Try going Hollywood

The use of video in your recruiting campaign might be what it takes to create buzz for your firm, and in the end, land great employees. This summer movie season is going to be pretty unique with several big ones coming out over the next four months. You have a Ghostbusters reboot, X-Men Apocalypse, Independence Day II, and Jason Bourne to name a few. The biggest in my mind is Marvel's Captain America Civil War. They've been teasing this movie for over a year now. I couldn't wait to see it and ended up in the theater the first weekend it opened. The movie studios know how to create a buzz and whet our appetites for their product. They've teased us with one trailer after another showing bits and pieces of the movie. This method of storytelling by marketing ensures that the movie studios get the biggest audience possible when the movie premiers. Like the trailer method of storytelling employed by Hollywood, companies in the design industry need to think about how they build momentum for a service, project, and a position. This article should serve as a primer for how to create a buzz to attract real talent to your organization. I've spent a lot of time with clients working on their branding and marketing efforts. I've been telling anyone who will listen that recruiting and marketing go hand in hand. Now more than ever before, it's easy to get the word out about a company and what makes them unique. It's called YouTube! Housing not only one of the biggest and busiest search engines on the web, YouTube has become the go-to site for any and everything. Imagine having your company information indexed and cataloged on YouTube for that next great employee who may be looking for a more engaging place to work! One way to do this is by using video to highlight the benefits of working at your firm. Here are four ways for you to create cool content that you can share with the outside world about just how great your firm is. You can use this content to engage and enlighten clients and future job candidates alike.

1. Create a YouTube channel for your company and start populating your channel with short videos about your business. Things like the services you offer, what's it like to be an employee there, and plans you have for the future, are all appropriate themes.
2. Document some of the activities that you do on a daily basis for clients. I would also include a "Day in the Life" type of video for a broad range of employees. I would also corral the CEO/President and even another leader and feature them in a video as well. Especially those that are camera shy.
3. Highlight the extracurricular activities of your employees and the firm. Talk about the athletes in your organization and how you foster active lifestyles with gym memberships, and cycling or running groups. You should also consider discussing some of the ways that your company gives back to the community at-large.
4. When possible, capture testimonials from your clients discussing how your firm helped them out in some way. We can never have enough testimonials, and for some reason, when they’re on video they take on a life of their own. That's a good thing.

I heard an expression a long time ago that I use quite a bit. “It's a pitiful Frog that doesn't praise his own pond!” And in terms of touting your firm, it couldn’t be more appropriate. I know it may seem like a lot of effort for little return, but the reality is that you don't know how effective you can be at marketing your company if you don't at least try using video. Here is an example of a tech company, Shopify, on how you can make these videos informational and fun at the same time. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/XMRufdqpFnM I wrote this article to get your creative video juices flowing. I would be more than happy to discuss these ideas with you further. Email me and we can chat more. Randy Wilburn is director of executive search at Zweig Group. Contact him at rwilburn@zweiggroup.com.

This article is from issue 1155 of The Zweig Letter. Interested in more management advice every week from Mark Zweig, the Zweig Group team, and a talented list of other guest writers? Click here for to get a free trial of The Zweig Letter.