Employer Branding and Personnel Marketing at Instagram
With 9 million users, Instagram is not the largest, but one of the most interactive social networks and perhaps the most relevant in the young target group. An attractive and well-maintained company account is, therefore, an excellent tool for employer branding and personnel marketing that you can reach to your Instagram followers.
The number of applicants will continue to decrease in the coming years. This puts companies in the hitherto largely unknown situation that applicants must be actively courted. This blog has already shown in various places how the employer brand can be strengthened by attractive employer branding and how this affects successful personnel marketing.
Especially for companies that see a young audience as their core target group in recruiting, social networks are an excellent opportunity for training marketing or for young professionals to score points. In this post, we will show how Instagram can be used to position your company as an employer brand.
A picture is worth a thousand words
A glance at the bare figures shows There’s no way to approach a young target group without using Instagram. The social network comprises around 300 million active users, around 9 million of whom are located in Germany. Compared to the 12 million Twitter users, or even 28 million active Facebook users, this number seems small, but a glance at Instagram’s age structure shows its potential.
The network is most strongly represented in the target group of people under 18-35 years of age. This is precisely the generation that, as digital natives, is most likely to be reached via the social web and is also the most relevant for employer branding. As an image-driven network, Instagram is particularly suited to strengthen the employer brand through emotional storytelling and authentic insights into the corporate culture. The principle works: Half of all Instagram users actively follow brands and 70 percent of the most used hashtags come from or refer to brands (most used: #BMW).
Using Instagram for employer branding
The aim of employer branding is to convey the corporate culture to the outside world in such a way that companies are perceived as attractive employers. Depending on the target group and company, there are different strategies that can be implemented on Instagram. Here are 5 approaches to successful employer branding at Instagram:
Authentic Insights
For Generation Y, the working atmosphere is one of the most important criteria when looking for a job. So why not present exactly this through authentic photographs? No matter if it’s a Christmas party, a casual meeting or a lunch break, everything is suitable as a potential Instagram story.
It is important that the impression is not created that the pictures have been staged and planned by HR for a long time. Users have a feeling for advertising measures that have been set up. Instead, employees can provide material at the workplace whenever a situation arises. Did a colleague bring his dog with him? That’s worth a post. Did the staff order pizza together on Friday? Why not send a picture from the break room.
It’s the sound that makes the music
If a company sells luxury cars, its address should sound appropriate to the company and the photos should have the same effect. For a company like BMW, edited glossy photos and testimonial images of employees are more suitable than for a company with a start-up culture like Spotify.
On the other hand, images that convey a party atmosphere in the company are not likely to work for a car company. For an Instagram account, you should be aware of who the target group is and how the holistic employer branding strategy is designed through other channels. The visual language and the text expression of the account should not be a break just for the sake of the medium.
Hashtags
Hashtags are used by Instagram to reach an audience beyond their direct followers. They should, of course, be chosen to match the image – not just for the sake of reach.
On the one hand, this can cause confusion, on the other hand, Instagram users will quickly see through it. Hashtags can be useful for some storytelling: If the trainee is supposed to post a picture every Friday for his week, he can add a self-made hashtag (e.g. #internstories). This creates a small series that other users can easily use and interact via the same hashtag.
Videos
In addition to images, Instagram also allows videos, opening the door to a new type of recruiting video. A backstage insight into the corporate atmosphere can be more attractive to the target group than professional video production. Once again, authenticity is the key to success. In the 1-minute videos, much of the company’s atmosphere can be conveyed. Spotify shows how: Regular videos of company events or breakdancing employees show why it is fun to work for them.
Influencer
Making the reach of others work for you is the principle of channel overtake by influencers. A high-reach blogger who reaches a large audience on Instagram or Youtube can bring a breath of fresh air to a corporate account. In collaboration, the influencer takes over the corporate account for a certain period of time and posts photos and videos in its name.
The American brand ExpressRunway was able to build a 200,000 follower base through cooperation with model Anastasia Ashley.
Thematically this can be arranged differently depending on the company. Sometimes the practical world of work such as production processes is in the foreground, sometimes the working atmosphere. Of course, the channel overtake should be taken over by a person relevant to the target group, otherwise, it will miss its target. An announcement on the channel of the influencer is indispensable, after all, his followers should follow him to the company portal.
Conclusion: A perfect channel for the employer brand
The facts and examples speak for themselves: the young target group and the openness for brand communication in the network make Instagram an ideal channel for employer branding. The creative presentation options offer possibilities to show an authentic picture of the working environment.
The involvement of employees and the right tonality are crucial for a convincing employer brand. Hashtags can provide more coverage or encourage storytelling. Videos and channel overtake by an influencer are ultimately the icing on the cake to fully exploit the channel’s creativity. For further brand building and for reaching an audience, some companies choose to buy Instagram followers. There are also additional strategies and tactics you can take to build your brand on Instagram, such as creating appealing content and building an image.
