With over 130 million active users in the USA alone, Instagram has become a new sensation in the recruiting world. Your responsibility is to understand how to utilize it effectively to source the best possible talents.
As social media is taking over businesses, competition for acquiring top candidates has shifted from word of mouth to online social networking.
Though it is relatively a new player in the recruitment industry, Instagram has become a powerful tool for recruiters for candidate sourcing and employer branding.
According to recent studies, the most active users of Instagram constitute tech professionals, making it a priority for tech recruiters to reach out on this channel.
However, to effectively source, attract and engage with talents, a proper strategy must be implemented. This article aims to help you with the same.
Remember, both recruiters and their agency’s Instagram profile must be professionally optimized, so it is taken seriously by both candidates and clients.
Your content must be visually appealing and educational, not only a bunch of repetitive job ads. It must immediately convey your agency’s culture and values, enticing candidates to visit your website and apply for the job.
Using Instagram for Recruitment
Did you know that the engagement level on Instagram is much higher than on any other social platform? Likely, you have already nailed your LinkedIn recruitment strategy, but what about Instagram?
80% of Instagram users claim that they use their accounts to engage with businesses. With such a figure, recruiters can’t afford to miss this untapped talent pool, especially in a candidate-short market.
When recruiting, there are two main categories where all your efforts will fall: Inbound Recruiting (Attracting talents) and Outbound Recruiting (Sourcing talents).
Here are some tips for both:
For Attracting Talents
- Show Your Creativity through Your Content
The biggest mistake recruiters make while recruiting via social media is being predictable and repetitive. Setting up an Instagram profile and posting job ads can be easy, but it is not the right approach.
To attract candidates, your profile must be eye-catchy and tempting. You must show your agency’s positive work culture, day-to-day life of working there, responses of “happy” employees, tutorials, etc.
You must visit your competitors’ Instagram profiles and see what they are posting to build their audience. Come up with newer ideas that could fit your theme according to your ultimate goal and target audience.
Also, you must be authentic with your agency’s depiction and online reputation. “Faking” photos and descriptions may attract a few candidates, but it will only backfire in the long run.
- Use Instagram Stories
According to research, 70% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials spend more time watching Instagram stories than scrolling through their feed.
If you want to attract the younger generation, don’t just stick to the main feed content. Get involved in story-making. There are various chrome extensions for recruiters that will let you do just that.
- Use Instagram CTA Feature
Instagram provides its content creators a “Call-to-Action” feature that allows them to direct their target audience to their website or any other relevant platform, making it easier for interested candidates to apply for the available job roles.
- Include Hashtags
Hashtags help users find the related content in one place. For instance, if candidates want to search for the role of fashion design, they can use hashtags like #fashiondesigning, #fashionjobs, etc., to find reliable content.
Recruiters must ensure they use appropriate hashtags to make it easier for candidates to discover their service.
- Use Reels and IGTV Features
Short 15-60 seconds reels can be the turning point for your agency if appropriately used, especially after the video content has become a trend.
Nowadays, people use reels to build their audience, for entertainment purposes, or to search for brands. Recruiters can take advantage of this feature to attract prospective talents.
Similarly, for longer videos ranging from 1 to 10 minutes or even up to 1 hour for verified accounts, Igtv videos can also be a great medium for attracting an organic audience.
The best thing about Igtv is it allows the option to include a clickable link in its description that can direct users to your career site.
For Sourcing Talents
- Engage with Your Followers
To build a dedicated audience, it’s essential to engage with others’ content, post some value-driven content, conduct exclusive live sessions, or do anything that can help you communicate with your Instagram talent pool better.
You must actively comment on the posts of your prospective candidate, follow them, build a powerful outreach messaging strategy, etc., to grab their attention.
Use a video maker to create engaging reels and videos to further increase your account outreach.
- Use Location Feature
Instagram has partnered with FourSquare which allows users to tag their photos to a location. It is a beneficial feature for recruiters who want to hire locally.
You can directly search #[location name] or just click the blue link (showing location) on photos to bring up all the posts tagged with the same location.
- Use X-Ray and Boolean Search Feature
Boolean search is not only for LinkedIn and job boards; you can do it on Instagram too. Just type the following on google:
Site: instagram.com (C# OR ‘Graphic Designer’ OR SQL OR Dev) AND (London)
You can optimize this syntax for any job role and location. It will show all the profiles based in [location] (here London) that contain the term ‘Graphic designer’.
You can then launch a recruitment marketing campaign after gathering all these profiles and directing them to your Applicant tracking system.
One of the best recruitment software you’ll find in the market is this Bullhorn alternative.
Bonus Tips
- Be Active
The most crucial tip to utilize Instagram effectively is to be active and consistent with your efforts. Post photos on fixed schedules, engage with others, create unique hashtags for your agency posts, run a few competitions, etc.
It will help build a dedicated fanbase and find people who are genuinely interested in your brand. It will help you with your candidate experience strategies immediately if the candidate proceeds through the recruiting funnel.
Being active increases your organic reach, which can be useful when posting job advertisements on your profile.
- Analyze Your ‘Insights’
Instagram provides detailed insight into your activities and profile growth. It shows engagement analytics that can help you build a better Instagram recruiting strategy.
You can easily find out what works for your target audience and what does not. By analyzing the loopholes, you can grow your profile exponentially and maximize your reach.
You can do the following through your Instagram insights:
- Track your audience’s reach for all types of content
- Track followers and profile visits
- Determine the number of times a user clicked the links you have provided in your profile.
- Track content interaction for individual posts, reels, IGTV, lives, etc.
- Track the best timing for posting content
- View your story insights and impressions.
While Instagram is not explicitly built for recruitment, agencies must not ignore the fourth most prominent social media platform and its ability to bring together employers and job seekers.