When I first started working in recruitment, my managers assumed I knew my way around social media because I’m a Millennial. Nothing further from the truth. Sure, I had a Facebook account, but even that was something I barely used. I had ignored LinkedIn on purpose (the only way I knew of its existence was through the consistent stream of spam messages inviting me to join) and I hadn’t even heard of Twitter.
I was determined to be that person my manager thought I already was so I decided to get up to speed with all of the platforms they thought I would know. I’ll admit I didn’t really use Facebook for sourcing for a long time (even though it’s a brilliant resource and you should try it!) but I tried Twitter right away.
I don’t really use it for sourcing. I have in the past, but whether it makes sense for you will depend on the type of roles you’re looking to fill, the location etc. I haven’t used Twitter much for sourcing after I left rec2rec, but it’s a brilliant tool that I still use every day for a number of reasons:
Twitter is one of the best platforms for networking. You can follow other users and they can follow you back, but you’re also able to chat with them regardless. Back when I started using Twitter, there were people I was too shy to talk to on LinkedIn that I would find and talk to on Twitter instead. Some of those people were recruiters and bloggers I’d learn from, so being able to ask them questions or get into discussions was really important to me.
While I don’t really source on Twitter anymore, I used it to keep in touch with candidates that I have identified already. It was way quicker to send someone a quick tweet instead of emailing them to see how they are. Not to mention, I usually didn’t need to ask them because I could check their feed and figure it out for myself. And if you want to just gently remind someone of your existence (I’m not the biggest fan of following up on email), you can just ‘like’ one of their tweets without even sending them a message.
This basically means more learning, but it also means you’re able to network with people that you haven’t really met at an event you haven’t really attended. Today and tomorrow, for example, you can follow the hashtag #sosueu and chat to awesome sourcing people at the Sourcing Summit event.
If this convinced you to give Twitter a try, there’s plenty of resources out there to guide you through the process of setting up an account. The truth is, you should be able to do it on your own and learn things as you go. That is my favourite way to discover a new platform to make sure I get to work out my own way of using it, rather than following someone else’s advice blindly.
Twitter lists can help you organise your network as you grow it, so it makes sense to start creating them soon after creating your account. You can group profiles depending on the type of content they share or industry they’re in etc. You can make your lists public and share them with everyone (like I have with these) or create private lists that no one else will be able to access.
Twitter is the perfect social medium to use on the go, considering how short the messages are and how quickly interactions happen. If you’re getting a Twitter account, make sure to download the app for your phone as well.
There’s no need to obsess over your Twitter bio. You can easily edit that as you go, so don’t be afraid to experiment a little. See what makes people follow back and what doesn’t and introduce changes when necessary. Just don’t leave it blank or half-empty after you create your profile – the point is to start getting people to follow you back as soon as possible.
Other than that, the standard rules apply: don’t automate anything unless you’re a 100% sure it’s the right idea, be nice to other users and don’t use it for posting job ads only. It’s social media, so you should be social too 🙂