By one estimate, more than half of Generation Z—including the 17- to 24-year-olds the Army needs—use TikTok.

By one estimate, more than half of Generation Z—including the 17- to 24-year-olds the Army needs—use TikTok. Sgt. Dustin D. Biven/Army

Army Recruiters on TikTok Dance Around Ban To Reach Gen Z

As threat worries subside, one sergeant has nearly half a million followers on the China-based app—and the Army wants her advice.

U.S. Army recruiters are using TikTok to find young Americans and persuade them to enlist, despite an express order banning official use of the China-based social media platform. 

The practice highlights a growing challenge facing recruiters: how to reach young Americans who don’t care if their favorite app is made in China, or controlled by it.

Army leaders say they must “meet new recruits where they are”—meaning, on social media—to woo them away from the private sector and into uniform. They even know what apps are favored by their demographic targets. 

“They’re on TikTok,” Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, who leads Army Recruiting Command, said recently, “and they’re doing other things with Twitter.”

By one estimate, more than half of Generation Z—including the 17- to 24-year-olds the Army needs—use TikTok, the short-video sharing platform developed by Beijing-based ByteDance. But the Army is not on TikTok, thanks to a ban born of national-security concerns that some critics now argue were overblown or have gone unsubstantiated. And that’s limiting recruiters’ ability to go where roughly half of their prime targets spend at least part of their day.

“We've got to learn them. We've got to understand,” Vereen said at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting, in October. “We do know that most of Generation Z lives in the virtual space, they live online, they live with social media. And so we have to be savvy with how we evolve in our recruiting operations.”

Some recruiters already on TikTok aren’t waiting for Army regulations to change. 

“We’re already behind,” said Sgt. Georgia Varoucha, a recruiter with the New Jersey Army National Guard. “To me, we’re already ten years behind. Even if the Army allows it right now we’re still behind.”

Varoucha, who goes by  “@njrecruiter Georgia V.” on TikTok, boasts nearly half a million followers and 9.6 million “likes.” The average TikTok user has 1,000 to 5,000 followers.  

Varoucha said she ends up in her sergeant major’s office semi-regularly to answer for some of the videos on her TikTok page. But at the end of the day, the app isn’t downloaded on her government phone, it’s a personal page, she’s not representing the uniform poorly in any way, and her videos get leads.

“Realistically, all they care about is the numbers,” Varoucha said. While her TikTok account took roughly six months to really get off the ground and start resulting in leads, it now accounts for 45 percent of the recruits she draws in.

“If you can be in multiple places at once, why not? And that’s what TikTok does,” Varoucha said. “You create a video, you put it out there, you do your high school visits, and the video is working for you.”

Varoucha is far from alone. A quick TikTok search for “army recruiter” turns up a scrolling page of uniformed personnel in recruiting offices across the country with usernames like sgvrecruiter91706, sandiegoarmyrecruiter, wavyrecruiter, sfcwellsarmy, and blackhawkdown_us.    

According to the Army, they’re all still violating its policy. 

“The Army banned the use of TikTok on government devices in late December 2019. Per our policy, recruiters are only allowed to conduct official business using government devices, so at this time, they should not be using TikTok for recruiting purposes either from their government or personal devices,” Kelli Bland, director of public affairs for U.S. Army Recruiting Command told Defense One.

But Varoucha’s success on TikTok drew the Army’s attention. She was recently asked to join a team in Arkansas that is developing the next generation of social-media-recruiting strategies—and the strategy integrates some of what Varoucha has learned via TikTok. But the Army’s adoption of new social media strategies isn’t fast enough, Varoucha said.

This new effort is meant to build on other “evolved” strategies that the Army has given its recruiters in recent years. These include crafting a persona online, showing what they do in their “real lives,” and striving to be “authentic.”

“They’re wearing a uniform, but they’re showing what they do in their real lives,” said Vereen, the Army’s recruiting commander. “We’ve told recruiting [non-commissioned officers] to sometimes stay away from military content on social media and show their families, show their houses, show their pets. It’s amazing the misperceptions men and women have about the military.”

The Army is even trying to deploy its Gen Z social media users to convince others to join up. 

“We're using their own peers to help recruit them,” he said. “Early on, we were using leadership: a lot of older folks… And if there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that they’re definitely not like me. They’re definitely not like the older generation.” 

But Gen Z peers aren’t officially allowed to use the social media platforms their civilian counterparts spend up to five hours a day perusing.

In November 2019, the Army was proud to share how it was using TikTok and “memes” to reach new recruits despite a growing chorus of warnings about how the company that makes TikTok—and all of the data it collects—ultimately was controlled by China’s government. 

"My recruiters find [TikTok] extremely helpful, when it comes to putting short videos together, to promote the Army and a recruiting message...associated with music," Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, Vereen’s predecessor as commander of Recruiting Command, told Military.com. 

But one month earlier, two key senators had expressed concerns about the app. “With over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Cotton wrote to the acting Director of National Intelligence.

By December, the Defense Department had issued new guidance against using TikTok and the Army had imposed its own ban. The following summer, President Donald Trump attempted to impose a wider ban that was frozen by the courts. 

But many have since softened their opinions about TikTok’s actual harm. In June, President Joe Biden revoked the ban, and recent studies have found no national-security threat associated with TikTok. 

But the Army’s ban on recruiters remains in place.

Bland, the Army Recruiting Command spokesperson, provided a list of platforms recruiters are able to use, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat, and Clubhouse—but Vereen noted that only the first two of those are effective with the youngest potential recruits.

“As you look at Facebook, it’s a great platform. But Generation Z’s not there,” Vereen said. 

The Army did not respond to Defense One’s questions about the gap between its recruiting strategy and current policy on TikTok.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.