Using social media tools like Twitter can help business owners, HR managers, and recruiters source greater numbers of passive job seekers. The 'passive' job seeker is typically an employed individual not actively looking for employment who would be open to entertaining another employment position if it were sufficiently attractive. However, passive job seekers are not actively seeking new employment, they are not trolling on job boards and career sites, and you must reach them where they naturally hang-out or gather (e.g., coffee shops, sports clubs, professional trade associations, or online communities, etc.)
ePraxis typically sources a minimum of 64-100 candidates for each of our retained executive searches for CEOs, Presidents, General Managers, COO, CTO, CFO, VP Sales and Marketing, etc. We have found that mindfully prepared messaging on Twitter helps us attract more candidates.
Frequently we are asked, how does ePraxis source so many more candidates than our clients own best efforts? Answer: Beyond good old fashioned hard work sourcing candidates through traditional recruiter outreach to places where passive candidates pool, we use modern social media tools to get the word out. Passive job seekers are not generally not on job boards looking for work so you need to reach them in their natural environment in the sourcing pools where they swim.
In this blog we share how you can strategically use Twitter and other social media tools to help you source more passive job candidates in your recruiting process. Key steps to success include:
Get a Twitter account.
Prepare a mindful 144 character Tweet that includes a thoughtfully chosen color photo; note, our internal A-B testing of Color to Black&White images associated with Tweet messages shows that color imagery gets 3x the views and click-foll9w-throughs than black and white images.
Use # (hash tags) to identify the key groups or markets you are trying to reach; e.g., #jobs #CEO #CFO etc. These are an important source that may favorably retweet your messages.
Use an automated applicant tracking system (ATS) to provide an online method for applicants to apply for your position.
Miniaturize your ATS job position apply link using a tool like "tinyurl." This will save characters to keep you inside 144 characters.
Send out your Twitter message.
Promote your Twitter message; e.g., Twitter has a paid Twitter promotion offering to reach a wider audience.
Below, notice how the public notice of CFO position availability was forwarded to 33,470 individual Twitter accounts.
Monitor your traffic from your ATS to determine where your leads are being sourced.
Refine your messaging as desired to reach a broader audience, or a targeted audience, etc.
Here is an example of a successful job candidate recruiting Tweet that ePraxis sent using the @SevSorensen account:
The artwork for the Tweet was carefully prepared to capture the culture, mission, and deliverables of the Ankrom Moisan Architects, the client in this illustration. The Tweet was highly successful in generating interest and received 33,470 visual impressions by Twitter account holders. You want your message to be liked, retweeted, and shared with others. Notice in the results dashboard below that the high number of Twitter impressions circulated to passive job seekers resulted in 78 prospective candidates opening the tweet, and conducting follow-up activities including seeking additional information
Our high level of candidates sourced allows us to more thoroughly screen, test, and select the best fitting candidates for our clients. This is something you can do in your own marketing of your positions to attract additional candidates.
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