Why You Should Be Using Twitter To Grow Your Talent Brand

September 22, 2015

Most companies are regularly using Twitter to share company news and best practices and to engage with customers, prospects and influencers. But, are they really getting everything they can out of the social network? Probably not. When it comes to Twitter, companies should leverage the network to promote their talent brand and here’s why:

Using Twitter to Promote Your Talent Brand

Did you know that:

  • 39% of job seekers have Twitter accounts**
  • 23% have used Twitter to find a job
  • 71% of Twitter users with an active profile have used the network in their job search
  • 8 million Americans credit Twitter to helping with their job search

If you don’t find these numbers compelling, consider the following: There are nearly 1 billion Twitter accounts today. Social media is playing an increasingly important role in our personal and professional lives. And our lives are becoming increasingly mobile, meaning we’re often on our phones reading emails, checking Twitter and Facebook and yes, even searching for job postings. You need to start targeting your audience where they spend a huge chunk of their daily time.

**Note that this number is not specific to the tech industry. Candidates in the tech space are more likely to have Twitter and use it for job searches.

Creating a Separate Twitter Account Solely for Your Talent Brand

B2B companies are focused on building B2B brands, which means that the majority of their marketing efforts (including social strategy) are focused on attracting enterprise customers. A B2B twitter handle is used very rarely to portray aspects of your corporate culture and in turn, your talent brand.

Now, think about a Talent Brand. Talent brands are B2P — business to people. While some content on your Talent handle may overlap with that of your corporate Twitter account, the messaging and overall approach you take to a Talent brand Twitter is slightly different. Instead of selling the company’s product, you are selling the company’s vision and the people that work there. Some companies with talent-specific Twitter accounts include:

Creating Content for your Talent Brand Twitter

A talent-specific Twitter account will differ than your corporate account in the content that’s shared. Your talent handle should focus on current job openings, employee life, company culture, career development and related topics. When first starting out with your talent brand handle, you might want to do the following:

1. Pin a link to your site’s career page at the top of your Twitter feed so it’s always accessible to viewers and followers.

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2. Re-tweet articles related to career development in your industry.

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3. Post original content featuring career advice, written by your HR and Recruiting teams and / or industry influencers.

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4. Encourage employees to blog about your corporate culture.

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5. Create a featured hashtag highlighting a unique aspect of or program associated with your talent brand.

Google tweet

6. Create a hashtag to be used everyday when employees, candidates or people in the industry talk about your company’s talent brand.

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7. Post company and affiliated event information.

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8. Utilize multiple media forms (photos, videos, infographics, etc.) to make your account stand out.

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9. Post job openings, sporadically – don’t use your talent brand Twitter handle as a job board!

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The primary goal of your talent brand Twitter account is to engage active job seekers and motivate people to apply to join your company. The account should also help create a talent pool of passive job seekers who may be interested in the organization and its mission down the line. Remember that your talent brand Twitter handle is an excellent way to keep your company top of mind when job seekers start their searches. And creating a truly standout account is just one more compelling reason encouraging job seekers to apply to your open opportunities.

Senior Talent Manager, Engineering

<strong>Meghan Maher</strong> is Senior Talent Manager, Engineering, actively recruiting top talent for OpenView and its Portfolio Companies. Her tech background has helped OpenView hire for nearly 20 IT and engineering positions. Meghan began her career at AVID Technical Resources, where she was a Technical Recruiter for two years.