Company culture is an increasingly important aspect of any business. With millennials making up almost half of the current workforce, there is less importance on base salary and title. Rather, there is more importance placed on life-work balance, relationships with coworkers, company values, and other more “alternative” perks that can be offered. Some companies have in-house chefs, cooking healthy meals for employees on a daily basis. Other companies offer a big office filled with snacks and games, and some companies offer their employees the option to work completely remote. According to an article by Harvard Business Review, the six tenets of a great corporate culture lie in vision, values, practices, people, narrative, and place. Once you have examined these aspects and set them in motion, well, it is time to show off! Showcasing your company culture can lead to increased and meaningful interaction with future hires as well as current and future customers. Here are 5 (maybe unexpected) places where you can showcase your company culture:
1. The Job Post
Your job post may be the first time a candidate experiences your company. Make it a great experience. The first thing to keep in mind is that job posts do not have to be boring. I repeat: job posts do not have to be boring. There are several things you can do to make your job description more exciting. Start out by making the title pop more. Instead of writing the standard “Administrative Assistant Needed,” consider what could make this particular position stand out from the crowd. Perhaps add a tidbit about the growth of your company or a specific skill set you are looking for in a new hire. Consider these spruced up titles:
- “Expanding Company Seeks Administrative Assistant with Chance to Grow”
- “Creative Administrative Assistant Needed! Design Background a Major Plus!”
Continue this theme within the job post. Instead of copying and pasting a block paragraph describing the responsibilities of the job, spruce it up with more colloquial language and descriptions of daily life. Of course, you will need to address the qualifications, but consider what kind of people thrive in your company. Are your ideal workers driven introverts, focused on one job, or are they collaborative chameleons, working with others to do whatever needs to be done? Finally, add a picture! It can be your office dog sleeping in a comfy corner, your team socializing at a team happy hour, or your marketing team huddled up in the conference room. Pick a photograph that makes you think “this is what makes my company special.”
2. Your Own Company Blog
Do you have a company blog? If your answer is no, get yourself over to Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium, or your favorite blogging tool right now!In this age, applicants are able to research your company thoroughly before ever applying. Starting with checking salaries and satisfaction levels at Glassdoor, a candidate can go on to Twitter, other blogs, and all across the vast Internet to see what others are saying about your company. The special part of your own blog is that you can control the narrative. Use your blog to tell the story of your company, to highlight your customers’ successes, and to address pain points of future customers.If your company makes mini pies, then focus in on holiday gift guides around Mother’s Day or 4th of July. If you sell a budgeting app, create infographics on an average college student’s freshman year budget. Your blog is the chance to create and hone in on your company voice. A blog also offers your business the unique opportunity to test things out without compromising your actual product.
3. “Traditional” Social Media: Facebook and Twitter
We are going to call Facebook and Twitter “traditional” social media here. Traditional sources of social media are networks that have become tried and true for large corporations as well as mom-and-pop institutions. Some companies with great presence on Facebook are Nike, Fitbit, and Bare Minerals. With well over 1 million likes apiece, each company boasts extremely interactive pages fueled by customer interaction, videos, and brand stories. Just like your blog, you can largely control the narrative you set forth both on Twitter and Facebook. There is an option to post some similar content to what we discussed in the blog section. You may highlight customers, post about team outings, and address future pain points of your hopeful customer base.A great perk of being active on Twitter and Facebook is interaction with your followers. Whether it is delighted customers, interested applicants, or casual observers, you may use these platforms to interact directly with those talking about your company.
4. “Newer” Social Media: Snapchat
Don’t be afraid of newer social media! When Facebook came out, it was just a cluster of college kids navigating their way around a completely editable wall. Nobody really could have known it would turn into such a behemoth of a platform.At time of publication, it has been reported that Snapchat is used daily by 41% of consumers age 18–34. For an app that people dismissed as a flash in the pan (or a second-long picture in the pan, if you will), these are insane numbers.Snapchat affords companies the opportunity to very informally share behind-the-scenes information on their team, their office, and their works in progress.Some companies that have already thrived using Snapchat are GrubHub, HubSpot, NARS, and Taco Bell. Notice the range in these companies—a delivery service, a CRM platform, a high-end makeup company, and…Taco Bell.Too many companies say, “Snapchat is not for our business,” but they are wrong! Snapchat, in its informality and flexibility, can be used creatively for any business.For anybody who is still in doubt, register your company’s name anyway. Try it out and share it with your Facebook following or on your blog.Snapchat is likely the best way right now to attract millennial workers interested in a great company culture.
5. Trade Shows
There are trade shows for everything. Trade shows are a great way to mix with others in your industry, see what everyone else is doing, and, of course, to gain your own visibility. Unlike all of these other options, trade shows can be expensive! You will want to make sure your money is well spent. Before even choosing which trade show you attend (depending on your industry, there could be dozens of applicable trade shows), make sure you research what kind of crowd it draws and gear your booth, your materials, your giveaway goodies, and who mans your booth toward the audience. Having both friendly and outgoing entry-level and mid-level employees as well as a senior-level executive will help to appeal to the entire audience. Someone trying to gauge a company’s culture can witness first-hand what different levels look like. If budget allows, you might also consider hosting an affiliated event in conjunction with the main event. Your company could host a coffee and bagels breakfast or, for extra cool points, an after-event happy hour by the pool. A trade show can be a great place to appeal to future customers and employees.
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to share information about your company. Consider what about your business makes you proud. Consider what makes you stand out above your competitors. Use this guide to aid you in deciding where to share these bits of your culture with the world. Maybe it is in a blog post spotlighting your sales team. Maybe it is a little Snapchat of donuts a team member brought into the office. Believe it or not, these little pieces of information can do volumes to cement your company’s voice and promote your company’s culture in a world full of digital information being exchanged at a rapid rate. What is unique about your company’s culture? Let us know on Twitter at @ProvenJobs or @Formstack.
About the Author
Caileen Kehayas is a content marketer for Proven. When she is not blogging or tweeting, she likes to curl up with a good book or go for a run in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Want to know how to grow your company's culture? Check out 5 ways you can do so that is focused on personal growth down below!
