Companies are spending a lot of money to reach you on Twitter. They’re hiring consultants, training large social media departments, investing in social media management tools, and actively creating and sharing content specifically for online consumption.
Most of this is to sell their products - Twitter has been a proven marketing tool for qualified sales leads, user growth, and revenue generation. But what you may not know is the degree to which companies are using Twitter to focus on you as a job seeker.
According to LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends report, companies now view social media as a highly valuable platform to promote their talent brand to job seekers. The next time you see a company on Twitter, look at the various signs that show that they’re not just promoting their brand to prospective customers, but to also to prospective candidates.
Here are some great uses of Twitter as a talent acquisition tool by major companies.
When looking at the use of Twitter for recruiting, there’s no better place to start than with Twitter itself. Join the Flock is the company’s own account dedicated to attracting talent and displaying its culture. It’s become a model for how companies can portray their talent brand to job seekers.
Tweets from fun company events, happy employees, and excited new hires give you a first look at the company’s culture. Pictures of Twitter offices around the world give you insight into what your daily work environment can look like. Articles from executives like CEO Dick Costolo give you insight into how the company is led and and what the overall driving force behind Twitter’s success is.
And the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork is everywhere, sending a clear message that employees love Twitter, and that you will too. This is a highly effective way that Twitter uses its own platform to recruit. It gives you information about the type of person they’re looking to hire and hopes that you’ll hit apply to join the party.
Lyft
Lyft’s main Twitter account is a gold mine of cute pictures of dogs with the iconic Lyft pink mustache, fun stories from happy drivers, promotions with celebrities, and peppy video responses to customer tweets. At face value, this is a company that is doing a great job at marketing its hip, young, energetic brand to consumers.
But if you look at it from a job seeker’s perspective, this is Lyft’s way of saying to candidates “hey, this is what you could have if you come join us!” Peppered in are links to various opportunities at Lyft, with taglines like “Students and recent grads: want an entry-level marketing gig that'll change your life AND pay your bills?” or “Get paid to spread #LyftLove! We're looking for the best and brightest Brand Ambassadors.” This is the mark of a savvy company that is taking advantage of its attractive brand to recruit great talent.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson wants you to be a better job seeker. That’s why the Johnson & Johnson careers Twitter account constantly posts job seeking advice written by their own talent acquisition team or by prominent career bloggers. They do this because when better job seekers apply to their positions, their job gets easier. Well-informed candidates become easier to evaluate, have done their research, and have reached out to Johnson & Johnson with all the relevant details.
Alongside this advice are quotes from their CEO and other leaders that tell you about the impact you can have as a Johnson & Johnson employee. They emphasize business smarts and social responsibility, celebrate the global parts of their company, and display teams they have located around the world. So use some of the tools and advice that their Twitter account suggests to reach out to Johnson & Johnson’s recruiting team - they’ve already told you what might work!
That’s the hashtag that L’Oreal uses on its careers Twitter account for a weekly audio chat with one of its department managers. They want to tell you exactly what is expected of a L’Oreal employee, and they do so by presenting the profile of what each manager considers to be a perfect candidate. They also want to depict the thought processes behind how ideas are generated for new products and strategies, and how each employee can effectively contribute.
This is super useful for getting both an aerial overview of the company’s culture as a whole as well as an inside look into individual teams within L’Oreal. They provide these chats because cultural fit goes both ways -- and avoiding a mistake in fit can save both them and job seekers a lot of time, money, and effort. Whether you’re the ideal candidate or not even close, they want you to help them make the right hiring choice. So when you go to research L’Oreal for a potential application, listen to some of these chats to find out if you’re the right type of candidate for them, and if they’re the right type of company for you.