Once upon a time, there was an organisation looking for a way to stand out from its talent competitors. They had good intentions, but due to time constraints, they followed everyone else and just shared blogs and jobs on their social media feeds and careers site. Then sat back and wondered why people weren’t engaging…… and they waited….. and they waited….!
Until one day, someone mentioned storytelling to them. That’s when the lightbulb went on and things started to change.
Does this sound familiar?
Recruitment is competitive and standing out is very difficult if you don’t have a clear point of difference.
When it comes to content and marketing your services, you need to think beyond a blog post. The old ‘jobs & blogs’ syndrome simply doesn’t cut it anymore and is unlikely to attract the top candidates you’re looking for.
In short, candidates will be attracted to recruiters who they can relate to in some way. Social media is coming around full circle. Candidates want to get to know you first. Remember that thing called building a relationship? Well, it includes online relationships too.
It’s just like in real life when they’re meeting new friends or partners. The process is about getting to know someone before they commit. You may have heard the analogy about ‘not marrying someone on the first date’ and it’s true in many scenarios, including during the recruitment process.
So, where do you start?
It’s simple: tell me your story.
Storytelling has been around since the beginning of time and fosters connection between people. The act of storytelling stimulates the brain and emotion, creating an impact and making your organisation more memorable and relatable.
As a potential candidate or client, I want to know who you are, what you are about and what your company culture is like.
You might respond with, “but I already have an About Us page on our website”. Well, here’s the thing. Even though About Us pages are typically the 2nd most visited page on a website (that should tell you how important story is in itself), so many recruiters still don’t have an About Us page that shares anything meaningful, and many of the ones that do are stuffy and lack personality.
I have literally just been on 20 different recruitment websites this morning looking for examples. Some didn’t even have an About Us page and the most of the ones that did, put me to sleep. Hit the snooze button please!
Many careers sites are way too corporate and share professional experience; but what about the people personally in your organisation? After all, I’m buying YOU, not just your service.
Have I convinced you yet?
Here are some practical applications to incorporate more storytelling into your recruitment strategy:
- Incorporate stories in your job ads – make me interested in the company and want to know more
- Incorporate stories into your talent communities
- Share the real-life stories of your team
- Share stories of your candidates (don’t share a resume, tell me about that candidate – what drives them, what they are passionate about, something unique they have done)
- Share stories in the videos you create – these can be real life experiences about the day to day.
The two key words to remember with storytelling are personality and authenticity. Think outside the square, think beyond recruitment and remember, you’re dealing with people and they want to be able to relate to you, your organisation and your team.
Tanya Williams is the pink-loving, sparkly Chief of Everything at Digital Conversations. She wears many hats; entrepreneur, best-selling author, digital trainer, and she is a Social Amplification Specialist with over 20 years’ marketing experience. She works with recruiters to uncover the hidden gold in their existing assets, find ways to leverage every moment of your digital marketing without increasing your marketing budget and amplify your internal champions to increase your visibility. Her goal is to make the hero in your industry sector. She has a simple, no-tech-talk approach and thrives working with established recruitment companies to tap into the opportunities they might miss, using practical & relevant tactics to drive business outcomes.