To stay competitive in the labour market, companies are required to grapple with change and clinch every opportunity to leverage the hiring process. When it comes to social hiring, most business leaders might still refer to LinkedIn as the first resort to source potential candidates. However, latest statistics showcase that Twitter is following the path of social hiring. But, how do you attract talent with only a 140-character word limit?

The logic behind social hiring is quite simple. As people get more engaged with their Smartphones, they invest most of their time in social media. Not only for personal and entertainment purposes, people use social media to stay updated with the latest news, learn new knowledge, stay abreast of the happenings and gain information about recent job openings.

With a huge user base, every post on social media travels faster to wider audiences than any other platform you might use for hiring. As you spread your network through social media recruitment, more people will likely to hear about your job openings. The more you increase the number of candidates applying for particular job roles, there will be better chances for you to find the best person from the talent pool.

With 317 million monthly active users, Twitter is three-times more popular than LinkedIn. In fact, research finds that 51 percent recruiters are posting jobs on Twitter, which showcases higher percentage than jobs posted on Facebook (25 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent).

Yet, despite these high figures, the same survey states that only 1 percent candidates expect to find jobs on Twitter. This contrast in statistics invokes the ultimate question: What strategy should you use to elevate Twitter as a must-visit hiring social platform to be hounded by jobseekers, much on the likes of LinkedIn and Facebook that enjoy popularity?

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Here’s how you can do it:

• Your brand image matters. Before reaching out to talents, it is critical to enhance your brand on the Twitter profile. You might want to create an account dedicated solely for posting jobs, so this will make it easier for the followers to search for the most recent vacancies pertaining to their interests.
• Change your profile picture on Twitter. No one will believe a job opening posted by an account with a plain egg as their display avatar. Change the profile picture to a photo that represents your company brand. It could be the company logo, symbols, or even your team latest photograph.
• It is also important to customise your bio. As Twitter only enables you to write in 160-character word length, use it wisely to explain briefly about your business, the values, and what you are looking for. You can even add company’s website address in it.
• Use hashtags. Twitter is the leading social media that promotes hashtag culture across the world, and you can gain many benefits from it. When you post jobs, use certain hashtags that refer to the job title or descriptions. Through this method, even when they are not your followers, talents can easily find jobs that they are looking for.
• Keep the profile open to public. While there is a feature on Twitter to protect tweets, it is suggested not to use that. Your aim is to reach wider audience, and not just segmented audience, after all.

Social hiring increasingly becomes the new trend for HR leaders. While employee referrals and traditional job boards still bring the highest volume of candidates, recent survey finds that social media delivers the highest quality of candidates among other channels. If you want to level up your hiring process, tweeting your first job opening on Twitter will be a great milestone!

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