Finding Candidates Through Twitter
Shannon Seery Gude shares two examples of people using Twitter for recruiting purposes.
I’ve used Twitter to promote companies that have produced video job ads with us. Why not? It’s an easygoing, friendly environment for saying, “Check this company out, they’re cool, you might be interested in them.”
That’s really where recruiting through social networks can work effectively — where it remains casual, relaxed and amongst friends. Companies may try and push their way in, but they’ll have to do so much more delicately. For example, if a company chose to simply broadcast jobs via Twitter, it would probably get very little response. Companies have to be willing to build relationships with people, generate goodwill, and then turn “friends” into “evangelists”.
Twitter (along with the other mini blogs like Jaiku, etc.) can be a valuable tool in a recruiters arsenal but most of the users I’ve seen do not realize that in a web 2.0 world the give is as important as the take. Blatant advertising or commercial pitches fall on deaf ears and as in most good selling (or recruiting) you need to make a friend before you make the sale.