What could be more important than a personal brand in the online age where brand experience and credibility are the primary currency? In a candidate’s market (and employer’s), the HR leader’s / recruiter’s personal brand helps you establish candidate trust, while building brand awareness.
The problem?
Words aren’t your thing.
You don’t even know where to begin.
You have as much time as you have fantastic candidates.
And your FOMO creeps in every time your competitors post something cool on LinkedIn and you freeze at the screen moaning, “I wish I sounded like that!”
So, why invest your time and resources into it?
The sensationally magnificent benefits of a strong personal brand in recruitment
People connect with people. You only need to look at the stats for your company page posts versus your personal profile posts on LinkedIn to see the reach and engagement is maximized on your personal profile! I rarely remember to use my business page, but my personal brand is booming.
But let’s look at some specific ways you’ll benefit from a strong personal brand.
1. You’ll grow your network AND employer brand awareness
The simple truth is, the more you’re able to show up and provide value to your audience, the more people will come to learn of you and what you stand for. This is organic outreach and connection – and those who like what you say and want to hear more from you will make sure they do. Win-ning.
The obvious side effect of your blossoming personal brand is your employer brand benefits, too!
2. You’ll establish your credibility as a subject expert
When you’re consistently showing up talking about the same things, you’ll start establishing a reputation for [talking about tech graduate recruitment/redundancies and resilience/career change/industry specific candidate trends etc]. Over time, your reliability turns to trust and credibility. Opportunities follow.
3. You’ll establish candidate trust
If an in-demand candidate has seen and engaged with your content before you send them a cold InMail job pitch, imagine how much more responsive they’ll be than if you’ve blown in from the Antarctic wilderness.
When you can establish a reliable reputation for candidate care by sharing insights, recruitment process tips, and your own personal career stories and mission, you could help to break down perceptions that your job pitching is merely transactional. You become more human.
You may even find yourself attracting candidates to your brand when you’re not actively seeking.
4. You’ll attract other opportunities
This one might not sit high on your priority list, but it is true that once you are known for something in your field, opportunities come knocking. You might find yourself invited to speak on podcasts, present on webinars or at events, or contribute a guest article, for examples. All of which do incredible things for raising the profile of your personal AND employer brand. You may also find yourself being shoulder tapped by an impressed recruiter lining you up for a career move.
With my brand, I started my writing business as a bit of an all-rounder communication and content specialist. In 2020, I hard niched into employment and recruitment content only – and within a few months, I was invited to podcasts, webinars, and collaborations. My lead list doesn’t need much work, other than to consistently show up talking about my stuff on LinkedIn. Free advertising!
Where to from here?
If knowing what to say and how to say it authentically rattles you and sends you on a type, post, delete spiral, then good news awaits. My new writing course is going to launch in late 2023 🤩
Candidate Captivator is a 9-week live writing course for tongue-tied small businesses who yearn to write creative and persuasive recruitment copy that attracts and engages their ideal candidates at every touchpoint. Stand out and be remembered.
You can jump on the waitlist to be first to know when it launches!