Top Three Concerns of Recruiters Using Twitter (Resolved)

A few weeks ago, I held a roundtable discussion with recruiters on their opinions of and experience with social media sites. Mentioning LinkedIn elicited a positive response and Facebook stimulated a robust discussion about balancing their personal and professional lives. When I brought up Twitter, one of the recruiters responded “eh…” and another shrugged her shoulders (sigh).

After the crickets stopped chirping, they only expressed concerns:
  • My daily schedule is full. How do I have enough time to be twittering?
  • I get how LinkedIn works, I’m getting the hang of Facebook, but Twitter is a mystery.
  • Who will follow me on The Twitter? I’m not that interesting.

Recruiters recognized that some companies were successful recruiting candidates on Twitter, but could not picture themselves as active users.

Rewind to January 2010, when I found myself in a situation that has nothing to do with social media…

After doing some research, I found that buying a house provided a substantial return-on-investment, better than purchasing a condo, renting or living in my mother’s basement, especially with the current tax credit. Minor problem: I had no idea how to go about buying a house. So I took a trip to Barnes & Noble and bought the most obvious book possible, “Home Buying for Dummies.” Bringing the book to closing at the bank elicited some laughter from my loan officer and sitting on the floor in front of the sump pumps at Home Depot with my subsequent purchase of “Home Maintenance for Dummies” provoked stares from more savvy home-owners. However, I overcame my worries about how time consuming this would be and the dread of spending entire weekends trimming trees & gardening after learning about the process. I did the research, absorbed a lot of information and eventually purchased a house.

Leaping into some unfamiliar terrain (i.e. Twitter) is worth the time it takes to learn something new and make some mistakes along the way for that ever-so-satisfying ROI. With the right tools and resources, recruiters who can alleviate their fears about Twitter, become consistent users and feel a glow of satisfaction when that first candidate rolls right into their applicant tracking system. Don't believe me? Talk to attendees of ERE's #SocialRecruiting Summit.

I’m looking for recruiters who don’t have enough time to pick up a copy The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Twitter. What questions do you have? How can I help you understand Twitter enough so that you can improve your sourcing & recruiting efforts? Tell me (I won’t make you fork over $26.99). Too shy to comment? Fine. Read Geoff Peterson's post on 3 Ways Recruiter Can Get a Jump Start in Social Media instead.

Seriously, do not go buy that book. Post a comment below & get ready for an answer.

Originally posted on Recruitalicious

Views: 161

Comment by Ali Webster on June 3, 2010 at 9:02pm
@Will - I took a look at your feed @EngRecruiterCa (you have one more follower too). You're off to a great start with tweeting relevant info for your field & your own blog posts.

The next step is to really start engaging & interacting with your current community. Try retweeting an interesting article that someone else tweeted or posing a question to one of your connections.

For some concrete methods to increase your following/followers, take a look at my comments on ERE.net.
Comment by Ali Webster on June 3, 2010 at 9:17pm
@Lesley, need help with Wordpress? I can type up a post on that too :) So I've tried tweeting @LadyGaga & she never replied to me. Neither does Ashton Kutcher. The individuals who realize the power & influence of Twitter will take the time to respond to you. I hope Twitter becomes a conversation for you very soon. Let me know if you have other questions.
Comment by Duane Roberts on June 4, 2010 at 3:38pm
My thoughts - recruiters should use twitter if the candidates they are looking for use twitter. It's simply another tool to find the folks for the jobs that you have open.
Comment by Ali Webster on June 4, 2010 at 4:13pm
@Duane, good call. Take a look at demographics of Twitter users.
Comment by Lesley Hardy on June 4, 2010 at 8:50pm
Hi Ali, thanks. I have set it up, but I have to admit, Im not going to get too far unless I get a Wordpress for dummies. Then the rubber meets the road and I have to organise my thinking!

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