In 1987’s world-beating #1 best-seller, noted author Donald Trump posits that “truthful hyperbole” is an innocent form of exaggeration and a very effective form of promotion.

However, I’m not sure how this definition meshes with what hyperbole means: bullshit.

Whatever you think of the approach, you can’t deny its effect on his supporters.

A friend of the family was a Trump voter in his first campaign. She talked eloquently of the need for change in a broken system, and how a bringer of chaos might galvanise a better America. Her words.

It just so happens that his words of a broken swamp that could be made great again speak to the hearts of his audience.

I’m reminded of the world of alternate facts whenever I see one of those daft copypasta dimfluencer posts. I’d classify these as hopeful hyperbole.

HR: What's your salary expectation?"

Candidate: xxxxx to xxxxx a year.

HR: You are the best-fit for the role but we can only offer xxxxx.

Candidate: Okay. xxxxx would be fine.

HR: How soon can you start?

Meanwhile the budget for that particular role is xxxxx+5 the company feels like they did a great job in salary negotiation and management will be happy they cut cost for the organisation.

The new employee starts and notices the pay disparity. Guess what happens? Dissatisfaction. Disengagement. Disloyalty.

Two months later, the employee leaves the organization for a better job. The recruitment process starts all over again. Leading to further costs and performance gaps within the team and organisation.

In order to attract and retain top talent, please pay people what they are worth.

Something that has been posted at least 500 times by different people, under the semblance of original content, often to huge reaction.

‘Xxxxx’ is all that seems to change.

When many people feel the recruitment system is broken, it’s no surprise a hopeful message they can find meaning with will land.

These posts aren’t there to start conversations, they’re there to get engagement.

To get readers to see the poster as a beacon of virtue in a landscape of evil recruiters, HR practitioners and other normal people.

All these posts mainly show is a weak understanding of how recruitment works.

In the example above, typically a hiring manager would set the offer level, which HR facilitates, with the budget approved by finance.

Where’s the nuance or actionable points employers can look into?

Apart from ‘do better’ that is.

On the flip side, it encourages a feeling of entitlement from readers, offering validation for their feelings in a difficult job search.

If an employer offered £38k when the budget was up to £45k, is that necessarily an unfair offer?

What if that was the perceived value of a candidate’s capability based on a rigorous and benchmarked interview process?

What if the candidate’s perception of their worth is unrealistic?

What if that’s the only offer they will get in a challenging market, and by feeling justified to decline it, they get no further offers in the next six months?

These memes are effective at creating engagement because they are vague, speak to entitlement and outrage, evoke feeling, and offer a hero story.

It’s a form of copywriting, although I wouldn’t think most people who rely on this type of content recognise why it generates a response.

In an experiment with a marketing contact, he ran one of these posts word for word.

This was someone who’d had limited engagement on his promotional posts previously.

Before the post was taken down by LinkedIn for ‘copypasta infringement’, it achieved:

It also took up a lot of his time in responding to comments.

Ironically, when recruiters do so, and you look at their adverts, these are a different form of copypasta - the type that doesn’t create a reaction at all.

What if, instead, you look at the same process that creates such strong emotion, to communicate with people you can help?

Whether that’s an advert that brings forward the right people for the right reasons - people who will thrive and deliver over the long term.

Or through providing niche advice an ideal audience can replicate.

Copywriting unpicks the structure of why messaging works and allows you to build messages from the same blocks.

You can see how effective it is, just by looking at the cynical 55 year old who WORKs from HOME with a 1.5 year employment gap efforts.

The same principles can be effective and virtuous, if executed with good intent - with a focus on the one, not the many.

It’s how you get good candidates to respond positively to a message, irrespective of whether it’s in an advert, DM, email or call.

Or you can appeal to the masses, no matter what your agenda is, and sod the consequences.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg