Can Instagram Work In The Recruitment Market?

Instagram can be a tremendously powerful recruitment tool, expanding your reach, building brand recognition and loyalty, and tapping into an audience of highly engaged prospective candidates.

Who uses Instagram?

It’s used by over 300 million people each month, of which 70% log in each day. Instagram has 50 times more engagement than Facebook, while the average user spends 257 minutes logged into the site each month.

Overwhelmingly, Instagram users are young. In America, 53% of those between 18 and 29 years old are on Instagram. For this Millennial demographic, the technology they use, the brands they trust and the importance they put on company culture has never been more important- and Instagram provides a direct line to this audience.

Who shouldn’t use Instagram for business?

Because the majority of Instagram users are young, starting an Instagram account probably isn’t your best bet if you’re recruiting senior executives. In fact, this fun and informal social media strategy might even work against you in the more formal recruitment market. Instagram isn’t for every business, so carefully consider your target audience.

Firstly, what is Instagram and what can you do with it?

It’s an image-sharing site that allows you to post images and short videos. You tag your photo or image with hashtags so that it pops up on other people’s feeds who are also following that topic- thereby opening you up to a potentially endless supply of candidates-both active and passive.

There’s lots of room to be creative and your potential audience is immense.

What won’t it let you do?

It’s not meant for articles, so this isn’t a place for blogs etc.

It won’t allow you to link things (although you can get around this by typing the link out in the post so people can cut and paste, or direct the reader to the link in your profile to visit your page.

Why does it work so well?

It’s all about creating an online presence that is engaging, memorable and fun. Instagram is quite personal in tone, and not at all stuffy. With Millennials now making up more than 50% of the workforce, the emphasis on good company culture has never been higher. Millennials decide they want to work somewhere based largely on what they think the culture is like. Instagram is therefore perfect for showing your company has a fun, young culture.

Luckily, recruitment is all about people and success stories, so there’s a huge amount of engaging content you can post.

How should you start?

To make a successful recruitment Instagram account, it’s necessary to be a bit creative. After all, you’re not a travel photographer in the Canadian wilderness, a pop star like Taylor Swift, or a famous designer with access to gorgeous high resolution fashion photos. So, how do you go about creating a memorable, ‘followable’ and trustworthy brand image on Instagram?

Recruitment is about people. So your Instagram account needs to be about people too. Engaging, happy, successful people.

1. Create an account- making sure that the company name is the account name.

2. Get all employees to follow the account to build momentum, and ask for their input for content.

3. Decide your strategy. Don’t make it all about business- intersperse a business-specific image or meme in with other engaging things- pictures of staff at lunch, inspirational quotes, even pictures of dogs.

4. Post pictures of your staff to create a sense that followers know the people behind the name.

5. Make a short video, perhaps talking about interview strategies or CV tips.

6. Always remember that this is an image-sharing site. If you don’t have good images to post, then find some! But be wary of using generic stock images, as Instagram users don’t tend to respond well to these. Genuine, even quirky images work much better, so get the camera out…

7. Consider running a fun competition. Ask followers to write something on a post-it note, such as ‘best excuse for being late to an interview’, or ‘funniest thing seen on a CV’ and post it. Recruiters should have a field day with these. You can start it with a funny one of your own.

8. Make sure that your company facebook, twitter, and Instagram accounts are linked.

9. Each time you post an image, be sure to put a few hashtags in the post so that your image pops up on lots of people’s feeds. #recruitment and #careers are obvious ones, but be a bit creative to expand your reach. #cvtips or #inspirationalquotes might work well, or #officedogs might prove a winner.

10. Be creative, try new things and see what works. Follow your network, your competitors and your industry. See what everyone else is doing and then create your point of difference if you can.

11. When someone comments, comment back- asap.

12. Find a hashtag that’s trending in your industry and then participate with images from your brand.

13. Remember- Instagram is meant to be fun!

So if you’re trying to recruit young and social media savvy employees, then Instagram is a great strategy to add to your recruitment arsenal. Just remember to keep your profile engaging and stay active, and you’ll be amazed at how many active and passive candidates you can reach.

Until next time,

Cheryl