1 billion people actively use Instagram – and 500 million of those individuals are logging on every. single. day. (Source: Hootsuite).
As you can imagine from these numbers, Instagram isn’t a platform that the modern marketer – or Recruitment Marketer – can afford to ignore. There are just too many opportunities on this platform to get your message in front of a target audience.
Instagram is a visual-first platform, so the key to building a great Instagram presence is to ensure you’re packaging up your content and stories in an aesthetically pleasing (but still authentic!) way.
For Recruitment Marketing, you can use eye-catching imagery to form Employer Brand perceptions, keep your followers engaged and share messages about your employee value proposition. Over time, you can even drive your followers to action when needed by sharing info about specific priority hiring areas.
In short, Instagram is a great platform for relationship and brand building for recruiting purposes, and the perfect recruiting channel for your Recruitment Marketing content, especially your employee generated content.
So, here’s some inspiration from 5 companies that we think are optimizing their use of this platform for Recruitment Marketing and what you can take away from their approach to apply to your own feed:
Recruitment Marketing Instagram Inspiration
1 ) ADP – @adpcareers
Number of followers:
4,257
What they’re doing well:
The ADP team has made great use of the popular Instagram stories feature! They group together their past stories into content themes that they feature as highlights on their profile. Prospective candidates can quickly find a topic of interest – like CSR or Diversity & Inclusion – and watch all of the stories that ADP has published on the topic in one go.
Our favorite piece of content:
We like the #WorkHappy series that ADP publishes, which sheds light on why employees choose ADP. In this #WorkHappy post, a Project Manager who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines shares about her journey, and all the growth opportunities that she’s received during her time with the company.
What you can take away for your feed:
Showcase your employee value proposition by starting a content series that features your EVP in action!
2) Marriott Hotels – @marriottcareers
Number of followers:
48.7k
What they’re doing well:
The Marriott team leverages the global locations and beautiful resorts their employees work out of to capture gorgeous shots that attract travel enthusiasts and job seekers alike to follow their page.
Our favorite piece of content:
We love this photo that spotlights the Jaffa Hotel in Tel Aviv. The team uses this type of content to highlight that one of the #WorkPerks of being a Marriott employee involves a discounted stay at jaw-dropping spots like these!
What you can take away for your feed:
Use bright colors and high-quality photos to bring your Employer Brand and employee experiences to life. This will make for a more interesting feed and more engaged followers that you can then drive to action!
3) Yellowstone National Parks – @yellowstonejobs
Number of followers:
1,835
What they’re doing well:
The team at Yellowstone is great at sourcing employee generated content! Because their employees are spread out over a massive space, using employee contests and hashtags has been critical to getting photos from all types of roles across the park. You can find out more about how the team here sources employee photos in this RallyFwd on demand session.
Our favorite piece of content: 
The @yellowstonejobs feed has so many stunning photos that it’s hard to pick a favorite! Here is one of the images we love, submitted by an employee, that paints the picture of the type of scenic and moving experience you’ll have working at Yellowstone National Parks for a season.
What you can take away for your feed:
Find a way to get your employees involved! Employees are typically excited to have their perspectives and work life shared with a broader audience, and it makes for a much more interesting and diverse feed than photos taken by just people from Talent Acquisition or Marketing.
4) Kohl’s – @lifeatkhols
Number of followers:
2,935
What they’re doing well:
The Kohl’s team is great at curating bright and high-resolution photos for their employee stories. Their feed is beautiful to look at and does a great job sharing authentic small moments that define life at Kohl’s for their employees. They also use their Instagram account to highlight wellness moments and work perks associated with joining the Kohl’s team.
Our favorite piece of content:
This visually engaging video draws in the eye and shares with their audience that they can walk in to any Kohl’s location for an on-the-spot interview. We like that the Kohl’s team isn’t afraid to put a call to action on their Instagram feed and encourage their followers to take action IRL.
What you can take away for your feed:
Your feed doesn’t need to be limited to only employee stories and events! The majority of your content should be brand building and provide followers with info about your company, but you can also make some asks of your audience too. Don’t be afraid to create content that asks followers to make referrals, attend an event, join your talent network or apply to a role.
5) Mars – @careersatmars
Number of followers:
699
What they’re doing well:
Mars has built an amazing feed that rivals any product or consumer brand Instagram page. The photos they post all work well individually, but also piece together on their Instagram grid to tell a larger story. It all adds up to a really thoughtful page that conveys key brand messages through image and text as soon as you land on their profile.
Our favorite piece of content: 
We like that the Mars team isn’t shy about explicitly stating some of the key pillars of their EVP right on their Instagram feed. These direct EVP statements, combined with employee stories and spotlights, are a great way to communicate your brand and engage your followers.
What you can take away for your feed:
Consider thinking about your entire feed cohesively – what is the bigger message and overall image that your grid and profile send when followers land on them? You can use content planning apps like Planoly to get a sneak peek at what your grid will look like as you add new content. Or you can use apps like Banner Pic (for iOS) or 9square (for Android) to plan out a more complicated puzzle-style grid, where all the individual pictures fit together to make one larger ‘banner’ picture as Mars has done.
All in all, however, there is no one right way to do Instagram. The platform offers a ton of unique opportunities to tell your company’s story – and get in front of the talent you’re targeting – using a multitude of approaches that work best for you. We hope the examples we pulled together inspire you to consider creating an Instagram careers account or to push the page you already have to the next level!
