With TikTok overtaking Google as a search platform it’s time for recruiters to start using it too. Read how you can do that and attract the candidates through TikTok
When TikTok just started gaining traction, it was mostly seen as an app for silly lip-sync and dance videos used by Gen Z. However, during the pandemic in 2020, the user base has increased exponentially. Nowadays, anyone from local grandma to a globally recognized news magazine can produce trendy content on TikTok.
By August 2020, TikTok reported that its monthly active users have grown nearly 800% since January 2018. By February 2021, the video-sharing app has become a serious competitor to YouTube with over 1.1 billion monthly active users. An additional feature has been added as well – TikTok For Business, a self-service solution providing marketing solutions for brands.
The type of content has become increasingly diverse as well. Memes, challenges, tips and tricks, travel and food vlogs, news, product announcements – people are using TikTok for engaging storytelling on every possible topic – including jobs.
@lilihayes #stitch with @saharrooo ♬ original sound – Lili Hayes
But is TikTok worth your time as a recruiter? What benefit can it bring you and your candidates? Let’s find out together.
If you want to meet candidates online, TikTok is a great place to start. There are a number of ways you can help your employer brand both internally and externally.
With 1.1 billion monthly active users spanning across all ages, gender, and interest groups, someone in your company most likely has a TikTok account. So why shouldn’t you be using TikTok as well?
Want to learn more about employer branding and recruitment? Check out our complete guide.
As a platform where you have all the tools to create videos on the go, TikTok offers a chance to collect employee-generated content and employee story videos, with ease. More accessible content creation and distribution is a perfect solution for the remote work environment.
There are many creative ways of showing the behind-the-scenes action and company culture to your audience. TikTok is one of the newest tools out there. You can film, edit, share and post the videos you make all within the app!
Highlight your colleagues’ unique personalities and talents, sprinkle some creativity in showing the ways things are done at your company and offer a sneak peek into some of the fun you have at a workplace.
@crazyjd20 #havingfunatwork #scaringcoworkers #foryoupage #fyp #ohjuandiaz @ladygirlmo ♬ Iko Iko (My Bestie) (feat. Small Jam) – Justin Wellington
Go even further and create a new hashtag for your company specifically for TikTok. By encouraging your employees to use the hashtag when posting a new video, you make it easier for the content to be found and for the small community to grow.
Check out these popular company hashtags for some inspiration: #lifeatgoogle, #workingatamazon, #disneycastmember
If any of your employees advocate for your company on, for example, LinkedIn, you are familiar with personal branding on social media. It is an indirect way of representing your company while building a brand around your own knowledge and expertise. Many recruiters like Hung Lee serve as company influencers which attracts a lot of attention and potentially new customers.
TikTok is just another platform where your employees are able to share their expertise while advocating for your company. The types of TikTok videos they can create include landing a job, working in your industry, and any other relevant content while occasionally talking about your company. With a new limit of 3 min videos, the content on TikTok is perfect to be absorbed by Gen Z and Millenials that comprise most of the job-seekers.
If you are looking to fill up a spot for a photographer, graphic designer, or any other creative position, TikTok is the perfect platform to identify the best creators out there. The TikTok algorithm works exceptionally well at distributing the video content to the right audience. Just look for the videos with the most engagement and likes, and you’ll get yourself a list of highly talented people.
Compared with other social networks, TikTok has been the most favored place for creators as well. Instagram is having issues with fair distribution of content being littered with more ads every year. Facebook is fairly similar to Instagram with less exposure available to artists, while Twitter heavily compresses images. Overall, the new and existing content creators report having their content on TikTok getting more traffic and engagement faster with a more relevant target audience interacting with the videos.
Social media influencers can bring a ton of valuable audience and attention to your company. As TikTok was growing so was the number of new and existing influencers on the platform.
Find TikTok influencers with the same or similar audience and values as your company’s. Reach out to them and invite them to work with you for a day giving a special sneak peek into your work environment and company culture.
Another way of leveraging influencer marketing is encouraging your own employees to become influencers. A good example is Dave Jorgenson from The Washington Post. More on that later.
Due to the effects of the current pandemic, in the last year and a half, the job market has been largely unstable. Many have lost or got laid off from their jobs, relocated, or even decided to change their career paths. TikTok as a new social platform seemed attractive enough to be a place where you could look for any advice on interview tips, learning new skills, and so on.
Videos on topics like Business TikTok and Career TikTok have millions of views. TikTok app offers a few creative ways you can spice up your hiring processes and attract new candidates.
Thousands of candidates are in search of interview and job tips and best practices. Why not become a TikTok creator yourself? As a recruiter, you can produce high-quality content that will attract very relevant candidates to either your job posting or the company in general.
@flywithmerm Flight Attendant Video Interview Prep ✈️👸🏾🤴🏼👸🏽👸🏻 #flightattendants #flightattendant #cabincrew #foryou #interviewtips #traveltok #airplanetok ♬ Ye – Burna Boy
Recruiters and TikTok are already developing something exciting – a new job-seeking service for Gen Z that is going to be largely focused on entry-level jobs. There are a number of companies in the beta testing phase already.
Having specific hashtags in your video descriptions makes it easier for the candidates to sort and find relevant information. Put yourself in the shoes of the candidates and think about what would your audience type in the search bar to find your videos.
One of the most famous hashtags would be #careeradvice and #jobtips. Below you can find some of the examples by PostBeyond on hashtags the TikTok users follow for various job-related content.
TikTok, similarly to other social media platforms, has an in-built Ads Manager. You can create campaigns with specific objectives, set your own budget, and measure the campaign results all within the platform. The custom audiences and ad performance are optimized for either brand awareness or conversions.
However, the most unique feature would be targeting options – you can set it up to target the users based on their engagement. For example, if you are looking to hire business students for your internship program, they are more likely to watch videos on related topics – business, job-seeking advice, interview tips, or your industry-specific topics.
TikTok as a platform offers tons of tools and support for the creators making it possible for anyone with good content to become TikTok famous. And Dave Jorgenson from The Washington Post magazine has been leading a successful TikTok account since 2019. See for yourself.
@washingtonpost Russia has continued to deny their plans to invade Ukraine but has yet to remove their troops stationed on the border. #NATO #ukraine #wordle ♬ original sound – We are a newspaper.
He managed to combine the fun and wittiness together with the informative part of local and international news. In his interview with Mashable, Dave points out:
Dave mentions: I think the other aspect of it, and this was kind of the plan all along, is really trying to actually inform people. Obviously, you can only say so much in a 10 to 15 second TikTok, but you could probably scroll through more recent TikToks and see in the comments where people are like, I can’t believe this is how I heard about this.
While Dave is not a recruiter, he most definitely represents and brings extra exposure to the magazine. Seeing his example, think about creative ways TikTok can bring value to you and your company.
There are many ways using TikTok can benefit you and your recruiters whether it’s using ads or enhancing the employee advocacy strategy. Find what works best for you and your company, its budget, and its culture. TikTok is an ever-growing platform and it continues to introduce new features like the job hiring service. It’s a channel worth keeping an eye on whether you are ready to use it or not.
