How Recruiters Can Start Creating Content

These expert quotes were originally featured on UndercoverRecruiter.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Joneses, you probably know by now that content is everything. And, when it comes to recruiting top talent, it matters even more. After all, the content your company puts out there is the first thing most future candidates see – whether it be a blog post, website copy, or even a simple job description. So, if content is so important, what can you do to create the best content there is? The following experts give insight into answering this exact question. Take a look!

Leela Srinivasan (@leelasrin)

Compelling content combines creativity and personalization, relevance and resonance. For one-to-one communication, take the time to research your candidate. What can you uncover that feels distinct about them, and how can you weave that insight naturally into your reach-out? Is every word in your email working hard for you? What more impactful word choices could you make? Compare notes with the rest of your team so you can learn what specific phrases are piquing people’s interest. For one-to-many communication, befriend your marketing team so you have co-conspirators on your employee blog, employer branding videos and more.

Amy Volas (@AvenueTP)

If you’re new to the world of creating content, partner with your marketing team or a friend that is already doing it well and gain insight into ways your valuable insights can be shared in a meaningful way. It starts with picking a topic that you care about and sharing valuable information via your network. What’s your favorite social network, pick 1 and take baby steps.  Then listen to feedback, ask for it and tweak along the way while expanding where you share your content.  If you get bitten by the “content bug”, consider publishing articles on sites like Undercover Recruiter.

Lars Schmidt (@Lars)

Compelling content starts with understanding your target audience, and then tailoring your content to their needs. What excites them? What makes them happy? Where do they go to learn things? How do they want to be communicated to? The biggest mistake recruiters make is to shotgun generic content with the hopes it will stick. There’s too much noise for that to work. Once you start personalizing, you start breaking through.

Chad MacRae (@HeRecruits)

It’s always about knowing your audience. “Compelling” to an accountant is different than “compelling” to a web developer.

Know your audience, know what they care about, know what they worry about, know what keeps them up at night – then you’ll know what content to create.

Erin Wilson (@techmatchmaker)

Recruiters sit on the front lines. They are the face of the organization. They are also the first person the candidate generally trusts. I have always found the most effective content comes from an authentic place.

Jobseekers are facing an opaque, combative, process riddled with information asymmetry. Create content that levels the playing field.

Stacy Zapar (@StacyZapar)

Recruiters should speak about the things that are interesting and relevant to both them and their audience. Great content makes people feel something, learn something or do something. What are you passionate about? What are you knowledgeable about? What does your audience (candidates) want to hear or learn more about? Stick to those topics and you can’t go wrong!

John Feldmann (@john_feldmann)

Recruiter-generated content is one of the most important and under-utilized marketing tools for talent acquisition. Anyone who has recruiting experience has knowledge to share, whether or not it’s in the form of best practices, new tools and tricks, or personal stories and experiences. It’s up to management to emphasize to recruiters the importance of creating and sharing content for the benefit of their personal brand, as well as the company’s. An integral part of recruiting is marketing to potential clients and candidates. An integral part of marketing is demonstrating industry expertise, and an integral part of demonstrating expertise is creating relevant content!

Maren Hogan (@MarenHogan)

The best way to capture talent that matters to your company’s values is by creating job descriptions that don’t suck. At Red Branch, we outline all the honest structures that make us impactful. Yes, we wear yoga pants and drink wine on Fridays, but we’re an extremely hard-working team. We accept challenges, tackle crises with a brave face and don’t settle for average. Job candidates are told this from the start, not because I want to scare people away, but because I want to be honest about what they can expect from my company. Compelling content for us means being honest and funny, so people get what they’re getting into.

Craig Fisher (@Fishdogs)

When creating content, always ask yourself, “so what?”.  It’s great that your company won an award, for instance.  But how does this knowledge benefit the reader?  The same goes any story you write, video you make, podcast you record.  Put yourself in the average viewers’ shoes and ask yourself how that content benefits you.  If it is just entertainment, then it better be very entertaining.

Will Staney (@willstaney)

The most compelling content that recruiters can create is content that benefits their stakeholders, current and future candidates. While lots of recruiters out there blog about the current state of the recruiting industry, the smart recruiters are writing content that’ll help candidates, i.e. what not to do in interviews, how to build the perfect resume, what companies are looking for in candidates during interviews, etc. Content that will help them do better in front of hiring managers, etc. They can also focus on helping tell the real human stories of the people behind the companies they work for to help humanize the brand and attract employees who will have a personal connection to the mission.

The Branchers

We build the best damn marketing campaigns on the planet. And we do it for industries and companies you might not identify as easy to market (right away). Working here takes a very special kind of person.