Micro-blogging 101

Social media sourcing – in the form of micro-blogging -- has slowly become more popular within the recruitment community. But how exactly do social networking platforms, such as Twitter, help companies find and attract talent?

1.       Directing traffic to your careers page

Tweeting about a job will assist in directing traffic/visibility to a career page, or job posting. 

2.       Hashtags
Hashtags link your tweets about a specific topic or association to a category, which allows recruiters to tighten their searches, or target a specific niche.

 

3.       Finding candidates

As explained in my previous post, a simple Boolean or Xray search can help find passive talent that may not have been found via traditional methods, along with several other uses (and it’s free!).

It is also important for professionals who engage in social networking platforms to pair their Twitter account to a personal or professional tool such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or your blog site. This keeps your colleagues and network up to date on all new opportunities.

4.       Engaging your candidate pool
By allowing candidates to connect with you via twitter, you appear approachable and accessible. You can use these platforms to answer any questions that recruiters may have in a less formal way than forcing them to send an email or phone you directly. 

5.       Building a candidate pipeline
Use your micro-blogging account to create a specific “list” which will house candidates that fit a particular discipline, or job search.

Twitter isn’t the only game in town...

Twitter is not your only option when developing an outreach strategy. Canadian platform Identi.ca also offers some unique tools for recruiters.

What is Identi.ca and how can I use it to recruit?

Identi.ca is a relatively new micro-blogging service that is very similar to Twitter. Identi.ca’s ‘dents’ (as opposed to Twitter’s ‘tweets’) follow the same 140-character format and are shared with not only your friends and followers, but are also shared on an open public timeline. However, there is one major difference between the two micro-blogging sites, and that is the concept of openness. Identi.ca was built with OpenMicroblogging in mind, meaning that it is built on an open platform that can be shared with anyone else who wants to host their own federated version of the software. So unlike Twitter, which hopes to monetize the service in order to turn a profit, with Identi.ca you can host your own preferred server, sharing ‘dents’ with your identi.ca account as well as with anyone else running the same software.

Why is this important to recruiters? Well, for companies that are specifically looking for technologically-savvy candidates, they will definitely find people of interest on identi.ca. This micro-blogging service requires a fairly extensive knowledge in computer-programming and software engineering in order to use it effectively. These skills are also often key things a recruiter is looking for in their ideal candidate for technology companies. 

Groups

Another interesting feature on Identi.ca is the groups tab. This tool allows you to target or connect with people of similar interests.

 

Twitter vs. Identi

While Identi.ca offers an open-concept platform and an interesting groups tab, it is clear that it doesn’t pose as much of a competition to Twitter. From a recruiter’s perspective, this is extremely important. When looking for potential candidates, you are going to want to go somewhere that has many features to help you connect with and engage your followers. Being the first of its kind has allowed Twitter to establish a mass-user database with widespread interests and as a recruiter, this is exactly what you are looking for.

However, don’t just brush-off Identi.ca altogether. Identi.ca is the in the process of implementing the following features to better improve its platform:

• More AJAX-y interface
• Maps
• Cross-post to Pownce, Jaiku, etc.
• Pull messages from Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc.
• Facebook integration
• Image, video, audio notices

Therefore, micro-blogging can be an excellent tool for recruiters. Take a minute, and get familiar with them. It won't take long to understand and apply them to your next search strategy.