Have you missed the Twitter Boat?

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Effective employer branding

As the war for talent continues to intensify, the need to attract and retain top performers remains key to business success. By distinguishing yourself from the competition, promoting strengths and confirming values you can ensure that you will stay ahead of the game and become an employer of choice during both recession and boom times.

Your employer brand is the image of your organisation as an employer and place to work as perceived internally and externally. The benefits of having a right employer brand and conveying it effectively are many-fold. Data from “The Economist” suggests that effective Employer Branding can bring tangible benefits, including a 20% increase in the pool of potential workers, a four-fold increase in commitment among employees and a 10% decrease in payroll costs.

Employer branding is clearly becoming a critical tool to retain and attract the best employees. As a result, companies are using many tools to build and develop their employer branding strategy. A recent study showed that social media (80%) is one of the top channels used for employer branding. Social media is not just a tool to deliver a message; it’s a conversation between you, your employees and the wider market.

Social media

With social media being such an important tool for building a successful employer brand, it’s surprising to see how many Australian companies are missing out on one of the most powerful forms of social media – Twitter.

The two giants of social media are Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has over 1 billion users and Twitter an estimated 500 million users with 400 million tweets every day. Although Facebook remains the most powerful form of social media, Twitter has many advantages especially in relation to brands and companies. For example, 49% of monthly Twitter users follow brands and companies compared to just 16% of social network users overall.

However, it appears that Australian brands are missing the ‘Twitter Boat.’ A recent survey looked into how 100 Australian companies are using Twitter and found 87% of brands surveyed have no presence at all.

Twitter is a free tool that has global reach. It allows you to not only maintain current relationships, but also to create new connections, exchange ideas and gain inspiration. Done correctly, Twitter Marketing can lead to positive exposure for your business. It’s a simple tool that can also boost your visibility on search engines.

Jump on board

With millions of Twitter addicts all over the world and the number of active users increasing by 900% in the past year, it’s essential that companies take advantage of this social media platform.

Twitter works best when it is used in conjunction with other marketing tools including other social media. Here are our top 3 tips for using Twitter:

  • Inject some personality and stand out from your competitors – Twitter is about social connection not direct marketing, so make it personal and relevant
  • Use Tweet Deck to schedule Tweets and save time
  • Engage staff- one way to increase your Twitter following and to lighten the Twitter load is to engage your staff.

So if you want to attract the highest caliber workforce, strengthen employee engagement, reduce workflow turnover and maintain a sterling reputation among your stakeholders then take advantage of the power of Twitter.