10 Ways to Use Twitter More Effectively for Social Recruiting by Sirona Says

10 Ways to Use Twitter More Effectively for Social Recruiting by Sirona Says

Having a successful Twitter strategy is essential to making your social recruiting a success. People will tell you it is easy to get loads of followers. Well it is if you just want followers. But if you want real followers with a real interest in your sector/industry and maybe a real interest in what you say/do, then you have to work that bit harder.
Here are 10 questions that you should be asking yourself to help you use Twitter more effectively for your social recruiting:
1. What is your Twitter objective? You can't measure your level of success on Twitter without first setting out what you want to achieve from your Twitter account(s).

• Build a following of active job seekers in your particular sector/vertical
• Use Twitter as a pure customer services channel
• Using Twitter to help build your brand in your industry
• Use Twitter just to post jobs [there is nothing wrong with a separate jobs channel on Twitter - it can work if you are transparent with it]

Make sure you set your objectives before you start, it will really help you tune your content.
2. Who is your audience? Such a simple question, but one that many people on Twitter just can't even answer! Who are you trying to reach with your tweets?

• Job seekers
• Clients
• Industry commentatotrs
• Influencers
• Passive job seekers

3. What is in it for them? Why should people follow you on Twitter?

• What are they going to get out of following you? Great content? Latest jobs?
• Have you told them? Managing expectations is key.
• Is your bio succinct and descriptive? Has is got the relevant keywords from your industry in it so people can understand really quickly?
• Does your Tweet stream (timeline) back up your bio?

4. Is your content on topic? Is, it really?

• Are you sharing content specific to your intended audience?
• Is it interesting content or boring press releases and company updates?
• Are you Tweeing hardcore industry content or just Mashable or Techcrunch posts (they are good quality but everyone shares them!)
• Are people reading, sharing, RT'ing and commenting on the content you are Tweeting?

5. You are measuring and monitoring your Twitter account, right?

• Do you reply to every @mention?
• Are you using Google Alerts / Social Mention or Topsy to track any mentions of your @twittername?
• Are you joing in the debate when people comment on your Tweets?
• Do you use Hootsuite / SocialBro / Crowdbooster to monitor your Tweets weekly to understand which types of content get the most reach and visibility? (So you can change / improve accordingly)
• Are your Follower numbers increasing? If so, are you monitoring the types of the Followers using SocialBro, to ensure they are in line with your audience objectives? Wrong content = wrong followers.

6. Are you posting content regularly EVERY day?

• How many times a day are you posting content? Considering a Tweet has a half-life of 2.8 hours, you need to be posting regularly to ensure your content remains visible.
• Are you using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to help manage your time, by scheduling Tweets?
• Do you know when the best time to Tweet is for your audience? Easy, use Tweriod.
• Did you know Tweeting between 7am - 8pm will give you a 30% better level of engagement?

7. How long are your Tweets?

• You know you only have 140 characters - how many are you using?
• Are you allowing space for people to Retweet your content with the addition of their own @twittername?
• Did you know that Tweets that have less than 100 characters in them have a 17% higher rate of engagement than ones with more characters in them?

8. Are your Tweets engaging your audience with #hashtags?

• Are you using #hashtags to engage your audience in specific conversation?
• Do you join Twitter conversations on subject/industry/keyword #hashtags?
• Did you know that Tweets with one or two hashtags (no more) have a 21% increase in engagement?

9. Do you encourage people to share your content?

• How many people share your content with their Twitter networks? Is the content good enough to be shared?
• Do you reach out to influencers on Twitter to help 'spread the word' about your content?
• Did you know that asking specifically for a 'Retweet' on your tweets increases your Twitter Retweet rate 23 times (a RT increases rate 10 times)?

10. Have you now realised that Twitter needs a little work to make it work for you?

• Have you got the right strategy in place to ensure you maximise your Twitter activity?
• Do you have the right people managing Twitter for your company?
• Have you given up on Twitter already? Don't - it is a brilliant tool for recruiting, it really is!

Twitter is and will be an essential part of any social recruiting strategy. Whether it is used for sharing content, building a brand presence, customer services, posting the latest jobs or as an engagement channel Twitter is a tool that you need to be investing some time in to make it work for you.