Last week I made some new friends…
I was at a music festival. My friends and I had pitched our tents next to a group of girls and I got on with them immediately. But when I asked them to add me on Facebook, a habit I’ve followed since around 2009, they looked at me like I’d lost it.
‘I don’t have Facebook’, ‘I’ve never had Facebook’ and ‘my mums on Facebook but none of my friends are…’ are the phrases that shook me to my 23-year-old core. Connecting with people on Facebook has seen me through secondary school, 3 years of Uni and 3 years of work. How do these people keep in touch with anyone?
I know, I should have seen this coming.
All year I’ve been implementing changes to clockworkTalent’s social strategy to keep up with Facebook’s changing algorithms and organic post culling. Alongside this, I might post the odd holiday photo but will admit my personal use of Facebook has also been in decline.
But there I was, face to face with the next generation who’d never even used Facebook. Instead, they’re using Instagram, and so are your potential employees!
A staggering 63% of 13 to 17-year-olds use Instagram daily and who could blame them? It’s visual, social and simple. Users have the ability to follow anyone in the world, find a new job, discover and buy products. But the best thing of all? Instagram isn’t full of ‘Fake News’ or your auntie sharing video after video of her cat.
So how can you attract digital marketing talent to join your business through Instagram?
Share your REAL company culture
If you’re looking to hire through Instagram, you need people to believe in your team culture. Our friends, 3WhiteHats do this brilliantly! Not only do they have the advantage of being able to share photos of a beautiful Cornish sea view from their office window, but they’ve actually built their Instagram page around their team. Sharing photos of individuals, team events, new starters, the office space etc. will help you gain trust with potential employees as they’ll feel as though they already know how you work and what your team is like.
“At 3WhiteHats, we have a wonderful team and a beautiful setting – which means there’s no shortage in Insta-worthy moments! We like to showcase our company’s personality and culture so that both our following and potential future employees can learn a little more about life here.”
Polly Bolitho – Digital Marketing Executive, 3WhiteHats
Choose the right hashtags
Everyone knows that hashtags are important on Instagram but a really simple way to build your brand on the platform is to create your own, unique hashtag. For example, in addition to other popular and trending hashtags, Hootsuite uses #hootsuitelife on Instagram when sharing team photos and encourage their staff to do the same. This spreads the word about their brand behind the scenes and entices prospective candidates to find out more about working there.
Keep it squeaky clean
Here’s an extra bit of admin for you, trust me you’ll thank me later! Go to your Instagram settings and make sure your business’ location, website URL and contact details are all up to date and correct. If someone is interested in working for you, they’ll want to know where you’re based!
Locations can also be used in Instagram stories and posts themselves, so when you share a post about your latest vacancy, tag your location and people in that location, i.e. people you might want to hire, are more likely to see it!
If you need help hiring your digital marketing jobs our writing job adverts our specialist recruiters will be happy to help. If you’re looking to progress your digital marketing career, check out our job board or get in touch by emailing your CV to jobs@clockworkTalent.com (you can even get a free CV critique!).
