In today's digital age, social media platforms have become invaluable resources for talent acquisition professionals looking to source candidates efficiently and effectively. Among these platforms, Twitter is a powerful tool that can unlock a vast network of potential candidates. With its real-time nature and extensive user base, Twitter offers a unique opportunity for talent sourcers to connect with and discover top talent.

"The Talent Sourcer's Toolbox: How to Source Candidates on Twitter" is your comprehensive guide to mastering the art of candidate sourcing on this dynamic platform. Whether you're a seasoned talent sourcer or new to the field, this toolbox will provide invaluable strategies and techniques to maximize your success.

Utilizing our guide will unlock Twitter's unlimited potential as a platform for candidate sourcing. Be prepared to tap into a wealth of talent, expand your network, and elevate your talent acquisition endeavors to new heights. Get ready to revolutionize your sourcing techniques and uncover exceptional candidates at your fingertips.

What makes Twitter essential for finding and recruiting candidates?

In the past 16 years, the global talent shortage has reached an unprecedented level, particularly within the tech industry. It has become incredibly challenging to fill new positions, and tech specialists such as software developers and data engineers no longer need to put extensive effort into refining their resumes and actively searching for job opportunities.

As a result, it has become the responsibility of recruiters to seek out these candidates and initiate contact proactively. In today's landscape, recruiters increasingly rely on social and professional networks as their primary resource. They extensively search platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Github, Stackoverflow, and Twitter to identify and connect with potential candidates

Initially created for microblogging, Twitter is a popular social networking platform. As of July 2022, it boasts a user base exceeding 486 million, with half engaging daily. In August alone, an average of 6,000 tweets were sent every second, resulting in a staggering 500 million tweets daily. (Source)

Even more significant is that Twitter has evolved into a platform extensively utilised for corporate and personal branding. It's no surprise considering a large number of tech professionals who actively promote themselves, engage in IT-related discussions, foster communities, and enhance their social standing. Twitter has become a hidden gem for passive candidate sourcing, offering abundant opportunities for discovering talent.

How to recruit on Twitter

Successful candidate sourcing involves identifying a vast pool of qualified individuals and refining it to select the most suitable candidates. Sourcing on Twitter differs slightly from sourcing on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, requiring creativity and specific knowledge. To assist you in this process, here are several effective methods you can employ to leverage Twitter for candidate sourcing and find the ideal candidates.

1. Fortify Your Brand's Presence and Influence

Your company's official Twitter account should serve a purpose beyond merely being a platform for job postings. Instead, leverage your tweets to enhance your employer brand. By sharing industry news, showcasing photos of your employees, or providing updates about your company, you can create an account that authentically embodies the values and culture of your organization.

To begin, select a Twitter handle that is easily recognizable for job seekers. If your company name is unavailable, consider incorporating words like "careers," "jobs," or "life at" to enhance. Craft your Twitter bio by clearly stating the purpose of the account, taking inspiration from Twitter's effective bio format. Include a link to your company's career site or employment video in the bio to drive increased traffic. In terms of aesthetics, design a header image and profile photo that distinctly reflect your brand identity.

Now, it's time to commence cultivating a network of followers. Dedicate regular time each day to invest in crafting and sharing your tweets. Stay organised by creating an editorial calendar that outlines specific days for sharing industry news and days for posting employee photos. This approach will ensure consistency in your tweeting efforts, which is crucial for building a robust and engaged following.

The key takeaway is delivering valuable, relevant content that your followers will appreciate. Merely using your Twitter feed as a constant stream of job postings may lead users to perceive it as spammy and automated. People seek genuine interactions with other individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain a human touch by sharing various information and engaging with your network.

2. Use classic, time-honoured tweets

The way you portray yourself impacts employer branding, which encompasses the content you share through tweets to your followers (and ideally, others who discover your tweets naturally). When planning Twitter content, there are numerous strategies to contemplate.

Use hashtags

Hashtags are employed by 95% of Fortune 500 companies in their recruitment tweets. Certain hashtags have proven to be effective and are worth considering, such as #hiring, #job, #(your city), #(your field), #(your company)jobs, and #(target candidate description). It's advisable to adapt and refine your hashtag choices as you progress.

Various methods can be employed to identify the current trends on Twitter. For instance, tools like Hashtagify enable users to search hashtags, assess their popularity on the platform, and receive suggestions for their posts. These resources assist recruiters in determining the most effective hashtags to use, which may not yield optimal results. Additionally, one can explore popular hashtags on Twitter and assess their relevance to their posts.

Use images

Twitter offers valuable insights on effectively utilizing images in your posts. Including pictures and graphics in your tweets enhances engagement. This can encompass a variety of visuals, such as illustrations or office/team photographs, as mentioned earlier.

Avoid compromising on the quality of your content.

Inbound recruiting refers to employing digital marketing strategies to attract and recruit talent. A significant aspect of this involves curating content that aligns with the interests of your target audience. If you're using your primary Twitter account, it is crucial to include original content and industry-specific material that provides value to readers. By doing so, you will boost traffic and demonstrate your expertise to potential candidates, making them more inclined to work with you.

3. Take part in Twitter chats

Twitter chats are self-explanatory. They occur at predetermined times, usually weekly, where discussions unfold across Twitter. These chats can be identified by hashtags like #Crafthour, #MarketingUK, or #DeveloperTalk, simultaneously covering various topics and conversations. When you search for "Twitter chats" on search engines like Google, you'll discover numerous websites offering categorized topics that align with your interests. The value of Twitter chats lies in the abundance of Twitter users who share a common interest in a specific industry or field and are enthusiastic about participating in these conversations. They provide a convenient opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals passionate about a particular sector.

Furthermore, actively engaging with Twitter chats as an organization can enhance your visibility among potential candidates, expanding your reach and attracting relevant talent.

4. Advertisements and promoted posts

If you opt for it, you can allocate a portion of your recruitment budget to boost your Twitter posts. Although Twitter is not primarily a job board, you can still run targeted ads for job posts, ensuring they reach a specific audience. This approach increases the visibility of your tweets among users who are more likely to be interested and relevant to your recruitment efforts.

Multiple strategies, such as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends, are available. Regarding recruitment, the most common approach is promoting tweets that direct users to your careers site or specific job postings. Including visually appealing images and relevant hashtags in your promoted tweets is important. Additionally, you can promote your company's dedicated jobs hashtag or account. The choice depends on your preferences. However, it is crucial to regularly monitor and analyze the analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your promotional efforts.

5. Use Twitter Lists

Twitter lists enable you to curate groups of accounts to organise your feed better. When you create a list, only tweets from its members are displayed. For instance, you can search and compile a list of accounts belonging to employees in your company's HR department, allowing you to view tweets from the HR team exclusively. Private Twitter lists can be swiftly created for passive sourcing, making it convenient to contact candidates since all their profiles are organised in one place.

Public Twitter lists serve as a means to generate recruitment interest. They effectively capture passive professionals' attention and increase the likelihood of their response when contacted. Additionally, you can utilise this feature to promote events by creating guest lists and maintaining contact with attendees. These lists also prove valuable for tracking event participants. You can swiftly identify candidates relevant to your sourcing efforts by monitoring tweets related to conferences or industry events.

6. Advance the Recruiting Search

Twitter's advanced search feature is the most effective method for candidate sourcing. It offers a wide range of search criteria, such as language, hashtags, location, and keywords, allowing you to find users who meet specific requirements. Furthermore, you can expand your network by identifying individuals who mention or engage with other users.

Even if a particular user may not be interested in your job position, they might have connections who could be interested. The advanced search function also aids in staying updated on the tweets of users you find intriguing. This helps you gather more information about them and engage in meaningful interactions.

7. Incorporating technology into the process

Tracking analytics

Twitter analytics provide insights into the performance of your Twitter job promotion, whether it's through boosted posts or organic reach. However, it's important to delve deeper when it comes to recruitment. Your applicant tracking system should enable you to track the sources of candidates and generate detailed reports for your analysis.

Social campaigns

Your talent acquisition software should be able to facilitate job postings on prominent social media platforms. This is essential because social recruitment is vital in promoting job opportunities effectively.

Discovering and acquiring talented individuals

Streamline the integration of data from Twitter users you have sourced into your talent acquisition software. Instead of spending valuable time manually inputting information about potential talent, you can leverage a sourcing extension to automate the talent sourcing process.

Doing so lets you consolidate all your talent leads and applicants from Twitter into a single centralised platform. This eliminates the risk of losing profiles or managing multiple open tabs. Ideally, these profiles can be automatically tagged with a source indicator, allowing you to easily identify candidates who originated from your Twitter recruitment endeavours.

Twitter Demographics

61% of job seekers take to Twitter frequently on the job hunt.
74% of those job seekers look at your company profile on Twitter.
Three hundred twenty-six million people use Twitter every month.
And 80% of those people are between the ages of 23 and 38 (millennials, now, but a different generation in the future).

Final Words

Twitter sourcing can be an extremely powerful way to build a talent pipeline. By building connections with people, you want to recruit; you can easily find passive candidates interested in learning more about the opportunity and referring other professionals. Ongoing social recruiting on Twitter gives you a pipeline of qualified talent you can choose from whenever you have positions to fill.

Avoid waiting for a job opening before starting the recruitment process. Keep talking to promising people, comment on their tweets, and share relevant updates. Effective social media sourcing isn't about finding and closing candidates quickly. It's a long-term employer brand-building exercise. Although Twitter recruitment cannot fully replace traditional hiring methods, it serves as an excellent tool for connecting with prospective candidates. Begin cultivating relationships with them today.

HireQuotient can help you quickly find a person's contact info and social and professional accounts and send them a personalised email sequence with our advanced messaging functionality. You can try out our AI-powered platform by requesting a demo.