It’s no secret that Creative Niche’s use of social media has drawn a lot of attention within the workforce management industry. We’re unique in that we’ve managed to harness the power of multiple social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube—producing and posting innovative video job postings in a Canadian first—to help grow the company to new heights.

So, why did we jump on the social media bandwagon? For lots of reasons, but initially it was out of necessity. When the recession hit in early 2009, we immediately looked for ways to reduce costs and boost our bottom line. Up until then, we’d been using traditional job portals such as Monster and Workopolis to help find candidates. Trouble is, these portals can be very costly.  At the same time, our CEO Mandy Gilbert gave us a mandate to try to cut advertising and marketing costs as much as possible to help weather the economic downturn.

A large part of our marketing strategy in the very lean, early days after the company’s founding in 2002, was to use community engagement and outreach to potential clients and candidates—at industry events, as well as through word of mouth—to drive sales. Social media offered a digital extension of those early tactics, so it made perfect sense for us to embrace this relatively new medium. More importantly, a large part of the community we serve is active and engaged on these platforms. Maintaining a strong social media presence ourselves proves to them that we understand their business products and services, as well as their skills as professionals.

We first dipped our toes in the social media ocean when we opened our Twitter account (@CreativeNiche) on March 11, 2009, and started exploring the Twittersphere with simple job postings. Our follower list grew, along with our brand reach, as we began posting even more jobs and engaging with our audience on a regular basis by offering a wide range of information from industry updates to news about Creative Niche. People began re-Tweeting available jobs, encouraging friends to follow us and referred prospective candidates to our job postings.

We soon expanded our social media efforts to include a Facebook page on which we post jobs, company photos and information about our events, as well as the YouTube channel we use to post our highly-creative video job postings. These clips offer candidates a chance to hear about job opportunities straight from the recruitment specialists working to staff them.

But social media has even helped power our cross-country expansion. When the recession hit, we accepted business from companies outside of our core Toronto and Ottawa territories and filled job opportunities for companies in cities as far away as Yellowknife, Calgary and Halifax. This meant we had to attract talent from outside Ontario and Facebook Ads allowed us to do exactly that, and at minimal cost.

In short, social media has been a game-changer for Creative Niche, allowing us to increase brand awareness and drive online applications by job-seekers, while helping us serve clients faster. It’s also allowed us to remain transparent, approachable and connected—all while differentiating us from other workforce management firms across the country. We’re not sure where social media will take the company next, but we’re definitely ready to enjoy the ride.

Until next time,

Kimi

Kimi Abdullah is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Creative Niche. Read more about her on Our Team page.