MightyRecruiter
It’s incredible to think that what is essentially an app has became a social network of over 400 million buzzing Instagrammers. I’m an addict, so let me attempt to convince you of its place in your hiring cycle.
1. Instagram gives you the power to tap a massive audience
When we’re in our recruiting bubble, it’s easy to stay with the safe and known networks. Which is why I love Vincos World Map Of Social Networks; it’s a great reminder that though we may only use one network for hiring, the people we’re looking to recruit may well be using something else altogether.
So important has Instagram become, that Vincos has added a map of the 2nd most popular social networks. You can see that Instagram dominates!
In fact, Instagram usage has doubled in the last 3 years, and with 90 percent of Instagram users under 35 and over half the world’s population under 30, it simply makes sense to add it as a channel for recruitment.
You’d never ignore LinkedIn’s 100 million active users, so why ignore Instagram’s buzzing community?
2. Instagram gives you a place to grow your reputation
Our attention spans are short. People are tired of the usual recruitment approaches. And many recruiters have forgotten that hiring is a person-to-person interaction.
Instagram gives you an easy way to build trust and stand out in this incredibly noisy online world.
Set the scene with a great bio and a mix of professional and personal, so people can engage with you easily. And don’t be afraid to share what matters to you; my dogs have started many conversations that have led to business!
3. Instagram lets you build your brand and open the door with ease!
Jobseekers are looking at you – before they apply or reply.
They use Glassdoor, check Indeed reviews, and peruse your LinkedIn or Facebook page, so why wouldn’t they check your company out on Instagram too?
By sharing genuine insights into your company, you’ll draw people towards your company culture or help people deselect themselves, which is as important.
It’s so easy too. Look how Wiltshire Council Careers has done it. Pretty impressive for a local council!
3 reasons it’s great:
- 1. A link directly to their job opportunities in their bio
- 2. Great use of hashtags
- 3. Linking to a blog, which draws people to them again
4. Instagram makes cross posting easy
One snap, a thousand uses! Instagram itself makes it easy to cross post to Facebook and Twitter, but you can also add your pic to a Flickr album, check in on Swarm, and post on Tumblr.
Why stop there though? Take the image that drops into your camera roll and upload it directly to LinkedIn or your career site.
Top tip: Instead of clicking the Twitter symbol, which will add your Instagram photo to Twitter as a link, create this free recipe at IFTTT then all of your Instagram photos will automatically post to Twitter as an image. (Instagram links are difficult to open on the Twitter app and are a lost opportunity to engage.)
5. All of the complimentary apps!
You don’t have to be a photographic genius to use Instagram. There a plethora of free or cost-effective apps that you can use to jazz up your snaps.
Some of my favorites include:
- Photo Collage Free or A Beautiful Mess, when just one photo won’t do
- Instaweather, because who doesn’t like talking about the weather?
- Typorama for adding text or for finding inspiration
- Repostapp for sharing another person’s photo whilst giving them credit
In future posts, I’ll share with you more ideas and techniques for getting the most out of Instagram. But if I haven’t convinced you to give Instagram a try, did I mention that it’s free?
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