5 ways to make Twitter work for your recruitment strategy

When it comes to social media hiring, Twitter is sometimes seen as the unsung hero. On one hand you’ve got LinkedIn – a hugely powerful networking platform that has changed the way recruiters search for talent. Then there’s Facebook – a much more informal platform that’s just announced its move into the jobs arena.

On this basis, it’s fair to say Twitter tends to occupy the vacuum in the middle. So why integrate it as part of your recruitment strategy?

Twitter is a valuable tool if you’re looking to inject some personality into your latest job opportunities and direct audiences to your website or blog without seeming to ‘salesy’. That’s if you get it right.

There are a number of companies already successfully using Twitter as part of their hiring strategy, recognising early on that it gives a new dimension to the hiring process – one that can significantly extend the reach of your message.

Just look at companies such as KPMG (@KPMGRecruitment), ITV Careers (@ITVCareers) and Nokia (@NokiaCareers). A brief look at their profiles shows they’re engaging with the followers, increasing their reach and most of all, sharing their latest recruitment opportunities.

If you’re considering Twitter as part of your social media recruitment strategy, here are five ways to ensure you start on the right foot.

1. Optimise your profile

Optimising your Twitter profile is crucial if you want to capture the attention of prospective hires, yet many businesses neglect to complete it in full.

Some Twitter profiles can be perceived as quite static and dull (not including those lucky enough to benefit from a Twitter brand profile ) yet it is possible to create a profile that supports your recruitment strategy.

For instance, include keywords in your 160 word bio that directs audiences to your careers page. Get creative with your background; include snaps of your company culture and be sure to include links to your website in the background. Think about your audience, what do you want them to do?

2. Content really is king

Google’s algorithm checks the authority of every user that tweets, therefore valuable, relevant content will give you a great edge. However, people still struggle to come up with tweets that engage audiences.

If you sell too much in a tweet, you’ll may run the risk of alienating your followers. And if you don’t ‘sell’ enough, you may not see the returns you wished you had.

At least at first, I’d recommend allocating 1 in 5 tweets to the sharing of your jobs. The remaining updates/responses should seek to reply to followers, direct people to your website and share relevant content.

3. Mind your Ps and Qs

Adhering to Twitter etiquette can help you to gain much needed currency on the platform. To start, ensure to personalise content as much as you can. Thank people for RTing your content, and politely involve yourself in conversations.

Hubspot suggests that as much as 64% of users are more likely to purchase from businesses that answer their questions on Twitter. Why should this be any different when applied to your recruitment strategy?

4. Follow the leader

To increase your following, it’s important to identify and follow the ‘good’ tweeters – the influencers who can get your message out to the right people.

Experiment with keywords – what is your ideal candidate inputting into Twitter? What are they talking about? Don’t be afraid to look at what your competitors are doing. Apply the good pointers and improve on the bad.

As a side note – size isn’t everything. Remember, when it comes to Twitter, you’re measured on value. How much do you give back to the community? How often to do you respond to people? Influence is everything.

5. Integrate

Especially when using Twitter as part of your recruitment strategy, it’s important to direct visitors to your careers page. This will ensure your message is seamless; ensuring a smooth journey.

If, however, you do not have a careers page, why not create a landing page and collection form? For a relatively small price, this will ensure to enhance the audience’s journey and will speak volumes about your process. Include a straight forward collection form, and start building your talent pool straight away.

SMEs Using Social Media to Recruit: FAQs

Are you a small to medium sized business wondering if social media recruitment is right for you?

Once upon a time, it was only big organisations that were fully able to leverage the power of the internet as a tool for attracting and building talent pools.

But today, the rise of social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, has given SMEs a vital and cost-effective way of interacting with and identifying potential employees. And in addition to a candidate rich market full of far greater talent than there is demand; research has found more than half of UK job seekers now use social media to assist them in their job searches.

But how do SMEs take full advantage of this opportunity?

Here are the answers to some of the more commonly asked questions by SMEs when considering leveraging the recruitment benefits of social media.

We’re a small business, how will potential candidates find us online?

SMEs are in a difficult situation as they do not always attract the best candidates compared to well-know corporates and big brands.

Whilst there is no simple answer, there are a few things SMEs can do to help increase their online visibility. For example, you can use social buttons as a simple way for candidates to find and follow your social platforms when visiting your company website. You could also share keyword optimised content, such as blogs, to help raise your online profile.

What platforms are best for an SME looking to recruit using social media?

Choosing the right social platforms to spread your message is key to your success.

Consider the type of candidate you’re trying to attract. Do they spend more time on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn? Find out where people with specific interests, skills and experience related to your company are talking. What engages them? Online gaming, blogs, videos?

Whilst LinkedIn is an obvious choice of social network for recruitment, graduates spend more time on Facebook. Twitter works well for niche career specialisms through the #hashtag function.

Remember though, not everyone is signed up to every social media account. So combine your media to get your hiring message out. For example, integrate content and context using Twitter to share short sharp messages or links to your corporate blog, and Pinterest to expose your brand identity and share images of your company.

There are not enough hours in the day already, how will I find the time?

As an SME, you will have limited resources to dedicate to your social media strategy, and as such, it’s important to make the process efficient and financially viable. At a minimum, webrecruit suggests spending the following time on each platform:

LinkedIn – 2 hours per week

Twitter – Tweet twice a day

Facebook – Share three posts a week

Blog – Once a week

If you are unable to tweet regularly or struggle to find the time to share posts, there are tools available that can schedule your updates, such as Hootsuite. There are also sites dedicated to finding and recommending web content to its users, so if you need help with sharing your blog posts, you could try Stumble Upon.

How do we ensure our talent pools are engaging?

By using what others crave most – compelling, rich and engaging content – social media can have a massive reach creating tremendous value when it comes to recruitment. As such, it’s your company’s job to create a compelling environment where people frequently want to go.

If all you have on your social platforms are corporate videos and job descriptions, you are not moving beyond traditional recruitment. Think of exciting ways to drive engagement, such as crowdsourcing and gamification, and don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

Get your own employees involved in your social platforms so they are visible and accessible to potential candidates. Answer questions about the company honestly and openly and don’t hide unmoderated comments and discussions. All of these are real engagement activities that strengthen relationships because they demonstrate an organisation’s ability to offer positive responses and extend trust.

I’m not getting the response I was hoping for, what should I do?

If you’ve posted a link to a job in a LinkedIn group or tweeted it and you haven’t had the interest you expected, look at how and why you are using that particular channel. Perhaps the type of candidate you are seeking doesn’t use it?

To overcome this, set clear, realistic objectives, monitor the response and evaluate the resources you have invested in. You may find you have to take an integrated approach. For example, use Twitter to share your latest job posting, but write a follow up blog that is keyword-rich to source candidates using those particular words.

As more SMEs begin the process of transitioning into social media recruitment, it’s important to remember that it is of course, only one more channel. People will still search for jobs on Google and use job boards, but the social arena is growing fast. And when this new way of working is wholeheartedly embraced, social media could provide a genuine opportunity to identify the best talent for your SME business.

Crowdsourcing: Harnessing the web for what it was built for what it was built for

Designing a strategy that services an organisation’s talent needs has become an increasingly complex task for the hiring manager. Not just because of the unpredictable shifts in the economic climate, but also the constant introduction of new technologies, paving paths for new talent channels.

Recently, Matthew Jeffery described a relatively new concept – recruitment 4.0 and crowdsourcing. It involves using social communities to outsource tasks traditionally performed by internal employees.

How does it work? A company posts a problem online and a large number of individuals offer their opinions and ideas as to how to solve it. The winning idea is rewarded in some form, and the end result is the company adopting the idea for its own benefit.

Often described as a win-win solution – crowdsourcing is cost-effective for businesses and fosters innovation among their social communities. In fact, Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, IBM, Pepsi and Starbucks have already used crowdsourcing techniques to generate ideas that have already or are expected to turn into new products and service innovations.

Whilst there is still a way to go before we see a scalable crowdsourced recruiting solution, key elements can already be incorprated into companys’ social communities, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Here are some of the basics for businesses considering leveraging their social communities to crowdsource.

It’s an additional resource, not a replacement:

First and foremost, it’s important to remember that crowdsourcing is not being used to replace any human decision making processes.

It is a form of attraction, a platform to promote your brand and encourage your social followers to send you suggestions and ideas that can be used within your company, and ultimately create a pool of talent.

If you want to attract talent, you must make yourself attractive:

Building an attractive culture and work environment that will encourage star potential to your social communities is the basis of getting the most out of crowdsourcing.

The only way you’re going to be able to build these communities is if you build an incentive structure that will attract them to your social platforms – whether that’s through gamification, a place to share videos and photos, or offering exclusive access news.

Outsource clearly defined tasks to achieve your goal:

Crowdsourcing is best suited for simple tasks such as a new logo, website or product name.

Be specific. Make a detailed list of what the person is supposed to do. For example, if you’re looking to re-launch your company website, you could ask people for their feedback regarding layout, the readability of text and attractiveness of the design. From there you can get inspiration.

Align Incentives:

To those who develop a winning solution to your problem, you must offer some type of reward, whether that’s financial, a holiday or an iPad.

In return, each person who takes part in the challenge is focused on doing their best work so that they might win. And as such, the ideas and solutions you receive should be pretty fantastic.

Overall, it seems fair to say, keeping talent engaged and interested in your brand and business is not going to get easier. The influence of social media, it’s ease of access and the desire it creates to connect on a global level, makes crowdsourcing, simply another natural progression of time.