Accomplish Your Recruiting Goals: Think Like a Marketer

We all know recruiting is tough right now. No need to belabor the point. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. We need to! We should focus our attention on finding solutions that will fill our talent pipeline. Today, I want to share a new model that might provide some creative inspiration towards those solutions. And a technology product that can make implementing it easy.

The PESO Model

I discovered the model in a blog post written by Gini Dietrich on the site Spin Sucks, the PESO Model outlines four different types of media: paid, earned, shared, and owned. While the model talks about media in terms of marketing media, we can use the principles for our recruitment marketing.

Paid media is exactly what it says, it’s the content that the company pays for. An example is the GE television ad featuring Molly. It could also include a sponsored ad on LinkedIn or an email newsletter to the individuals in your talent pool.

Earned media is publicity or coverage that others write about the company. An example is when someone from the company speaks at a conference about a program they’ve developed to improve diversity recruiting. Or when the organization wins a Great Place to Work award and the local news writes about it.

Shared media happens when content is shared by employees, customers, fans, etc. One example would be your employee referral program. Another is when employees share job openings on their LinkedIn profile or Twitter account.

Owned media refers to websites, blogs, etc. that are owned by the company. This includes your career portal, applicant tracking system, and company websites.

You probably noticed that it’s possible for some marketing collateral to fall into two (or more!) categories. For example, if the company creates a recruiting video for their own career portal, that’s owned media. But if they decide that they’re going to run the ad on television, then it becomes paid media.

I must admit I like this model because it has balance. As a talent acquisition professional, I should be thinking about getting all four types of media into my recruitment marketing strategy. People today consume information in so many different ways and on a variety of devices. Having a multi-faceted approach just makes sense.

Implementing a Multi-Media Recruiting Strategy

The challenge is finding the time and the media opportunities. Let’s face it, we aren’t all sitting around with extra time on our schedule to do the research. That’s where technology solution HRMarketer comes in.

HRMarketer is a marketing and advocacy platform specializing in the human resources space. I was first introduced to their product because I’m a consultant and its primary purpose is to help B2B (business-to-business) organizations (like ITM Group, Inc.) find and manage marketing opportunities. If you’re a consultant or provide services in the human resources space, you might want to consider using them to assist with your company’s marketing efforts.

But if you’re not a consultant, that doesn’t mean HRMarketer doesn’t have something for you. Because HRMarketer is focused on the human resources market, they know about the events, conferences, influencers, etc. in the HR space. That means for organizations that want to distribute talent acquisition and recruiting messaging, HRMarketer can provide a place to start and manage your multi-media promotions.

I do believe the only way to truly appreciate what HRMarketer does is by scheduling a demo, but let me share with you three things I really like about their product:

It maintains a current list of conferences and events related to human resources. You can apply to speak or get general conference information for professional development opportunities. I’m always looking for new events (in addition to the regulars) to keep my skills current.


The platform allows you to schedule social media messages on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s become very acceptable to preschedule messaging. And organizations will want to send out their messages more than once. This can be a huge time saver!


Lastly, the site allows you to follow blogs and other news outlets. We know that our social media accounts cannot be all about us. If you’re looking for some general information to add to your social media content, this is a place that will help you curate good content to share.

As recruiting continues to challenge us, we must find new strategies to accomplish our goals. The PESO model can offer us a fresh look at our recruitment marketing. And products like HRMarketer can help us turn the strategy into reality.

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