Universum Quarterly is proud to introduce a series of columns by Per Håkansson discussing the role of social media in employer branding. Here, you will be able to learn how you can use it to further enhance your employer brand. First off, Per Håkansson advises on how to get started, then in the coming issues, he will discuss how you measure the effects, and share the future developments in social media and what that means for you.

Getting Started with Social Media

By Per Håkansson <per.hakansson@gmail.com>

Five years ago no-one outside of college students and early-adopter technologist had heard of Facebook. Today Facebook is the epicenter of a never before seen tectonic media power shift from organizations to individuals called social media. The authors of the book The ClueTrain Manifesto understood this way back in 1999:

"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies."

Social media is all the user generated content and conversations created on web and mobile platforms that enables peer-to-peer interactions. I share an insight on my blog that my friends, friends-of-friends and network can interact with, rate, comment, add to and share. Below is a comparison of the basic differences between social media and mass media.

There are thousands of social media publishing technologies available but the most popular are personal social networks (Facebook), professional social networks (LinkedIn and Xing), blogging platforms, microblogging (Twitter) and video sharing (YouTube). The latest emerging technology are location-based social networks for smart-phones, like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Social networking, streaming video and blogging has become the most popular activities among students and young professionals and an increasing share of the total traffic is driven from mobile devices. The challenge today is not if young talent is online or where they are but how to interact with them in the context of social media. Students and young professionals have been talking about your employer brand online for years, but have you been listening?

The first step in reaching your targeted talent market via social media is to have a well-defined employer value proposition. A clear, transparent and authentic employer brand is your core asset.

The second step is to identify and leverage current employees that are active bloggers and influencers on social networks. They will become an invaluable source in how to build community, interact with talent and share your employer branding story. This is also a good time to create some basic social media guidelines for any employee that blogs about your company.

The third step is to choose which social media platform you should focus your resources on. That depends solely on where your talent audience spend their time online. In general terms that would be Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Create accounts on these platforms and co-promote them across your recruiting blog, corporate career center and social networks. It should be very easy to sign up to your Facebook fanpage, follow you on Twitter or find you on LinkedIn. Create a weekly and monthly dashboard to track performance and return-on-investment.

The fourth step is to start listening into current conversations, engage and start new conversations. Social media is a two-way communication channel, more like a impromptu meeting around the water-cooler than an official announcement via the corporate megaphone. It's fairly fast and easy to set up an online presence for your company, much harder to stay interesting and engaging.

That's where community management becomes important. Growing a community around your employer brand is a marathon, not a sprint. It's important to be available and engage in conversations but also know when to stay away. Any shared information needs to be timely, authentic and relevant. Done right - with each individual user in mind - all these different activities can result in attracting the right talent for your future workforce. 

You can take a look at what other companies have done to understand content, voice and tone when designing your own social media guidelines. Two great places to start are: Intel and Cisco.