Irina S
Executive and Technical Recruiter, Grand Master Sourcer Irina@braingainrecruiting.com http://twitter.com/braingain
Twitter for Recruiting -- Questions?
If you were to listen to a presentation on Twitter for Recruiting and Sourcing, what questions would you want to be answered/material covered?
Also, I know that many are still skeptical about Twitter as a tool; what are your concerns?
I am asking this in preparation for a beginner twitter webinar I was invited to give but also I thought that sharing this info with each other may be interesting for many.
Thanks in advance!
Clarification added 4 months ago:
To Jessica:
Thanks for your reply! Yes, this helps. You are giving me some ideas to address. The keywords would be "setting your expectations", I think.
So here's a question, in response to your objection. If you get in touch with someone on twitter and you have interests in common, why do you need twitter to continue your interaction?
In general, suppose twitter doesn't survive beyond a year or two; how is it not right to find and connect with people there today? You can pull your communication out of twitter into other channels, perhaps, simply phone and email as soon as you both feel like it.
Perhaps twitter is not a long term relationship tool but rather a "party" where you can exchange your business cards and follow up elsewhere?
What do you think?
Clarification added 4 months ago:
To Katrina: Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, marketing capabilities of twitter are amazing.
To answer your question. I am supposed to talk about twitter for recruiting and it is about researching candidates, proactively searching potential recruits, tweeting job opportunities and whatever else may help. (I have some other aspects in mind as well.)
Clarification added 4 months ago:
Great answers so far, thanks!
To Jessica Meher: this is a beginner twitter webinar and the link is not out there yet. It looks like the date will be July 23rd. I do give a twitter webinar "Twitter Techniques" that is for existing twitter users who also have some experience with Boolean Strings. I will repeat it on July 27th: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/413782923
(I wish LI would let me post a clickable link here!).
Clarification added 4 months ago:
Brian, thanks for your reply.
Clarification: I am looking for *questions* about Twitter at the moment, not for answers :)
I am looking for *questions* from recruiters who "do not get" twitter; would like to hear about its aspects, tools, functionality, efficient uses etc.
Clarification added 4 months ago:
Nichole Woody: yes, thank you; this is very helpful!
Good Answers (2)
Nichole W
Talent Acquisitions Consultant & Member Top Recommended People
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (5), Blogging (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
If I understand your question, you are interested in what material is of interest for your webinar...right?
If so, I would be interested in learning how to target an audience that is interested in what I bring to the Twitter-verse: people or companies that are interested in the services provided by my company. I would also be interested in learning how to more accurately track the ROI ~ time spent vs candidates/companies reached.
I've heard that recruiters are having amazing luck with Twitter ~ What should I be doing to join them?
Additionally I would be interested in learning how to work toward branding - not only of myself but of my firm - which is the initial reason that I built a profile.
Best Wishes!
Nichole Woody
Talent Acquisitions Consultant
Professional Placement Services
Questions:
-Twitter is a global tool.. how can recruiters utilize it for local searches, local advertising, etc??
-I think twitter would work great for recruiting employees--lots of people job searching out there! But how might a recruiter (like a staffing agency) looking for company clients (instead of potential employees)use twitter?
More Answers (11)
I am one of the Twitter skeptics. As a marketing professional, I love the idea of social media, and think that embracing it is essential. However, I think Twitter will be a short-lived phenomenon. When Twitter first appeared I jumped on board, thinking it would be a great tool to use, both personally and professionally. But I quickly lost interest, and think that long-term it doesn't offer the opportunity to build relationships with your customer base the way other tools, like Facebook or LinkedIn do.
That may give you an idea of the kind of objections you could get in your presentation, and could be prepared to answer if you think you can offer strong counterpoints.
Katrina P
Marketing/Public Relations Manager at ProductionHUB.com
Best Answers in: Freelancing and Contracting (1), Conference Planning (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1)
I am one of the top Twitterers (sp?) in my city; yet, I have a bittersweet relationship with the concept. People are narcissistic by nature and we all love to hear ourselves talk; we don’t even care who listens.
Enter Twitter.
Majority of people have so many followers they rarely catch what others are communicating, yet have plenty of time to reflexively and impulsively ‘tweet’ the most mundane activities in their lives. (Not even considering – or caring – for a second that their followers may be like them, and not really paying attention to what others are saying.)
This all being said, depending on the purpose of your Twitter account, you may find it incredibly valuable. I am a creative writer and blogger, and get inspired by people’s comments, but it comes in waves. Maybe I don’t catch anything interesting for weeks; however, if I get one single gem of an idea springing off someone else’s tweet or RT, then it’s worth it.
Twitter provides the most value in that it’s the mother ship of psychographics. We not only know statistics in marketing sales (like how many of ABC brand of shoes were purchased last year, or what people fill out on forums) but we know the tiniest, most intricate details people think about the shoes by simple social media searches. i.e If their shoelace slightly chafes their ankle, we’ll hear about it.
Twitter is seriously the closest thing agencies or marketing professionals have to being hooked up to someone’s brainwaves.
I am interested to hear more about the topic you are discussing at the seminar – is it researching candidates, proactively searching potential recruits, or simply about dispersing a.k.a. tweeting job opportunities?
Clarification added 4 months ago:
RE: k kemper: Perhaps you didn't understand my post. Ad agencies, research firms, and companies who truly want to know anything and everything about what people think about their product absolutely need to research social media conversations to see what their clients are saying. I was using a shoe company for example - if you work at Nike, you can bet that their agencies and marketing folks are making sure they are in tune to what all customers are saying - the good, the bad and the ugly. For example right now, someone tweeted "love and hate the new nike+ site. nice features, too much sell sell." To get a true 360 degree picture of what people think of your product, you are researching what images of your product they are posting on flickr, what random (albeit seemingly mundane things) they are twittering about your products, what videos they are posting with your product on youtube, etc., besides the obvious other conventional techniques. Does this make more sense? I wasn't trying to say people stalk you or anyone in particular - well, who knows these days! - I was trying to point out the way marketers (and recruiters) can easily search and find segments of audiences based on keywords and phrases using search.twitter.com, Hashtags.org, etc. People who don't learn how to take advantage of these trends will be left in the dust...
And no, I never owned any pet rocks. ;-)
Irina, I just attended a Twitter Webinar that Geoff Pederson gave and he touched on Advanced Search. I knew other Recruiters used it, but didn't know how. That was useful.
I would like to know if Boolean terms can be used and what works best.
I think covering the different directories (like Yellow Pages for Twitter) and how to use them would be helpful.
k K
Management Consultant, writer, past TV show producer,
Best Answers in: Job Search (1), Ethics (1)
Katrina priore [?] says:
Twitter provides the most value in that it’s the mother ship of psychographics. We not only know statistics in marketing sales (like how many of ABC brand of shoes were purchased last year, or what people fill out on forums) but we know the tiniest, most intricate details people think about the shoes by simple social media searches. i.e If their shoelace slightly chafes their ankle, we’ll hear about it.
Twitter is seriously the closest thing agencies or marketing professionals have to being hooked up to someone’s brainwaves.
---GOD help me
this proves that either this young lady is at
Twitter's version of Disneyland or I am.
When I am at Disneyland, I KNOW I am
there. With T, MySpace and Facebook
I still DON'T get it.
YOU think you know something about me
from my 'subscribing' there?
what on earth do you feel you pick up about
me? and even if you DID, how on earth is
it about to help you?
I am REALLY asking. AS an ex-professor
of management, I am both awed and dumbfounded
or.........am I just dumb? Have taught
over 186,000 undergrad and grad students
and this social thing befuddles, muddles and
perplexes me.
do you have any extra or discarded "PET ROCKS?"
[that is a serious question]
I will ask: On what do you based your conclusions after using Twitter for recruiting and sourcing? And as you wrote in your last discussion, you can combine several social media, but in this moment is there a special combination that works better than other or it depends.
Jessica M
Results-driven Marketing Manager
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (4), Blogging (4), Internet Marketing (1), Search Marketing (1)
Hi Irina,
I get a lot of questions from recruiters regarding Twitter. The first one usually relates to "why should I use twitter?" (to overcome the skepticism) then "what should I use it for?" (different ways to use that will benefit the user) and then "how do I use Twitter effectively?" (time management, twitter tools, strategies, etc). It's best to communicate the different strategies and purposes for Twitter (e.g. for job posting, for brand awareness, for networking, all of the above, etc) and to mold those with the style of the company or individual. Most people just jump in head first without a plan of action, soon enough you'll waste too much time or just lose interest entirely.
Irina what is the link to the webinar? Also, feel free to handout my whitepaper on Twitter for Recruiting to the attendees of the webinar (link below) if you'd like.
Cheers,
Jessica
Links:
Brian J
Director, Business Development at Momentum Management Resources
Best Answers in: Non-profit Management (1), Distribution (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Professional Networking (1)
I would recommend using the site: command at Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines to search within Twitter quickly.
site:twitter.com "job title" OR "skill words"
You may also think about talking about tools like TweetDeck to manage your time on Twitter effectively.
Also, think about taking about posting your jobs to different twitter members. I use @pdxjobs quite a bit in Portland and get some great responses. There are a ton of these throughout the world... check TwitterSearch or Twellow to find them.
Links:
Brian J also suggests this expert on this topic:
Dawn B
Director, Business Development & Human Resources
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (28), Personnel Policies (12), Compensation and Benefits (11), Job Search (2), Organizational Development (2), Small Business (2), Hotels (1), Economics (1), Government Policy (1), Government Services (1), Work-life Balance (1), Tax Law (1), Business Development (1), Change Management (1), Planning (1), Manufacturing (1), Project Management (1), Quality Management and Standards (1), Supply Chain Management (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Career Management (1), Professional Networking (1), Business Plans (1), Starting Up (1), E-Commerce (1), Enterprise Software (1), Information Security (1), Web Development (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I have a friend who is a recruiter and he uses Twitter very successfully - he simply collects 'friends' who follow him on Twitter and when he receives a job order he sends out the announcement to his followers that a "job title" has been loaded on his recruiting site and "BaM" hundreds of new resumes are applied to that job - he fills jobs quickly using this (plus other methods) of posting and advertising job openings.
I accept all Linkedin Invites: Dawn.Boyer@me.com
Yes, Twitter can be a strong marketing tool. But, I hesitate to understand in its effectiveness as a recruiting tool. With all of the public and private networks of active and passive candidates, why use Twitter. Sure, it's certain to result in a flurry of resumes... but are they the best candidates for your client? I use recruiters to search and research the best candidates...not the first 50 Twitters who reacted to a Tweet.
Dennis V
Community Services prof.,Public Admin. expertise, workforce, employment background. Governance and City/State mngmnt
I think twitter is a valuable tool. I am helping a Real Estate Broker friend develop a twitter following. For his type of industry it can be a very valuable tool. Think about having a new property or new financing program and if you have a twitter following say like Ashton Coucher, you could get all your client list in on the action in one twit. It works in this vein I think, very well. For recruiting I think it remains nothing more than a text message.
Penelope A
Public Relations/Marketing Staffing Consultant to PR Agencies and Corporations - Nationwide
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (2)
Irina -
My main concern about Twitter is that it is so public. True...you can send a DM, but still there are other ways to contact people that are better received. Candidates who are spotted and contacted by recruiters are usually concerned about keeping the conversations confidential.
I like to "observe" potential candidates on Twitter prior to contacting. That has proven helpful. You can get a feel for someone's mindset...or even plans, preferences etc.
Still experimenting.....
Penny Alexander
