People have been crowing for years that the end of social media is coming, and last year’s Elon Musk takeover of Twitter only raised the volume. But in reality, social media networks are likely here to stay, even with the growth of longer-form newsletters and the concerns users have about privacy. Platforms may transform, shape-shift, or no longer suit your company, but they’re sticking around to be either utilized or ignored by your business.
Twitter in particular has some really unique abilities to help you with recruitment. Finding the right candidates might take a little legwork, but it’s entirely possible. If you’re looking to get great talent in the door this quarter, sending out a few tweets may do more than you think. Considering the platform is free, it’s at least worth a try.
Do you need to be on Twitter? No. If your ideal employees aren’t on the site, then it would be a waste of time. There are plenty of ways to get your message out or recruit new job applicants that don’t involve the bird app. But it does have some distinct advantages that can help you get the right talent in the door at the right time.
Here are five reasons Twitter might be able to help you find the job applicant you’ve been looking for.
Your Followers Are Already Your Fans
Are you looking for a pool of people who are interested in what you have to say, who already know about your product or service, and who are familiar with your brand? Sounds like a dream, right? Good news: Your Twitter followers are already that pool of people. Twitter is a place where you can easily access people who want to engage with your company. When you’re recruiting job applicants in a tough market, sometimes the best way to go about it is to find people who are already passionate about your brand. Those people are much more likely to reach out about job opportunities, even if you can’t offer as high a salary or as comprehensive a benefits package. It’s also a way to recruit people who aren’t necessarily looking for employment but who care about your company and are intrigued anyway. This form of active recruitment is necessary in today’s job market and can help bring in top levels of talent.
Content on Twitter Is Extremely Shareable
Your open job postings can only go so far when you’re the one sharing them. But what if you had help when it comes to spreading the word? Twitter makes it incredibly easy for people to share content through retweets, quote tweets, and sharing links to tweets. Ask your followers to spread the word to their own networks. By doing so, you can reach into new networks and opportunities you wouldn’t have been able to get into otherwise. After all, other people sharing your brand and employment opportunities within their spheres of influence will make a much bigger impact than you doing so yourself. If a friend tells you about a job opportunity, you’re going to listen more than if you see a random posting on a job board.
It’s a Low-Cost, Low-Effort Strategy
Twitter is a free platform. Instead of paying for ads on job boards or even paying for ads within a social media platform, consider using your free options first. It also means that if you try it as a strategy for a while and don’t see fruit, there wasn’t a big investment lost. It’s not like you paid thousands of dollars to go to a networking conference only to walk away with no connections. Due to the small number of characters you’re able to use, you also don’t need a ton of strategy. In fact, clarity wins on Twitter, so just say what you’re trying to say as directly as possible, and let the chips fall where they may. You can mix up your wording, include graphics or short videos, and just see what gets the most traction, like one giant, free experiment. Sometimes recruitment is like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Twitter Can Serve as a Way to Showcase Your Brand
Twitter can help you give a peek behind the curtains to your followers so they can see what working for your company would actually be like. One version of your brand is the products and services you sell, but who you are as an employer is a whole other branding aspect that’s easy to share on the platform. Short videos of life in your office, announcements about new team contests, or testimonials from current employees are simple ways to showcase your brand as an employer. It’s an easy platform on which you can show off your company’s culture and personality, attracting the right types of applicants and repelling the ones who wouldn’t be a good fit.
You Can Get a Feel for an Applicant’s Values and Beliefs
This can be a touchy subject, but Twitter is also a way you can explore candidates’ values and beliefs to see how they would fit into your company culture. The number of posts about politics, the language they use, or the things they feel comfortable sharing on the Internet can give you insight into what types of people they are and whether they’re the types of people who would be a good fit for your current role. Every business needs to decide for itself what its boundaries are when it comes to social media sharing—maybe you don’t mind at all when people share their beliefs on Twitter, maybe you prefer your employees keep a lower profile, or maybe you don’t mind what they say as long as they make their profile private or refrain from listing you in their Twitter bio. But no matter what you decide, Twitter can be a useful tool for helping you get a fuller picture of who you’re potentially hiring.
Claire Swinarski is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.