The number of international users of the photo-posting Instagram app grew by about 100 million, surpassing 400 million users, at the end of the second quarter. More than 80 million photos are shared each day on the platform, the company reported at mid-year.
Courtney Faddis Martinez, senior manger of franchise human resources at DineEquity Inc., told a Self Opportunity-sponsored Meeting of the Minds recruiters’ conference in Dallas that she’s looking at Instagram to provide image-building opportunities for the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar employer brand.
The photo platform, which skews slightly younger in its audience, can provide a good place to polish a brand’s image as a place to work. Some foodservice companies have already developed loyal followings, including those of StarbucksJobs, ChilisJobs and MarriottCareers, which have grown their awareness-building and messaging campaigns.
A Pew Research Center study found that, of respondents who use the Internet, 28 percent use Instagram, a number that is up 13 percent since 2012. But the platform continues to be popular with non-white users and young adults: 55 percent of surveyed online adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram, as do 47 percent of African American Internet users and 38 percent of Hispanic Internet users. Additionally, female Internet users (31 percent) continue to be more likely than male users (24 percent) to be Instagram users.
Daily use of Instagram is higher than many other social-media platforms, with 59 percent of its users visiting daily, compared with 27 percent for Pinterest and 22 percent for LinkedIn.
Martinez said she is keen on the platform, but that the Applebee’s brand hasn’t made a big commitment yet. “I want to make sure from a brand standpoint that I deliver,” she said. “I want to tiptoe in, and we’re doing that on Instagram and YouTube series with day-in-life scenarios.”
One area where a brand might engage potential job candidates, she note, is providing “first-day selfies” for team members.
Her overall advice to restaurant recruiters was to focus efforts on platforms they feel comfortable with.
“If there are 17 different platforms, you don’t have to be on all of them. We want to be great. You don’t have to be on all of them, just maybe one or two,” Martinez said. “You don’t have to tweet 30 times a day, but you have to be active, whether it be your Facebook, whether it’s Twitter, whether it’s Instagram.”
Update: Nov. 9, 2015 This story was updated to clarify that the data for the Pew Research study was based on respondents who used the Internet.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
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