TikTok broke our application process

Time for a new focus, recruitment marketing peeps

Last week, Hirewell saw a 493% increase in unique site visitors. And a 1650% increase in online job applications. Because of TikTok.

????I’ll lead with the takeaway: if you’re in recruitment marketing or employer brand, drop what you’re doing. Figure out a TikTok strategy, now.

Here’s what happened. Y’all know Joel Lalgee? (Of course you do, everyone does.)

Joel’s an adept viral LinkedIn poster. 153k connections at this point. Funny videos, hot takes, recruiting tips, the whole spread. He’s also the all time points leader in “This has been another exciting edition of Posting About Posting™️” comments, by me. (If you know, you know. Love you, buddy.)

Millions of views on a LinkedIn post is just another day for Joel. Not saying that to pump him up, it’s a fact for context.

You may have noticed, he put a LinkTree link on his account profiles. Easy way to link to his other social channels. And the Hirewell web site.

Only 6 weeks ago, he went all in on TikTok. He’s got 38,000 connections there. Only 25% of the amount of connections he has on LinkedIn.

And that’s all it took to break the machine.

Suddenly, we had so many applications, we literally couldn’t process them. Joel had to remove the site link so we didn’t turn into that group of a$$hole$ who ghost everyone’s applications.

(New website is launching in a month with better inbound routing that will fix the problem. No pressure, marketing team…)

It’s not without downsides.

Yes, a lot of the applicants didn’t remotely fit the jobs. It’s not an inherently targeted approach. 

Yes, it’s mostly junior people, which may not be your target. But, it won’t be long before that’s not the case. We’re all getting older you know…

And yes, I have the same security concerns that everyone else does. You don’t have to be a tinfoil hat weirdo to worry about a foreign intelligence agency having your personal info aaaaand now I sound like a lunatic so I’ll move on…

????But the point remains: with only 6 weeks of efforts and ¼ the followers, TikTok CRUSHED LinkedIn.

For all of Joel’s activity on LinkedIn, none of it compares to the net effect on traffic and applies that TikTok has.

We don’t have a strategy yet. I can’t tell you what the best practices should be.

????But if TikTok isn’t a top priority for talent attraction, you’re missing the boat.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.