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Sourcing Candidates

How to source for candidates on Twitter?

Not every high volume pipeline is the quality one, sometimes you get the most potent and active candidates from the most unexpected place.

A few years ago, candidate sourcing was all about posting the job advertisement, visiting job fairs and waiting for the applications on your company careers page, but the overall scenario has changed with the passage of time. The focus lies on identifying the exceptional candidates among the mediocre and average ones.

It becomes a bit easier to identify the more qualified and proactive candidates on the social networking sites and powerful search engines. Twitter is such a place. 250 million current users, growing by 500,000 new users each day followed by 350 million tweets, sound interesting. But is the platform relevant with professional terms?

The third-largest social networking site, Twitter helps you find a variety of candidates based on their locations and topics.

Recruiting by Twitter is identified by one’s marketing and sales target. It is a wealth of data for sure- you just need to know where and how to look.

The huge user base of engaged professionals, hashtag and keyword search-ability, Twitter is quite beneficial as a recruiting tool. The lists help you segregate users into talent pools. Sourcing with the help of Twitter is an art. We have put up this guide that will help you learn how to find the talent. These Twitter sourcing tips and tricks will make you a pro in Twitter sourcing.

Step by Step Approach to Twitter Candidate Sourcing

Start with an exact search: Besides going here and there, it is always advisable to go for your exact demand. Whatever you are trying to search put it in the quotation marks. For example, if you are looking for a software engineer, you can search it as “software engineer”.

Add an alternative search: Alternative search can be done by using OR in between two terms. Quotations marks need to be put on the both terms. For example, “software engineer’ OR “engineer”.

Add an additional search term: The trick can be used for multiple search requirements. Instead of OR you should use AND if you are looking for more than one quality in a person. For example, if you are recruiting for a marketing agent and a social media expert, you can search “Marketing” AND “social media”.

Exclude certain elements: You can even exclude a certain set of search items from your requirement. Simply use the minus sign before adding the required word to your search options. For example, “software developer” –android.

View all tweets addressed to a certain user: Is the username appearing in too many searches or too many people are searching for the user? Well, it is easy to identify this on Twitter. Type it like this to:username (no @ necessary).

View all tweets sent from a certain user: It is easy to identify how many tweets a certain user has send. It can be identified in this way from:username.

Search for tweets near or in a particular location: Twitter makes everything simple. Type in near:location, or near:location withing: 5mi.

Search for tweets between two dates: It is almost impossible to find content between two dates in any other social media networking site. However, Twitter makes it possible. Type in:since 2014/05/02 until: 2015/09/28.

Search for all the tweets that contain a certain link: Twitter gives you access to find the certain links or terms related to the stuff you are looking for. Drive your search by “filter:links”. For example, “social media marketing”  “filter: links”

Find specific content: You can even target the search to a particular source or platform. For example, if you are looking for a social media expert from the source Instagram. For example, “social media marketing”.

The right hashtags play the key role in sourcing through Twitter. Drive your every search with the help of targeted keywords. Prefer to use skill based hashtags like #sales #marketing #Jobs #hiring etc.

Use the most popular and relevant hashtags to gain maximum search results. Even, there are a few hashtag generators that can help you find and visualize relevant hashtags based on trends and analytics.

Engaging people on Twitter can be initiated by striking up a conversation with the potential candidates you may find. Being a social media platform it engages people in two-way conversations.

To learn more about best practices on candidate sourcing, check out our ultimate guide on sourcing candidates.

(Photo by Mohammad Danish from pexels.com)