Could Twitter Be Even Better for Social Recruiting than LinkedIn?

April 5, 2013

Social Recruiting: Could Twitter Be More Effective than LinkedIn?For a while, I was completely averse to Twitter. I was first introduced to the social media platform while I was still in college and found it to be saturated with useless gossip and procrastination. Fast forward a few years and I regard Twitter as a necessary tool in order to do my job as a recruiter well and progress my career — who would have thought?
Of course we all know LinkedIn is a recruiter’s best friend, but shame on me for not using Twitter to it’s full social recruiting potential sooner. It looks as though many of my recruiting counterparts have been overlooking the tool, as well.

Why Every Recruiter Should Be Using Twitter

After reading the 2012 Social Recruiting Activity Report from social recruiting company Bullhorn Reach, I learned that recruiters typically have a significantly low number of Twitter connections compared to LinkedIn or Facebook.
The report also explains that, “A Twitter follower is almost 3 times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection.”
Say what? That’s huge! I need to up my Twitter followers and tweet out my job postings ASAP!
Also, let’s pause for a moment and remember:

  • Cost of a LinkedIn Job Posting: $250.00+
  • Cost of a Tweet about a Job Posting: FREE

Do you really need any more reasons to start utilizing Twitter for your social recruiting?

How to Build Your Twitter Following

First things first, increase your Twitter network. There is even a “Who to follow” section on your homepage to help you. You will find that as you grow your own network, others will begin following you as well.
People will also be more likely to follow you if you are active, so keep up the tweeting. They also don’t want to hear from you if you are only tweeting about job openings, so keep your account interesting by sharing tweets and relevant content from others.

Utilizing Twitter for Social Recruiting

Another way to leverage Twitter for recruiting purposes is simply to search for specific skills. This is especially helpful for technical/niche positions. Not only does Twitter’s search function pull hashtags, it also finds any profiles mentioning the keywords you’re searching for. This is an excellent method to source candidates where you can either send a personal message or find them on LinkedIn to send an Inmail.
I don’t consider myself a Twitter expert (yet), so I would like to include links to helpful articles that will further instruct on utilizing Twitter for recruiting purposes:

The landscape of recruiting is constantly changing; you need to be ahead of the game and up to date with the latest trends to find the best talent.

What do you think? Should more recruiters be using Twitter to boost their social recruiting or should we all stick to LinkedIn?

Recruiting Lead - Software

<strong>Katy Smigowski</strong> is the Recruiting Lead-Software at <a href="https://www.fitbit.com/">Fitbit</a>, where she is directly managing sourcing team, recruiting process and recruiting strategy dedicated to driving software hiring in our Boston office. Prior to Fitbit, she was a Talent Specialist at OpenView responsible for recruiting initiatives for both the firm and its portfolio companies.