How to Leverage Twitter for Recruiting
Social media is heavily utilized, but often misunderstood. Many staffing firms wonder, “What channels should I be on?” “How often should I be posting?” “What do I even post?”. If you’re in this boat, you’re not alone! This blog details some helpful tips for you to use one underutilized social media platform: Twitter. Let’s dive in!
Why Twitter?
While many social media platforms are designed as heavily-image based, Twitter remains one of the few platforms in which text remains king, making it certainly unique. And while you may still think LinkedIn is the best place to find top talent, we always want more than one recruiting source! A whopping 58% of those searching for new opportunities are searching on Twitter, and there are actually more of these candidates on this platform than the perceived popularity of LinkedIn (beamery.com).
Not only that, but Twitter gives you a sense of who candidates actually are as human beings, making this tool increasingly valuable to your staffing social media strategy. Sure, LinkedIn and other platforms highlight some key skills and experience, but what you really want to know, is “who is this person at their core?” While they might not be tweeting their biggest hopes or fears, gaining insight into which accounts they follow along with their tweets gives you a good idea of their interests and how they may fit into your staffing firm culture.
It’s Easy!
Skip the hassle of having to wait for InMail acceptance and go straight to the source without any barriers! But there’s definitely a craft to this. You don’t want to bombard potential candidates with too much information right away. Relationships take time, and this is no exception.
Follow these potential candidates first, and get a sense of who they are, what they’re talking about, and what language/correspondence might resonate with them best. Try starting a conversation off a tweet of theirs, for example! You are much more likely to get your foot in the door if you seem genuinely interested in creating an authentic dialogue than if you come out swinging right off the bat.
Stay Up to Date
While your staffing social media strategy may already include this, make sure your Twitter handle has a good branding presence (professional avatar and cover photo), and tweet regularly! This is a great way to boost your authenticity as a staffing firm and gives candidates a sense of who you are as well. Utilize hashtags to cut through the noise to help candidates not only find you but want to use you as a resource! Research relevant hashtags like #techjobs and sprinkle these throughout your tweets daily to further indicate your industry leadership and knowledge base.
Post, Post, Post!
A tweet is made up of 280 characters, making these posts short and sweet. Due to this brevity, feel free to tweet up a storm – preferably daily, and even more than once a day if you’d like! Post about industry related news, your current job opportunities, and even special awards or occasions your staffing firm is celebrating. Make yourselves humans first, and recruiters second!
Did these Twitter tips help you craft your staffing social media strategy? If you have any questions, we’re glad to help you along the way. For more recruiting and social media insights, check out our other blogs or reach out to us and we’d love to chat!
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations. www.sjhemleymarketing.com