More attention and traffic right now

by Maury Hanigan

It’s pretty clear (we hope) from our last piece (Overview post) that having a plan to advance candidates through the recruiting journey is critical and video may be the best tool in the toolbox to get this done. In reviewing the different stages of the journey, while acknowledging that they are not linear, we are going to start at the mythical beginning: awareness.

According to iCIMS, a full 69% of all job searches start at Google, which of course they do. However, just try to search for your job title and see how many times Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter show up in the first three slots. About 0% of those searches include your company name unless you are Walmart, Amazon, or Google. So, while the bulk of job searches start on Google, they end up on a job board. Why? Well, it’s because job boards have millions of matching keywords for the job title that the seeker is seeking. They have low bounce rates because people will go to the job board to shop. Job boards hit all of the things that search engine algorithms are built to find.

So, how do we get search engines to work for us? Believe it or not, video. Also, a great brand name helps. Turns out, the top brands with strong video content on their website will beat out Indeed, Glassdoor, etc in a Google search. The reality is, search is powerful and directly impacts the actions of our talent at this stage of the job search and video is key to increase your ranking.

Candidates in the awareness stage are having a bad day because they have been laid off or furloughed, are disengaged at their current job, or need a better job to take care of themselves and their families. It’s that simple. My informational needs, as a candidate in this stage are exposure to opportunities that would help me feed my family, or my passions. Candidates are searching for anything, anything that is better than their current situation and the possibilities can be fairly wide, typically a title or job family, near them or the location they want to (or need to) be.

Emotionally, they need hope and inspiration. They need to see that something is going to fit them. They want to be encouraged and feel like their future is bright. If you’re doing this well, you’re giving them content that will fill them with optimism, and hopefully you can come through with a job that matches their needs.

The best way to meet their informational and emotional needs is not to tell them the broad, corporate overview story – you know, the one you paid big bucks to produce and put prominently on your careers home page. The real opportunity is to tell them the human story. Help them visualize themselves as part of the department, or team.  Help them see themselves thriving in your culture and succeeding at the job.  Bring your video down to the human level.

Now the big question is: how do you create the video: produced or employee generated?

It is a difficult question to answer because they both have merit. Produced video offers your organization more control over the message. It’s scripted, the people are hand-chosen, and it is polished. On the flip side, think about your own consumer habits. You know you’re being advertised to during the Super Bowl. The ads are slick. They are well done. They can be emotional. But the stakes are low, when you are choosing a product, you can return it.

When you are choosing a new job, you do not want to feel like you are being marketed to. You want the real story. You want to know who you’re going to be working with. You want to know who your manager is. You want to know what they stand for and what it is REALLY like to work there. To meet the emotional needs of the candidate, you will gain more credibility and be more persuasive with informal, employee generated content. If you have a highly collaborative development team, a candid clip of a team meeting will give authenticity to your claim.

To meet the candidates’ informational needs, you may want a slickly produced video that showcases your products or delivers senior executives’ vision.  If you produce jet fighter planes, a beautiful shot of a powerful jet may impress your target candidates. The truth is, neither is better than the other. They both have their place.

To be truly effective, your video strategy should have a healthy mix of both produced and employee generated video. In the awareness stage, you will want to have some produced video, but you will also want to loosen the reigns a bit and allow your people to really shine, to tell their stories so that you can help your candidates truly understand your organization.

When it comes to ideas for videos in the Awareness stage, here are just a couple:

Messages from your Hiring Managers & Leaders

Have them talk about their style of management. Have them discuss what they look for in their high performers. Have them relate success stories – a product that impacted a market, an employee contribution that helped build the business, or a new technology that will expand their markets.  Have them talk about their careers and experience. Have them discuss what they love about working there and what they are working to change. Discuss their vision, get hopeful. Talk about what it’s like to work there, the good, the bad, and the challenges.

What you stand for

Have your employees or managers talk about what your company values beyond the tag line. For example, if you claim innovation as a core value, record the employee or manager talk about what innovation means to them, specifically. How are they free to innovate? What are the innovative things they are working on? What lights their fire each morning? Consider having a hiring manager talking to an employee about these topics and make it conversational, and keep it inspirational.

Culture

Translate the words you use to describe your culture into actual, relatable examples.  If you have a promote-from-within culture, share video clips of employees who have advanced through the ranks.  If you have a fast-paced culture, share videos of employees describing projects that moved fast.  If you are a socially responsible culture, let you employees talk about the community service involvement you support and share the specific evidence of your contribution.

New hire testimonials

Lastly, show them the people they want to be. Have new employees talk about how to get a job at your organization. This is a common search term and people want to know what the process looks like and what to expect. A new hire will have this fresh in their mind.

The beauty of these concepts is that they can be re-used repeatedly in the candidate journey. Video has a ton of viable uses throughout the journey. What changes is the people and channels you use to distribute that content, and how you use calls to action to convert, topics that we will be covering in the series.

Awareness is not just letting people know that you are hiring and a great place to work, it is the point in the journey where you can truly make a strong first impression on a candidate. A first impression that will help them come back to you again and again in this non-linear journey. Generating awareness while standing out with your messaging is how you create lasting connections with candidates.

This initial step in the candidate journey is the place where your video strategy begins to hum and take off. Ready to download the framework to build your own video strategy? You can download  that right now, and cut to the chase, or stay tuned for tomorrow’s discussion on the education phase and why we need content that helps people screen themselves in and out.

Simplify your video creation, approval and sharing with Amplify VMS – get real ROI out of your video strategy.  Learn more at Amplify Introduction.