If you think that TikTok is all about school kids dancing to Ariana Grande songs, you’re way beyond the trends. What started out as social media for sharing fun short video content is now a multi-million platform that is changing the face of digital marketing. 

On top of that, TikTok is emerging as a new effective recruiting channel. Financial post calls the media “Gen Z’s LinkedIn” – and this view seems to be growing more and more popular among HR professionals. 

While you might be wary of exploring TikTok for your recruiting needs, it’s certainly worth a try – especially if your company is interested in hiring aspiring young professionals. This article will help you choose the best recruiting strategies for Tiktok – from traditional advertising to exciting hashtag challenges.

TikTok Audience – Who are They?

Before you hop onto the journey of finding top talent on Tiktok, it’s useful to take a closer look at who you’re most likely to find on the platform. 

If you consider the TikTok demographic in the US with 120.5 million users, you’ll see that 75% of them over 19 years old, the majority of them belonging to Gen Z. Yet, TikTok also appeals to older audiences of people who might be actively looking for new career opportunities. This age distribution is relevant for other countries and regions, too.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/. 

Besides, it’s definitely time to stop associating Gen Zer’s with eccentric high-schoolers – they are now young graduates looking for jobs in the most relevant spheres, including tech, marketing, design, fashion, etc. Whatever your business niche is, you will be able to find prospective candidates on the platform with the right recruiting strateg

Why Recruit on Tiktok?

Social media recruiting is on the rise but TikTok is still behind other platforms in terms of recruiters’ first choice. However, you can reap a number of benefits by opting for this social media as your headhunting territory. 

• TikTok is expanding its non-entertainment content segment. For instance, educational videos are getting more and more traction on the platform. The #LearnOnTikTok initiative is engaging large audiences of young people willing to learn new skills, which means that many aspiring Gen Z professionals are hanging around on TikTok. And you can tap into their job-seeking enthusiasm.

   

• Tiktok is not as packed with headhunters as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. It means less competition and more attention to your recruiting content from target users. 

• Many employees are already on TikTok. With more than 78 million TikTok users in the US alone, chances are many of your employees frequent the platform and even share insights into their work with followers. This can be a solid base for your recruiting efforts (more on that a bit later). 

Recruiting on TikTok: Top 5 Tips

Now that you are aware of the power of TikTok as a social media platform for recruitment, let’s finally get specific. Below are the 5 ways you can use Tiktok to find new employees for your business.

1. Tap into the World of Hashtags

Hashtags are the driving force on TikTok – they inspire users to create themed content and follow the topics they are most passionate about. Hashtag challenges are especially popular: people post videos participating in a task under the tag that projects a value or idea. 

Some businesses, like Chipotle, are already leveraging TikTok hashtags to increase their presence on the platform and look for talent. They even have their own hashtag challenge #ChipotleLidFlip that attracts thousands of users. 

Some brands take it a step further and create unique hashtags for their job positions. For example, a media giant HBO gathered more than 300 applications on Tiktok with the help of the #HBOMaxsummer intern hashtag. 

Pro-tip: If you’re not ready to start a unique hashtag campaign for your brand yet, you can use the existing trending tags to accompany your posts. Try #jobsearch, #careeropportunities, etc. Hashtags will help you target your TikTok content in a much more efficient way.

2. Send Your Recruiters to Do Some TikTok Field Work

If your recruiters navigate TikTok well (and they better), you can encourage them to leverage their presence on the platform. 

• Ask them to post content about your company and create “we’re hiring” videos for your open positions. 

Pro-tip: when posting about your career opportunities, remember to stay on top of TikTok trends. Accompany your video with a viral song or a dance move every TikTok user is familiar with. Adding voiceover is one to explore too, great thing there's auto subtitle generator that adds contextual value on your skit.

• Remember we told you that some of your employees might already be active on TikTok? Have your recruiters repost their work-related content! It could be anything from a sneak peek into a weekly meeting to following your logistics team delivering your products. 

Take Lounge as a great example. Along with traditional promotional content, this lingerie brand often posts backstage content from their photo shoots and features employees in their videos. 

• Better yet, think of creating a series of videos about your business where employees could present it and let their audiences know what it’s like to work for you. Get some inspiration from the already existing professional TikTok communities. 

Pro-tip: again, leverage popular hashtags related to your niche. For instance, if you’re looking for teachers, include the #teachersoftiktok hashtag in your content. Check #nursesofTikTok, #designersoftiktok, and others to get some content ideas that might work well across different business niches. 

3. Partner with a TikTok Influencer

Social media influencers are the new black – we’re sure you already know that. 

However, collaborating with influencers is not only useful for marketing purposes. You can leverage the power of influencer reach in your recruiting efforts, too. 

Find a top influencer marketing agency whose content and philosophy resonate with your company and its values. They can promote your business, encourage their audiences to apply for open positions, and reveal the advantages of being your employee. 

The best way to take advantage of TikTok influencer marketing is through the help of a micro-influencer agency that will connect you to millions of content creators on TikTok. 

The Washington Post regularly includes influencer content (both among their active employees and independent content creators) to attract new talent. 

Pro-tip: if you’re looking for top TikTok influencers to help your social recruitment campaign, pay special attention to their tiktok engagement rates – this is a key factor in determining how many people will see your content and get to know your brand. 

4. Leverage TikTok Ads

If you’re ready to dedicate part of your budget to advertising your recruitment efforts, consider TikTok paid ads.  First of all, have your brand images and visuals from a TikTok logo generator, then apply them to the ads.

TikTok ads are based on excellent targeting algorithms. They allow your content to reach the right audiences in terms of gender, age, location, and even content preferences. For instance, if you are a brand looking for talented designers to join your team, TikTok ads will target users who regularly engage with posts related to the design sphere. 

This way, thousands of potential employees will be more likely to come across your business and see the career opportunities you are offering.

You can choose from a variety of available ad formats:

• In-feed ads;

• Image ads;

• Video ads;

• Spark ads – more on this feature unique to TikTok here;

• Carousel ads, etc.  

5. Use TikTok Resumes

TikTok Resumes is one of the most recent features added to the platform. In a nutshell, Resumes turn TikTok into a recruitment platform where job seekers and companies can connect in an easy, direct way, using the platform’s most popular content type – short videos. 

Dozens of companies signed up for TikTok Resumes within days since its launch, including Shopify, Target, and WWE. You can join the platform segment, too!

Through TikTok Resumes, you will be able to publish your job listings and receive creative video CVs from prospective candidates. This resume format is an unconventional way of showcasing one’s skill set and enthusiasm – a great way for job seekers to stand out and for you to notice them. 

Besides, this is a great way to interview candidates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that has made face-to-face interviews quite problematic. Using TikTok Resumes is not only a safe social-distancing option, but they also allow you to save time – a short video introduction demonstrates both the job seeker’s expertise and their self-presentation skills as well. 

Check out this feature to see what kinds of professionals post TikTok resumes and what business niches are popular among the users.

Image source: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/find-a-job-with-tiktok-resumes. 

Conclusion

Tiktok is more than funny videos of viral dances and gen Z memes. Today, this is a massive platform where you can bump into young talented professionals who would bring value to your business as employees. 

As you can see, TikTok has a wide array of both free and paid options to help you expand your recruitment efforts across the social media. You can choose one or combine several strategies to get your message out there and attract a large number of prospective job candidates – both active and passive job seekers will see your content. 

Last but not least – remember that creativity is TikTok’s staple! Think outside the box and implement recruiting tactics that will spark interest in young professionals. 

Author Bio: David Morneau is the co-founder and CEO of inBeat, a hybrid micro-influencer marketing SAAS/agency that helps brands scale their marketing efforts. He has helped over 200 DTC brands to date