Katka Pavlíčková is the founder of the project BGRAM, through which he has been training his clients in the field of Instagram marketing for over 7 years. Since Katka is an experienced expert in her field, we asked her how to use Instagram for the benefit of HR marketing, which has become increasingly popular in recent years.
What is HR Marketing?
HR marketing represents the application of marketing practices to HR — from the recruitment of an employee to his dismissal. HR marketing is used to attract new talented candidates to the job market.
Recently, HR marketing and its importance is being talked about more and more. Is Instagram the right place for companies to use for HR marketing purposes?
I can't answer that for you unequivocally. What we almost certainly know about Instagram is that it currently has about 2 billion users worldwide. Of these, 3.61 million are in the Czech Republic alone, and most often (in the Czech Republic) people aged 18-55 are found there. If this is interesting information for you, then it makes sense to dwell on the question of whether you want to “go” there for those users.
What do you think an ideal Instagram profile tailored for HR marketing purposes looks like?
The ideal profile should first tell the user what the profile is about, what they communicate on Instagram and how it should benefit them. If someone “walks” past your profile on Instagram, they will not necessarily become your follower, but they may need to click through to your website and make some conversion there without having to be that “fan”. Even this can be done by a superbly set and visually interesting profile.
Sometimes you come across an account that accommodates this with the style of a “poster” area full of advertisements for different positions, in different companies and in different places around the Czech Republic. And sometimes you come across a well-maintained account that informs a person about the company culture, benefits, employees and other interesting aspects of the company.
I am afraid that if you are managing HR Instagram starts to be taken care of by someone who does not understand Instagram from an ideological point of view, it can be seen at first glance and for me it is often a waste of time. Of course there are people who want to learn that with Instagram and want to understand it and when we work with people like that, that's where we see that euphoria and an effort to push it somewhere.
And we also meet people who are very enthusiastic in the beginning, because it will be something new in their work routine that could possibly enjoy them, but over time they find that it is quite demanding and costs them a lot of time that they simply do not have. They often compare this to activities on LinkedIn, which are significantly lower compared to Instagram and often with better results.
There are roughly 2 billion users on Instagram.
Is it necessary to publish regularly on Instagram even before the company embarks on HR marketing activities?
You can try uploading a few photos of your colleagues in bikinis and baking trays of your colleagues' bouquets to attract followers faster, but I'm not sure if that's what you expect from Instagram.
Consider that by your activity you are entering a social network that is already in its 11th year and people are used to working there on a daily basis. You are, to some extent, just another “pawn” who came out there to show what he can do and how he can do it. So don't stress yourself out about it and simply start sharing content and you'll find out fairly quickly if it does anything to people or not.
If a person sets up a tv account. “professional account”, so the very first posting of a photo or video (except Reels) will load him full data on success and effectiveness. So you have something to measure. This is the opposite of me on Instagram LinkedIn likes. You know what's going on with your content, where people have discovered it, how many times they've looked at it, and what they've done based on it.
If I want to get started with HR marketing on Instagram, what does my profile have to meet in order for the promotion to be really effective?
I've more or less answered you in part. You need to know your WHY.
Why are you on Instagram? What do you expect from him?
Why should people follow you?
Why should they like your photos?
Why should they watch your Stories?
Why should they write with you in private messages?
Why should they recommend you to other people?
Why should they click through to your website?
Why should they call or email you?
That's a lot of things you should be able to answer.
For the purposes of HR marketing, is it more appropriate to promote through the personal profile of the company ambassadors or through the company profile?
Corporate ambassadors are more of a LinkedIn domain, where it works very well. It's not that common on Instagram. Such an Instagram ambassador would have to make a lot of effort to collect followers and then direct them to the company's central corporate account. I see it as a not very effective method.
It makes more sense for me to focus on caring for corporate Instagram and gradually “invite” the company ambassadors to it. Similar activities on Instagram are called “takeovers” and in practice this means that someone, for example, gets a hold of the company Instagram for a day and there communicates and creates content on their behalf. It's authentic, people enjoy it and you're able to get other emotions and people's interest into that Instagram.
Of course, you may have some exhibitionist in your company who already has his private account quite busy and publishes things publicly. Then it's probably about the deal if he mentions you there occasionally or promotes you.
The ideal profile should first tell the user what the profile is about.
What is the essential step to kick-start HR marketing on Instagram?
Create an account (especially correctly), secure it with two-step verification, complete it, switch to a company account, link it to a Facebook page, publish the first few posts and start working on it systematically and regularly.
Do job advertisements with job offers also have a place on Instagram profiles?
I don't want to be pessimistic, but I think that wallpapering a profile with individual job ads is not the case here and there are certainly different ad servers that specialize in this. People go to Instagram have fun. I don't want to imagine waking up in the morning pink-skinned and asleep, opening Instagram and the first thing that peeks at me will be an advertisement for metal workers in Prostějov.
If I could recommend it, it makes more sense for me to use paid advertising, when under certain conditions I am able to target the ad to people who are likely to be interested in it. But on organically building Instagram, it's an unfortunate choice.
If I want advice on the beginnings of my HR marketing activities on Instagram, what is the procedure and what budget should I prepare?
Do not be afraid to contact us, for example through our website and we will take care of you.
Most often, people “come” to us (we work online) for the first consultation, where we “crack the nuts”, which is our terminus technicus for deciding whether Instagram will make sense at all or not.
Very often, after the first consultation, some small training comes up and more and more often clients turn to us saying that they would like a “partner” for a longer cooperation, with whom they could consult once in a while, evaluate the work, improve the creation, etc.
I am convinced that almost everyone can afford our services. Even if it is only for one consultation, it can save you hours of time and thousands of crowns for something that would not be of fundamental benefit to you.
