Should Defense Contractors Engage Influencers to Boost Their Recruitment Efforts?

You may think it’s cringe when you see a paid partnership on Instagram, but even the White House is having special briefings for influencers to get its message out to their massive audiences on social media.

Now, should you be trying to reach security clearance talent on TikTok? Likely not, but working with influencers can be a great way to build your brand awareness and highlight open billets you need to staff.

Should Defense Contractors Engage Influencers to Boost Their Recruitment Efforts?

Here are three targeted methods HR and recruitment teams working in industry can use to boost your hiring efforts.

Work with military influencers that have a following of cleared veterans, reservists, and the Guard. Military recruiters from all branches have hopped on the ‘become influencers in the armed forces hiring space’ train. Instagram accounts that range from 10K – 100K+ followers provide answers to potential recruits questions, hilarious content, and help to reach candidates or get them interested in serving. By engaging with these groups, you can reach talent that may be a few months to a year out from transitioning.
Work with influencers in certain sectors that correlate to the contracts and customers you serve. Emily Calandrelli AKA @thespacegal, is an MIT-engineer turned Science Communicator with a goal to make science and space feel more welcoming to more people. Working on NASA contracts or support the Space Force in some way? Working with her on sponsored content may resonate with her almost 350K followers across multiple platforms.
Work with other big brands by collaborating on content. Have you seen some of the large defense contractors pushing out content like webinars, newsletters, podcasts, and more? For smaller partners, it may be worth setting up a meeting between your branding / marketing and recruitment teams to see if there is a collaboration to nurture. Leaning on another company’s large following can boost your brand and create some credibility if you are just breaking into this space.

These three tactics take planning, budgeting, and engaging with leadership. The old ways of recruiting are dead…and social media is a big piece of the future.

THE CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.