Why does it matter to have a story? Although you abide by certain company values, it’s your story that makes people want to come work for you. Not everyone jumps in for the perks. Digital storytelling has revamped the identity of many organizations across different industries along with the way that identity is portrayed to others.
A well-defined brand story enables you to build a comprehensive employer branding strategy; a strategy that lives on through the stories you tell. Needless to say, an impactful narrative can only make an impression if you are transparent, honest, and true to the vision described on your “About us” company page. Employee stories, for example, work beautifully because they convey that sense of “I love my job The art of digital story-selling in employer branding I want to share my experience with others”. And yet, not that many companies are open to the idea of having brand ambassadors.
The art of digital story-selling in employer branding
Digital stories enable companies to make their brand identity relevant and relatable to existing employees and potential candidates. The more humane you appear to people the better chances you have to pique their curiosity. Once curiosity has been installed, story-selling comes into place to sweep them off their feet.
Every company is built upon a vision on which its brand identity lies. Regardless, statements and claims are not enough to compel stakeholders. Your narrative must emphasize on human behavior for others to relate to whatever you’re telling and selling. Some aspects to consider:
- Who’s the main target audience eager to listen to your company story?
- What are some of the fundamentals of your storyline?
- How’s the go-to guy in your company capable of articulating your storyline to make your “characters” relatable?
- What are your main focus channels to spreading your message?
- Is the framework of your story compatible with digital platforms in order to bring conversions?
The blueprint of your digital story
Just like with any story, to make it into a successful narrative you need a blueprint. In the context of employer branding, that blueprint pins down to the key aspects of your business: principles, values, competencies, and product design. Once your story’s skeleton is in place, communication becomes the main driver of success. Your story must be capable of opening a conversation, meaning the way you do employer branding must use storytelling as a call-to-action.
In the simplest terms, it has to encourage a response. This way it will lead to sharing as people begin resonating with your values, expectations, challenges, and even fears. “Where can I find bright minds to help me tell my story?” – look no further than your employees. Employee advocacy is one of the most empowering employer branding tools that you have. When the people that work for you feel that they work with you, the dynamic of your company changes. It becomes a cool workplace, a motivational environment that deserves to be shared on their social media channels.
When employees share working experiences willingly out of pure pleasure and enjoyment, your employer brand gets distributed up to a point when your EVP becomes alive and driving referrals.
How do I build a great story?
Prior to crafting the best story, you need to identify what type of new candidates your company is looking to hire. Having an ideal candidate persona in mind will help you outline a storyline that can cater to that candidate’s needs, wants, and expectations. After you’ve created the profile of your future employee, move on to getting more people involved in the process.
- “More people”? Yes. This is the point where your marketing department joins forces with HR to come up with a meaningful narrative.
- Choose storytellers carefully and consult the narrative with them. Once the narrative is done, it’s time to pick the storytellers aka some of your company’s best employees. Prepare them as not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera (that is if you’re doing some sort of video story).
- Nail thy company culture! Armed with narrative (put together by your marketing team and HR) and input from your storytellers, you can move on to transposing everything into a GREAT STORY.
- “What makes a great story in the context of employer branding?”. The sky’s the limit here. It can be anything from an in-depth article about the storyteller and his journey in the company told from his perspective, or a video story sharing the things he/she loves most about working with you. Whatever you choose to share, the secret ingredient to a successful story is to make it personal, alive, genuine.
- Review the content produced by sharing it with the people in your company first. Ask for feedback and implement suggestions.
- Sharing is caring! Choose your company’s most used social media channels and share the story.
There you have it!
That’s how you build a great employer branding story that speaks to your target audience. Now, unless you’re Google (and you can afford to make your very own employer branding movie with famous actors like Vince Vaughn) or Accenture you probably won’t attract top talent without an advertising budget. For your story to spread like wildfire in the digital realm, money matters. Whether you have millions to spend or just a few hundreds, it’s worth adding some dough to the mix.
Do you have an employer branding story worth sharing with the world? Or maybe you’d like to craft one but don’t know where to start? Contact us, we can help define the story that makes your company unique!
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