When building out your employer brand content strategy, it’s important to feature various employees on your social media channels – especially LinkedIn as this is where job seekers primarily are. This type of content gives prospective talent a glimpse into who your people are and what they have to say about you as an employer. And as a side note – employees get a real kick out of being featured on their company page too, so it’s a win-win.
Here are four cost-effective and engaging ways to feature your employees on social media.
1. Employee quote – with personality
Starting off nice and simple, the easiest way is to ask an employee for a 1-2 sentence answer on their experience of working at your company. For example, you could ask them, “why do you continue to work at X every day?” From there, grab a short snippet of their response and put it into a branded template, with their approval of course. If you don’t have a branded template yet, that’s ok, just work with your marketing team to build one that is suitable for future testimonials.
What makes a good employee quote template:
- Includes a short, sharp quote
- It has the name and role of the employee giving the testimonial
- The employee’s photo is featured, and one that is engaging or eye-catching
I like this example here from Unilever – it’s a clean and simple design, and the photo is engaging and shows her personality. You’re not seeing Rowena in a corporate suit – instead, you’re seeing her doing something she loves and is clearly meaningful to her.
Budget: $0 (if template is designed in-house)
Effort to produce: Minimal
2. Employee quote – but with a twist
Similar to the example above, Spotify does a similar style of content, but with a twist. Instead of featuring an employee with a quote, instead, they get other employees write a positive quote about someone they look up to in the business. That way, the featured employee is celebrated, and gets the spotlight along with plenty of positive comments too.
What makes a good short, sharp quote
- It has the name and role of the employee giving the shout-out
- The featured employee’s photo is engaging or eye-catching
Bonus points also for Spotify’s team adding their employer brand hashtag, #JoinTheBand to the post too – a subtle nod that they’re recruiting.
Budget: $0 (if template is designed in-house)
Effort to produce: Minimal
3. Employee career story – with some depth
If you’re looking to dive a bit deeper than a short quote, bringing an employee’s career story to life through a written article is a great option. I like this example from HelloFresh, where they’ve featured a Tech Talent Acquisition Manager, Iwona, who shares her story of how she ended up in this role and how she’s thrived at the organization.
What makes a good employee career story:
- Sits around 500 words – not too long, not too short
- Includes a photo of the featured employee
- Dives into the ‘why’ they do their job and what keeps them coming back
- Has a call-to-action to drive readers to explore more about careers at the organization
Budget: $0 (if written in-house)
Effort to produce: Medium
4. Employee Q&A video
Similar to the written article example above, if you’re looking to dive a bit deeper into an employee’s story (or a ‘day in the life’ type spotlight), a great way to do this is through a short video. Johnson & Johnson shares this video featuring one of their Senior Data Scientists, and asks the employee various questions about their role in which she responds in a casual environment. It’s clear this video has been either filmed on her photo or computer, and it looks like she’s at home. This type of content can work especially well as it’s authentic and real; it’s not a highly produced video that isn’t relatable to prospective clients.
What makes a good Q&A video:
- The video is under 90 seconds – the shorter, the better
- The video has subtitles (as not everyone has audio on when scrolling LinkedIn)
- The employee is in a well-lit environment and provides honest responses
- The questions slide is easy to read and has recognizable branding
- Has a call-to-action to learn more about careers at the organization
Budget: $0 (if produced in-house)
Effort to produce: Medium
And that’s it! I hope this inspires you to start gathering stories from your people to be able to showcase what a career looks like at your organization.
