Four Steps to Sourcing Top Talent Fearlessly on Twitter

Forget a shapeshifting demon disguised as a clown, this Halloween there’s one recruiting strategy that recruiters fear most and surprisingly, there’s a cute little blue bird behind it.

Recruiting on Twitter remains one of the most uncomfortable recruiting strategies today. However, it doesn’t have to be. Don’t let a bird or a 140-character limit intimidate you. You can recruit on Twitter successfully and with confidence. It’s easy: follow our four-steps to see how to use Twitter for recruiting then conquer your recruiting on Twitter fears this Halloween season and on. We promise there’s no need to proceed with caution.

1. Step One: Establish Your Brand Presence

Chances are your company is recruiting on Facebook or on sites designed for job searching such as LinkedIn as part of your recruitment marketing strategy. While exciting that you're leveraging those social channels, did you know that there are nearly 330 million monthly active users on Twitter?

That’s huge. Additionally, 58 percent of job seekers are using Twitter in their job search with 76 percent looking at company profiles for opportunities. That’s quite the opportunity to incorporate your brand image into your Twitter account and your company’s tweets.

Get started by resonating with your followers and ideal target candidates. Here are a few first steps:

• Create your @name
• Choose a branded profile photo
• Build your bio in 160 characters or less
• Pick your header image

2. Step Two: Build Your Team (AKA Your Following)

Twitter is all about connecting with other users to share content. In fact, 84 percent of college seniors believe an active social presence can help companies when it comes to recruiting the best talent. Having followers is valuable as it takes you a step closer to connecting with the talent you’d like to recruit. When someone follows your handle they not only opt-in to see your tweets, they also help you expand your reach increasing your visibility.

To build a strong following you’ll need to form a community of engaged followers to support you:

• Add your Twitter URL to your website and within your email signature
• Ask employees and business partners to share your profile for added exposure
• Look up important industry leaders and follow them – some will likely return the favor
• Tap into your existing candidate pipeline by uploading your email contacts then follow

3. Step Three: Search for Talent  

Your social media channels can teach you a lot about your top potential candidates. Search for talent easily by filtering by location or hashtags. In doing so you’ll build a following of people from your target talent pool. Robust applicant tracking systems, like iCIMS Recruit, keep track of how many candidates you’re able to attract through your Twitter efforts.

To find talent effectively, search by keywords and hashtags – specifically ones that relate to your industry, open jobs, or audience. Top hashtags for job seekers include:

• #JobSearch
• #JobHunt
• #Hiring
• #NowHiring

4. Step Four: Engage in Meaningful Conversation   

Create Twitter connections and encourage engagement by tweeting relevant content like job openings or by asking for retweets and answers to questions. Automated scheduling can take the hassle out of manually posting jobs to different social media sites including Twitter. Consider technology that can seamlessly setup posts across all social accounts including Twitter.

Striking up a conversation can be easier than you think:

• Create a consistent cadence of content that’s relevant to your target audience
• “Pin a tweet” of a top job opening
• Ask your brand ambassadors to share your content
• Engage with partners and vendors
• Tweet your job openings multiple times in different formats
• Don’t only tweet about open positions, be sure to share industry news too

Face your recruiting fears this Halloween season. By recruiting on Twitter, you can reach a pool of qualified candidates you may not have considered before and hopefully, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the success and talent that comes from it.