Breaking Through The “Follower Count Ceiling” and Why It’s Critical for Job Ad Success Today - ep.254

Network Expansion—How Culture Stories Amplify Beyond Your Reach - ep.254

Julie South [00:00:00]: Welcome to Veterinary Voices—culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics. I'm Julie South, and this is episode 254.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, helping forward-thinking clinics tell their culture stories, not just post job ads.

Last week we talked about culture that can be easily recognised. Why claiming culture in job ads doesn't work when vets and nurses have learnt to be sceptical.

This week we're talking about network expansion. Why job ads keep you trapped in your own limited reach. While culture stories amplify through networks you'll never access yourself.

Stay with me to the end. I want to leave you with a question about the thousands of vets and nurses you're failing to reach. Not because they're not looking. But because they're looking in networks you can't access.

The Follower Count Ceiling

Julie South [00:01:11]: Right now, somewhere in Auckland, a clinic posts a job ad on their Facebook page.

It reaches their 1,200 followers. Mostly clients. A few team members. Maybe 30 vets and nurses if they're lucky.

They boost the post for $100. Reach costs more every year—you've probably noticed. But engagement stays flat.

Facebook shows it to maybe 3,000 more people in that area. Still mostly pet owners. Maybe another 50 to 75 vets and nurses.

Total professional reach? Maybe 80 to 100 vets and nurses. From their own network. People already following them.

That's the follower count ceiling.

You can't reach beyond your own network through job ads. You're trapped under that ceiling. Limited to whoever is already following you.

Julie South [00:02:15]: Six weeks later, still no suitable applicants.

Meanwhile, across town, a vet shares a culture story from her clinic.

Goes something like this:

"Chaotic Friday. Three emergencies, back to back. Team didn't panic. Didn't blame. Everyone just moved. This is why I stay."

Julie South [00:02:54]: That post reaches her 500 LinkedIn connections.

But here's what most clinics don't realise. It doesn't stop there.

How Culture Stories Amplify

When culture stories are shareable, they don't just reach your team's immediate networks. They amplify through extended networks. Networks you'll never access from your clinic account.

Here's how:

That vet's post gets shared by three of her connections. People who work at other clinics who thought, "Yes, that's what good culture looks like."

Those three people have their own networks. Different cities. Different connections. Different reach.

Julie South [00:03:58]: One share reaches a vet in Melbourne who's been quietly thinking about relocating to New Zealand. They've never heard of this clinic. They're not following the clinic's page. But they follow someone who follows someone who shared the story.

Another share reaches a nurse in Sydney whose friend's flatmate works at this clinic. Three degrees of separation. Would never see a job ad. But saw the culture story because it travelled.

That's network amplification. Not addition. Multiplication.

Post and Pray vs. Amplification

Julie South [00:04:47]: Most clinics are still using post-and-pray recruiting through job ads.

They post the ad on their own page. Maybe pay to boost it. Pray it reaches the right people.

But job ads don't amplify.

They sit there, locked to your clinic's Facebook account. Mostly clients who scroll past job ads anyway. Trapped under the follower count ceiling.

You're competing for attention against hundreds of other job ads. All saying identical things. All trapped in the same limited reach.

Meanwhile, culture stories move differently through networks.

Julie South [00:05:51]: They get shared because they're interesting. Because they show something real. Because someone thought:

"My friends need to see this."

Or maybe: "This is what I've been trying to explain about good culture."

People share them because they say something about who they are. What matters to them. What good culture looks like to them.

Shares reach extended networks. The thousands of vets and nurses connected to people who are connected to your team. That you'll never reach from your clinic's account alone.

The System Changed in Three Ways

Julie South [00:06:46]: The system changed in three ways that make network reach absolutely critical today.

First: Vets and nurses still use job boards to find job ads.

But here's what's changed.

When they're scrolling through dozens of ads, they're unconsciously filtering. Filtering for ads from clinics they recognise. Because they've seen culture stories from those clinics. Because someone in their network mentioned them.

Those ads are the ones that get clicked.

Ads from clinics they've never heard of? They just scroll past.

Clinics using only job boards are starting their hiring from scratch. From cold. Every single time. Unknown. Competing against dozens of identical ads.

Julie South [00:07:25]: Clinics supplementing job boards with culture stories? They're already streets ahead. Vets and nurses recognise them long before they even see the ad.

That's the hiring advantage.

And it takes a lot—as in a lot, a lot—more effort for the cold start, start-from-scratch clinics to catch the warm clinics up.

Second: Trust comes from peer voices, not clinic claims.

When a vet or nurse shares a culture story, their network trusts it. Because it's coming from someone they know. Not because the clinic said it in a job ad.

Julie South [00:08:43]: Third: The networks that matter are extended networks.

People connected to people connected to people connected to your team.

These are vets and nurses in different cities. Different countries. Different career stages. People you'd never reach through your own clinic account. But they're watching what travels through their networks.

What's Working Now

When you rely on job ads posted from your clinic account, they're trapped in limited reach.

You're not doing anything wrong. You're doing what you know. But the goalposts got moved. And the referee didn't tell you.

Here's what's working differently now:

When culture stories exist somewhere permanent and shareable—where people can find them, share them, and discover them through extended networks—the reach multiplies beyond anything you could achieve from your clinic account.

One culture story shared by a team member doesn't just reach their 500 connections. It reaches the connections of anyone who shares it. Then their connections. Then theirs.

Exponential reach through network amplification.

Julie South [00:10:07]: And culture stories are designed for this. Not through manipulation or virality tactics. Through being genuinely worth sharing. Real culture that real people want to talk about.

The Infrastructure

VetClinicJobs gives culture stories a permanent, discoverable home that's built for network amplification.

Your team's real stories. Shareable across networks. Discoverable by vets and nurses who'll never see your job ads because they're not in your immediate network.

So when culture stories travel through extended networks, vets and nurses discover you before you're even recruiting. Not because they were searching for jobs. But because someone they trust shared something worth seeing.

What's Happening Right Now

Right now, as you're listening, two things are happening somewhere in the world.

One clinic is posting job ads from their clinic account. Paying to boost reach. Hoping the right vets and nurses see them. Trapped under their follower count ceiling. Limited to their own network. Competing against hundreds of identical ads.

Julie South [00:11:51]: Somewhere else in the world, another clinic has culture stories travelling through extended networks right now.

Shared by team members. Discovered by vets in different clinics, different cities. Amplifying through connections three and four—maybe more—degrees removed from anyone at the clinic.

Built while they've been fully staffed. Created when you have time. Not scrambled when desperate. Travelling while not recruiting.

So when they do need to hire, they're not starting from scratch. Not starting from cold or from zero. They're known across networks they've never directly accessed.

The Question

I promised you a question.

Instead of asking "How do I get more people to see my job ads?" ask this:

How many vets and nurses who'd be perfect for our clinic have never heard of us? Not because they're not looking, but because they're looking in networks we don't reach. That we can't reach.

Because people don't find clinics through job ads anymore. They discover them through networks.

And when culture stories amplify through those networks, you're not limited to your own reach anymore.

You're visible. Seen. Findable across thousands of connections you'll never access directly.

Next Week

Julie South [00:13:11]: Next week, in episode 255, we'll talk about recruitment momentum. Why starting from scratch every time someone resigns keeps you trapped in reactive recruitment cycles.

This is Julie South, signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self.

Because when culture stories travel through networks, they reach vets and nurses who have never heard of you.

And when those vets and nurses discover you're their kind of clinic through stories shared by their kind of people, you're not recruiting through limited reach anymore.

You're being discovered across networks you didn't even know existed.

Claude is AI and can make mistakes. 
Please double-check responses.