Have you ever considered using TikTok for recruiting?
The good thing about being a recruiter is that you can be your own media when reaching out to those talents you desire to hire.
I don’t see recruiters using this opportunity enough, yet I know you guys struggle with your employer’s or client’s willingness to invest in marketing and employer branding to help get those talents.
You probably agree, recruiters are expected to make miracles, especially when the circumstances are not supporting your miracle work at all!
What I want to do is help you to build your own media and take the matter into your own hands.
You should consider TikTok for recruiting!
When you have full control of how you use media to build your talent audience, expand your reach and help convince your target audiences, not only will your job become easier for you.
But something else, too: you start paving your career path in the direction of your wishes and goals.
Last week I spoke about personal branding for recruiters. I strongly recommend listening to episode 124 because that’s the mindset you need to adopt.
In this week’s episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast, I’ll share some ideas on how you can use TikTok for recruiting. Next week, we’ll do the same about Instagram.
So these three episodes, 124, 125 and 126, are for your inspiration, and I hope to see you getting excited about taking marketing matters into your own hands.
If you are new to this podcast, my name is Susanna Rantanen. I teach branding, marketing and communications for the HR industry for people like you who are motivated to build a successful career in employer branding or talent acquisition.
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TikTok for recruiting – Your audience
As mentioned in episode 121, at the time of recording this episode, the majority of TikTok users are between 16-34 years old, making them Millennials, and Gen Z.
According to Financial Post, TikTok is called the LinkedIn of Gen Z, so there you go!
The same article in the Financial Post also lets us know nearly half of adults between 18-29 have a TikTok account, while only 30% are on LinkedIn.
But we can already see the same trend as with Instagram a few years ago: more and more people like myself, well past 34, in our ripe forties, are finding TikTok and getting the hang of it.
In fact, November 2022 user data shared by Wallaroo.com tells us already 21% of TikTok users are over 40 and 16,4% are between 30-39.
Nearly 40% of TikTok users are over 30 years old!
@rantanensusanna
As for recruiters, TikTok is currently massive for approaching the younger generation who are looking for part-time roles, summer jobs, internships, trainee programs and first jobs after graduation.
However, let’s make it clear, many people nearing their 30s in their 30s are probably already in their second or even third roles after graduation. So you have a vast audience you may not be able to reach anywhere else but TikTok.
TikTok for recruiters – Why not position as a career coach on TikTok?
I know you are wondering how to use TikTok for recruiting.
Do I post job ads and search for profiles like on LinkedIn, or how does this work?
The easiest way to grasp this is to become aware of what TikTok users are looking for on TikTok.
Job seekers are looking for tips and career advice on TikTok.
Job seekers are looking for tips and career advice on TikTok.
@rantanensusanna
When you build your audience on any social media as a recruiter, think about what you can offer for your audience instead of what you can get from them.
TikTok is a major source of career advice
The same Financial Post article (linked above) lets us know that during the first year of the Covid pandemic (2020), TikTok became a major source of career advice for the Gen Z user base. And that’s when many career coaches, HR and recruiters started to generate a significant following on the platform.
So, here’s your answer.
Start sharing career advice and job-hunting tips, and turn yourself into a career coach on TikTok.
According to this HR Cloud blog post, TikTok is expanding the non-entertainment content segment, and educational videos are getting more and more traction on the platform.
Join the #learnontiktok tag movement in a role of a career coach
There is also a #learnontiktok tag users have tapped on over 450 billion times already.
This shows, in addition to finding jobs, entertaining themselves or recruiting on TikTok, people like to explore and use TikTok also for learning!
And another thing you should know is that there is yet to be a lot of competition with other recruiters and headhunters on TikTok, like LinkedIn, and even on Facebook and Instagram.
So it’s much easier for you to position yourself as a local recruiter on TikTok!
Inspirational recruiters on TikTok
There is nothing better grasping how to get on board with a new platform and way of leveraging social media than seeing some inspirational examples.
Here are a few great examples that I found some for you.
Rob Cancilla
Let’s start with Rob Cancilla who positions on TikTok as a Career Mentor.
He has 210 K followers, and his videos have amassed so far 2,5 M likes.
He helps job seekers to get hired faster. That’s a pretty powerful promise!
You’ll have to visit his profile to see this for yourself, but he covers all the questions job seekers typically have.
Things like:
- How to answer “tell me about yourself.”
- Resume review: before and after.
- LinkedIn profile review.
- How do you get your resume to stand out?
- Two things you want to say in every interview.
Hint, hint, here’s a list of examples you should make your versions with your advice!
Emily Durham
Toronto-based Emily positions herself on TikTok as “Emily the Recruiter”.
Her vibe is totally different from Rob’s; that’s why I chose her as another example.
She has about 230 K followers, but her videos seem to resonate with the audience better than Rob’s, as they have been liked more than 6.4 million times!
Emily’s videos are more on the entertaining side than on sharing advice and tips, now that I look at her account in more detail.
When Rob seems to focus only on professional matters, Emily is being her authentic self and talking about other interests, not just recruiting.
She is personal branding with a personal and professional mix, while Rob keeps more on the professional side.
Both are equally good, but Emily proves to us mixing your person in there even more, has its advantages.
But this may not be for everyone. And that’s ok. Rob proves to us that you can totally succeed as a recruiter on TikTok by making it just about career and recruiting.
Justine
Another inspirational example of an inspirational recruiter on TikTok is Justine.
She positions as “HR & Recruitment POV”. POV stands for Point Of View.
Her posts are her points of view on HR & recruitment-related topics.
She is a really down-to-earth example for us because her following base is about 10 000, which is small in TikTok terms. Yet her videos have been liked over 800 000 times, which is huge!
Her content is just HR humour inspired by her day-to-day work. So relatable, and so easy to create.
And what’s more, her videos are a good example of how different TikTok content is from other social media.
I think you can learn a lot from her account!
Some of the POVs she has shared are:
- “Face it boomers, this generation doesn’t want to work anymore:”
- “December is a useless month in corporate HR”
- “When my co-workers ask for my Instagram and TikTok handles”
- “A candidate just signed their contract which means you’ve closed the final role for the year”
By the way, she is using hashtags #workjokes, #workfun #hrhumor and #corporate so if those relate to you, go search for more content like hers for inspiration and fun!
How to get started as a recruiter on TikTok
We need to get you on TikTok and get you started with TikTok for recruiting purposes.
Very simply, do the following:
#1 Create your TikTok account (if you don’t have one yet)
(Download the TikTok app first and create your logins.)
Here is TikTok’s own advice for creating an account.
Select the personal account for starters.
I’ve found it to give me more freedom to explore TikTok while I get started and grow my audience.
The business account is more restricted with music and tones due to commercial restrictions. The thing with TikTok is that those sound trends are a driving force in getting discovered so ride that trend for a while to become discovered.
You can change your account to business later when you have a significant following and need the business features.
I changed to personal a while ago as I felt the business account I’d chosen first was limiting me from getting discovered. And I’m not ready to use any of the business features yet. My account is way too small for that.
#2 Tap into the world of TikTok hashtags
Hashtags should be familiar to you from other social media.
On TikTok, they are important because they inspire users to create trending content and discover and follow content they are interested in.
Leveraging hashtags helps you to expand your TikTok presence.
On TikTok, use hashtags your audience is using to become discovered as what they are looking for.
Some or all of these hashtags might suit your needs on TikTok:
- #internship
- #applynow
- #careeropportunity
- #techtok
- #TikTokresumes
- #opentowork
- #worklife
- #jobtips
- #jobsearch
- #jobsearchhacks
- #careeradvice
- #[yourcity] (to get those local users on board)
And #careertok is inspiring to see how to position yourself as a career coach and recruiter on TikTok.
TIP!
Study the content under these hashtags to learn what type of content users have created and what seems to work on TikTok.
You’ll learn, the vibe is different on TikTok as opposed to the other popular social media platforms.
You should also research TikTok to find what hashtags are trending in your niche and then keep a database of those hashtags updated regularly.
I found this blog post with some advice on TikTok hashtags.
#3 Start sharing your tips and advice on video, or do what Justine does!
TikTok really isn’t rocket science, yet taking on TikTok for recruiting can be a life changer for you as a talent acquisition professional!
You just need to go for it!
You can record your video on your mobile phone and then edit with TikTok app, or also record it directly to TikTok.
Write a list of tips and advice job seekers ask you the most or you want to give them the most and then just go for it!
It’s easy on TikTok because your videos are going to be very short, so it’s not that much information anyhow that you need to record.
Look at those hashtags that I shared with you because there is SO much inspiration for you on the kind of content you can go for as well.
You won’t ace it from your first video, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Just try.
I’m doing the same, trying to figure out my TikTok vibe and what kind of videos get more traction than others. And I enjoy this learning process!
The only way to learn is to try.
The good thing about TikTok is that it’s so authentic that no one notices if you think you failed.
In fact, because TikTok is a mass entertainment app, your bloopers are probably more successful than those where you thought you did really well!
If you look at one of my videos I ended posting, you’ll see.. I innocently tried a filter and managed to film my authentic reaction to how it made my eyes look, thinking it was one of those pretty filters, but no.. My reaction made me laugh so much that I decided to post it. And it’s one of my most popular videos on TikTok.
What about you? Are you ready to start testing and learning about TikTok?
If you are, follow me on TikTok and send me a message to let me know you are my podcast listener. I’ll follow you back! Let’s make the most of TikTok together!
Get this free PDF on Getting Started with Personal Branding in the HR Industry and join my Tribe
Listen, I have written this PDF about Personal Branding for recruiters that I want to give you for free.
Becoming a career coach on TikTok is personal branding.
This PDF is for those of you who want to start learning how to become your own media and brand and elevate your career to new heights.
When you download this PDF, you’ll join my personal branding tribe and mailing list. So only download it, if you are driven to change your career status from struggling to succeeding!
The focus of this tribe is on how you, as an HR professional, can leverage branding, marketing and communication in your work and in building the career of your dreams.
Ok, that’s all for this week my friends!
Come back next week for more branding, marketing and communications’ juice to keep you going with employer branding, recruiting and personal branding!
Happy New Year! Let’s make 2023 a wonderful year for us wanting to succeed professionally and learning how to use branding, marketing and communication for it!
My name is Susanna Rantanen, and I teach branding, marketing and communications for the HR industry who want to build a successful career in employer branding or talent acquisition!