Selecting a Recruiting Strategy for Twitter

Twitter, in my opinion is the social network where recruiters and HR professionals should be.  It’s the most open social network, and offers users the opportunity to connect with a new type of marketplace.   For the recruiter, Twitter provides three very different and effective strategies to recruit.  Neither is better than the other but each strategy serves a separate purpose in your organization’s recruitment strategy.  Companies and recruiting teams depending on their staffing needs can employ any or all of these strategies at the same time.

The thing about Twitter for hiring, sourcing, and recruiting is that there really is no one size fits all which isn’t unusual for any type of recruitment or hiring strategy as each organization serves a different industry or vertical.  Understanding things like demographics in terms of the locations of where you are recruiting should also be factoring in when developing a social media specific strategy or any type of recruiting strategy for that matter.

Just in Time Recruiting & Staffing 

Recruiting  or staffing in this manner is simple.  You have a position that needs qualified candidates and today.  Because Twitter is an open network that offers easy search and the ability to connect, sourcing job seekers on Twitter is a great way to fill those positions.  Tools like Twiangulate allow for recruiters to search Twitter by a user’s location, keywords contained within their tweets or their bio.  This comes in handy when filling a very specific position that hasn’t lent results in tools like LinkedIn.  Below is a search on Twiangulate which is free for a ruby developer in NYC.  Using the keywords Ruby and NYC, I’m able to start building a list from which to research and call from.  Other paid tools like Tweet Adder which is an online marketing tool offer the ability to search bios, tweets, and even export your Twitter lists into Excel.

Twitter search function at www.search.twitter.com will receive a makeover in the coming weeks..  It will now offer autocomplete and search intuition.  You can read more about the new features.  It will continue to offer a location search radius and the ability to search by Twitter hash tag which are essential features for sourcing on Twitter.

Jobs Distribution & RSS Feeds 

Twitter is a search engine and is the third most popular internet tool behind Google and YouTube for web surfers looking for information and answers to questions.  It also offers viral and Search Engine Optimization properties making your corporate Twitter account an effective way to market and reach job seekers by posting job openings and announcement to your network.

While jobs distribution doesn’t promote engagement and conversation which huge to building relationships and long-term employment branding strategies on this social network, companies can share their job openings by setting up an RSS feed to automatically share their opening when it is posted on their ATS or applicant tracking system.  Adding Twitter hash tags specific to the type of position, city, and adding the #jobs or #job hash tags makes your opening found easier for job seekers who rely on Twitter as a job search engine.  For an opening for a ruby developer in New York City, I would include the hash tags #nyc, #jobs #job #ruby, and #developer contained within my tweet along with the job title, city, and url to apply for the position.

Employer Branding

Twitter in my mind is about engagement, conversation, and connecting with new and interesting people to learn and build relationships with.  For employers, focusing on conversations and community can help service as customer service and employer branding tools allowing for job seekers to learn more about your organization’s culture and what sets you apart from the competition.  Share content that is of value to your target audience.  If recruiting ruby developers that means helpful articles, retweeting or reposting the messages or tweets of others, and by following and engaging the #ruby hash tag.  This strategy serves more as long-term word of mouth and candidates apply to openings as a result of your interactions and connections made on the platform.

With over 340 million tweets per day being posted to Twitter.com, this social networks is where new connections and conversations are made.  If used strategically with a very specific goal, recruiters can manage their time effectively and find it a fantastic source of both passive and active job seekers ready to work.  Read more about how Facebook can also be used in your candidate recruiting efforts.

This post was originally posted on Glassdoor.com.  You can learn more about Twitter and Recruiting.