7 Twitter Tactics to Source Top Talent

By Tactics HR

Social recruiting is rapidly changing the rules of the talent acquisition game.  With the continuous emergence of new social media platforms, LinkedIn isn’t the only way to engage candidates and source new talent.  Through Twitter alone, we can now reach millions of people with a single tweet.  But here’s the problem:  when it comes to recruiting, reaching millions of people doesn’t mean you are reaching the RIGHT people.  Are you getting the most out of social media recruiting strategy if you are just posting-and-praying?

There is a better way... a more strategic approach to social recruiting on Twitter.  It’s not just about pushing content and hoping for good leads, it’s about hunting and engaging the talented candidates you are looking for.  

So how do you transform your passive “post and pray” Twitter approach to an active “hunting” strategy?  Here are the top seven strategies we recommend to become a social recruiting “hunter” on Twitter:
 

1. Search Twitter bios:  Often, people indicate (in 140 characters) what their interests are and what they believe are their best skills.  Begin by looking for candidates whose bios match the key skill sets and interests you are looking for.
    
2. Identify those interested in your company:  Ideally, you want to quickly and easily find qualified candidates who follow your company on Twitter.  They are already showing interest in your company, why not consider reaching out to them directly about new openings.
    
3. Find expats: Many talented people move away from their hometowns to seek other opportunities.  By identifying people who are still emotionally attached to their hometowns (e.g. they still follow the local news channel and their college on Twitter), recruiters are able to find talented candidates who may be very interested in moving back home for a new opportunity.  
    
4. Discover “birds of a feather”:  Talented people tend to follow other talented people - they “flock together”.  Seek out these clusters of talented individuals on Twitter and you’ll unveil a pool of talent you may have never considered otherwise.
    
5. Filter based on interests: Cultural fit in an organization is extremely important.  By reviewing what your candidate follows on Twitter, you can begin to assess whether or not their interests align with a specific corporate culture.
    
6. Uncover the “lurkers”: The majority of Twitter users don’t tweet anything which makes them difficult to find when only “listening” to tweets.  However, you can discover talent by searching Twitter based on peoples’ network connections, even when they aren’t tweeting!
    
7. Engage your target candidates directly:  Once you’ve uncovered the candidates you’d like to consider for a new opening, engage them!  Follow them or tweet the details of the new opportunity directly to them that you’d like them to consider.      
    

The fast-changing rules of the social media recruiting game means you can’t be passive and simply push content to attract the best talent.  Go out and find the best candidates on Twitter.  Don’t just post and pray.  Hunt.  

Tactics HR is a social recruiting startup that enables recruiters to hunt great talent on Twitter by searching user bios, locations and network connections.

Follow us: @TacticsHR