How to improve your digital recruitment marketing through better storytelling and employer branding.... from strategy level up.

1. Using Branding & Social Recruiting to Improve Candidate Experience
Presentation for SHRC15 at Red Branch Media

2. What’s in a Strategy?
Branding is work; it’s not supposed to be easy.

3. 3
Is meant to be a collection of interrelated and overlapping concepts.
Brand Framework
Metrics
Experiments
Research Rationale
Validation
Hypothesis
Brand Development Brand Analysis

4. 4
Provides consistency for execution of in a repeatable, polished and uniform manner.
Brand Process
Brand Positioning
Brand Promise
Brand Identity Brand Story
Communication Strategy
Brand Architecture

5. 5
Assemble: Goals
Outline personal and
professional goals, challenges
they may face & potential
objections to working for your
company
Assemble:
Name & Face
Pick out a name and stock
photo image to go along with
your candidate persona.
Identify
Existing EEs
Interview them about the role,
their interests, what matters to
them, fears, interests, &
attraction story.
Assemble:
Background
Identify relevant info: current
employment, education,
experience, hobbies, interests,
generation, family size,
urban/suburban/rural
preferences.
Create
Messaging
• How this role can help solve
their challenges & hit goals.
• A reusable elevator pitch to
be used across all channels
Source & Snoop
Identify the talent, not to
contact, but to study
experience, interests, language
patterns, concerns, etc.

6. 6
The value of customer awareness, brand fans, & employee advocacy
Friends and Fans
Customer
Awareness
Your customers can
and will share your
employer branding
story.
“Brand
Fans”
May not work for you, may not
even be available to buy from you –
but built ‘brand affinity’ drives
them to share your story.
Employee
Advocacy
MAJOR
underutilized
resource.

7. 7
Minding Metrics
Cost Per Hire (CPH), Source
Channel (CPSC), Click (CPC),
Cost Per Application (CPA)
Source of Attraction (SoA) &
Source of Application
(SoApp)
Candidate Lifetime Value
(CLV)
Quality of Hire (QoH),
Employee Lifetime Value
(ELV), eNPS
Gender and Diversity Mix
Talent Attraction Metrics Adding In eNPS
Employee Net Promotor Score
Question:
How likely are you to
recommend family or friends
to apply with us?
Audience:
• Pre-Hire / Candidate
• Post-Hire / Employee via
new hire survey

8. 8
Where and how do you share your great brand story & campaigns?
Channel Strategy
Career Sites
Primary career site, microsites,
landing pages – these are
online destinations YOU OWN.
Ads, QR Codes, I.R.
Behavioral Targeting,
Retargeting, QR Codes, Image
Recognition – specific value, but
somewhat limited
Email Marketing
“Drip campaigns,” lifecycle
marketing, monthly
newsletters
Social Media Marketing
LinkedIn, Facebook, G+
(near defunct), Twitter,
Instagram (IG), Snapchat,
Pinterest, etc.
Talent Networks
2-way conversations,
Employee Referrals
SEO / SEM
Google, adwords, PPC,
linkbuilding
“Talent Community”
“Talent Community” is often a
mislabled Network; barrier for
entry is 360-communication.
Recruiting Events
Online, Hangouts, “In-
Person” Events

9. 9
Take “good” to “great” by inspecting expectations
All About Audits
• Sentiment Audit
• Sub-brand Audit
• Program Audit
• Workforce Marketing Audit

10. 10
Ensure You Have the Building Blocks of a Great Brand
Program Audit
Program Plan
Check for a written plan, with milestones, specific measurable goals (with
associated metrics), timetables and individual accountabilities (by role).
WOW Factor
In order to create a compelling Call-To-Action (CTA) in your targets, you need
to be able to build excitement with your brand offerings. Have you given
candidates several reasons across interests to want to work for you.
Address Relevant “Hot Topics”
From environmental and sustainability concerns, global economy, job
security to technology in the workplace, ensure you program addresses
concerns around these areas.
Earned, Owned & Organic Media
ADVERTISING IS NOT EMPLOYER BRANDING. If your ‘play’ is paid, you
need to retool your program’s focus to earned (online word of mouth &
engagement) and owned media (the online destinations you control).

11. 11
Ensure You Have the Building Blocks of a Great Brand
Program Audit
Clear Differentiation
Your EVP shouldn’t sound like everyone else’s. Compare your program features and
benefits against competitors (geo & industry) to ensure they stand out in some way.
Storytelling
The best branding comes through storytelling that’s easily shareable by employees,
candidates & media. Ensure you have compelling stories about what it’s like to work for
your firm, the meaning of work by job function/role & community impact.
Employee Referrals
You know your employer branding is on point when 1/3 of your hires are a result of
earned (not paid) referrals, given the Industry average is 20%. (1) Falling short? Focus
on internal marketing campaigns and employee testimonials around benefits of work
relationships. .
Referral Tracking
Another important way to assess employer branding, Candidate Lifetime Value (CLV)
and employee advocate efficacy is through tracking of employee referrals of
candidates and products/services (where applicable). This can be done through
referral cards or unique ID codes per employee.
(1) 2014 CareerXRoads Soure of Hire Study

12. 12
Ensure You Have the Building Blocks of a Great Brand
Program Audit
Career Sites
Your website is the candidate’s opportunity to not only research your opinion of your
EVP, but also validate if what they’ve heard about your company is really true. It must
provide info about opportunity, employee testimonials, and share video and pictures.
Social Media Channels
Your social sites like FB, Twitter, IG, and LI should share campaigns rather than ad-hoc
posts that link back to owned career properties. “Campaigns” = multi-post storylines
with a purpose and a defined timeline (eg: Holiday hiring initiative, college recruitment).
Email Marketing
To determine how effective this component of your program is (or is not), look at the
number of sign-ups, unsubscribes, open rate, and link click-through rates monthly.
Don’t overcomplicate this… example: at AT&T, simply adding “hot job” links drove up
the % of hires from the talent network (CRM – owned leads; meaning not paid email,
lead-gen lists). Notice a dip in performance? Review content to ensure compelling
messaging & interesting info with actionable links are being shared.
(1) 2014 CareerXRoads Soure of Hire Study

13. 13
Did You Know? Every employer brand has up to 9 sub-brand components that need monitoring:
Sub-brand Audit
1. Internal Sub-Brand: This is how well your employees are enabled to bring the organizations brand to life
based on their employment experience and how closely aligned it is to messaging shared throughout
their candidate experience (aka the “CandEx Gap”). This can be measured through surveys and assessing
customer opinions of employee service levels.
1. Digital Sub-Brand: Effective branding programs ensure its easy for prospective candidates to find desired
info about your company across all digital sites – yours and others such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc.
1. Workforce Marketing Sub-Brand: This monitors the image and information that your employees present
when they are talking to others (customers, potential job referrals, fans, and friends). Typically measured
through digital footprint audits, primarily through social listening.
1. Recruiting Event Sub-Brand: This assesses how well your program has successfully increased employer
brand exposure and image through industry and recruiting events. Measured by traffic analysis, source of
traffic reporting, traffic sentiment analysis, generated recruiting leads and candidate conversions.

14. 14
Did You Know? Every employer brand has up to 9 sub-brand compnents that need monitoring:
Sub-brand Audit
5. Media Sub-Brand: Assesses the amount of exposure that your brand/organization receives in relevant,
desired outlets and to what extent that coverage is positive. Set media alerts to manage & work with PR.
6. College Recruitment Sub-Brand: Monitors exposure and reputational sentiment of your employer brand
among the college students you’re targeting.
7. Leadership Sub-Brand: This focuses on positive management practices. The more your leadership
excels, the higher this index will be. Measure this through anonymous surveying of employees and also
be sure to include questions from this category in exit interviews.
8. Community Sub-Brand: Keep tabs on your image in the surrounding communities in which your
business has a presence. Monitor press around proactive efforts to “give back,” identify any potential
negatives associated with your locations and provides information to counter them.
9. CSR Sub-Brand: Proactively work to build the brand’s image/reputation surrounding positive
environmental impact. An easy win is to repurpose consumer & internal brand collateral/content.

15. 15
Through all elements of your program ensure brand consistency in these areas with written brand guides.
Brand Identity
Minimize candidate
confusion by ensuring each
recruiting program has the
same collateral, detailed
EVP (and how to speak to
it), and brand messages.
Messaging
“Brand voice” reflects organizational
personality & stays the same day-to-day.
Conversational tone conversely, tends to
differ depending on the audience and
channel.
Brand Voice & Tone
Correct use of the brand
logo, a specific color palate
and distinctive fonts create
a consistent visual identity
that supports brand
strength.
Visual Identity
Photos, videos, and sound
recordings help tell brand stories.
Typically there are guidelines as to
the kinds of images that can be
used to help instill a sense of style,
place and industry impact.
Creative Assets
Mandate internal and 3rd party agencies adhere to your brand guidelines and conduct trainings to help.

16. Social Media Strategy
Create the Blueprint.

17. 17

18. 18
Identify Key Objectives
Examples for Talent Attraction Social Media Strategy
Raise Awareness
Build Pipeline
Competitive Advantage
Employee Connections

19. 19
put your great subtitle here
Create Social Platform Strategy
Align Your Content With Each Digital Channel
Prioritize and map content and storytelling initiatives to specific channels based on
audience segmentation, channel analysis, campaign programming, and brand priorities.
Branded Content
Cross-Channel Promo
Employee Stories
and Testimonials
3rd Party/Real-Time
Stories (PR)
Culture & “Life at”
Content
Hot Jobs & Career
Content

20. 20
Prove-Up Social Value
Define KPIs
SOCIAL
KPIs
HIGHER eNPS
HIGHER PR VALUE
LOWER CPA
HIGHER MEDIA REACH
LOWER
CHURN
HIGHER ARPU
Engaging in online conversations increases affinity & likelihood of referrals
Measure current sentiment & engagement time
Track increase/decrease in audience engagement/response time
Participating in social has positive effect on image
Measure online sentiment of audience
Calculate PR/Reputation value of social interactions
Marketing through social is cheaper, lowering cost per acquisition
Track spend in social campaigns
Reaching your audience through social is cheaper than traditional media
Track spend in campaigns
Track reach of campaigns (impressions, actions, influence)
Engaging in online conversations increases sticky factor of candidates on hire
Track churn/attrition rates among all hires (current average)
Track churn associated with candidates involved in social interactions
If candidates are customers, increased social affinity results in higher spend
Track origins of candidates- were they pre-existing customers?
Track social touchpoints that influenced buying behavior pre- & post- CandEx
Calculate cost per eyeball and social referral rate
Track average revenue per candidate & segment towards origins/touchpoints
Chart increase/decrease in attrition rates

21. 21

22. 22
Fact: Most people can barely consume 285 pieces of content a day.
Define Content Themes
Role Storylines
Support Stories
Talent Network
Infographics
Edugraphics
Company Events
Placed Media
Referral Posts
Career Paths

23. 23

24. The Brand Story
Your Employer Brand is EARNED.

25. 25

26. 26
Hint: It’s Not You. Audiences detest self-centeredness, even from a brand.
Identifying the Hero(es)
THIS IS THE KAYNE SLIDE
Our Job Opportunities
We need these roles filled & here’s
how we’re willing to hire for it.
We Require
To be considered, you
must have at least this
experience.
We Provide
These are the benefits we’ll
provide in exchange for the
work we need.
Our Products and Services
“We do X” or “we make Y.”
Our Focus and Clients
This is what we care about &
who cares about us…
About Us
Here’s our history & who we
are…

27. 27
The “I’m an Employer Brand Manager, Not a Pop Star” line is an excuse. Engage by:
Engaging the Hero
Job Opportunities
Put a focus on growth potential
roadmap, challenging projects.
Shared Requirements
For every “take”
(requirement), share what you
“give” (work benefit).
Show You Care
An easy CSR win for recruiting is
to engage & offer career advice to
your EB fans.
Align their Interests
Share what you can “geek
out” with audience over &
tie to your business output.
Hero Focus
Use employee testimonials and
storylines to help audience see
themselves in your story. .
Put their background first
Marry their education and experience
investment w/ your org background

28. 28
Answer: The Audience Is The Hero. Take a page from Swift Brand Story Management.
THIS IS THE SUCCESS SLIDE
She’s Perfectly Imperfect
She’s made a point of letting the
world see her “tune up” & get ready.
Can Laugh at Herself
You’re not the only one
who made a “my ex’s
sell records” meme….
Engages on CSR Topics
As an anti-bullying supporter,
she’ll regularly engage w/ victims
online, offering support.
Fans are “Friends”
She talks with her fans as a
peer, treating them like
“friends.”
Audience at Center Story
Her “brandstanding” revolves
around her fans.
Swift Acts Believable
Engages in normal activities for
her age, talks with people, etc.

29. 29
Learn the structural differences in how we share content:
Incorporating Story
(exhaustative)
DOCUMENTATION
(explanatory)
ORAL DELIVERY
(dramatic)
CINEMA & LITERATURE
REPORT PRESENTATION STORY
Focuses on information,
and exhaustive figures
Emphasising explanation and
making meaning clear
Emphasizes evocative
and implied information
FACTS DATA PERSUASIVE MOTIVATING EXPERIENTIAL EMOTIONAL

30. 30
Story Presentation Form

31. 31
03
SITUATION
EY Employee
wants to
start a biz
TAKES A RISK
Leaves EY
ENJOYS SUCCESS
Maintains relationships as EY
alumni, wins global award.
01
02
HAS A DREAM
Be an Entreprenuer
CHALLENGE
To do so, he
has to leave
security of
corporate
work.
RESOLUTION
He starts APPS
BIZ, joins EY’s
alumni group.
STORY
PATTERN
Maria’s Story shared multiple EY stories
No matter when you join us or how
long you stay.” Ernst & Young is
committed to entrepreneurs.
“The exceptional EY
experience lasts a
lifetime....
ERNST
&
YOUNG

32. Better Brand Resonance
“They have given you their time, which is a precious slice of their
lives. It’s your job to [bring] value to their lives.” ~Nancy Duarte

33. 33
The Audience Journey
YOU ARE PROPOSING CHANGE
Requires decision to consciously start
something new
ACKNOWLEDGE THE STRUGGLE IS REAL
What you want doesn’t come without a struggle
for your ‘heroes’ (aka candidates)
PLAY THE MENTOR & PREPARE THEM
Prepare audience for what they can expect
on the rest of their journey. Set them up for success.
SHARE THE IMBALANCE (created need)
To get your audienc to act, you must juxtapose
“What IS” with “What Could Be.”
CREATE THE CONTRAST
Contrast who they were before with who they
could be when they join your special world.
DRAW ATTENTION TO THE GAP.

34. 34
There are 3 Key Components that must be present:
Communicate “The Big Idea”
Articulate Unique POV
They came to learn your org’s
perspective or reality. Give it to
them.
Convey What’s at Stake
Why should the audience care?
Why does it matter?
Be a Complete Sentence
Increases likelihood emotion will
be used & creates more compelling
thought.
Dell Example of “Big Idea” Communication:
“One of the best ways we’ve found to improve the work experience of our
employees, professionals like you, is by offering them flexible scheduling.”

35. 35
See how CMO Beth Comstock creates compelling employer branding storyline, empowering teams:
General Electric Empowers Teams
Move to Being Move to Doing Benefit/Outcome Personalize
From “going it alone” to
working in teams, benefiting
from multiple POVs.
From fearing critics to
embracing critiques as
creative/work process.
Working with partners fills in
capability gaps and accentuates
expertise.
“I believed I had to do it myself and didn’t ask
for help. I learned that you have to invite
others in and that it’s okay to admit you need
help. People want to help and be part of
something bigger than themselves.
Case study example from Nancy Duarte’s Resonate, p93

36. 36
There are FIVE TYPES OF STAR MOMENTS to help drive “big ideas” home:
Creating S.T.A.R. Moments
Emotive Storytelling
Stories share info in ways people tend to remember,
such as Deloitte’s “First Year Wisdom” campaign -
easily repeatable and sharable.
Shocking Statistics
Draw attention to statistics that provide “big wins” for
your employer brand, such as outstanding tenure or
Dell’s environmental impact through their flexible
scheduling & remote work program.
Reminder:
This is meant to create a
hook in the audience’s minds
and hearts. Visuals are key!
Memorable Dramatization
These convey insights through storytelling, like
“Maria’s Story” did for EY.
Repeatable Sound Bytes
Small repeatable headlines help feed the press and increase
likelihood of social sharing, as it did for American Heart
Association’s #MyWorkMatters campaign.
Evocative Visuals
Pictures aren’t just worth a thousand words, but
emotions as well – as AT&T discovered with their
Veteran Recruitment & Diversity images.

37. 37
03
SITUATION
EY Employee
wants to
start a biz
TAKES A RISK
Leaves EY
ENJOYS SUCCESS
Maintains relationships as EY
alumni, wins global award.
01
02
HAS A DREAM
Be an Entreprenuer
CHALLENGE
To do so, he
has to leave
security of
corporate
work.
RESOLUTION
He starts APPS
BIZ, joins EY’s
alumni group.
STORY
PATTERN
Maria’s Story shared multiple EY stories
No matter when you join us or how
long you stay.” Ernst & Young is
committed to entrepreneurs.
“The exceptional EY
experience lasts a
lifetime....
ERNST
&
YOUNG

38. 38
Any Questions???
• Ask now or you can tweet us using #EBGravity and
we’ll respond via Twitter.
• #SHRMTalent15 attendees can receive a copy of our
• audit guide,
• social media strategy checklist, or
• 1-sheet campaign document
Hand your business card to Dwane at the back of
the room and we’ll email you a copy!

39. Branded Strategies
www.brandedstrategies.com
cm@brandedstrategies.com
+1.214.585.2474
Get in Touch
@TheOneCrystal @TheCarrieCorbin