Last week we spent some time talking about the importance of a coordinated internal Employer Branding launch. Once you’ve launched your brand internally, it’s time to go public! Here are some ways to ensure your external launch is a success.

Develop an Employer Brand Content Calendar for the next 2 to 3 months.

A brand community is not really like the Field of Dreams. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come. You will need some time to build any momentum around your brand. The 60-90 day content calendar with different campaigns, topics for articles, and focus-areas will need to be ready to go for your launch.

Review with Marketing and IT

Coordinating the Employer Branding Launch has a lot of moving pieces – make sure you have all the players involved. Your marketing team will help to ensure there are no conflicts between the company’s brand image and the employer brand image. Your IT team will help you ensure that planned increases in the amount of interactive content, or links to outside platforms will have technical support.

Job Descriptions Revised

A job description can be a potential candidates’ first introduction to your Company – so you want them to help you attract the right candidates. The description should include not only a preview of the role, but also some insight into what the EVP could mean for anyone stepping into that role. Have the descriptions include information about your company mission, vision, and goals – and have them ready to launch day one.

Ensure any Careers pages on your website are updated with engaging content; highly visual, interactive opportunities, resources and links.

Your Company’s Careers pages offer an opportunity to speak directly to a “warm” audience. Potential candidates who are already interested in looking at what your organization has to offer are yours to lose. Create dynamic, visually appealing content that will give these individuals a reason to come back to your pages. Include employee testimonials or take a page from Adidas’ book and invest in a great video that shows people what it “feels like” to work with you. Put a spot-light on a different key job in your company each month, with employee interviews. Tell company success stories that showcase the EVP and corporate values in action. Give potential candidates a way to interact with you to ask questions or share comments.

Ensure LinkedIn Home (or Careers) page are updated with links, testimonials, and videos
Potential candidates who do not already know of you are just as likely to find you through a Linked In company profile. These pages can really increase your audience reach and be an extension of your own websites. Your Employer Brand messaging should be consistent from your website through your LinkedIn pages.

Spend some time ensuring your Linked In pages have compelling images that help you draw people in. Use some of the same interactive techniques you are using on your company’s Careers website to have a consistent feel on your Linked In pages – cross promote your own website or other online forums your company participates in with links and shared content. For more resources on how to leverage the tool, see the LinkedIn resource for Company Page managers.

Consistent Content – Update All the Statuses Across Platforms you are using (i.e. Glassdoor, Twitter etc.) –

When planning your launch, have an inventory of all the different communication channels or social media outlets your company has used in the past. Remove outdated materials that may be posted – nothing can ruin a launch like broken links and old information.

You may want to consider targeting your messages to suit the channel – the individuals who get information through Facebook or Twitter status updates, may be less likely to log into a conference call or read a newsletter. Keep the content on each platform dynamic, current and consistent with your employer brand. If the idea of tracking multiple social media platforms is daunting, there are tools out there that can help you monitor all your different social media feeds.

Have your Brand Ambassadors trained and ready to go!

Employees who are passionate about your EVP and your brand message can be powerful advocates, especially when you take the time to train them on how your company wants to engage.

Prior to the external launch, be sure that your leadership team is communicating frequently, across multiple channels with employees. Encourage your employees to use social media. Provide training on all the different platforms so people feel comfortable using the tools and help them by giving them lots of content that they can share with their networks. Be very transparent about what your employees can share publicly and what needs to stay internal. Your brand ambassadors will respect the trust that you have shown to them.

Complete a Quick Review & Resolve any Reputation Management issues

Reputation management is the practice of monitoring the reputation of an individual or brand, addressing contents which are damaging to it, and using customer feedback solutions to get feedback or early warning signals to reputation problems. This is an opportunity to address issues, rather than hide from them.

Listen in to the conversations about your company or your EVP. Allow employees or your community members to post questions and see the answers in a public forum. Don’t be afraid of someone’s negative feedback. It provides a chance for your Company to look into the situation and resolve it. Use the chance to clarify any misconceptions about your EVP or your employer brand. Answer the questions you didn’t even realize were out there to build even more brand loyalty.