Is Twitter a Good Tool for Recruiting Candidates?

Thanks to the growth of the Internet, hiring strategies have changed drastically over the years. Using Twitter and other social media sites as integral parts of the recruiting toolkit is becoming more and more commonplace. Using social media to screen candidates is somewhat controversial, so hiring managers may be best placed to use it for recruiting purposes only.

Using Twitter to fill job openings is growing in popularity, and rightly so. It not only gives recruiters a new way to reach out to potential candidates but it allows them to target people who are already fans of the company in a cost-effective manner. You can also leverage the existing network you have worked so hard to build up as you do your social media recruiting. Simply tweet a short description of the job and the fact that you're hiring, provide a URL for the job posting, and then add "please RT" to the end of it. You may be surprised at how many followers retweet the post and the brand new pool of applicants using Twitter in this way can bring you.

You will quickly discover that using Twitter to reach a new candidate pool is much less expensive than using headhunters or listing job postings on any of the big job boards. In fact, there is no external cost involved unless you decide to utilize one of the new Twitter job listing services, such as TweetMyJobs.com. Even then, the cost is minimal compared to job board costs, with most of them running less than one dollar per day. Another benefit to using Twitter rather than the leading job boards is that you'll find yourself with fewer applications to weed through, and the ones you get usually tend to be more targeted. This benefit will disappear, however, as more job seekers discover the benefits of using Twitter to search for openings.

When using Twitter as part of your social media recruiting strategy, you'll also find that you tend to wind up with a greater proportion of applicants who are tech and social media savvy. When you're looking to fill a position that needs candidates with these skills, there is a good chance you'll connect with them on a social media site. You can also use Twitter and other social media sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram, to take a peek into the personalities of those who have applied for jobs with you; however, this tends to be controversial and possibly misleading.

Using Twitter and other leading social media sites as part of your recruiting strategy is a good idea when used properly. It can open up a whole new pool of candidates for you to evaluate while keeping your recruiting costs to a minimum.

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