What’s there to tweet about? I’m asked that question frequently. Folks not yet on Twitter seem to think they aren’t interesting enough to share their lives in 140 characters. I’d beg to differ though. And for those considering jumping in for their organization to help build up your digital employment brand, I thought I’d provide a practical primer of fifteen things to consider tweeting about. First thing’s first though. Using Twitter will only work if you’ve got a kicking brand already – you can’t buy this stuff and you can’t make any of it up. If you think you’re ready to jump in though, here are some simple ideas to get you going:
- Employee programs. Even if something “new” isn’t necessarily happening with your program, candidates may not be aware of any or all of your programs. Tweet out weekly or monthly about a different program. Just mention that you offer telecommuting, your employee volunteerism efforts, if you have an on-site day care, sabbaticals… simply share about it.
- Link to blog posts, articles and other thought leadership pieces written by your staff. Give folks a glimpse into the minds of folks they may work with or under the direction of.
- Post photos from your corporate events- picnics, a health fair, a staff meeting, recognition events.
- Company press releases… but find the talent or people-related angle with news your company might be announcing. Open a new office? Did anyone transfer there? Share that development opportunity and show people the paths that they may be afforded in the future.
- Link to your job postings. Simple. But don’t overwhelm your feed with job postings. And don’t forget to shorten your URL down.
- Interview/selection process.If multiple rounds of interviews are the norm, if you always do panels, if you are really unstructured – any and all of the above are good to share.
- Bad candidates.You walk out of an interview that really bombed. They didn’t ask questions. They were unprepared. They answered their cell phone. You have stories of situations where the candidate simply acted a fool… share. Let your followers learn what not to do with you.
- Good candidates. What wows you as an interviewer? Share it. Let candidates learn what resonates with your company.
- Events + appearances. Recruiting events, conferences, other speaking engagements. Tell people where you or people in your company are going to be whether it’s a traditional recruiting event or not. Let them come find you live and in the flesh.
- Offers and new hires. Have a high profile new hire? Share it via Twitter. Finally fill a hard to fill role? You don’t even have to announce or reveal the identity of the hire. Simply share when a position has been filled.
- Career advice. Turn your Twitter feed into a destination for advice on careers in your industry. If they look to your feed as the authority for jobs in your sector or industry, it can’t hurt. Even if you’re not recruiting a ton at the moment.
- Did someone else mention your company in a tweet?(Because hopefully, you’re monitoring for that!) Re-tweet it. Answer their question, say something affirming, clarify the issue they raise.
- Non-work activities.Have a company softball team? Share the team’s record. Share the wins, share the losses. Share that the CEO just came out to watch the game. Just share that you know how to have some fun with colleagues.
- Other digital networking tools.Periodic reminders about your Facebook presence, your blog, your LinkedIn group and what have you… newer followers might not know about your social media presence. Remind them gently, particularly if you’re making a substantive update to any of the channels you’re on.
- Other employees on Twitter. If there are employees in your company on Twitter, who newly sign up or maybe they were on Twitter already and were just hired, share these folks with your followers (so long as they don’t mind…).
Do you have some ideas now for what to tweet about? If not, folks that I’d recommend you take a look at and consider how you may emulate? Besides @jessica_lee and @FistfulofTalent, I’m also behind @APCOjobs. My pals @SodexoCareers and @lifeatmcgladrey are great examples of corporate recruiting presences on Twitter. I also like the folks at @KPMG @emccareers and @hyattcareers. So go on now, tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet!
My husband recently asked me what I talk about in my tweetw. He said that no one cares what I am doing at the moment (see Verizon commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CKzskjn4s ). HR is one of the few professions that gets to see the REAL side of people – the good, bad and UGLY! It’s good stuff if written well and in 140 characters or less.
Thanks for sharing, Jessica!
Great article Jessica – definately some original points there. However, I don’t necessarily agree with Twitter “only working if you’ve got a kicking brand already”.
We’re not particularly well-known, but having a Twitter has significantly increased site traffic and business over the last couple of months or so. Simply through interacting with the online community and posting links and blog posts of interest.
Sure, it’s not going to work on it’s own, but it will work with time invested in it even if you don’t have a particularly strong brand to begin with.
http://www.stickymediagroup.co.uk
http://www.sticky-media.blogspot.com
Jessica–Very happy to see a post on the direction of how to mind the employment brand. I can’t tell you how frequently we talk to folks in the marketplace who have gone to great lengths to drive the brand of the organization, but fail to invest in what their employment brand ought to be or how to nurture it. I personally see Web 2.0 tools to be somewhat of a ‘printing press moment,’ and believe that the recommendations you have made are essential to help an organization build the social capital of their brand.
Some additional thoughts on employment brand can be found on my blog, The Seamless Workforce: http://blog.yoh.com/2009/08/equal-application-of-employment-brand.html
-Joel Capperella, VP of Yoh, Blogger at The Seamless Workforce, http://www.theseamlessworkforce.com
Great observations. We are tweeting jobs at my company, but we don’t have other context in place yet to help augment the community. Until we get there, we won’t see the full benefits of twitter.
The good news? Some of our internal clients feel that they have seen an uptick in the quality of candidates which they correlate with the advent of our twitter usage.
Jessica – Thanks for the kind words for @lifeatmcgladrey. Another DC Area-based company that is a good example of a corporate recruiting presence on Twitter is @comScoreCareers
I think this give a good run down of good tweeting ideas. I think you just plain get it however you did not express it but most people/companies are intimidated by it I think. Your words were perfect when you suggested to “jump in”
Not only the ideas but the ability to stick with it ensure that the corporate brand is being properly represented.
Again, great thoughts and I am sure it will help many people along the path of meaningful tweets.
Thanks again – Darrin, TheInterviewGod
Three Great Social Media Reads
I read three very insightful articles about Twitter today. Over at Fistful of Talent, Jessica Lee lists ways companies should use Twitter to enhance their employment brand. “Using Twitter will only work if you’ve got a kicking brand already -…
hi, jessica. great ideas. i toyed around with the last one and looked at ways to tweet to attract, onboard, train, and engage in a recent post — as you know! (http://bit.ly/1vM1c) i love the idea of collectively brainstorming ways to use twitter, recognizing that not every idea is one that will work or should be used by all companies.
thanks for the smart and focused ideas, f
Jessica,
Thanks for the great ideas. As we move down the path of really seeing how to advance our recruitment strategy through Social Media, there have been many debates over transparency. I believe the more transparency we have the better conversations & candidates we will have.
Your post is timely for me. I’d simply run dry of new ideas to get the word out about our company and our recruiting products. But now I feel rejuvenated after reading your pointers. I think just reading the boring posts of others made me feel like maybe I was boring too! Thanks again.
Great tips! I’m going to use this for a Twitter for HR pros talk I’m doing next week. Thank you!
A good way to use Twitter is for Job Seeker and Candidate Customer Service.
If brands can do it for their products and services, why can’t HR take on the tough questions:
“What happened to my resume?”
“Don’t want to fill out a lengthy application right now. Who can I speak with?”
“Your application form doesn’t work.”
“Are the jobs on your website real?”
Great post! Could you please share it with members of the “Twitter for Sourcing and Recruiting” Group on LinkedIn?
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1908171
Thanks Jessica for another great post! And for recognizing @hyattcareers! This is great advice and recongizes it’s so much more than just pushing out jobs. Socialness is king! Tweet , tweet
As an avid tweeter & believer in the intersection of social media and recruiting, I was really glad to come across your post. I think you have pointed out some uses that many recruiters have forgotten about for too long.
I was especially happy to see 3… lets not forget visual messages are still some of the strongest out there and work so well with the number of photo posting apps available for twitter from mobile.
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent post, i’ve bookmarked it to re-read again. Thanks
Company press releases… but find the talent or people-related angle with news your company might be announcing. Open a new office? Did anyone transfer
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