Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Producing Your Recruitment Video
Did you know that over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook every day? It is not surprising then that more and more organisations, both large and small are trying their hand at film production in order to reach out to a large pool of candidates, thirsty for video content.
Although not new to the recruitment world, videos have changed form in recent years. In days gone by they were expensive, formal productions, planted statically on corporate websites. Today, video technology has become affordable to smaller organisations, this combined with the rise of social media has meant that almost any company can produce and easily disseminate their video at little or no cost, often times with little or no expertise.
In January this year, Twitter released, “At Twitter, The Future is You,” a parody of corny corporate recruitment videos. The three minute clip is packed with clichés and cheesy smiles.“Man this is a sweet job, but working at Twitter isn’t just a sweet job. It’s a way of life. A way of life that’s like a sweet job,” one of the videos’ stars says to the camera after getting off of a call with Lady Gaga.What started out as a joke turned out to be a hugely successful recruitment tool, with 925, 318 views since it was uploaded to YouTube in late January. Humour aside, this spoof prompted us to write about the top 3 mistakes to avoid in your recruitment video.
1. Faking It.
When the purpose of creating a recruitment video is to give candidates an insight into your organisation’s culture, the worst thing you can do is be someone you’re not. Be honest. Candidates can tell when you’re not.
2. Scripts.
Heavily scripted videos can take away from your key message and candidates get the impression you’re not being genuine. (See mistake number one.)To avoid this, let your employees speak for themselves and share their own stories and experiences with your organisation. Ask questions and see where the answers take you.
3. Trying to please everyone.
One of the key things stopping most companies from creating a recruitment video is convincing a camera shy employee and tracking down an iphone. So why stop at one recruitment video? One of the biggest mistakes employers make is trying to convey too many messages to too many audiences in the one film. The average view time of YouTube content is around 2 minutes. Consider creating a video for each theme or audience. A video seeking out engineers is likely to look different from one seeking to attract a marketing professional.
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccZkELgEsU
http://www.hr-matters.info/feat2010/2010.oct.05.htm
