How do you leverage social media, online platforms, and employee advocacy to showcase your employer brand?

What do people think and feel when they hear about your organization? That's your brand. It's better if you make it intentional.

Defining your employer brand? Let’s start with the real MVP—your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). You can’t just slap together a few perks and call it a day. It’s about digging deep and figuring out what genuinely sets your organisation apart. Is it the growth opportunities? The flexibility? The commitment to well-being? Whatever it is, it has to be real and felt by your people—because if it’s just words on a poster, everyone will see right through it. Build your EVP around what your employees truly value, and the authenticity will shine through. Has anyone else noticed that the strongest brands are the ones who don’t just talk about values—they live them

To showcase the employer brand, I leverage social media, online platforms, and employee advocacy by creating engaging content that highlights our company culture, values, and success stories. I encourage employees to share their experiences and achievements, which adds authenticity and boosts our reach. By using a mix of posts, videos, and stories that resonate with our audience, I ensure we attract talent while building a positive brand image online. This approach not only showcases who we are but also makes our brand relatable and appealing.

Organizations make the mistake of thinking that they create their brand when in fact your brand is created in terms of how the market views you. You can shape this by ensuring that your positioning and messaging are targeted at the appropriate audience and that the content you create supports this. Understanding the questions your customers have during the buying cycle and ensuring that you become an invaluable resource for answering those questions is critical. Hubspot is a great example of using content to bring the idea of inbound marketing to the mainstream conversation. Demandbase did the same with ABM. Be open to market feedback and focus on what you do early on. Nike spent decades talking about running shoes before Just Do it.

Choosing the right platform is so important, especially early on when there are so many choices and you are likely resource constrained. Understand where your audience spends time and make sure that you are engaging with them there. It can be tempting to just blast your message out on these channels, but creating real conversation and connections will pay more dividends than using the channels a s a one way platform to blast your message. This is also an amazing opportunity to create a feedback loop to hear from potential and existing customers.

To showcase our employer brand, I actively encourage employee advocacy on social media and online platforms. When employees share their genuine experiences and success stories, it adds credibility and a personal touch to our brand. I support this by providing them with the tools and content that highlight our culture, values, and achievements. Their authentic voices help expand our reach and create a stronger connection with potential talent, making our brand more relatable and engaging.

There's no harm in shouting about great work that you have done as an employer. There is, however, great harm if it's not authentic, transparent and matches the employee experience. Imagine posting on social media about a great new initiative that's empowered your staff, improved mental health in the workplace and created a great team spirit only for your staff to see it and they think the opposite. It could look great to potential employees and customers, but don't forget what your CURRENT employees and customers already know about you.

Make it easy for your employees to share the content you produce. If it is something that is fun, it is much easier to share because people always like to laugh. If you have something truly inspiring or interesting to share (not some marketing nonsense), that gives people a real reason to do so. Nobody wants to read or be associated with corporate advertisements. Just keep that in mind.