People Matters in association with LinkedIn Talent Solutions conducted the first Module of the certification program, Social Hiring Masterclass Series. The focus was to help build the right social profile to set a strong foundation for a successful social recruiting journey.

 Following is the checklist to start building your social brand:

1) Create a social profile:

The first step towards building a social brand is creating a profile. Select any social channel you feel comfortable with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Remember that your time is the most precious resource, so choose platforms that you can manage regularly. To start with, add a profile picture and a summary. Don’t forget to keep it interesting!

2) Identify your Target Audience:

Defining your target audience will help you strengthen your brand's overall effectiveness. Identifying and gaining the devotion of your target audience is a necessary means to reaching your brand objective. Once you identify your target audience, you’ll be able to share relevant content that will draw more prospective candidates.

3) Engage with your audience via content: 

Make sure that the content you share with your target audience is relevant to them. Create a content calendar and execute with passion: Write blogs, publish posts, photos, share point of views in order to engage a diverse set of people. Get creative with your content. For e.g. a leading company posted a Facebook feed about a new hire with her photo. Today many companies are utilizing platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest to reflect their company’s culture, current projects, CSR initiatives or introducing new hires. Such posts help create an impression on prospective candidates. It is all about how well you can express your brand to the right candidate at the right moment.

The formula that works best for content is: test, learn, iterate. 

4) Track Progress:

No matter what platform or channel you use to communicate your brand or what measures you adopt to communicate your brand, measuring success is an important part in understanding where you stand. You can measure your success by answering the following questions:

• Are people responding favorably to you and in a predictable way?
• How well have you built your network? It’s not the absolute number of followers/connections, but the quality of your network that determines the quality of your brand.

One of the ways of tracking your progress is by measuring SSI score on LinkedIn. By checking your Social Selling Index (SSI Score), you can check how you stack up against your industry peers and your network on LinkedIn. Further, you can check how you are performing on each of the four elements of social selling i.e. establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. It also allows you to track your progress over time.

 This module was conducted through a webcast delivered by Swati Mathur (Sr. Customer Success Manager, LinkedIn) and Swati Khanna (Talent Partner, Accel Partners).

 Stay tuned for the second module will focus on the best way to search and engage with passive talent on social platforms. To register yourself for the webcast click here.