The New Social Media App Every Recruiter Should Know

You know your company is lodged firmly in the zeitgeist when Saturday Night Live spoofs it. The show’s season opener earlier this month featured a three-minute sketch that riffs on the question: What do you do if you receive a BeReal notification during a bank robbery?

In the skit, two thieves (played by Miles Teller and Mikey Day) barge into a bank and force everyone to the ground. When an employee pulls a chiming cell phone from his pocket, one of the robbers threatens to shoot him. “I’m not calling the police, I swear,” the employee pleads. His explanation: “It’s time to BeReal.”

It’s also BeReal’s time. 

The new French photo-sharing app is the hottest social media sensation of 2022, with more than 50 million installs and a long list of Silicon Valley copycats. Hailed by some as the anti-Instagram, BeReal is quickly becoming the platform of choice for Gen Z and recent graduates looking to enter the workforce — news that should have recruiters sitting upright in their seats.

“If you want to recruit top Gen Z talent, flexibility is key,” says Jeffrey Duncan, cofounder of Sydney-based recruitment company Prosple. “You’ll need to shift your efforts away from legacy platforms . . . and towards the apps of the moment.”

Front and back, BeReal wants users to capture life as it actually is 

BeReal eschews the gloss and guff of traditional social media, with their filter menus and endless churn of influencer reels, for a dose of unvarnished reality. As writer Casey Newton observed in The Verge, BeReal is nostalgic “in the way that every new social network is nostalgic: yearning for a time when only your closest friends were on it, when you felt free to be a little more authentically yourself.” 

How the app works is that users receive a push notification at a random time every day, after which they have two minutes to snap and share a photo, using their phone’s front and back camera simultaneously. 

Miss the two-minute cutoff and your post is flagged tardy. Miss the cutoff only to later share a perfectly angled image of yourself picnicking in a sun-dappled garden and you’re missing the point.

Gen Z is looking for authenticity and companies should be looking to deliver it

BeReal’s insistence on authenticity is what differentiates it from other social media — which is precisely what makes it so attractive to Gen Z, a cohort that demands transparency and honesty from brands, as it does from employers.

Scroll through the app’s “Discovery” tab on a weekday afternoon and you’ll be treated to a steady stream of laptop screens and work–from-home hair. The message, like the company’s mission, seems straightforward: Be yourself, at least for two minutes each day.

It’s a message that recruiters shouldn’t ignore. Courting the next generation of workers means meeting them where they are, and understanding the platforms they use to express themselves. It also means welcoming that expression in the workplace. 

A recent poll conducted by Adobe found that 58% of Gen Zers in the United Kingdom say that their online presence helps them feel more comfortable in their own skin. 

“For the next generation, creativity is rooted in the ability to simply be their authentic self,” says Simon Morris, a VP of marketing at Adobe. “It’s about ongoing self-discovery and also, about having fun.”

Use BeReal to signal Gen Z that you’re worth checking out

Ron Storn, chief people officer at Bay Area energy startup Booster, goes one step further. In an interview with The Information, he said that, when used responsibly by employees, BeReal can be an effective recruiting tool, signaling to candidates, “Oh, my God, this company is a fun place for young people to work at.”

Even the SNL bank robbers aren’t immune to BeReal’s charms. After a hilariously thorough tutorial of the app by the bank employees, Miles Teller downloads it to his phone and snaps a selfie. “I don’t care who knows what I’m doing right now,” he says. “I’m going to BeReal.”

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