Instagram is dead. Long live Instagram.
There’s no doubt the once massively popular app has shifted in popularity over the past couple of years. More and more influencers have escaped to TikTok, Meta has been dragged in front of Congress, and year-over-year growth has slowed significantly.
The reasons are varied, but one huge reason is the infamous algorithm. Instagram hasn’t shown posts in a chronological feed for a while, but it seems to be more difficult than ever for your followers to actually see what you post if you aren’t paying for it. More and more users are complaining that their engagement is down and that they’re sharing high-quality content their followers don’t see. Instagram also heavily emphasizes reels, making static-photo posts, which are obviously much easier to create, less of a good time investment. If you have hundreds of thousands of followers but what you create isn’t actually getting into anyone’s feed, what good is it?
However, there are still good reasons to be using it for recruitment. If you’re trying to attract new hires and want to show off your company culture, it might still be a good use of your time and resources. Potential employees likely want to see what’s going on within the walls of your business—what the day-to-day life of employees looks like, what form meetings can take, and what kinds of social events you offer. All of those are easily shareable on Instagram.
Here are four reasons Instagram might still be a good fit for your business. Take a minute to consider the benefits you haven’t yet reaped from Instagram before you click “delete app.”
Instagram Still Has a Large Audience
Instagram still has a ton of fans. In fact, it recently surpassed 2 billion monthly users—that’s a lot of eyeballs on your content if you’re able to play the algorithm correctly. While the media has been writing article after article about the death of the once titan, the actual numbers don’t lie. Sure, the growth is slowing from year to year, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a ton of audience potential for you on the app. Your future employees may be scrolling as we speak.
Also, it’s important to remember that just because growth has slowed doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people already there. In fact, it would make sense for growth to slow down because so many people are already using Instagram! Even if a post “only” gets seen by a thousand people, imagine reading the caption to a room of a thousand listeners. It would feel like a pretty large room! Some of the larger numbers in the social media sphere can skew our perspective when the truth is that there are still many, many people using Instagram as part of their daily routine.
Instagram Is Many Millennials’ App of Choice
Are you in the market for a mid-level employee, not a beginner, who’s going to need a ton of training, or a person who’s so far along in their career they’ll cost you an arm and a leg? Instagram is still the app of choice for most millennials. It doesn’t give off the boomer vibes of Facebook, but it’s also a lot easier to use than the flashy TikTok. That sweet spot makes it a great place to reach mid-level employees who can help your company be successful without totally breaking your bank.
If you’re aiming to get more millennials in the door of your recruitment office, Instagram is the place to be. Sure, millennials use other platforms, as well, but their main hub continues to be Instagram. Take a look at your open positions, and think about what type of employee you’d ideally have fill that role. If you’re looking specifically for a Gen Z employee who’s going to bring fresh energy and potentially give you decades of service, TikTok might be more your style, but for millennials, Instagram is definitely where it’s at.
Instagram Offers Versatility in Posts
Instagram allows you to create a ton of different types of posts, making repurposing content a breeze. Photos of your employees having a great time at work, text-based graphic posts that allow you to incorporate data and statistics, short-term content like Instagram Stories that can offer small snippets of day-to-day life in your office, its new text-based Threads section, humorous Instagram Reels that can go viral with trending audio, or longer Instagram Lives where people can tune in and ask questions are all tools offered by Instagram. It doesn’t pigeonhole you into one type of content; instead, it offers a ton of variety so you can mix it up and find what works best for you.
Again, it can also help previously posted content go further—for instance, a text graphic in which you break down a recent blog post or a YouTube video broken up into smaller Reels can help you reach a new audience without creating totally new content.
Instagram Ads Work—Most of the Time
Instagram ads are still a good way to get more eyes on your content, especially in the recruiting space. If you’re having a hard time getting your actual posts in front of the eyes of your followers, paying to boost them might be a worthwhile investment. You can set a specific goal (like more website visits or more direct messages) and narrow in on who your audience is by manually adding your target options. Although Meta has pulled back a bit on the usage of identifiers, the technology is still pretty accurate and can help you get your recruiting content in front of the people who are most likely to follow up on it.
Ads are an investment, but if your recruitment budget has some extra cash, it might be worth a try. You can also turn ads on and off at will, so if they don’t seem to be gaining you any traction, there’s not much harm done.
Claire Swinarski is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Adivsor.