Anytime we talk with franchisees, one of the most pressing needs always mentioned is finding top talent. We’ve been able to help many of them with their employee recruiting through social media, while also making sure they maintain a positive online reputation.

If you’re hiring, candidates will be checking out your social media pages, so you want to be sure you’re presenting your best self online. People want to see that you have a great company culture and core values they can get on board with. 

So today’s post is all about helping you recruit and retain talent for your franchise location. Start leveraging social media to connect with candidates and promote the culture you wish to create for your employees.

#1 Repeat After Us: Post Local Content 

If you’ve been reading the Rallio blog, then you know that one of our top tips for amplifying your brand on social media is by posting local content. Although your franchisor might supply you with branded corporate content — which has its place — the only way to build an engaged local community is with real-life images from your location.

Particularly when it comes to recruiting employees, you want to provide a glimpse into your culture. What’s a day in the life like working for you? Show the authentic side of your location — the fun aspects, the team-building events, anything that shows off your location’s personality. A great place to start is with employee and customer spotlights and any candid, on-location snapshots that make you more than just another XYZ company.

Remember, corporate content is syndicated across all locations. It doesn’t differentiate you. Consider the people and local elements that make you different from other locations and from competitors. People will want to work for you not just because you have a great product or service, but mostly because you have great leadership, people and company culture.

#2 Make Your Employees Brand Advocates

The majority of employees today are already posting employer-related messages and media assets on their social media pages, according to a study by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research. Employee advocacy gives you a chance to leverage user-generated content to your advantage for recruiting purposes. 

You can even incentivize employees with various rewards for posting on your behalf. For example, if you’re hiring a salesperson, you can create a few local assets advertising the position. Pass them along to your employees, who can share the opening with their circle of friends and followers. You can then offer a referral bonus of some sort for any new hires that result from those efforts.

Drill down deep into employee advocacy, and you might see a need to clarify your company’s core values and how they’re shared and demonstrated throughout your business. When employees feel like your company truly lives out its core values and supports its employees, they’ll feel more compelled to share about their great experiences working for you via social media. 

As those posts get shared, it creates a positive public perception of your location. New recruits will be more likely to seek you out and apply if they feel confident you’re a good employer who values its employees.

#3 Be Quick to Engage and Respond

Customers today take to social media if they have a question, comment or concern about a business. Whether in the form of a comment on a post, a direct message or an online review, these comments have the ability to help or hurt your reputation among customers as well as job candidates. 

Being quick to respond to both positive and negative comments shows that you’re an engaged business owner who cares about your customers. If you’re slow to respond, get defensive or don’t respond at all, it sends a message that you don’t care. If you were a potential recruit, wouldn’t you want to work for a company that values its customers? 

Moreover, responding to your online reviews and maintaining an accurate Google My Business listing improves your local SEO. When customers conduct mobile searches, the GMB listing is one of the first things they see — along with all of the reviews associated with your business. Job candidates will see this information as well when they’re checking out your business.

#4 List and Boost Your Jobs on Facebook

The Jobs tab on your Facebook page is an invaluable recruiting tool for franchises. There, you can post your jobs and boost them to reach a wider audience with your job postings. 

You can also use Facebook Messenger to help screen candidates, and they can apply to jobs directly through Facebook. As of May 2018, there were 8 billion messages being exchanged on Facebook Messenger between people and businesses, according to Facebook data. Make sure you’re tapping into the power of Messenger by including it in your recruiting strategy. 

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Get in the habit of using social media to find top talent, and you’ll create a consistent pipeline of qualified candidates while also building an engaged, positive company culture. Have you used social media in your recruiting efforts? Tell us more about it in the comments, and you may be featured in an upcoming blog post.