Gen Z Influencer Today, Digital Leader Tomorrow, What are the Steps?

The world is a strange place. Over the last 20 years many things have changed. Just look at companies like Deloitte and PwC who no longer insist on employees having degrees as part of their recruitment process.

It’s about time the changes took place. Consider how Steve Jobs was 21 when he co-founded Apple. Evan Spiegel was 21 when he founded Snapchat. Not to mention Elizabeth Holmes who founded Theranos at 19. Age is clearly not as important as it used to be. But what about social media?

You might be forgiven if you thought that Snapchat had lost its popularity. Definitely not. In 2022 there were 293 million daily active users compared to just 186 million daily active users in 2018. With TikTok the numbers are a little more dramatic. From less than half a million users in 2020 the platform has grown to 755 million in 2022. Dwarfing the size of Snapchat.

Speaking of dwarfing. Instagram has run away with the title of most active platform today with well over a million users. Not huge compared to YouTube’s 2.7 billion users meaning there is still plenty of room to grow.

What is similar to all of these social media platforms is how they all have their fair share of online influencers. Even LinkedIn, with over 720 million users, has long been developing the concept of influencer marketing. Wherever you go online influencers will affect your online experience.

What becomes of Social Media Influencers Tomorrow?

Today there are guides about how to recruit on Discord, Reddit and even Telegram. It used to just be GitHub that we had to learn to use to recruit a few years ago apart from the household names in social media. Now there is a whole host of places that we need to be aware of. Many of them with their own versions of influencers too.

And, whilst many of these people are in their early or mid-20s this might all seem like a lot of fun. Some of them are already older than Steve Jobs when he started Apple. But apart from a few celebrity influencers whose lives are lived almost completely online (like the Osbournes for instance), there is no real way to know how the future will look for them. Although you might want to have a glimpse at how Ozzy Osbourne is faring:

Of course, nearer to home in Poland, many of our readers have had the chance to follow the fortunes of Robert Pasut and the team at Abstrachuje.tv. The show has been going on for over 10 years and there is no sign of early retirement for any of the boys. They keep managing to reinvent themselves, for now. And, most importantly, they have added almost 450,000 followers on TikTok.

It is a natural step for many influencers, joining TikTok. You have to be really innovative to get traffic on the platform. Normal influencer activities don’t work the same. 70% of users of TikTok are between 18 and 34, making it an ideal platform to interact with GenZ. A tough audience to please.

What is the next social media platform that influencers have to be prepared for? Maybe it’s already been invented and is being trialed somewhere?

Growing Users on Social Media isn’t easy

It took our team several years to get the @digitalstartup5 profile on X (formerly known as Twitter) to above 2000 followers. Instagram, albeit very useful, has had to take a backseat. Especially as YouTube and LinkedIn seem to have a larger level of engagement from our target audience. Both platforms need a lot of time to develop.

When you hit 10,000 on LinkedIn as a page or as a person it starts to feel like you have hit ‘influencer’ level. Advertisers, new connections, everything should change. But does it?

There are apparently five different types of influencers. Let us spare you the definitions and the explanations though. Here is a Tweet instead:

Say that most of us have to start off as ‘nano-influencers’ in the first instance. This is often dependant on just how popular you are at the beginning. If you are out and about, visible and constantly networking then becoming a micro-influencer is achievable. But it needs consistency. Not just a few months, or even a few years. Consider how long abstrachuje.tv have been going…. Seemingly without any hiccups too. Very hard to emulate.

Each level of influencer status, instead of being easier to achieve than the last one, is definitely harder. To become a mid-tier influencer you need to have a good grasp of the algorithm, all the nuances that it comes with, as well as increase output.

In Poland it’s harder to find a list of influencers, but we did manage to find a list nonetheless. It includes Anna Lewandowska whom some of our readers may be familiar with. Have a look:

Is Anna a celebrity status influencer or just a macro influencer?

Poland’s Recruitment Influencers

We covered a small story about Poland’s Recruitment Influencers here at Magazyn Rekruter just last year. In it we highlighted the resounding success of HRejterzy, Jan Tegze, Jacek Krajewski and Grzegorz Deszczka. The list is much longer today. There have been some new influencers who have appeared like Dominika Sepiol, who regularly posts about Workations and Positive Mondays.

There is a small overlap here. Jacek is an ambassador for this year’s PerlyHR competition in November. Dominika? A previous winner of the in-house recruitment category at PerlyHR.

Have you thought of leveraging your recruitment expertise by going head-to-head with other ambitious and social media savvy recruiters today? Yes, a few likes here and there might be pleasing. But confirmation from renowned HR directors with decades of experience might be an easier way to move from nano to micro influencer. Mightn’t it? More importantly, shouldn’t you consider sharing your achievements to a wider audience? Imagine what your candidates and colleagues would think.

Of course, social media can have a damaging impact on mental health. Chasing likes and recognition online isn’t the best way to achieve fulfilment. However, as we hurtle towards the Web3 future, everyone is fully aware that we may be wearing headsets akin to Apple’s Vision Pro to meet our candidates and clients. I’m afraid that the future looks virtual and online. You can embrace it… Or get left behind.

And if you embrace it. Then you should make sure that as many people as possible know what you have achieved. How you have delivered the best level of service to your candidates. Finally, using the feedback from a jury of high calibre HR directors, you can see if you can’t get to the next level as an influencer.

Save the date (16^th November) and submit your nomination today: Wieczór Rekrutera (perlyhr.com)  

Author: Andy Samu

See Also:

• Who are Poland’s recruitment influencers? (magazynrekruter.pl)
• Do the Best Recruiters in Poland need Intuition? (magazynrekruter.pl)
• Julia Chatys to Host Wieczór Rekrutera (magazynrekruter.pl)
• Is Creativity the Biggest Skill Needed by Recruiters Today? (magazynrekruter.pl)
• Perły HR: Magdalena Bobbe zasiądzie w jury XIII edycji (magazynrekruter.pl)
• How do you deal with Gen Z Recruiters? Bring them to Wieczor Rekrutera! (magazynrekruter.pl)
• Perły HR: Marlena Szymanek zasiądzie w jury XIII edycji (magazynrekruter.pl)