Recruitment Marketing Public

Live Chats are group Q&A (question and answers) sessions that turn your people into brand ambassadors to help you share your story with your most engaged candidates. Meet with talent and answer questions at scale.

Why organize a Live Chat?

Live Chats will increase the quantity and quality of your content by mirroring real-life conversations. They are used to drive content around specific topics and target specific candidates (e.g., applications, diverse candidates) in public or private settings.

Successful live chats can generate a wealth of discussions that can be leveraged by future candidates who didn’t attend the event.

Steps for organizing a successful Live Chat

1. Select an effective theme: Start your first Live Chat(s) with popular themes that will attract a large enough audience (“Meet the team”, etc.) and then more niche topics (see below for examples).

2. Identify and invite your Ambassadors: Select Ambassadors from the platform to participate in the Live Chat.

   Note:

   There is no limit to the number of participating Ambassadors, and they do not need to be published.

3. Create your Live Chat: Schedule the Live Chat in the platform at least 3 to 4 weeks in advance. Once scheduled, upload your video presentation in advance of the event.

4. Promote your Live Chat: Ensure you follow best practices in the Live Chat guide to promote a live chat effectively, so as to ensure good attendance.

   Note:

   Typically, 40-50% of subscribed candidates attend the Live Chat.

Live Chat Themes

Organise the first chat as soon as possible to build platform content, then continue across the entire recruitment period to target groups. Select themes that will excite & inform your target audience.

Popular & General themes

To engage all candidates, some ideas are below:

• “Meet the team”
• “What makes our organisation unique”
• “Opportunities in [insert region]”
• “Why [insert name]”
• “[insert programme], your questions answered”
• “Working at [insert firm], perception vs reality”.

Process-driven themes

Use recruitment themes to engage applicants in the process:

• “Get ahead of the competition”
• “Stand out at interview”
• “How to prepare for your assessment centre”
• “What makes our interview process unique”
• “Find out what it takes to join us”
• “What to expect on your first day”.

Additional popular Live Chat topics

• Learn more: Meet the team, Day in the life of a [job role], What makes the organisation great, Opportunities in [region].
• Diversity: LGBTQ+ life within the company, Female leaders, and Diversity and inclusion within the company.
• Pre-onboarding: How to prepare for your first day, What does the first month look like, Training materials Q&A
• Applications: Graduate programmes, Post-offer live chat, How to prepare for an assessment centre, Tackling interviews.

Best practices: During the Live Chat

Recommended:

• Answer promptly: Keep an eye on the questions assigned to you to ensure you aren’t leaving candidates waiting too long for answers.
• Answer questions that already have responses: The platform may automatically share questions that could benefit from your answer. No two employees are the same; multiple viewpoints enrich the content for candidates.
• Share practical tips: Some candidates will ask you about the application process. Share tips which they can action and which only you, having gone through them yourself, are in a position to share.

Not recommended:

• Providing too short answers: Unless appropriate, answers that are too short are usually not helpful for candidates, and you miss an opportunity to make your employer stand out.
• Giving answers that are too general: Tell them unique stories about you and your employer, and avoid general answers that candidates are trying to avoid by using this platform.
• Referring back to the careers website: Unless the career site perfectly responds to candidates’ questions (rarely the case), try to avoid referring them back to your careers site. You’ll be amazed by how much more you can add to convince candidates.

Promoting Live Chats

To maximize engagement with Employee Connections, you need a strategic approach to promotion. A successful Live Chat starts with a compelling "hook" and enough lead time to build an audience.

1. Craft an enticing title

Your title is the first thing a candidate sees. It should spark immediate curiosity and encourage them to click through to the description.

• Keep it punchy: Use action-oriented language.
• Focus on value: Highlight what the candidate stands to gain.

2. Write a motivating description

The description's job is to convert interest into attendance. Use this space to build a personal connection and set expectations:

• Tease the topics: Provide a sneak peek of the key subjects you’ll cover to make candidates eager to learn more.
• Humanize the brand: Introduce the Insiders (your team members) who will be chatting. This builds rapport before the event even begins.
• Include a strong CTA: End with a clear Call to Action (CTA) that tells the target audience exactly how to subscribe.

3. Inviting Candidates

Candidates can come across your Live Chat in a few different ways.

1. Careers site: Promote it organically on your careers site, utilizing the Live Chat Content Block across the platform. Think of events pages, job template pages, and more.
2. Email invitation: Invite via email. Once your invitation template is set, you can easily do this from the Candidate Grid.
   1. Use the Candidate Grid to select multiple candidates.
   2. From the sub-menu just above the candidate list are bulk actions for you to choose from. Select Invite to LiveChat. 
   3. From the Select live chat drop-down, select the relevant Live Chat Event.
      
   4. Save by clicking the Invite Candidates button.

3. Social media: Promote a link to the Live Chat on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, and have your Ambassadors post about the event they will be hosting on their own socials.

   

Accessing the Live Chat

Most users will log into the Live Chat through the Live Chat Landing page. When the event starts, a "Join now" button will appear. Any email link will take the user to this landing page, and they can join from there.

Alternatively, Admins and Ambassadors can enter through the Recruitment Marketing platform:

1. Log in to the Recruitment Marketing platform.
2. From the side menu, under Recruitment Events, click Live Chat.
3. Click on the relevant Live Chat title to view its information, then click the Manage Live Chat in Employee Connections button.
   

You will be taken to the Live Chat directly and will not need to log in again.

Branding & Customization

You can customize your Live Chat using primary and secondary colors, ensuring that your employer brand is promoted throughout the entire event.

To set your brand colors:

1. From the side menu, under Company, click Settings.
2. Under Employee Connections, click on Moderation, Seeding and API Settings.

3. In the Live Chat Settings section, click on the color picker to set the HEX, RGB, or HSL value.

   

4. Click Save.

Whitelisting Live Chat

The Live Chat may be blocked by your internal IT systems. To ensure Ambassadors can log in easily and join at work, please whitelist the following: