How You Can Use Instagram to Find Hires
Despite the choppy first half job market and uneasy summer hiring season, economists are confident that the second half of the year will see better employment rates nationwide. This is in keeping with last year’s trend of recovering the hundred of thousands of jobs lost to major wave restrictions after just one month. As consumers are expected to regain confidence in physical transactions, companies can expect a resurgence in foot traffic and client engagement. For recruiters, especially those specializing in frontline workers, it is important to find the best candidates now in preparation for the demand that will inevitably follow.
Given the rapid digitalization we’ve witnessed, recruiters must embrace social media platforms like Instagram in order to more effectively and efficiently find the right hires in the new normal. Here are some key reasons Instagram should be in every recruiter’s strategy.
1. It Can Streamline Your Job Hiring Process
Instagram is among the top five most downloaded apps in Canada and the US in 2021. Considering this, recruiters can leverage Instagram’s popularity as a way to communicate company mission and vision and practice passive recruitment. By building a following on this massive platform, companies and recruiters are able to tap native audiences and convert them into a passive talent pool. Compared to traditional hiring methods that first entail recruiters spending time, money, and energy to attract applicants, on Instagram, the process is streamlined and shortened.
Starting your recruitment process on this platform is now as easy as publishing a post. Since Gen-Z and millennial employees prioritize company culture, they may even take it upon themselves to share your post since they believe in the power of the Instagram community.
2. Instagram Stories Can Maximize Reach
If you want to increase your reach and engagement even more, Instagram Stories are becoming a viable option that many creators are using to attract more followers. Stories have an unrivaled ability to bypass the Instagram algorithm, which will help new users get noticed. Later’s article on adding links to stories points out how Instagram now allows anyone—regardless of follower size—to include swipe up links to IGTV videos and clickable link stickers. The latter can be added onto any story and links directly to whichever destination you wish like your company profile, for instance. Meanwhile, the former is a clever hack that leads viewers to a longer format IGTV video that can feature multiple links. Considering that Facebook reports that Stories get over 500 million views daily, that’s a lot of prospective hires.
3. In-app Analytics and Tools Can Help Recruiters Strategize
Old-school recruitment strategies were more rigid and took time to assess results. Instagram recruitment, on the other hand, allows recruiters to receive and study real-time data to enact necessary pivots. At a glance, you can see which posts are working, what posting times are the busiest, and how many impressions you get with a current campaign. Once you’ve collated this data, recruiters can begin to utilize Instagram features like hashtags and geotagging to further finetune recruitment efforts.
With almost 85% of the Canadian population on social media, having these in-app features can better target your prospective hires. Since over 20% of applicants reportedly look to social media for openings, and another 45% rely on referrals from friends, having a detailed post can polish your approach instead of casting an expensive and vaguely wide net.
As digital adoption continues in various industries, it is only fitting that recruitment makes the jump, as well. Aside from utilizing Instagram, our post Reimagining Remote Recruitment encourages recruiters to evolve the recruitment process through other initiatives like video interviews. Doing so ensures that both applicants and recruiters are finding a happy middle ground in this digital age.
Editorial penned by Blaire Joyce