How To Create A Useful Employer Branded Instagram Account Candidates Will Follow
There are plenty of employer branded social media accounts. Many of them, while polished and professional and active, aren’t that interesting to follow unless you’re an employee, actively trying to become an employee, or a reporter digging for goodies.
LinkedIn is where most employer brand teams begin with social, and for good reason—employer identity is what users expect, that’s what they’re looking for. Less obvious are Instagram and TikTok. But the audiences for these apps skew younger, mostly Millennials and Gen Z, making them fertile territory for recruitment marketing and employer branding.
Creating a dedicated employer branded Instagram account can be worth it, but it can’t be half-assed. Just like your consumer-facing accounts, it has to be planned, polished, and active.
4 employer branded accounts worth following
OK, so maybe Google has it easy; few brands are as recognizable. But they are getting it right. On their employer-branded feed you’ll find interview tips, profiles of cool projects employees are working on (like how this Google Nest engineer built a communication board for his dog), and industry news.
You’ll also see stories about how employees got their jobs at the company. This can be relevant even for someone who’s not actively trying to get hired at Google, but is asking themself, what kind of experience do I need to get my foot in the door at a major tech company? Fill your candidate funnel at all levels.
Investment firm Blackrock has just one Instagram feed, and it’s dedicated entirely to employee experience. The account is very well-rounded: Prospective candidates can find posts about employee benefits, the company’s culture and mission, community involvement, new offices, company expansion, and employee accomplishments.
Blackrock excels at exhibiting its career growth and development opportunities through avenues like mentorship programs, conference presentations, employee initiatives, and promotions.
Because the feed features so many employee faces, so many testimonials of working at Blackrock, candidates can see the culture is more community-oriented than one might expect of a massive global company.
Some teams don’t have the resources to run two Instagram accounts. When this is the case, expertly blending consumer brand and employer brand content is the goal. Dave’s Killer Bread succeeds.
The company’s Instagram feed balances its witty and playful consumer-facing brand with its hopeful, mission-driven employer brand. The message is that they believe in bettering the lives of others (through fair chance hiring), but they don’t take themselves too seriously.
The Disney Cruise employer account targets job seekers who dream of working at Disney, but need help imagining how they might fit into the organization.
The feed introduces the people who fill the wide variety of roles it takes to make Disney cruises happen. You’ll meet activities managers, crew travel planners, entertainment techs, stateroom hosts, chefs and bartenders, beach lifeguards, cosmetology and costume crewmembers, human resources managers based on the ships, and more.
3 practical tips for setting up an employer branded Instagram account
1. Educate and entertain
If you want more than current employees and journalists to follow you, you’ll have to do more than just highlight your stellar staff (you need to do that, btw) and list your workplace awards. You need to educate and entertain.
If you build technology that helps people find jobs, provide job searching, resume building, interviewing, and negotiating tips. If you sell fancy schmancy hair care products, post styling tutorials.
2. Consistency or bust
Nothing looks as pitiful as an atrophied employer social account. Don’t do it to yourself, or to your current staff who may see it and wither inside.
Creating a stand-alone employer brand feed is a great investment, but if you can’t swing the time and resources, blend the two à la Dave’s Killer Bread.
3. Collaborate with your consumer-facing brand team
Consumer-facing brand teams and candidate-facing brand teams should work together. The voice, tone, and content should feel pretty consistent across all your social accounts, and you should be collaborating on branding campaigns and hiring pushes. Harmony is key.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance writer based in Richmond, VA, who writes about workplace culture and policies, hiring, DEI, employer branding, and issues faced by women. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Fast Company, and Food Technology, among others, and has been syndicated by MSN and The Motley Fool.
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