Social Media: Harming or Enhancing Your Employer Brand Attractiveness? An Empirical Investigation

Both academics and practitioners are seeking for insights on the influences of social media on brand perceptions. In the research at hand we focus on one specific area of brand management and investigate the effect of employer evaluations on employer brand attractiveness. Employer evaluations are the evaluations employees publish about their former or current employers on websites such as Glassdoor. They represent a parallel development to consumer evaluations of products/services and have gained continuous importance as a source of formerly made experiences with potential employers. We empirically control for the effect of employer evaluations on employer brand perceptions by conducting an experimental study. The data displays a positive effect of positive evaluations on employer brand perceptions. This finding suggests a potentially enhancing effect of social media on employer brand attractiveness. In the discussion of our paper we present the academic and managerial implications and address potential limitations.