3 Essential Insights for Leveraging Leadership through Social Media
Social media plays an impactful role in shaping the lives, perspectives, and outlooks of modern communities. Millennials and younger (generation y, z, and alpha) will only know how to operate in a world with social media; online venues where people can form social groups, connect and engage regardless of location. This attitude-shift affects networking as traditional professional communities are also taken online, reshaping recruiting and pathways into the workplace.
As corporate influence rises to match even that of government, as showcased by how Uber, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other tech companies power our lives today, social media has become an extension of these companies. In a sense, social media has become an extension of all companies as it broadens online presence and surface area. Company leaders who know how to effectively leverage their organization’s social media channels can directly impact their staffing and hiring performance. Employer branding is shaping the recruitment process, and social media is a critical driver in this strategy.
Three insights for leveraging leadership through social media are:
- Company leaders are increasingly identified as thought leaders. The leaders of Fortune 100 companies are not only organizational leaders but also industry and community leaders. Although huge organizations likely have the resources for a robust PR team, social media can replicate the work of a good publicist – content creation and expanding online surface area.
- Small and mid-sized company leaders are flocking social media platforms such as Twitter, Clubhouse, Medium, and Linkedin to post content. Content ranges from the form of formal white papers and articles to a simple advice tweet. As leaders publish useful content, they also build their recognition and following. This is a common strategy utilized by Silicon Valley startups that can be easily adopted by company leaders in Poughkeepsie, NY, or anywhere around the globe. Leader awareness and brand awareness have almost become synonymous.
- Niche networking. Depending on the industry, different social media platforms are optimized to showcase different types of work. Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube are great for the arts and visual presentation. Twitter, Quora, and Reddit are ideal for in-depth forum discussions within technical industries. Medium, Tumblr, and Academia.edu are tailored towards formalized publications. And increasingly, LinkedIn is a professional norm for all job seekers. All professionals can leverage these networks. Organizational leaders specifically can establish an identity for themselves, which directly correlates with the employer brand.
Successful recruiting is ever more reliant on employer branding. The companies that have a flock of interested applicants are usually those that also have a clear and established reputation: what do they do? How effectively do they do it? And who are their leaders? Social media is an internal channel where these questions can be answered by company representatives themselves, ideal for managing employer brand and attractive hiring.
Employer brands have come to shape how people operate in the workforce, and job seekers are looking to social media for indications. Bolster hiring by letting social media tell the story of your workplace. At SMART Staffing Group, Inc., we’ve served our local and extended community since 2014. We are a full-service staffing and recruiting firm based in Poughkeepsie, NY. We’re proud to be a Certified Minority- and Woman-Owned business and have worked with job seekers and businesses alike. Our expertise lies in aligning staffing, hiring, and recruiting needs with company values, strategy, and culture.