Will Instagram profiles become a sourcing tool?

I say yes they will....Techcrunch is reporting today that Instagram is launching web profiles for its users. The new profiles will offer users a chance to describe themselves with text as part of the overall profile. I predict this will eventually lead to Instagram becoming a sourcing tool much like twitter profiles. Users will be able to use keywords to describe themselves. Recruiters will search.

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Permalink Reply by Rohaan Shukla on November 6, 2012 at 2:10am

Thanks, looks interesting ! the sample looks like a mix of FB & Twitter .. anyways its always good to have new sourcing tools. :)

Waiting for it to launch. And hope it gets good response which builds a strong network.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Leary on November 6, 2012 at 12:05pm

I think that is a real possibility. I am not sure that it's going to be very effective but be sure that Recruiters will jump on this.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on November 6, 2012 at 12:08pm

If I EVER find myself trying to source a candidate via Instagram (assuming I've exhaused the Pinterest, Klout and 4Square honey holes) I may just have to pull the plug.

#StopTheMadness

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on November 6, 2012 at 12:17pm

@jerry, social media is prompting more and more people to describe themselves online through various profiles. To me its all just data, which used correctly can lead to discovery of new talent. Might as well take advantage of it. I agree the sites you mentioned are not useful for sourcing but the data on certain sites like twitter profiles, G+, and now Instagram should be useful.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on November 6, 2012 at 12:19pm

I'm finding the profile data on Twitter somewhat limiting. Most characters are used to describe "love wine, sports, dogs, knitting, social media and HBO" than "Skilled javascript, jquery software engineer in #Cleveland open for new opportunity" - but then again I expect too much.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on November 6, 2012 at 12:20pm

some truth to that but i think over time all the combined profiles will have more useful data

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on November 6, 2012 at 12:21pm

Nothing beats a MaxHire database full of every resume you've ever received. Nothing. Ever. The rest is a just a distraction for our competitors. :)

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on November 6, 2012 at 1:21pm

I agree. When is enough, enough. People can barely draw the line between professional / personal now.

Jerry Albright said:

If I EVER find myself trying to source a candidate via Instagram (assuming I've exhaused the Pinterest, Klout and 4Square honey holes) I may just have to pull the plug.

#StopTheMadness

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Branch on November 6, 2012 at 1:25pm

I've only had success using Linkedin and specific sites geared towards to the people I want to attract. All the others were a waste of my time.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on November 9, 2012 at 8:03am

just one other point I'd like to make, even if "most people" dont put in skills or job titles on their profiles, there will still be millions of users that will add them...

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Permalink Reply by Colin J Dunn on November 12, 2012 at 4:29pm

Technically, any application that allows its user to include personal information that will enter into the public domain is a potential sourcing tool and Instagram is just another to publicly announce that it will be doing so. What's next? Spotify or LastFM?

There is already talk here in the UK that Twitter is not going to be the source of candidates so many people hoped it would be and I can only see the same applying to Instagram. Pictures with some additional words in a profile? Don't we already have that?