When you play with social media, you play with fire. The wonders of social media are plentiful and obvious but to get those awesome results and engagement you need to treat it with care. It’s a double edged sword that can make or break an employer’s credibility. Many of today’s employers are social aficionados with a very real grasp on social media best practice. But there’s also a pile of less than savvy social users that haven’t quite caught on to the damage they’re doing to their reputation and hiring future.

 

Having a stellar social media strategy to your name will help keep you straight but it can be all too easy to stumble into the pitfalls of shady social practice. So what are the big turnoffs that can kill credibility and send talent flitting in the opposite direction? We’ve rounded some stinkers up so take note and avoid like the plague!

  • Constant promotion.

Yes, we all know how invaluable social media is for advertising but don’t be a one trick pony. No one wants to be sold to constantly, and it doesn’t exactly do wonders for your reputation. If you need to resort to 24/7 social selling it can make you appear desperate, totally amiss with your big pic strategy and completely boring to all. Create a strategy that staggers your post purposes and is sure to flesh out your identity with values, engagement and much more. Don’t be the social profile people love to unfollow.

  • Automated engagement.

Authenticity is everything online. The second you autoreply to a complaint or send a canned DM message you look too lazy or unwilling to invest time in your followers. When people follow, like or share your profile, they make a decision to engage with you so give them the goods they signed up for. Manners cost nothing and a personal note works wonders so don’t fail at the obvious stuff. Nothing will put off potential candidates more than an empty auto message.

  • Inconsistent personality.

Candidates want to work for employers who nail culture and who they can be proud to be associated with. Part of that sell is having a layered personality that combines thought leadership, fun and character. If you have a collection of social profiles that all talk in different tones, operate various styles and have inconsistent branding, you’ll lose impact points. A full and detailed social media policy can keep everyone that posts via your channels on the same page and united.

  • Unaligned with audiences.

We’ve all come across those brands and employers that truly believe they ‘get’ candidates or consumers. These disillusioned users can rely on tired and aged ideas of engagement and can make you cringe with their attempts to be ‘trendy’ or relevant. As an employer, do your research. What do talent want to know and hear and how? Don’t post blindly and hope humour will get you through.

  • Inactivity.

This is the big no no of the bunch. A social profile that’s stale and unmanned will lose you massive credibility points. It implies you don’t value engagement or communication, and doesn’t give you that reach you need as an employer. It’s so easy to keep on top of your social duties with the likes of HootSuite etc so there’s really no excuse to not have an active profile.

  • Overusing hashtags.

We all love a hashtag but overusing them can be a bug bear of the everyday social user. Also, not being in the trending loop can cost you relevance points. If you’re going to use hashtags in any campaigns or communications, do your homework to avoid any hiccups.

Social media is changing every minute so the odd oops moment will be forgiven but major, constant missteps can have a detrimental effect. As an employer you need to be super aware of your Employer Brand, everything hangs off this.  Essentially, it comes down to one question - what do your future employees want to see? Clean and clear Employer Branding is always the answer. You need to be content marketing king, tone and style guru and champion engagement officer.

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This entry was posted in Recruitment, Tools & Tips, social media