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How to Create Social Media Consistency for Your Company

Consistency is key in social media marketing. If you’re marketing your brand on social media, it’s important to make sure that your social media profiles and content align with your brand goals. Who you are, what you do and why you’re different should all be highlighted on social media just like it would be your website.  

Here are some things to consider when tracking your marketing efforts to see if you have a consistent brand presence on your social media channels.  


Related Post: Case Study: Creating A Social Media Strategy ➢


Completing Your Profiles  

Your social profiles are a representation of your brand, they should attract and encourage prospective clients and candidates to learn more about you. 

Just like a website, within 5-10 seconds of being on the page, they should know exactly what you do and how you can help them.  

Here are a few tips to help optimize your profiles: 

  • Determine your tagline and pitch.  
  • Keep your messaging describing your company consistent on all profiles, this should mirror and be a summary of your website About Us page.  
  • Use keywords, just like your website your social profiles should be SEO optimized. You want to make sure that your page appears when a client or customers enter relevant keywords into the search bar and that Google can pick up your social pages like it would your website.  

Branding Your Posts and Images  

Brand consistency is important for brand recall, when people see your brand enough times, they should know it’s you, even without a logo. A clear brand voice and consistent presence will ultimately reinforce your brand identity and will drive positive sentiment among candidates and clients.  

If your company doesn’t have brand guidelines in place, I would strongly suggest creating a document for reference. This document should include brand color codes, font types, approved logos, tone of voice and goals of your brand.  

Here a few need to know for creating images for your posts.  

  • Images – Decide your style type, for example, will you use photographs or animated images? 
  • Brand Colors – Select 2-3 colors that represent your brand that you will use when creating images for social media posts.  
  • Fonts – Use fonts that match the style of your website. You can get creative with the images but don’t get creative with wacky fonts that can take away from your brand image. 


    Related Post: 5 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Social Media Strategy ➢


Posting Consistently 

Did you know that 63% of consumers who search for a company online are more likely to contact ones with an informative and active social media presence? Staying active and follow best practices when posting on your social media channels will help you connect with your audience, increase brand awareness, develop thought leadership, and boost website traffic.  

Posting on social media helps to validate your brand, letting potential clients and candidates know your brand is active and open to communication and establishes you as thought leaders. There are many free tools out there that can help companies stay consistent in posting by allowing them to schedule out posts in advance, that way when the daily grind of the office is higher than normal, your online presence stays consistent.  

Here are a few best practices when posting on social media 

  • Post at optimal times for your business, match times when your audience is online and browsing social channels.  
  • Determine the number of posts you plan to publish each week for each platform. On average I would recommend 4-5 for LinkedIn, 3-4 to Facebook and 3-5 a day for Twitter.  
  • Focus on the right content for the right platform, don’t just blast out the same post, with the same content, all at the same time.  

If you’re looking for more information about your online presence or you’d like to hand over the reins to your social media plan we can help. At Parqa, we can help plan, publish and manage your company’s social media. Get in contact today to schedule a free consultation. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] [vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

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3 Ways to Succeed with Candidate-Focused Marketing

Recently, Parqa presented and hosted booths at the Naps and TechServe Alliance annual conferences. It was enlightening for me to hear the pain points of two aligned but very different industries, recruiting versus staffing, and the everyday struggles that digital marketing can help to mitigate.  

Most people are aware of the historically low national unemployment rates we are currently seeing. Unemployment this low means the qualified candidate pool is only going to become more limited. What I took away from both conferences was the opportunity for staffing and recruiting firms to look at how they position themselves to candidates through digital marketing to grow revenue. 

Right now, some of you are saying, “Clients pay the bills, not the candidates! I would never invest in them!” But wait and hear me out.  

In a candidate driven market as we have right now, the candidates pay the bills. It comes down to the application of supply and demand. Even if you make the placement, how much harder did you have to work to find the candidate than five years ago? Wouldn’t it be easier if candidates come to you? 

Here are three examples of how digital marketing provides ROI from candidates.


Related Post: Why Partnering With a Specialized Digital Marketing Agency Makes All The Difference ➢


Contingent Search for an Engineering Role 

A potential client reaches out to you who have been trying to fill a role internally for a niche engineering role. They’ve not had any luck so far, so they’ve called three to four search firms including you in the hopes that someone had the perfect unicorn candidate waiting. 

What happens? No one has the unicorn waiting, other firms don’t put much effort towards it, and another has 50 different contingent roles they have a better chance of filling. Your firm is taking the candidate focused route. 

You’ve set up a social media campaign on Linkedin and Facebook and put some budget toward paid advertising. Target the top 20 companies in your region that you know employ the same position. Within ten days you present a panel of three candidates to the client and eventually one of them is placed. You’ve now gained a client for life because you filled a role they couldn’t and went above and beyond your competitors. 

One of our clients recently completed a search just like this. Now all their counterparts are following suit, trying to get jobs sponsored. 

HR Consulting Firm Attempting to Attract Contract Talent 

You have two consultants who have worked for you in the past. The last time their contract ended you were not able to redeploy them, so they took a role with your competitor. You do your best to set a reminder to follow-up with them in a couple of months, but you’re so busy filling current roles that you lose track of them or make contact only to find out they were extended. How do you stay top of mind with them so that you are not continually trying to keep tabs on them? 

Set up a candidate nurturing campaign that targets your past employees allowing you to send them relevant market information, company successes, and upcoming roles. When they begin preparing for their next role they’re reminded to reach out to you for future opportunities. You can then market them and have them placed before their previous contract is completed. 

One of our clients had this happen twice in the last two weeks. 


Related Post: Why Recruiters Should Target Candidates With Their Content Marketing ➢


Retained Executive Search for CFO 

You’ve tapped out your network of CFO’s in the market and begin to source for new talent. You find someone that you like and reach out to them on Linkedin. They are currently employed and likely a very passive candidate. The fact is, you’re probably one of many recruiters reaching out to them on a weekly or monthly basis. Why should they respond to you over the others? 

They go to your Linkedin company page, your personal Linkedin page, and your Company’s website and see that you are a boutique firm that specializes in executive level finance positions. Even if they aren’t interested in that job description, your profiles showed them that you are a credible recruiter. They reach out to get to know you and your firm better and to keep an eye out for future endeavors because you gained instant trust and credibility. 

Sounds like a stretch, right? Well, it works – I’m proof of it because that is how I became employed by Parqa and Versique.  

It’s easy to tie your ROI metrics to a call-in that closes or to a networking event you sponsored. In the end, growing revenue and profitability is about how efficiently you get the client, get the candidate, and close the deal. They’re not mutually exclusive in the process of recruiting or staffing. One hundred leads with no qualified candidates = zero revenue and zero ROI on those 100 leads. It’s simple math. 

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5 Ways To Recruit Millennial Talent Using Instagram

Sometimes, reaching the highest level of millennial talent can be difficult for recruiters. The good news is that social media has made things a little bit easier. Nearly 88% of people aged 18 to 29 indicated using any form of social media, according to Pew Research Center Study conducted in early 2018. 

Businesses aren’t using Instagram as an active recruitment tool, that’s what LinkedIn is for. Companies rely on Instagram as a platform to showcase their brand. Recruiters can utilize Instagram in several ways to broadcast their brand to their target audiences, especially younger generations, like millennials.  

Here are five ways you can give your brand the boost it needs to reach top millennial talent using Instagram.  


Related Post: 5 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Social Media Strategy ➢


Customize Your Business Profile 

If you’re not familiar with Instagram, one of the first things you’ll want to do is create a business profile. This profile is very important as it’s what people will see when they stumble across your business.  

Your profile should be welcoming and professional. If someone comes across your profile, they should be able to figure out who you are, where you’re located, contact information, and what you specialize in. Keep in mind, you’re trying to reach millennials, so your profile should be very engaging.  

Focus on Your Culture 

Culture is one of the biggest factors when making a career decision amongst millennials. Make it a priority to capture photographs of things happening around the office, events, candid pictures, birthdays, etc. Anything that makes your business unique, post it.  

If a millennial seeking a career stumbles upon your profile, make sure your posts honestly reflect the work culture you have created. 

Inspire Others 

Instagram has become a great tool to show inspiration. Incorporating inspiration into your Instagram activities can help people associate stories with your brand. A great way you can do this is by curating inspirational stories your audience will read.  

Use storytelling to attract millennial talent to your business by using quotes, telling gratifying stories of employees, and volunteer experiences. 


Related Post: Is Organic Social Media Dead? 6 Things You Need to Know ➢


Be Active as Much as You Can 

Like LinkedIn, you should be as active as you can on Instagram. You want people to know you’re staying active. You can achieve this by: 

  1. Commenting or liking other posts; creating conversations and relationships, which help to boost your brand 
  2. Post Instagram stories  
  3. Streaming Instagram live videos 

Enhance Your Recruiting Efforts to Other Social Platforms  

Since there are other social platforms that are just as engagement-heavy as Instagram, consider combining your Instagram efforts with other platforms. 

Posting appealing content on other platforms helps lead to potential candidates interested in your brand seeking you out on other social media, such as LinkedIn, or heading to your website to get in contact.  

To remain competitive in the recruiting industry, you must continuously be looking at new tools and methods to attract top talent. Now, more than ever, you need millennial talent on your team, especially in this digital age. Adding Instagram to your marketing portfolio is a great start in doing so. 

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5 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Social Media Strategy

Social media, once viewed as a passing fad, is now a must-have marketing tool for businesses. It’s no longer a question of whether your business needs social media, but is your company using social media to its fullest potential? The days of setting up social profiles and publishing some random content, expecting to get results, are gone.

Social media is now an integrated part of a business’s overall marketing strategy. So many businesses are missing key opportunities to see results from social media marketing because they don’t have a strategy in place. Just as your business has financial goals and plans to achieve them, your social media presence should be treated the same way.

Showing up isn’t enough anymore. If you truly want to see results, build your brand, develop relationships, strengthen your fan base, and increase word-of-mouth advocacy, it’s time to put a social media strategy in place. Still not convinced? Here are five reasons why.


Related Post: Is Organic Social Media Dead? 6 Things You Need to Know ➢


Brand Authenticity

Social media gives your brand the opportunity to authentically talk to your target audience. You’re able to show them who you are as a company beyond the products you sell or the services you provide. It also provides a way to tell your story and values.

Although the about section on your website is very important and tells about your overall journey, it might not be the consumers’ first choice for reading. Through organic posts you can showcase your culture and mission, giving your consumers a genuine look into what makes up your organization.

Brand Awareness & Recognition

By applying a social media strategy, you can significantly increase your brand awareness and recognition. We all know that our consumers at any point are in different parts of the buyers’ journey. Social media is one tool that can elevate each stage in the buyers’ journey.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is a way for your brand to build relationships, strengthen brand loyalty and increase brand advocacy. The goal is to be engaging, attractive, fun and thought-provoking to your audience so that your business is always top of mind.


Related Post: Introduction to Social Media: Understanding Your Platforms ➢


SEO + Social Media – Yes it really helps

Just like your website, it’s important to optimize your social profiles for SEO. Make sure you incorporate all the keywords that you want to be found for, just like you would for different pages on your website. SEO not only helps people find you but also provides you with valuable information on what people are searching for.

Reach Your Marketing Goals

A custom social media strategy compliments almost any marketing goals that your company is pursuing. From branding to thought leadership to generating leads and increasing revenue, it is one of the most versatile and cost-effective methods a business can use to reach their target audience and accomplish goals.

Being active on social media is no longer a competitive advantage, it’s required. By using social media correctly to tell your story, your company can showcase what makes your brand unique.

Once you create a social media strategy you will be able to tailor your content based on your immediate results. The more time you spend on your social media platforms the more you will experience the benefits. Are you ready to drive business success with proven digital marketing tactics? Learn how Parqa can build your social media presence.

[vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

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5 LinkedIn Best Practices – To Become a Recruiter of Choice

Did you know that 87% of users trust LinkedIn as a source of information? Or that 75% of buyers use social media in their decision-making process? 

It’s a fact. In today’s business world, both companies and their employees need to be active on social media. That doesn’t mean you have to be on every social platform and posting multiple times a day, but you do need to have a solid presence. Why? Because people are always searching online, and you need to ask yourself – What will they find if they come across your profile? Are you someone they would just glance at or does your online presence make you look like an industry expert?  

Here are 5 best practices that you can utilize on LinkedIn to improve your professional brand, develop thought leadership and increase your credibility.  


Best Practice #1 – Build Your Professional Brand  

  • Optimizing your LinkedIn profile goes a long way toward establishing expertise. You can download our quick and easy profile optimization checklist here.

Best Practice #2 – Utilize and Build Your Network 

  • Connect with the right people – the search function makes it easy to find people in your target market 
  • Take advantage of “Who’s Viewed Your Profile”
  • Reach out to interesting connections  
  • Leverage current connections to expand your network  
  • Take advantage of 2nd connections and ask for an introduction  
  • Share relevant content with individuals that would benefit from it

30 Minute How-To Guide: 5 Ways to Ramp Up Personal Branding Using LinkedIn ➢


Best Practice #3 – Build Relationships  

  • Engage with your audience – by interacting with your connections’ content you increase visibility which helps to build relationships
  • Follow the “Three Golden Rules of Engagement;” Like – Share – Comment   

Best Practice #4 – Thought Leadership  

  • Be known for what you know – There are two great ways to provide thought leadership on LinkedIn: 
    • Focus on articles – These are a powerful way to showcase your expertise and are searchable by all LinkedIn members and Google 
    • Posts – Share relevant and valuable content 

Best Practice #5 – Make Use of Analytics  

  •  Check your post insights to see how many views your posts have received. You can see where they work, their job titles and the area they are from.  
  • You can see similar data about your profile with “Profile Insights.” Find out who’s viewed your profile, post views, search appearances, and who’s engaging.  

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢


These tactics will all help to build your reputation with both prospective clients and candidates. Don’t be intimidated, there’s no need to implement them all at once today, but if you follow these best practices, your LinkedIn profile will become another great tool in your arsenal.  

Looking to build your brand and attract more candidates and clients? Contact Parqa today to learn how we can help you become a recruiter of choice.


[vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Parqa_Personal Branding_Post-Webinar Bottom Blog CTA

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Is Your Online Brand Aligned with Your Personal Brand?

There is no doubt that a recruiter’s reputation plays a significant role in landing a search. There are thousands and thousands of small recruiting firms in the United States that have built their companies one handshake at a time.

Hopefully, as their reputation in a given market grows so does their business.  While the need to create a trusted partnership with a potential client will never go away, the market is changing, and recruiters in companies both large and small need to develop their brand online.


Related Post 5 Ways To Ramp Up Your Personal Branding On LinkedIn ➢


Your Personal Brand

Hubspot released a report in May 2018 that stated, “77% of consumers research you and your company online before engaging with your brand”.

Let me give you an example of this in action. Versique, Parqa’s sister company, recently acquired a recruiting firm with a very well-established leader in their market. He had an outstanding company and was doing excellent work for his clients.  Several years prior he had placed a CEO in a company, and that CEO called him as he was retiring and was looking for help to fill his replacement.

The experience he had with this recruiter was phenomenal, and the CEO referred him to the Board of Directors.  A few weeks later this recruiter received a call from the CEO informing him that the Board of Directors chose to go a different route because they couldn’t find any information about his practice online. At this point, he knew the market was changing, and he had to do something different. He saw what Versique was doing to build online credibility not only to drive net-new leads, but to secure the reputation of its recruiters online; many of which have 15+ years in the industry.

This is a real-life example of how a skilled recruiter, with an excellent reputation and the benefit of a referral, couldn’t close a deal because the Board of Directors could not learn more about him online.

When I hear Parqa’s clients and potential clients say they can’t afford to spend more on digital marketing, or even entertain digital marketing at all, I tell them this story.  Can you afford not to land a CEO search that on paper ten years ago would have been a slam dunk?

There are two critical components of digital marketing that every recruiter and company HAVE to focus on at bare minimum in 2019.


30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢


1.Visibility

Visibility comes in many forms, but by definition is the “state of being able to be seen.”  Some examples of building online visibility are:

2. Brand

Once potential clients can find you online, they are able to assess your credibility instantly. Your online brand must match the brand you present to a client face-to-face. This can and will be a little different for every recruiter based on your style and your niche in the market. Someone that recruits for C-suite executives in the banking industry are going to have a very different brand than someone recruiting mid-level managers for marketing agencies.  Here are a few examples of how you can enhance your brand online:

  • Build out your LinkedIn page to show relevant work experience, testimonials, and a professional picture.
  • Make sure your website is creatively designed to intrigue your target audience. An accounting and finance recruiting company will probably want to have a lot of data-driven content, while a recruiting agency specializing in demand generation may wish to have a lot of bold colors and interactive design
  • Build practice area pages on your website so that people can drill down to a specific vertical that you specialize in and understand better why you are the best choice.
  • Have a very professional flow to your website so you look organized and professional. Make sure your website’s brand ties to the flow of your social media outlets.

Alright, now you’re a master of aligning your personal brand with your online brand, right? Still have some work to do? Give us a call. Parqa specializes in providing recruiters with digital marketing services that enable firms to compete in today’s digital business landscape.

Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

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How to Create the Right Blog Image

When you’re scrolling through social media, what catches your eye the most? For me personally, it’s the images. Striking, exciting, adventurous photos catch my eye – no matter what the topic is. In fact, a post that includes an image has a 650% higher engagement rate than a post that’s made up of only text. So clearly, it’s crucial to include images – but how?


Related Post: What Is Your Websites UX? & Why It’s Important ➢


Make it Appealing

Stock photos can be boring – we’ve all seen the two coworkers shaking hands, a group of people chatting & pointing at a computer, or fake doctors wearing stethoscopes around their necks with their arms crossed. They’ve been used hundreds of times and won’t necessarily catch the attention of a social media scroller. Instead of using basic stock images from anywhere on the internet, I recommend using websites such as Unsplash or Pixabay. On these sites, you can find stunning, high-quality images for free – and if you want to give a shout-out to the photographer, their information is included! But these images can be used free of charge with no worries of penalties or copyright infringement.

Adding Accents

Programs such as Canva or Lunapic have excellent programs that can help you edit photos. From filters to shapes & lines, these programs help create an eye-grabbing image for websites & social media. The best part – you definitely don’t need to be a designer to use them! These programs are free to use and have a very simple user experience.

When adding accents though, don’t overdo it. A few simple lines or shapes, and 1-2 fonts are all you need to make an image pop. Also, be sure to use high contrast to your benefit. Overlaying a darker filter over an image opens the door to use light text – and vice versa.


Related Post: How Can Digital Marketing Get Me More Clients ➢


Brand Consistency

Once you start determining the style of images that match your brand & feel correctly, stick with it! By no means do they need to be boring templates every time you create one. But there should be some sort of brand consistency. Accent colors should correlate with your logo, prominence of your logo should be consistent & overall feel of the photos should match. When a person sees your images week after week, your brand should resonate with them.

Sizing is Key

I’ve seen so many images on the internet where the words are falling off the pages, and the image is cut in an odd spot, or there’s extra white space. I find there’s nothing more off-putting to the naked eye than an image that isn’t correctly sized.  Be sure to research what size is needed before publishing – and then check yet again once live! For example, Facebook has a different size requirement than Instagram, and yet another size is used for every website on WordPress. Just be sure to double check your work so you aren’t kicking yourself after it’s been live for 3 days.

As you can see, adding an eye-catching image to your blog can make an impactful difference to the engagement of your blog posts.

Are you having issues coming up with images to match your brand? Talk to the Parqa team today to help make your content with imagery speak directly to your audience!


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Is Organic Social Media Dead? 6 Things You Need to Know

There’re two sides to every story, and we’ve heard about every angle when it comes to the value of social media marketing. Some believe organic social media is dead, that there is absolutely no value in it at all, others think you should only do organic if you’re invested in paid, and some think organic social media effort still adds significant value for B2B businesses.

So, who is right?

The truth is it all depends on your overall marketing goals. Every business, company, industry is different, so to say one way or the other is right or wrong, simply doesn’t make sense.


30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢


Here are 6 things that you must know about organic social media before you make that decision for your company:

1. Organic is Still FREE

Regardless of your opinion on the importance of organic social media, there’s one thing that can’t be argued – it’s still free publicity for your company. Being active on the right social media channels isn’t going to hurt your brand, it can only amplify it.

2. Brand Validation

Potential employees, clients, candidates, they are all on social media, especially LinkedIn. Many people will look at your social profiles before they visit your website. These users look at social channels to validate their decisions to engage with a brand. That engagement could be a call, a signup, or merely a follow, but it’s a way that they start to build a relationship with a company. That decision will be influenced by what information, reviews or content they find on your social profile.

3. Engagement: Organic Content Resonates with Engaged Communities

Some brands can post and without effort, get a ton of engagement, which is great, but it’s not reality for every brand or industry.

The days of scheduling out posts and crossing your fingers are gone. To have success, you need to invest in creating engagement. This means engaging with others and most importantly, making employee advocacy a priority. This is vital in today’s landscape for building an online presence and making your organic postings worthwhile.

In general, organic content just won’t break through the social networks’ algorithms, but with support from your employees and a community, the reach potential can increase tremendously.

 4. Listening: It’s Not Just About Posting – Social Platforms Allow for Companies to Listen Too

Did someone have a bad or excellent experience with your company? Chances are if they did, they might want to talk about it. It’s important to monitor social media to know what others are saying about you and your brand. This is something that regardless of how active or not active you are, it’s not going to stop others from not being active.

Have a nasty Google review? Here’s what you can and cannot do to get rid of them.

5. Paid Social Media: Organic Social Media Can Only Compliment Your Paid Efforts

Realistically, paid social isn’t much of an option when it comes to effective social media marketing anymore. Your paid and social media efforts should complement each other, working together as a strategy compared to individual tactics. One mistake I see with companies is that they don’t realize there are multiple different ways you can utilize paid social media, it all depends on your overall goals.

Bottom line, if you want to maximize your social media marketing efforts and prove true ROI, you’re going to need to use paid and organic together in a strategy.

6. Authenticity: Social Provides a Different Level of Authenticity for Brands

Organic social provides you a chance to show others who you are as a company and not just the services you offer or what you sell. It allows you to showcase what defines your organization, who is a part of building it and what’s important to you. It’s great to have authenticity on your website or show a culture page, but you should be telling your story, not just waiting for people to land on the right page to find it.


Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


As you can see, organic social media isn’t completely dead. I think it’s safe to say that paid social media plays a huge role more now than ever before in implementing a successful strategy, but organic is still just as relevant today as it was in the past. Just because it may have become more challenging, doesn’t mean you should throw it out completely.

The most important thing to remember is that social media marketing is a potent marketing method that can help your business reach its overall goals. But for that to happen, there needs to be a valid strategy behind your efforts, flying blindingly or just winging it, isn’t going to cut it anymore.


Related Post: 10 Tips For Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile ➢


Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

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Introduction to Social Media: Understanding Your Platforms

Social Media is a term that has become synonymous with modern day marketing tactics. The days of E-Blasts, conference brochures, and mailing lists aren’t over, but it’s clear there are more channels than ever to communicate to clients and candidates alike.

According to the Demand Gen Report, 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.

This stat rings true with our approach to talent attraction on social platforms and is a focus in our introduction to social media. Social media is an integral component of our strategy to increase attention to our brand. Social platforms allow for ease of distribution, for various types of content, and when used correctly, can prime clients and candidates for your sales team.


30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢


Twitter

  • 336 million monthly active users
  • 280 Characters, Previously 140 Characters
  • Ideal length is 120-130 characters
  • Content options: Short form. Blogs. eBooks. GIFs. Company Posts.

Short and sweet. Twitter is not your platform for long posts or an avenue to hard sell your services. This is a platform for sharing information quickly with the goal to lead clients and candidates to your content. Some examples of content that can be incorporated with a Twitter post include:

  • Company Events
  • News or Blogs
  • eBooks
  • Salary Guides
  • Community Involvement

Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


Click-through-rate (CTR) will be the main parameter for success on Twitter. We don’t post to post, we want targeted engagement. Sharing relevant information quickly, and lead people specifically to the landing pages, gated content or blogs you’ve selected. Buffer ran a study focusing on CTR, and how clicks correlate to length of posts. As you’ll see below in their data, you’re going to want to stick to staying short with around 120-130 characters.

(Photo Credit Via Buffer)

#Hashtags. It is not a necessity but with specific posts #Hashtags can increase potential for engagement. Hashtags work very similarly to SEO optimized keywords on your website. Not there yet? Catch up on keywords, and loop back here when you finish up.

Here’s an example. When you attend your next conference, check to see the hashtag they are using. The hashtag will help attendees clearly interpret that the post is running with the conference, and when the user clicks the hashtag they will view all posts with that hashtag.

For that very reason, hashtags can be a great way to curate all posts associated with your event. Just don’t forget, short and sweet on Twitter. Buffer ran a study on the ideal hashtag limit, finding a negative response when multiple hashtags are used.

(Photo Credit Via Buffer)


Related Post: 10 Tips For Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile ➢


LinkedIn

  • 540 million users, with 256 million monthly active users.
  • Professional headline: 100-120 characters
  • Content options: Industry news. Gated Content. Event promotion. Thought leadership.
  • Shine some light on your company culture and industry expertise. Empower your employees to share and comment on company posts. Post company offers, promotions or short videos from your Execs.

LinkedIn is the primary social media outlet for staffing and recruiting alike. Having an up-to-date account is crucial, but your interactions and the types of posts you’re sharing can be the difference between successful posts and a missed opportunity.

Company posts can be a great first step towards finding consistency of posts. Coordinate with other employees on your team, reposting their shared posts, commenting on posts and beginning the dialogue. It’s a tough expectation to assume interaction and comments on each of your posts. Establishing a cadence where your fellow employees can engage within your comments is a quick way to portray your posts as relevant and lead to connections interacting with you.

Improve Your Social Game with Parqa Marketing

Utilizing the power of Twitter and LinkedIn can give your recruiting firm a big boost in brand awareness. Want to learn more about how your can grow both your personal brand and the brand of your recruiting firm? Check out our latest webinar, where Parqa CEO Tony Sorensen shared how he grew his recruiting company’s LinkedIn followers from 0 to 20,000+ in just five years.


[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

Parqa_Personal Branding_Post-Webinar Bottom Blog CTA

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5 Key Steps to Build Your Professional Brand on LinkedIn

With 106 million unique visits to LinkedIn each month, it’s more important than ever to optimize your profile and learn how to build your personal brand organically. While Versique, a $17M executive search and consulting firm I launched in 2013, has over 20K followers on LinkedIn and has been awarded as one of the top 25 recruiting company pages, today I want to focus on the valuable real estate of individual profiles.

Not only does an optimized profile showcase your personal skills well, it also boosts the company image as all their employees use their profiles in the best way possible. Spend time today completing these five best practices to rank higher in search engines, grow your network and ultimately drive valuable leads and revenue to your company.

First Things First: Optimize Your Profile

It’s incredibly important for people viewing your profile to see the following in place to fully understand who you are, what you do, and how to contact you if they decide to network with you. In order to accomplish this, you’ll need to carve out 30 – 60 minutes to complete our quick and easy profile optimization checklist.

  • Do I have a professional quality, current and industry specific profile and banner image?
  • Are my image headers and visuals branded?
  • Does my job title and summary communicate my area of focus and expertise?
  • Is my bio and summary written in active voice, in first person and specific to key insights about me?
  • Is my entire profile, including headlines, SEO optimized with a keyword density of 3% or greater to rank me atop of LinkedIn, Google and Bing?

Once you’ve completed the checklist and fixed any errors you found, it’s time to build your network so that more people can view your optimized profile and see what you have to offer.


30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢


Targeted Connections vs LinkedIn Open Networker

It doesn’t take long, while scrolling through your connection requests, to find someone with LION next to their name. This stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. So, what’s the deal with that? Is it best to open your network to anyone who wants to connect? Or to be selective?

The answer comes down to deciding why you want to network. If your purpose is to connect with the most people possible – connect. But, if you want to optimize your profile, generate quality leads, and nurture a healthy network – it’s time to decline. Use the following checklist to decide if those requesting to connect with you and those you’ll request to connect with are what’s best for your goals.

  • Are they located in an area, city, state, country, that you work or recruit in?
  • Is their profile optimized – showing they are serious about how they used LinkedIn?
  • Is their job title relevant to you in some way?
  • Have they sent you an InMail that makes it clear they intend to sell you on something the moment you accept?
  • Are they actively publishing and interacting with their network – which would indicate they’ll likely be an active part of yours as well?

All these qualities show that they are someone who will help spread your posts through likes, comments, and shares as well as help build your SSI score through connecting with the right people.

After you have a fully optimized profile and a thriving network, it’s time to post and publish. Get the word out to your targeted connections that you are a thought leader and have valuable insights in your related field.


Related Post: Why Recruiting Firms Should Hire a Digital Marketing Agency that Specializes in the Recruiting Industry ➢


Quality over Quantity: Don’t Just Post to Post

LinkedIn is unique in that the vast majority of its users are incredibly busy people. They aren’t scrolling through their feed to keep up with the latest gossip or trending tweet. So, if your strategy is to post multiple times per day for the sake of posting, you’ll turn your network off very quickly.

Instead, qualify each post with these questions:

  • Is it valuable to my network?
  • Is it insightful in some way?
  • Does it praise or affirm someone else?
  • If it’s company related, does it showcase the company in an excellent way without selling anything?
  • If it’s personal, is it still professional?
  • Is it important industry related news?

If your posts pass the qualifying questions, the next thing you need to consider are the best times to publish. In general, I recommend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 7-8am, 12-1pm, or 5-6pm. By tracking your analytics – identifying who is interacting with you at what times – you can create your own windows of times that help you reach your target.

Set a Goal: It’s Time to Use LinkedIn Publisher

When used well, LinkedIn Publisher is invaluable to your personal profile and company page. Set a goal of publishing one blog each month and do everything you can to stick to that goal.

A recent poll showed that 82% of LinkedIn users feel more positive about a company after reading custom content through LinkedIn Publisher and 3-5 pieces of content on average are reviewed before engaging with a recruiter. If you’re not using this free tool – you’re missing massive opportunities.

I know you may be thinking, it’s not as easy as it sounds to sit down to a blank document and create content that your network wants to read. I get it – it’s daunting. That’s why I’ve created a reference list for you. Simply choose a topic and begin to write.

  • Share Hiring Trends. Distribute industry articles, blogs and insight though your own account.
  • Drive Traffic to your postings. Write about a topic that will bring leads to a landing page associated directly to you and your firm’s brand.
  • Piggy back off trending news. If your industry has a breaking news story published throughout the internet, write an article giving your unique perspective on the matter.
  • Easy how-to’s. Use your expertise to teach someone else how to do it.
  • Create a list. Lists are great for readers to easily scan your article and pull out valuable nuggets in a short amount of time.

Once you’ve published your article, be sure to use tracking and analytics to know who’s watching and reading it.


Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


Know Where You Rank and Why it Matters

Are you familiar with the term SSI score? Surprisingly, most LinkedIn users aren’t. Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index or score is simply how you rank within your industry and network. The score itself is out of 100 points and breaks down into 4, 25-point pillars.

  1. Establishing your professional brand.
    1. How well you publish valuable and industry relevant posts as well as how well your profile is optimized for your professional brand.
  2. Finding the right people.
    1. Are you connecting with a strong, like-minded network or are you a LION?
  3. Engaging with key insights.
    1. How well are you nurturing your network? Likes, comments and shares?
  4. Building relationships.
    1. Are you engaging with people when they have a birthday or work anniversary? Are you involved in what your connections are doing on a daily basis?

Each one of these four pillars are incredibly important factors in building your personal brand and credibility. As you increase your score within each faction, your percentage ranking within your industry and network will go up as well. The ultimate goal is to become the top 1% in your Network, top 1% in your industry and maintain a score in the high 90’s. When you’ve accomplished that – you know you’ve completed all prior 4 points. You have an optimized profile. You’re connecting with the right people. You’re publishing professional and branded content. And you’re nurturing your network.
It does take some doing – but anything worth doing is worth doing well. Right?

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