Building a Modern Employer Brand

In today's Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast episode, you learn about social recruiting which is different to recruiting on social media. And, you'll also learn why it's time to move from simply recruiting on social media to social recruiting. My name is Susanna Rantanen, and my employer branding agency Emine has been recognised as one of the Top 10 European Employer Branding Agencies. We work with HR, talent acquisition, marketing and communications and hiring managers to apply content, social media marketing and persuasive communication to convince and convert talents to choose your company over and over again. Find me at https://www.rantanensusanna.com for more information. Did you want to read this audio recording as show notes? Go to: bit.ly/42euMbz **************

Corporate employer brand influencers, internal employer brand influencers and talent ambassadors. They all mean the same thing, and we all want to collaborate with them for the same reason: getting business advantage from employees who are actively engaging, networking and creating content on their social media. In today's Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast episode, we will discuss how you can work with your internal influencers to build a strong employer brand that attracts and retains talent. If you want a written version of this episode, find the show notes page here:

Copywriting is one of the most important marketing tools to connect with your target audience and convert them into customers, such as job seekers, candidates and future employees. However, the process of creating effective copy can be time-consuming and requires a lot of effort. As technology continues to evolve, marketing AI has become an indispensable tool for copywriters. In today's Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast episode, we'll explore how AI technology is revolutionizing copywriting and how it can help you to create better and more effective copy. Don't forget to go to the show notes page to get the access to all the extra resources I provided with this episode.

According to a recent study by Loom, a video app company, bad communication costs your company a whopping $21B a week. Communication is a funny thing. Just because we learn to speak as kids don't automatically make us good communicators. In today's Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast episode, we talk about communication. And not just any communication but bad communication and how to prevent it. Find all links mentioned in this episode on the show notes article for this episode:

In today's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we talk about how to work with target audiences in talent marketing or HR marketing, if you prefer using that term. Targeting your marketing, especially for employer branding, continues to be somewhat troublesome for many HR and employer branding professionals. ✨ Who should be included in your target audiences? ✨ Why being specific is the key to success? These are the two key questions I will answer in today's episode. Don't forget to go to the show notes page to get the access to the additional goodies connected to this episode!

Do you know what are the 5️⃣ (five) things you're not doing for optimal growth and reach on LinkedIn? In this week's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we talk about using LinkedIn content to grow your reach and build a community that helps you advance your business and career goals. Get from this episode:

Facebook Professional Mode is a recent Facebook feature for professional content creators.  It is targeted at those users who want to use Facebook for professional purposes but prefer not to make their more personal posts visible to everyone. In this week's  Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast episode, I'll tell you about this new Facebook feature that I switched on for my professional content. Facebook promises to maximise the reach of our professional content on Facebook without compromising the “privacy” of those posts intended for friends only. Find the text version and links to sources mentioned in this episode here:

What if you had a simple framework to implement and follow for building a modern employer brand for your organisation? What if you could remove the stress and anxiety of not knowing exactly what needs to be done to achieve your desired employer brand perceptions and start building a talent pool from brand followers to advocates and from advocates to recruitment leads? What if I could give you this framework and help you plan and execute, as planning is not enough to build an employer brand? In today's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand, I share with you the Modern Employer Branding Framework you've been looking for. Don't forget to go to the show notes page to get the access to the additional goodies connected to this episode!

LinkedIn just published The Future of Recruiting 2023 report with 17 predictions of what world looks like for those working in recruiting and talent acquisition. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I'm taking you through these 17 predictions. Do you want to download the report? Go here to download it: https://bit.ly/432gDQs

We all know how difficult and gut-wrenching talent acquisition can be. The pain of not knowing where to find potential applicants or are you actually going to get anyone to apply can be extremely stressful. What strikes me off is that hardly anyone working in talent acquisition seems to realize that there is actually one specific area where you have a huge frequently unused opportunity to impact the outcome of your campaign and drive the results you need from your recruitment marketing investments. That, when you advertise for your job opportunity, it should not be a passive time for you, where you just wait whether anyone becomes interested and sends their application. Data-driven approach to talent marketing; the short-term recruitment campaigns and long-term employer brand activities, is key in accelerating and elevating your HR marketing success and delivering you the goals you expect. In this episode, I'm going to excite you to want to learn the data-driven approach to talent marketing. When you realize how obvious it is that this is the way you should work, you wonder why you didn't think about this before and can't wait to start! Check out the written version of this episode on the Modern Employer Brand Blog:

What is the secret to creating marketing content your audience wants? Because: "Not everything that happens at your company is newsworthy", says Ann Handley, a marketing and business writing expert. The thing is: ☝️ Anyone can post anything online. ❌ But everyone doesn't need to post everything online.

Do you use Instagram Highlights at all? Or on your personal Instagram profile or on the company profile? Whether you use them or not, I believe this episode is going to add great value to your Instagram marketing efforts. My name is Susanna Rantanen and I welcome you back to the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast!  In this episode, you'll learn about Instagram Highlights and how to leverage them in talent marketing. I'll tell you about ten great ways to use them in your employer branding and recruitment marketing. Find the written version of this podcast episode on my blog including all links and image examples provided for this episode:

In this week's episode I share with you four basic SEO tactics for content creators on TikTok. SEO on TikTok is the new thing for social media content creators. Adapting to SEO will help boost your reach on this platform in 2023 and beyond.  If you want to grow your talent or client audience on social media, your most important goal is to grow your reach. Reach is obligatory to get your content in front of your audiences, both existing and relevant non-followers. Search engine optimizing your content is a great way to grow reach. Find the episode transcript, all links mentioned and additional visual content on the blog linked below.

Instagram SEO, search engine optimization for your Instagram posts, is one of the latest developments in social media content creation. In this episode, you'll learn about Instagram SEO and why that matters to you as a content creator on Instagram. You want to learn about Instagram SEO because, in 2023 and beyond, it will help boost your visibility and reach on this platform. If you want to grow your talent or client audience on social media, your most important goal is to grow your reach. Reach is obligatory to get your content in front of your audiences, both existing and relevant non-followers. Using search engine optimisation effectively on Instagram will help you to grow organic Instagram reach. My name is Susanna Rantanen, and this podcast is for those who want to learn how to use branding, marketing and communications in the HR industry! Find the transcript and links mentioned in this episode on modernemployerbrand.com/podcast131

High-quality content is far more important than the quantity of content shared with your audiences. If you don't have a lot of time to invest in content creation, invest more time in the quality and simply post less. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we talk about high-quality content, and I share eight tips to increase the quality of the content you produce and share with your audiences. Check out for the transcript of this episode on my blog:

A headline is the first impression you get when you give that content a nanosecond of your precious time. When you select and copywrite your headline, think about the first impression you need it to create in the audience you want to capture. This is more important than you may imagine because, quite literally, the headline means success or failure. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we'll continue with last week's topic of copywriting for HR and talk about how to copywrite headlines that help your messages and content win attention. Find the transcript of the podcast audio on my blog:

As someone who uses written or spoken words to inform and impact your talent target audiences, sharpening your copywriting and content marketing skills is an important development area. I've said this before, no amount of marketing budget will succeed in getting your audiences to act on your talent marketing messages if your messaging fails.  In this episode, we will focus on my favourite area of the entire talent branding, marketing and communications mix: copywriting. This is copywriting for HR. Find the written version of this episode on the www.modernemployerbrand.com website:

What social media trends 2023 should we go for in talent marketing this year? Each year I go through the social media trend analysis' from various trustworthy sources and curate my findings for us talent marketers working in employer branding and recruitment marketing with employees and job seekers as our target audiences. It's time to learn about the key social media predictions for 2023! In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we will dig into what I believe will most likely be the hottest social media trends in HR marketing this year. I curated ten social media trends 2023 for you that I recommend you keep an eye on, learn more about and implement into your talent marketing plans this year to grow your overall talent marketing impact and get more out of the investment and resources allocated to both employer branding and talent marketing.

Short-form video content is rising rapidly in popularity. There are probably quite a few reasons, but the most obvious ones are the huge amount of content available and the little time we have [as viewers] to consume it all. Videos can be much more engaging than written text and impact us better on an emotional level than pictures. In this week's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, we'll discuss why short-form videos have become so popular, what types of short-form videos are popular, how your talent marketing can benefit from short videos, and I'll also share three very simple ideas for your short-form video content creation. Find the transcription and links mentioned in this episode here:

Instagram can be an excellent platform for recruiters if you are interested in advancing your career and success as a recruiter. You want to think about how to use this platform to brand yourself as a recruiter worth following and paying attention to instead of using it to search for potential candidates. This change in your mindset is required when you want to drive your own career and elevate your chances of succeeding in your recruitment projects. So, you need to stop being a silent matchmaker and become a matchmaking magnet who attracts candidates towards you and the career opportunities you represent. In this week's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about the best way to use Instagram for recruiters. I'll share some ideas, suggestions and tips on how you can leverage Instagram as a recruiter and recommend you five career influencers on Instagram to follow and use as a source of inspiration. Find all links & show notes on my blog here:

Have you ever considered using TikTok for recruiting? The good thing about being a recruiter is that you can be your own media when reaching out to those talents you desire to hire. I don't see recruiters using this opportunity enough. Yet, I know you guys struggle with your employer's or client's willingness to invest in marketing and employer branding to help get those talents. You probably agree that recruiters are expected to make miracles, especially when circumstances do not support your miracle work! I want to help you build your own media and take the matter into your own hands. That's why I believe you should consider TikTok for recruiting! In this week's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I'll share some ideas on how you can use TikTok for recruiting. I'll also share three inspirational recruiters on TikTok that I believe will inspire you to go for it and do your own thing on this massively growing platform! All links mentioned and a transcript of this episode can be found on my podcast website:

How well do you utilize social media to build a position as a trusted and followed recruitment professional? The most common way recruiters use social media is to post recruitment marketing messages on behalf of a client or your employer's account. But what about your personal brand as the recruiter? Many recruiters struggle to hire for unknown companies that lack employer brand appeal. The obvious solution would be to build the employer brand for the employer. But what if that road is blocked? Unavailable? That's when your own position as a recruiter for the industry you serve comes in. It's time to consider using branding, marketing and communications to build your appeal and trust as an authority in your field. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about personal branding for recruiters. I share my own personal branding story and how it has benefitted me. And I talk about how it can benefit you too, as a recruiting professional. If you listen to the end of this episode, I have something for you to get started too. My name is Susanna Rantanen, and these days aside my employer branding agency business in Finland, I also teach branding, marketing and communications for professionals in the HR industry who are driven to create the career and life they desire. Get the free Getting started with personal branding in the HR Industry eBook I wrote for you here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/j5l3t3 Or find it under "Freebies" highlight on my Instagram account @rantanensusanna. **************

TikTok is growing massively and is definitely a social media platform useful for us talent marketers to discover and become familiar with. I haven't been on TikTok yet for too long, but I've used this time productively to learn more about it, analyze what type of content gets attention and how businesses can benefit from TikTok. I'm ready to share with you what I have learned! In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I discuss TikTok for employer branding and share my top recommendation and a few cool ideas on how to use TikTok for employer branding. Check out the show notes article (link below)or at modernemployerbrand.com/podcast123 for a written version of this episode and links to content and profiles mentioned in this episode.

#122 TikTok for recruitment marketing and talent acquisition by Susanna Rantanen

TikTok's global growth has been massive; there is no way to deny that. But is TikTok something we should consider in talent marketing? Is it replacing Instagram? In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about TikTok vs Instagram for talent marketing professionals. What are the key differences between these two platforms, and what does this mean for employer branding and recruitment marketing? If you are unfamiliar with TikTok or don't hire young people, it is easy to think TikTok is not a useful social media for talent marketing purposes. However, this belief is nearing its end as TikTok has become a massive hit, and its popularity is starting to follow Instagram's path. Listen to this episode. Show notes article and links mentioned in this episode or used as sources for facts and figures available here:

Best careers sites convince and convert your company's ideal passive and active job seekers. What you put on your careers page and in which order has everything to do with whether the career site visitor stays or leaves. Most companies that care about their website tend to care too much about the website design at the cost of delivering the intended messages through copytext and visuals. Having a pretty website without powerful messages that convince and convert your career site visitors into your employer brand audience doesn't help you to build your employer brand or convert your employer brand audience into your recruitment funnel. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about the anatomy of the best careers sites that convince and convert not just your ideal active job seekers but also your ideal passive job seekers. If you would like to have the show notes in writing, find them here:

Executing an employer branding strategy means turning your strategic plan into weekly employer brand marketing and communications actions and activities. Using workflows and creating weekly routines helps make your work more efficient and effective. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I share eight important DOs and DONTs of executing an employer branding strategy. Do you want to check out the written show notes of this episode? Go to

Developing employer image during the talent acquisition process can be the perfect solution for those organisations where actual employer branding is not an option. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I'll share how you can develop your employer image during talent acquisition through better application of communication and marketing. This will grow your employer awareness and convince and convert your relevant job seekers to take part in your recruitment process. ✨ Why developing your employer image during the recruitment process can be the perfect solution? ✨ Redesigning your recruitment process to maximise the positive employer impact. ✨ What exactly do you need to redesign in your recruitment process? ✨ The benefits - Why would you start redesigning how you hire? ✨ Three quick tips to positively impact your employer image and grow employer awareness as a recruiter. Want to read this podcast episode? Go to: https://bit.ly/3VcITLl (modernemployerbrand.com/podcast118)

What happens once your employer branding strategy is ready? What are the next steps that need to be taken? It would be easy to think we'll just start employer brand marketing, but there is a very important phase you can't ignore because it requires time, money and skills. In other words, allocating resources, organizing time and ensuring these tasks get done before you "start posting". This phase is called the implementation phase, and it's not the same as executing your employer brand strategy. In this episode, I share with you what this phase is and what will be your most important implementation tasks before you go ahead and start posting and sharing employer brand content. ⏱ 24:33 min If you need to return to this episode for notes, the show notes article is available here for you:

Are you interested in taking your employer branding activities on a strategic level? Wonderful! Because this week on the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, Susanna talks about what is an employer branding strategy and when do you need one. In this episode:

Why should you be rethinking employer branding and what does modern employer branding mean? Well, I'm telling you in this episode!

In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about why it is important to stop treating employer branding as a recruitment campaign and what you'll miss out on if you do. ⏱ 28:33 min Do you like to return to a written version of this audio and check out something that made you wonder while you listened? You'll find that now on my podcast website by following the link below..

This week's episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast is dedicated to HR directors and HR managers who understand the importance of employer branding, but feel somewhat uncomfortable and unsure about taking the ownership of employer branding. The original definition for employer branding was coined back in 1996 and that declamation stated employer branding as a management framework for the Human Resources community. Employer branding goes way beyond the surface of employer brand marketing and recruitment campaigns. In this episode:

Email marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing but is seldom used in any areas of talent marketing. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about what email marketing is and how it fits your employer branding strategy because it's time to look outside the box and see what else we have apart from social media marketing where posting links no longer works. In this episode:

In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I share with you the latest key findings and news about social media marketing trends because there are some significant changes happening right in front of our eyes. The findings I share in this episode will force us to rethink how we make continue to make the most of social media as it is still the only media aside from our own career sites that we can operate independently to drive marketing results. This episode might shake you. Hearing some of the news shook me also. But now, I'm confident that the next era in social media and other marketing will present us with amazing employer brand marketing opportunities. I'll promise to keep you updated and on board with how to confidently ride these waves! ⏱ 25:21 min In this episode: ☝️ Key trends in how social media is changing ☝️ What the algorithms are increasingly focusing on ☝️ Which social media has become the world's most visited website, and most of us are not there In the episode theme article: ☝️ Social media trends 2022 and beyond in short

Should your business marketing be the employer branding expert? I think that's a fair question to ask. And the answer is: no, they should not be expected to be an expert in employer branding unless they have years of hands-on experience in employer branding. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast I talk about why your business marketing colleagues are unlikely to be the experts in employer brand marketing. ⏱ 31:35 min In this episode: ❓ Why your business marketing team is not the expert in employer branding? ❓ Understanding the versatility of business marketing. ❓ What makes all marketing fail unless.. ❓ Why HR & talent marketing can afford to be more confident about becoming talent marketing and employer branding experts? The theme article expands on the topic and addresses what is expertise and how to assess if your marketing team has the expertise you need.

We typically group and profile our talent audiences based on roles, job requirements, education and years of experience. This is called demographic segmentation. While demographic segmentation works well in recruiting, it fails in employer branding because employer branding is not about promoting your career opportunities and roles. Employer branding is about positioning your organization as a specific type of organization and employer to specific kinds of people who desire the create the same professional impact as you do as a business. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I introduce you to the psychographic segmentation key in modern employer branding. In this episode:

Companies who direct employer branding activities into recruitment campaigns miss on the real power of employer branding. Recruitment is the final stage in the candidate's journey. The decision making doesn't take place at this phase. It took place long before the applications are being sent. The more experienced your target talent needs to be, the more likely they have made the decisions about their next place to work long before you published your job post. It's too late to influence the most ideal talents at this stage anymore. You only get what's left and available if you leave it to the recruitment stage. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about the power of the real employer brand.

Implementing story messages in your talent marketing will significantly increase the impact of your message. What you need is a simple formula for copywriting a story message. This week in the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about crafting your talent marketing messages in a way that will win attention and influence your audience in the ways you intended.

In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, Susanna explains why stories work so well in talent marketing. Check out the blog post for this episode in which Susanna continues with the topic.

Stories are the only form of communication that uses the entire, whole brain. There is no other form of communication more effective in getting the message across and impacting the behaviour of the recipient than a story. That's why storytelling marketing can be the most effective way to get your message across and get your audience to act on it. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I explain what storytelling marketing is and why stories make such a powerful form of marketing. ⏱ 23:00 min In this episode:

“When you want a person to send an application to your vacancy, you let them know you have a vacancy to apply for. When you want a person to become aware of who you are as an employer, you talk about what kind of an employer you really are. And when you want a person to choose you as their preferred place to work, you have got to talk about how becoming their ideal place to work is going to transform their lives.” In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, I share with you what is the difference between your recruitment marketing and employer branding messages because they offer answers and insight into very different questions and needs. ⏱ 9:10 min In this episode:

Developing the employer image (the first phase in employer branding) is hugely popular these days as you very well know. But have you ever stopped to think about what prevents your organization from achieving the kind of employer image your business needs? Or maybe you're not really sure what exactly is the employer image your organization needs to achieve? In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, I share with you what typically stops organizations from achieving the employer image they need and what it takes to achieve the kind of employer image your business needs. ⏱ 17:43 min In this episode:

Who is responsible for employer branding? Who owns employer branding? Who gets to decide how the employer brand budget will be spent? Where should employer branding reside? Is it HR? Marketing? Communications? Talent Acquisition? In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, we'll tackle the debate on who owns employer branding and decides how the employer brand budget is being invested, not spent.

In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, you'll learn how recruitment marketing and employer branding have very different goals. After this episode, you are able to explain to your boss why you need to rethink employer branding to get much more value out of both: your recruitment campaigns and your employer branding activities.

Employer brand marketing has reached most corners of the world. As this has happened, you probably have paid attention to several buzz words being used in this context, have you? In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, I'll uncover the main employer brand marketing buzz words for you. ⏱ 29:13 min In this episode:

Listen, if you are feeling confused about all this talent marketing talk, how social media should be used, what is the difference between promotions, campaigns, videos, podcasts, doing this and that and the other to get more applications, I feel for you. I can empathize with your situation. We have so many opportunities and options these days to market our jobs and develop our employer image that it's hard to know whom to listen to and which way to go. The reason why you and so many others may feel confused about employer branding is that so much has changed in the employer branding landscape in such a short time. It's time to expand our horizons. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Branding podcast, I talk about the changes in the employer branding landscape and how too many of you continue limiting your employer branding potential when you opt for the expired means.

What if you are unemployer branding when you thought you were employer branding? What if what you are doing or planning to do results in the exact opposite you meant to achieve? Regardless of the size of the company or the operating industry, even the market, most employers paraphrase themselves almost identically when it comes to employer branding. The problem is, using the same keywords, taglines and almost identical messages and images, they are doing exactly the opposite: unemployer branding. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, we are going to have a serious talk about employer branding. You need to know the difference between employer branding and unemployed branding because it is very possible you are not employer branding at all. Because unemployer branding hurts your employer branding career and doesn't help the company you work for at all, and that's why you need to recognise it and then put a stop to it.

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives as consumers and talent marketers. And more so as consumers. I mean, who doesn't wake up and check their favourite social media notifications the first thing in the morning? What this means to you as a talent marketer, you need to make social media your daily or a few times a week routine as well. WE, myself included simply need to be connecting with our audiences on socials more than we most likely did in 2021 and before. But, the big question is: how? When we don't have all the working time in the world to spend on socials, how should we use the time we have to make most of it? In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, I give you my curated Top 3 picks from a long list of 2022 social media trends. When we focus on these three important trends in 2022, our talent marketing will be a success! ⏱ 25:39 min

Your company culture is the DNA of your employer brand because your culture has all the ingredients you need for building a magnetic and distinctive employer brand. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, Susanna explains why your employer brand needs to be built on your organizational culture. Otherwise, you may risk achieving employer brand at all. ⏱ 32:55 min Check out the complimentary blog post summarizing the three key reasons why your company culture forms the DNA for your employer brand.

Your employer brand is not your EVP. Most likely your employer branding isn't really employer branding either. In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer brand podcast, we will be visiting beyond the surface of what employer brand really means. "Building a brand is becoming known for something specific and distinctive below the surface." In this episode: