How Apprenticeship Employers Can Unlock the Potential of TikTok

How Apprenticeship Employers Can Unlock the Potential of TikTok TikTok has taken the social media world by storm. With Generation Z embracing the short-form video-sharing app in their millions, what does this mean for employers needing to reach teenagers? We used National Apprenticeship Week to investigate. TikTok: The new kid on the block It was the world’s second most downloaded app in 2019, second only to WhatsApp. It regularly topped the monthly app download charts with the video app achieving 1.5 billion downloads by the end of 2019. And 69% of TikTok’s users are between the age of 16 and 24: the all-important Generation Z. Why is it so popular? It’s a place of expression through the camera on your phone and some easy to use editing tools. And whatever the size of your following, you can reach hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people. The TikTok algorithm levels the playing field. What are consumer brands doing on TikTok? Consumer brands have a vested interest in reaching Generation Z. Their bottom lines depend on it. From the music and movie industries to celebrities and politicians, TikTok has opened up opportunities to drive explosive results and reach a highly valuable age group. Adobe has been doing a good job engaging users through their #MakeTheLeap challenge. With the help of influencers, they challenged people to show how they would make a leap in their life. This works well because it has strong messaging, it’s aspirational, it’s relatable, and it’s easy to join in. #MakeTheLeap has clocked up over 92 million views at the time of writing, which is great for Adobe’s brand awareness. It’s still early days for brands on TikTok but they are definitely seizing the opportunity to reach millions of people in a new way. What did we find on TikTok during National Apprenticeship Week? At Fanbytes, we work with brands to help them win the hearts of Gen Z on TikTok. That’s why we built our very own insights tool called Bytesights, the world’s first TikTok influencer discovery platform. We used National Apprenticeship Week to take a look at apprenticeship content. Hashtags are a big part of discovery on TikTok, so we took a look at #Apprenticeship and #NationalApprenticeshipWeek. The #Apprenticeship hashtag has 79 posts with around 40.9k views. However, there was a very low engagement with little to no likes or comments on most posts. Users are intrigued which is a great start but there’s room for active engagement. There wasn’t much happening with the #NationalApprenticeshipWeek hashtag with only 6 posts and 29.9k views. What was interesting, however, was that engagement was a lot higher with an average of 281 likes and 6 comments per post. This shows great potential. It was interesting to see how these hashtags performed during the week. There was clear interest in the topic as we saw an 18,980% increase in views on #NationalApprenticeshipWeek. Users became more engaged with the content as the week went on. People are willing to share apprenticeship life on TikTok but employers are yet to take advantage of its massive potential. Who has taken the leap into TikTok? ACCA. We worked with the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts to help them raise the profile of accountancy amongst Gen Z. TikTok offers something for everyone: the artist aspiring to turn into an overnight sensation, or an employer looking to strike a cord with Gen Z. TikTok has access to communities that are just waiting to be unlocked by employer marketers. Like a genie in a bottle, brands who become witness to its magic now will discover a whole new world. How can you get started on TikTok? Don’t worry, you don’t have to get your employees to start lip-syncing and dancing to music unless you want to. Here’s how you can get started: Download the app and spend your commute, sofa time or coffee breaks just consuming TikTok. The chances are you’ll have some ideas about how your organization could get involved. Tap on the search icon to see what’s trending on TikTok and think about how you can get involved in the relevant ones. Get your employees involved. Pick a handful of apprentices and ask what they could do for you. Partner with an influencer as they will happily get involved if the opportunity is right for them. They know the platform and have the following. Create a challenge and see you reach potentially thousands on TikTok. It’s early days but we know there’s great potential in TikTok for organizations needing to recruit on to their apprenticeship programs. We expect the platform to increase in popularity and be primed for more apprenticeship content come National Apprenticeship Week 2021. About the authors: Shelly Chadha, is Content Manager at Fanbytes and Chris Le’cand-Harwood, a Freelance Social Media Content Marketing Consultant with nearly 20 years in employer, education and consumer marketing. Chris LeCand-Harwood, is a Social Media Content Marketing Consultant.