Disclaimer: I am first and foremost a social media marketer. In the past year I dove headfirst into the world of talent acquisition and have learned a lot about HR and recruiting; mostly, I’ve learned how similar the worlds of marketing and recruiting truly are. After all, there’s a million and one blogs about why recruiters should be thinking more like marketers.
One of the most recent similarities I’ve learned that both the world of recruiting and the world of marketing share is the death of post and pray.
In the world of marketing, post and pray refers to simply making a social media post and hoping it gets likes, comments and clicks. The days of unbounded engagement are over. Now, social media marketers like myself must place ads and really tailor content we create to who our audience is.
It’s essentially the same in recruiting, but with different semantics. Post and pray refers to putting a job on your job board and maybe Indeed or LinkedIn and then hoping candidates apply. That doesn’t work anymore, and this isn’t a new concept. I looked back through the first 10 pages of Google results for “post & pray” and saw articles dating back as far as 2011 talking about the death of post and pray.
So where do the worlds of marketing and recruiting differ when it comes to the death of post and pray?
Well, for one, it’s much more of a recruiting term than a marketing term. I’ve always used it for social media marketing purposes and was shocked to find that it’s a phrase that belongs predominantly to those in the recruiting field.
Secondly, even though recruiters like discussing it more, marketers have become much more efficient in grieving and overcoming the death. As I mentioned above, marketers have overcome the death of post and pray with two simple solutions—better audience analytics and utilizing ads. When I began to read up on what recruiters are doing to get over post & pray being over, I fell down a wormhole of blogs. Most blogs took a deep look at why post and pray is dead and then listed out countless ways to combat this.
Here at Kinetix, we like to simplify things. You don’t need a grocery list of tactics to move past post and pray—you need just three things.
1. A New Careers Site
Listing your jobs is great—backing them up with a look into your awesome company culture is even better. There’s a good chance your careers site is a simple landing page with one stock photo of good looking stock photo models and a short blurb about why your company is the best. You might even just have your ATS as your careers site. Either way, giving your careers site a facelift with a new look that is consistent with your employer brand and really gives candidates an idea of the company they’re applying to is your first step to a bigger funnel.
2. Fresh Content Weekly
Now that you’ve got your awesome new careers site, it’s time to begin a content strategy. Static careers sites aren’t enough to win—you’ve got to be feeding fresh content on an, at least, weekly basis. This content can be pictures, videos, interviews, blog posts—anything and everything that shows off your awesome employees and culture. Your SEO will thank you for the updated content, meaning more candidates are more likely to see your careers site and, in turn, job postings.
3. Smart Social Push
#1 and #2 are leading up to #3—having a robust social media presence with a careers focus. Get a careers-related Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; make sure your LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Indeed profiles are representing your employer brand with the most information possible that candidates might want; even take it to the next level and look at using advertising on any of these channels to get your jobs and employer brand seen by more candidates.
Posting and praying answers the “how” of recruiting. It’s the basic answer to a candidate wondering about joining your company—how they get their foot in the door. But candidates have more questions today than ever before, and they expect you to already be answering those questions. Your careers site can give them the “what” as they’ll be introduced to you as an employer; content answers the “why” of joining the team by showcasing your team and mission via blogs and visuals; finally, social media will be the “where” by leading them back to your job postings and careers site.
Don’t be like our skeleton friend up there—take charge of your careers presence and do it in these three simple steps.
Does all of this sound vaguely familiar? You may have heard of Kinetix Buzz—the service our recruitment marketing team provides to tackle these three solutions for you and your employer brand. Learn more: https://kinetixhr.com/solutions/kinetix-buzz/