sourcing talent, one tweet at a time.

How to use Twitter as a recruiting tool 

|4 minute read|

With 335 million active monthly users, Twitter is a great place to find the qualified talent that can power your company into the future. And with 35% of job seekers using Twitter to search for jobs, it’s a growing, open source of engaged talent to help you find the employees you need to succeed.

engage candidates where they tweet

From searching for people with specific job titles or skills (such as accounting or software development), to posting job openings and sharing your employee experience, there are several ways to identify and engage talent.

For example, once you find a potential candidate, you can view their profile and most recent posts to see what their interests are and start a conversation. If they share a piece of content like an article or infographic, you can comment and reshare their post.

If a candidate interacts with something that you posted, you may want to direct message them and ask what they liked about it or what resonated with them. This can help break the ice and lead to a deeper conversation about how your positions can help them meet their career goals.

Want to take the conversation off Twitter? Tools like the Chrome Extension Swordfish allow you to learn more about a candidate and contact them directly. You can also reach them on other social channels, like LinkedIn or Meetup if that’s your (or their) preferred communication channel.

the do’s and don’ts of sourcing on Twitter

Do: Repeat your tweets.
You shouldn’t be afraid to post the same tweet a couple hours, days or even weeks apart – as long as it’s still relevant. Even when posting the same day, like at 9:00 a.m. and again at 3:00 p.m., you’ll be hitting different groups of people in different time zones.

Don’t: Tweet the same type of content over and over again.
If all of your posts are the same type, such as only tweeting job postings, your followers will notice and lose interest.

Do: Keep your content interesting.
It’s good to use a ratio for the type of content you post. I use the 30/30/30 rule: 30% original content, 30% retweets and 30% engagement. So I’ll post a link to an article, retweet something I found interesting and then tweet at an influencer.

Don’t: Confuse your followers.
To make sure your tweets are relevant to your audience, look at the words in your bio. Do they match your last five tweets? Do they match the bios of 10 randomly selected followers? If you answered “yes” to both, you’re in good shape.

Do: Write a good bio.
Speaking of bios, make sure your own bio is strong. It should cover three critical things: who you are, why you’re an authority and what your focus is.

Don’t: Only promote yourself.
If all your posts are about yourself or your company, people will quickly lose interest.

Do: Inject some individuality into your tweets.
When sharing an article, put your own spin on it by adding your personal reactions and thoughts.

Don’t: Ignore people. When a candidate tweets at you or mentions you, the worst thing you can do is ignore them. Make sure you respond in a timely manner.

Do: Use people’s names.
It takes just two extra seconds to click over to a user’s profile to find their name, and it will make an interaction friendlier and more genuine.

Don’t: Be a stalker.
When trying to reach a promising candidate, you don’t want to come on too strong. Liking or retweeting everything they share can turn such a candidate away.

Do: Use photos and video when appropriate.
According to a study by Buffer, including a photo in your tweet will get 35% more retweets, making your feed much more visually interesting and engaging.

Don’t: Neglect key tools.
There are plenty of tools and apps — such as BuzzSumo, Nuzzel, Audiense and others — that can help you up your Twitter sourcing game.

tweeting toward your next great hire

As Twitter continues to grow as a recruiting channel, the right strategy will ensure your success. If you do the best practices listed here, you can be sure you won’t miss out on leveraging this powerful sourcing tool. This is just one of the many ways you can improve candidate engagement using social media.

To learn more about other strategic sourcing, check out our recruiting strategies stream.