Of Followers and Fans 🏃👩🦽🚶♂️🚴♀️🕴️
The internet is changing our approach to recruiting (i mean, duh! but yeah!)
ChatGPT made it seem like it would be a perfect way to build employer brand content. Then we used it and… well, not so much.
But it is still an amazing tool to help you understand where your brand gaps are and how to better engage even the most targeted talent. Learn how to turn ChatGPT into your EB superpower in this class.
Remember Web 2.0?
As a reminder, Web 1.0 was all about the idea that the world’s information could be digitized, archived, spidered, and made searchable/available. If you can recall buying a plane ticket or looking up a fact in 1994 required at the very least a phone call or even a trip to a library, you know that this was insanely valuable.
Around 2004, we entered Web 2.0, where we saw the internet as a means of connecting people just as much as information. It was the social internet, where your 140 character tweet might be shared by your friends and reach millions of strangers, who in turn might want to connect with you.
We are currently in the Web 3.0 world, where we are all supposed to own and monetize things online (I reserve judgement), but I bring this up because we learned a lot of bad habits during our previous Web 2.0 period.
The biggest one is that we think about employer brand success in terms of how many people we can get to follow us. Look at the messages on your career sites: Join our “talent community” (I’m sorry, a community is when people in the community can talk to one another and not just get served your quarterly blast of “we’re so great, you should want to work here!”). Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram! Apply for this not-a-job so we can add you into our ATS!
We report on the number of people following us on LinkedIn and other social media channels, how many people we have in our CRM who haven’t unsubscribed yet. When we have 10% more followers than last quarter, we think we’re doing something right.
In a world of passive media consumption, we have been taught to count followers as victories. But are they? I have 17,000 followers on LinkedIn, but what does that translate into? I can tell you I definitely don’t see 17,000 views on my posts (because the LI algo is designed specifically to not have that happen). So what’s the value of followers?
Go into your CRM. Let’s pretend you have 1,000 people you can message. Now go look at your analytics. How many people actually opened your email? Ignoring how messy email open tracking is, do you have a 50% open rate? 30%? Worse? So if you can only get one in three subscribers to open your email (let along click or take action), what’s the value of a follower? A third of a person? A quarter? Ew.
But all the tools we are offered talk about growing followers, collecting followers, and making it easy to get more followers. Whether it’s called “lead generation” or “talent pool,” everything is telling you to focus on getting more followers.
That’s old thinking. It’s time to embrace the new thinking: You need to create fans.
Let’s take Taylor Swift (at this point, Ms Swift has entered the pantheon of things that can be used to create almost any example of a phenomena, adding to a list that includes Apple, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Beyonce, Oprah and up until recently, Madonna). Taylor (look, we’re on first-name basis now) doesn’t have followers, she has fans. When she announces an album, a single, a video, a tour, or whatever, she doesn’t have a million followers who (if they actually open the email) say, “oh, okay. That’s cool.” before going about their day. She has millions of fans who stop what they are doing and immediately look, listen or buy the thing in question. That’s a fan.
Followers are made aware. Fans take action.
I’ve been saying that the goal of an employer brand is to create desire amongst your target audience. That is, you don’t want 1000 followers of your brand content. You want a few dozen fans of what your company does.
It’s not that you want the people to take action (open emails, click links, watch videos), it’s that you want the people who want what you want. They are curious about how you choose projects, who are excited to not just learn your “why” but want to see how that why works day-to-day.
Does that sound somewhat… utopian? Possibly. But only because we’ve been told collecting followers is enough, and the data shows that it isn’t. Followers is a relic of the “make a bigger haystack and more needles will appear (for the hundredth time: that’s not how needles are made!). And accepting the idea that followers are enough is the same as accepting the idea that applications are enough. But you don’t want applications. You want hirable candidates.
Don’t let old metrics and old ways of thinking determine your strategic choices today. If you want TA to be better, perhaps the best way to start is to change what you think you’re looking for.
💘 In case you missed it last week, I’m really proud of this essay on 3D employer brands »
🙄 According to the WSJ, being indispensable at work will get you fired. So according to the WSJ, we’re out of a job because we don’t want to work and we’re also getting fired for being too good at our job. These are the people who told us that Millennials were the worst because they all got participation trophies (and remind me who gave them those trophies, exactly?), so I wouldn’t go making any career plans based on their advice, ya know? »
🏗️ Which experiences build brands? »
🛝 More effective slides (when you present to leaders) »
🦺 OG Shaunda Zilich breaks down how she developed Marriott’s employer brand. VERY much recommend »
🧮 Employer branding changes the math »
🏫 Sam Monteath tries to explain employer brand to HR directors »
♟️ “If strategy is future competitive advantage, generosity is smart for individual or company strategies.” »
😆 Quick laugh: Imposter Syndrome: A Research Study »
🔥🔥 LAST CALL!: Please fill out this survey to help define the value of employer branding!!! 🔥🔥
🏛️ All 2,300+ articles from this newsletter are in a searchable archive. Go get ‘em!
Here it is, the final episode of The Definition of Insanity. And it’s a doozy!
I got to talk to Tara Turk-Haynes of Equity Activations about the intersection of employer branding and DEIB. It’s a really interesting conversation where I spend most of my time wondering if I sound like an idiot on the subject. You tell me.
All episodes can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
If you found any of the episodes (video or audio) interesting, be sure to share them with someone in your network who might value thinking more deeply about TA.
And what’s next? I actually have a plan. Watch this space!
Employer: Are you talking to any other employers?
Candidate: Yes, I am in process with two other companies, but we're not at an offer stage or anything.
Employer: Would you mind telling me who you're in talks with?
Candidate. Of course. And you'll let me who else you're interviewing, right?
Employer: Um, well... would you let me know if any of them move forward?
Candidate: Sure. And you'll let me know if you talk to other candidates?
Interviewing is a two-way street, except when it always isn't.
Yep. I have PROOF that it only takes 3 weeks to get an employer brand that makes every single one of your recruiters and your recruiting tactics more effective.
Don’t believe me? Let me send you a case study of a project I just wrapped up. Just reply to this email and I’ll send it over.
Still here: EmployerBrand.ing
***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***
🎈well done 😁