Career influencers are changing the early careers landscape. Ingmar Klein, CEO of Huzzle, discusses their rise and how employers can leverage them in talent acquisition and attraction.
Social media influencers shape opinions and trends across various industries. Career influencers are a niche group focusing on providing career advice, industry insights, and professional development tips to their followers.
They are beginning to play a crucial role in bridging the gap between employers and early talent by leveraging their platforms to showcase job opportunities, company culture, and career growth potential.
Nevertheless, it remains a relatively untapped space. Huzzle organised the first-of-its-kind Influencer Summit in June, connecting 30+ career influencers (with a combined 1M+ followers) with early career professionals.
This article covers some of the insights from this summit, exploring how career influencers can assist employers in attracting early talent, offering strategies for effective collaboration.
Rising influence of social media in early careers
Social media has become integral in students’ lives, influencing various aspects, including career choices and job search strategies. According to recent data, 77% of job-seekers use social media to research prospective employers and 57% of job seekers use social media to find job opportunities.
Students now rely on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok not just for social interactions but as essential tools for career development. These platforms offer a wealth of real-time information and insights, enabling students to stay informed about industry trends and job opportunities.
Moreover, social media is also becoming more important for recruiters, with 94% of recruiters saying that they use social media to find and evaluate candidates and 78% of companies planning to increase their spending on social media recruitment in the near future.
Role of career influencers
It’s clear that social media is becoming increasingly important, and career influencers are becoming a preferred source of advice over traditional career services due to a couple of key factors:
Relatability
Career influencers offer a level of relatability that traditional career services often lack. At Huzzle’s Influencer Summit, JJ Kealy explained that Gen Z finds influencers relatable because they’re closer to the roles they discuss and are more accessible than corporate representatives.
This relatability is further enhanced by influencers from diverse communities, providing insights and guidance on overcoming specific challenges that resonate with their respective audiences. Influencers document their journeys, share personal stories, and engage directly with followers, fostering a sense of connection and trust.
Up-to-date advice
Another significant advantage of career influencers is their ability to provide current and relevant advice, helping students to stay on top of the latest industry trends and job market shifts. This ensures that their followers receive timely and practical advice that can be immediately applied to their career planning and job search.
By leveraging their platforms to share these insights, career influencers fill a critical gap, offering guidance that is both accessible and actionable for students navigating a rapidly changing and difficult job market.
How can career influencers benefit employers?
Attract top diverse talent
Since career influencers have their own audiences, which likely differs from an employer’s traditional audience, influencer collaboration can help employers reach potential candidates that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to (e.g. different ethnic groups).
Working with career influencers helps attract top diverse talent and positions the firm as a forward-thinking and dynamic employer, boosting recruitment efforts and enhancing employer branding.
Improve brand awareness
Career influencers play a crucial role in improving a company’s brand awareness. Through collaboration with influencers, companies can better communicate their values, culture, and opportunities to a broader audience.
Influencers can create engaging content that highlights the company’s strengths and unique selling points, making it more attractive to potential candidates. This improved brand awareness helps companies stand out in a competitive job market.
Demystify careers
Career influencers are also able to demystify various job roles within companies by creating content that provides detailed insights into different career paths, day-to-day responsibilities, and growth opportunities.
This transparency helps potential candidates gain a clearer understanding of what to expect, making them more likely to consider and pursue these roles.
6 top tips for successful career influencer campaigns
1. Clear briefs and creative freedom: Clear briefs and creative freedom in influencer-brand collaborations provide influencers with clear objectives while allowing them the creative freedom to present the content in their unique style ensuring authenticity and engagement.
2. Transparency: If you’re planning to work with multiple influencers, transparency is crucial to avoid overlap. Clear communication about expectations and roles helps maintain a cohesive and effective campaign.
3. Micro-Influencers: It’s not all about follower count. Micro-influencers (10K-100K followers) often have closer relationships with their audiences and hence, more engaged followers, which can result in higher conversion rates and more meaningful interactions.
4. Measuring Impact: To measure results of influencer campaigns, make sure you have ‘career influencer’ as a source on your applications and provide your influencers with tracked links to use in their campaigns.
5. Patience with results: Avoid quick judgments based on results; influencer marketing requires time to build momentum and should be evaluated over a longer term to understand its true impact.
6. Multiple conversations: Successful collaborations require multiple conversations and follow-ups. Continuous engagement and feedback help refine strategies and ensure that both parties are aligned with the campaign goals.
Career influencers can play a pivotal role in helping employers attract early talent by leveraging their authenticity, reach, and engagement.
By identifying the right influencers, creating engaging content, leveraging multiple platforms, and measuring impact, employers can build strong partnerships that enhance their recruitment efforts.
As social media’s influence continues to grow, embracing these strategies can help employers not only attract top early talent but also build a compelling employer brand that resonates with the next generation of professionals.
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