Recruiting on Twitter? Here's what matters.

Despite popular opinion, amassing large follower counts doesn't really matter on Twitter. Followers can be bought. Targeting the right followers, and understanding what they care about? That's where true engagement comes into play.

Don't believe me about the superficial KPIs of social recruiting? Check out Social Recruitment Monitor and you'll be surprised by some of the lesser-known brands that are recruiting successfully from a connected and qualified network. In other words, it's not about the quantity.

Relevant

This is a sample of three distinctly different recruiting tweets for a Java Developer role. Which of these tweets understands the audience, speaks to its desires and isn't afraid to alienate people who aren't a fit?

The last one takes advantage of the fact that many developers are fans of Star Wars. Not sure what a gundark is? You're welcome.

Responsive

How many '@ replies' do you see in a company or recruiter's tweet stream? If you don't see any, the account is likely an automated feed from somewhere else.

You can do this via RSS service like Twitterfeed or simply sync your Facebook or Linkedin accounts to update your Twitter account. If you're going to do this, I highly recommend that it's for one of two reasons:

1. You're planning (and actually follow-through) with what I call engagement, or "conversation content" in addition to the automated stuff.
2. Your account is one of many recruiting focused handles for your organization, that focuses on either all of your open reqs, or specific niche openings for a branded job stream. But simply state that it's a job stream in the Twitter bio. It's good for searchable jobs, but not much else.

Note: Social scheduling means hand-picking content to share at specific times to maximize engagement. This is different than automation, which doesn't filter for time, content or audience.

Requisitions

Wait. These are the bread and butter of the recruiting world, right? After all, no one can get hired until we post a requisition. And there are thousands of job seekers looking through career accounts, along with hiring manager tweets on Twitter.

Most of them are either unemployed, under-employed, or unhappily employed. They're ready for the company that's looking to hire now, because they're looking to get hired, NOW. And for you, that's a good thing. Which is why all of your jobs must be posted, properly hashtagged and searchable.

But for those passive prospects who may not even know about you or your company?

Job tweets. The dating equivalent of meeting someone at a club & asking them what they want for breakfast. Tweet this.

So, who's doing it right?

• @HPCareers
• @SpaceXJobs
• @3MCareers
• @UHGCareers
• @FordCareers
• @SodexoCareers
• @NetflixJobs
• @Uber_Jobs
• @AmTrakCareers
• @HootHR

Now, these are just ten of the recruiting handles that I covered in a previous blog post.

I took another look at my friend Lars Schmidt's Brand Recruiting Twitter Handles list and found a few more that were noteworthy for talent attraction:

• @VerizonCareers
• @LifeatDeloitte
• @InsideZappos
• @IBMUSjobs
• @CareersAtDell
• @GEICOCareers

This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Who else is out there that fosters engagement, shares relevant content and responds like a human?

Please comment - the best handles will be featured in a follow-up post on leveraging Twitter for sourcing.

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Bryan Chaney is a global talent sourcing and attraction strategist. He is currently a Sourcing Executive for IBM and previously led employment branding and social media for corporate recruitment at Aon. Bryan has worked in recruitment, technology, and marketing providing him insights into the marketing of hiring, the importance of technology and the buying process candidates make when applying for jobs. He is the founder of CareerConnects and serves on the board of Social Media Breakfast in Austin.