogging is a powerful resource that has the ability to fundamentally change your organization from the inside out.
Author: Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
