Social recruiting: how to recruit candidates with TikTok?

What is the most popular platform designed for hiring new people? You’ll surely pick LinkedIn, a business-oriented social medium with special functions for finding offers for employees and sourcing candidates by companies or agencies specialized in this area.

However, LinkedIn isn’t new and “fresh” anymore. Having celebrated its 20th birthday in 2023, it’s losing the battle with TikTok, the main social platform of the young (i.e. 18-24-year-olds) that has swept away older competitors like LinkedIn. To keep up with new trends a recruiter should know how to exploit TikTok to reach new promising professionals. In today’s article, you’ll learn how to prepare for conducting social recruiting activities on TikTok, known for its short and dynamic video creations.

What is social recruiting?

Social recruiting involves various types of social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.) to search for and attract new employees. Depending on the platform chosen, the possibilities in this regard will vary, but each time it gives the HR department a chance to make contact with a potential candidate on its own – without waiting for a resume in response to an advertised post.

To interact with a person (and ultimately establish a relationship) is to raise awareness and generate interest in the brand as an employer (employer branding). How? Here’s a list of key activities that enhance social recruiting:

• setting up corporate accounts,
• developing image with your organic content,
• actively reviewing personal profiles (looking for job candidates),
• establishing a community around the brand,
• conducting performance marketing (advertising) activities.

Social recruiting – why TikTok ok not LinkedIn?

LinkedIn remains an ideal place to find new employees because of its unique features such as personal profiles with career paths and skills, various filters to seek and reach recruits, and the possibility of adding substantive posts.

However, according to the latest data from social media platforms, despite its continued growth only 1 in 5 of new users aged 18-25 have it. But that’s not the case with TikTok, where this age group dominates the platform comprising as much as 40% of its traffic. Nonetheless, this is not the only reason to try Tit for recruitment. The other major ones include:

• The potential in the field of video content creation (a chance to show the brand attractively),
• The dynamic growth of the social media in question (the number of users increased from 350 million to over a billion in just 4 years),
• The popularity of TikTok trends, crazies and challenges (high potential for conducting real-time marketing activities).

How to recruit TikTok job candidates?

If your goal is to attract new job candidates and you open up to social recruiting activities, you should harness the potential of TikTok. What’s the best way to search for and source candidates on this social platform? Below you will find some tips in this regard.

1. Maintain your profile

If you want to conduct effective social recruiting activities on TikTok, you should not forget to be an active user of this medium – that is, to provide content yourself. Within the framework of the videos you publish, you can build your employer branding by pointing out the atmosphere at work, the values the company places on, or the possible benefits.

At the same time, you can encourage people to apply for specific positions with the help of interesting, form-attractive video creations whenever a new offer appears (e.g., by using current employees as actors).

2. Establish partnerships with influencers

53% of influencers on TikTok are between the ages of 18-24, a group you would like to target with your job offer. For this reason, it may also be a good idea to partner with an influencer who will become the face of your brand and promote your company as a good place to work.

With this type of creator, you can count on the videos tailored to your audience, while at the same time, you’ll stay in line with what you wanted to convey – that’s how you’ll increase your reach.

3. Follow current trends

Conducting effective social recruiting activities on TikTok requires engaging in timely challenges and following trends. By adding popular sounds, special effects, video styles, or hashtags, you ensure that you have the chance to increase the number of impressions and thus – build awareness of your brand among your next audience.

In this way, you’ll also build the image of a modern company that is open to creative solutions in its communications, which will surely appeal to young job seekers.

Social recruiting – summary

“To get a job candidate, you must be in the same place “. – Such words can sum up the idea behind the use of social media in the recruitment efforts of companies belonging to various industries.

Still, it is important to constantly ensure that the developed strategy stays in line with the specifics of the company, the target group or the set goals. Suppose your goal is to reach the youngest group of potential job candidates. In that case, you should consider creating an account on TikTok. This social platform provides a new frontier for brands to expand, especially those betting on creativity and following trends also in their recruitment processes.

That’s how you’ll ensure an engaged and productive team – whether they’re just starting work or finishing it.

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