LinkedIn is a meme and TikTok Resumes are trending! What happens when Jobs & Gen Z collide?!! 😹💥🤳
Part One is all about What We Know in our two-part trend report.
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* We break down the new market indicators & behavioral consumer trends we're tracking, then figure out the unlock to growth & revenue.
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ICYMI in the last 10 weeks we covered:
NCAA Athletes start printing the NIL (Name Image Likeness) Dollars!
Twisting Lux Brands + Depop + Gen Z in your favor!
TikTok News or BUST! Can TikTok go after Fox, CNN, and MSNBC?!
What's on deck for Social Commerce and Gen Z Influencers?!!
"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" GHOST KITCHENS.
Search Engines are in such a mood.…
Niche Interests make Nice Friends. addafriend.com is here!
Linkedin dropped the ball, Link-in-Bio is coming in hot!
Hyper-Casual Social Casino SMS Text Gaming is FIRE!
THIS WEEK’S DOPE NEW STARTUP IDEA COVERS:
* Social Discovery + Recruiting + Gen Z 🔥
WHAT WE KNOW:
* The Market Indicators & Behavioral Consumer Trends we've identified.
>> [ gen z hates on linkedin. turns into meme city. rolling on floor laughing emoji. ]
Gen Z LinkedIn Is Full of Parodies and Snark
- thanks carol! https://twitter.com/carolzhai
Although LinkedIn is not a popular online hangout for Generation Z, some of their most viral posts are parodies of LinkedIn itself.
This subculture of subversion on LinkedIn has inspired countless TikTok videos, a Twitter account called @LinkedinFlex and a devoted Reddit community called LinkedInLunatics. The memes reflect the weariness people feel toward the site— “primarily a place for bragging,” said Jake Zhang, a Toronto-based college student.
“Everyone I know creates an account due to school or peer pressure,” Zhang said. “We use it because there’s no alternative for job hunting. But with all the toxic content and bragging, no one I know really likes it.”
>> [ the TikTok career-minded subculture is REAL! ]
With TikTok Resumes, the social media app is betting on the future of video resumes
- thanks jennifer! https://twitter.com/jljenniferliu
First came #CareerTok, where cynical workers and career coaches alike took to the social media app to post tips, tricks and rants about the world of work, with particular aim at Gen Z and young millennial professionals figuring out their place in the fray.
TikTok head of global marketing Nick Tran says the resumes platform was born out of user activity in this career-minded subculture. And people had gone viral and gotten hired from TikTok before, so why not try to formalize the process?
Tran believes that in TikTok resumes, the app’s young audience of digital natives, many of whom are entering the workforce for the first time, will be encouraged to show off their skills and creativity in a way that the written word simply can’t.
>> [ Elle Woods used a video resume! now Gen Z is too! ]
Is ‘TikTok Resumes’ Gen Z’s LinkedIn?
- thanks juliet! https://twitter.com/JBRylah
Bikini-clad Elle Woods used a video essay to get into Harvard Law School in Legally Blonde (2001).
A TikTok parody of that video got a Brigham Young University student an internship at TikTok — and offers from 10 other companies, per The New York Times.
Could video essays be the next thing in hiring?
TikTok announced a pilot program called TikTok Resumes that connects job seekers to hiring companies, including Target, Alo Yoga, PopSugar, NASCAR, Shopify, and Contra.
>> [ Chipotle goes ALL-IN on TikTok and video resumes! ]
Chipotle has started accepting TikTok video resumes to encourage Gen-Z to apply for jobs at the burrito chain
- thanks kevin! https://twitter.com/kevinshalvey
Chipotle has started accepting TikTok videos as resumes for job applications, continuing a cultural shift in US retail towards meeting applicants on their own terms.
"Given the current hiring climate... it's essential to find new platforms to directly engage in meaningful career conversations with Gen-Z," Marissa Andrada, Chipotle's chief diversity, inclusion, and people officer, said in a statement Thursday.
The move comes as US retailers struggle to find staff amid the nationwide labor shortage. Jobless claims took an unexpected leap upward last week and unemployment in June was more than 2 percentage points above pre-pandemic averages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
>> [ LinkedIn just continues to lose more steam! ]
Gen Z's LinkedIn: How companies are using TikTok to recruit young talent where they are
- thanks kelsey! https://twitter.com/kelseyarolfe
“The pandemic caused a disruption [in the job market] and obviously you need to look for new resources you can lean on, not just LinkedIn,” said Ordonez Celi, 26, who graduated from Western University’s Ivey Business School with a master’s degree in international business last year and did her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.
“I was looking for tips and I love TikTok because the content is so digestible — the videos are 15, 30 or 60 seconds so you learn a bunch of things [quickly].”
It’s perhaps unsurprising TikTok has become young people’s platform of choice for job-hunting tips. While 48 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds — an age group encompassing elder Gen Zs and younger millennials — in the U.S. reported having a TikTok account as of April, just 30 percent said they have LinkedIn, according to the Pew Research Center.
Recently, sensing the potential of the app, a growing number of companies have started turning to TikTok to create videos that highlight their company culture and even directly recruit young talent.
THE DOPE IDEA & THE BRAND EXECUTION:
* Taking the idea and amplifying that into tactical action.
See you next week for the second half of our two-part report.
We’ll discuss on how to position ourselves as a new player in the Social Discovery + Recruiting + Gen Z space — and get into the development of the Brand IP, securing a legit Domain Name, then making it Internet LIVE.