Do you use Instagram for recruiting?
Instagram can be an excellent platform for recruiters if you are interested in advancing your career and success as a recruiter.
You want to think about how to use this platform to brand yourself as a recruiter worth following and paying attention to instead of using it to search for potential candidates.
This change in your mindset is required when you want to drive your own career and elevate your chances of succeeding in your recruitment projects.
So, what you need to do is stop being a silent matchmaker and start becoming a matchmaking magnet who attracts candidates towards you and the career opportunities you represent.
Stop being a silent matchmaker and start becoming a matchmaking magnet who attracts candidates towards you and the career opportunities you represent.
Susanna Rantanen
In this week’s episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I talk about the best way to use Instagram for recruiters.
I’ll share some ideas, suggestions and tips on how you can leverage Instagram as a recruiter and recommend you five career influencers on Instagram to follow and use as a source of inspiration.
If you are new to this podcast, my name is Susanna Rantanen. I teach branding, marketing and communications for the HR Industry professionals such as employer branding specialists, talent acquisition professionals and coaches.
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Instagram for recruiters – what you should be doing that you probably haven’t
Let’s start with the most important message of this episode:
Stop seeing yourself as a silent matchmaker and start becoming a matchmaking magnet who attracts candidates to you and towards the career opportunities you represent.
You don’t need your employer’s or client’s social media accounts for this.
As a recruiter, you’ll be smarter when building your profile and audiences, as those can be worth as much as relevant work experience as you move forward in your career.
As a recruiter, you’ll be smarter when building your profile and audiences, as those can be worth as much as relevant work experience as you move forward in your career.
Susanna Rantanen
The larger your own audience is, the more attractive you become as a recruiter. Not just for employers and clients but obviously for job seekers too.
When you have your own social presence as a recruiter – in-house or a consultant – you’ll never have to worry about any company’s lack of employer brand in your work.
And the stronger your own recruiter brand is, the more appealing recruiting projects and career opportunities you’ll be offered.
In 2023 and onwards, it’s time to take your career into your own hands and stop being a silent matchmaker struggling with unattractive or unknown employers trying to speak to talents who ignore your pleas.
Then onto how you can leverage Instagram for this.
Tips on how to leverage Instagram as a recruiter
When you want to get the most out of Instagram as a recruiter, what you need to do first is to stop focusing on how to share links to job ads.
First of all, by now, we all know that sharing links on any social media kills your reach, as algorithms don’t want us to direct users outside the platform. Our strategy for you is not to teach you how to advertise job opportunities.
By now, we all know that sharing links on any social media kills your reach, as algorithms don’t want us to direct users outside the platform. Our strategy for you is not to teach you how to advertise job opportunities.
Susanna Rantanen
Instead, you want to build a massive following of job seekers and consider yourself their career advisor and mentor.
You want to stop milking your audience for applications and start using your knowledge, insight and experiences how to help them to:
- find their ideal job
- advance their careers and
- get in contact with employers and recruiters.
You’ll soon find you start attracting people who are either currently looking for new career opportunities or in the process of activating on the job market.
The trick is that when you feed them all these appetizers, they get hungrier and start asking or finding out what the main course is. And the main course, of course, is the job opportunities you hire for.
That’s how you leverage Instagram as a recruiter.
What you should post as a recruiter on Instagram
People use social media for four reasons:
- To become updated and informed about what’s happening – as in news for example.
- To become inspired by others – what others do and how they do it.
- To learn – short-form educational content such as quick tips and fast advice is one of the most engaging contents on any social platform these days.
- To become entertained, get a little break and put their brains to rest. That’s why we love cat, dog and baby videos, memes and all sorts of crazy stuff so much.
You don’t have to respond to all of these four needs, but you certainly should respond to at least one.
Forget about promoting the jobs you hire for
Forget about promoting the jobs you hire for, and think about the job seekers you want to connect with.
- How can you help them to find the jobs they desire and get the career they want?
- Do you have special skills and knowledge your audience could benefit from?
- Do you have special insight about the salary ranges in the industry you hire for?
- Can you help introverts present themselves better on paper and face to face?
The more work experience you have, the more valuable information and insight you have that you can share with your audience.
People are attracted to information that helps them to solve problems, overcome challenges and succeed. I know this as I’ve built my own brand servicing my audience the same way for 13 years already!
When you attract people, the job seekers, to you, your value as a recruiter rises in the eyes of those who pay your salary. You can directly apply the value of your network to what you expect to get paid for your services AND your connections.
Remember, you need to stop being the silent matchmaker and start becoming a Matchmaking Magnet!
Before we call it a day for this episode, I have the final five steps o help you to get started. Because if you do nothing, you’ll stay the silent matchmaker.
I need you to take these steps TODAY. And then continue taking these steps every day. Even if it was just for 15 mins at a time.
How to get started with Instagram for recruiting
Here are five of the most simple first steps I recommend you to take and then continue taking steps 3-5 daily if it is just for 15 minutes at a time.
1. Update your Instagram bio or start with a new profile.
You want your Instagram bio to make it immediately obvious what you offer (the content, not the job opportunities) and to whom.
2. Select 2-3 keywords reflecting your offer
I always teach my clients and students the importance of selecting and sticking with your keywords or key themes. These keywords are – key – to building a specific image and awareness of how you can help your audience.
You must use your chosen keywords or key topics as hashtags and content themes. You want your audience to eventually connect these keywords with you. Their perception of you must be what your chosen keywords represent.
Add those keywords as hashtags or use them in your bio in the description field.
3. Make a simple content plan for your Instagram posts
I love the Trello Board! It’s also free to use (at least for now) and ideal for helping you to organise your content ideas, posts and copytexts, images and links used in your posts.
I cannot stress enough the importance of a content plan that helps you to visualize your Instagram posts and store all your copy and images. You will need them for repurposing and recycling later!
4. Search for other HR-related coaches on Instagram and start following them to learn and get inspiration
This is one of my favorites and it will be so valuable for you as you build your recruiter brand!
You want to spend a little bit of time regularly to find new inspiring coaches on Instagram to learn how they use Instagram, what kind of content they create and get inspiration from them.
Following coaches and educators specifically is the key, because you want to learn how to attract followers to content that serves them first.
5. Start posting your content
Create content, preferably Reels and Stories for better engagement. When you post images, opt for carousel posts instead of posting just one image.
Engage with users who match your recruitment audience to your best knowledge.
Start following them, and liking and commenting on their posts. You want to show your face out there!
And don’t forget to share the same content on LinkedIn to see who likes it and who you might also find on Instagram!
Check out these Career Influencers on Instagram
I found five really inspiring examples of career influencers on Instagram and wanted to share these with you for you to get started.
They are all career coaches using Instagram in ways that you should as well when you want to build your own recruiter brand on Instagram.
Her niche is job seekers in their 20s and 30s.
He teaches people “how to land amazing jobs without applying online”.
And he’s working it smart with his own email list and newsletter. Key lesson: never become dependent on any social media platform alone.
She offers one-on-one (1:1) career strategy coaching & resume & interview preparation.
I love the way she has defined her niche so specifically. She coaches teachers. I wish she also told her first name to make it more personal. She definitely should!
She’s a career coach for millennials and promises to teach “ambitiously driven millennials how to advance in their careers, step into their full potential and maximize their earnings”.
Source: Feedspot’s article on Career Instagram Influencers
Check out episode 124 “Personal branding for HR Industry Professionals”
Read also “Getting started with your recruiter brand”
Ok, that’s all for this week my friends!
Come back next week for more branding, marketing and communications’ juice to keep you going with employer branding, recruiting and personal branding!
My name is Susanna Rantanen, and I teach branding, marketing and communications for the HR Industry professionals who want to build a successful career and get the life you deserve!
Moi moi!
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