Twitter is a social networking website that you can use for free to send short messages to your followers and to read other users’ updates, known as tweets.
Imagine your Facebook status updates on their own – it’s like a mini Blog telling people what you are doing, your thoughts for the day or links to useful information you have read online.
You might have seen it mentioned in the press as it is fast becoming a mainstream communication tool for business. Celebrities, politicians and sports personalities are also using it to communicate to friends, fans and the general public. In fact, as it’s often reported, Stephen Fry is the most followed celebrity with over 340,000 people reading his tweets!
I’ve been using Twitter for a couple of months now and have gone through cycles of being totally addicted to it, to having no time to tweet and even forgetting about it!
I am using it generally to update friends on what I’m thinking about, but also more specifically to promote news from jobs.ac.uk such as events we are running, new career development articles and even new product launches. I haven’t got a massive following yet but I’m sure as I delve further into the Twitter world this will grow.
I’m very honoured that President Barack Obama is actually now following me on Twitter! I’m guessing that in reality it’s his team of people that update his Twitter account, which by the way has over 580,000 followers, but it still brought a smile to my face this morning. 🙂
So how do recruiters use Twitter?
My colleague Carl Freelove recently wrote some really useful tips for our customer e-newsletter on how Twitter can be used to promote your brand and to connect with customers, colleagues and potential employees. There are lots of other articles and Blog posts (I’ll mention a few later) about how you can use Twitter as an organisation, but here is a useful start:
- Promote products and services – spread brand awareness and promote your open days, training or courses by sending tweets to connect followers to your website, blog or microsite (giving you additional web traffic)
- Develop a following – encourage users to follow your brand on Twitter in order to receive exclusive updates and news directly through instant tweets
- Market research – perform rapid market research by sending a question out to thousands of potential customers who can each respond instantly with a one-word answer
- Network – use Twitter to network with like-minded people and to keep abreast of the latest buzz about your organisation
- Connect with employees – share ideas with co-workers whilst working on projects over different sites
- Recruit new employees – tweeting about a new job opening could be a great way to connect with the best and the brightest academic professionals
I’ve also read several Blog posts about this topic and you may find the following links useful:
Should you use Twitter for recruiting?
How to use twitter to recruit the right talent?
Follow jobs.ac.uk on Twitter!
If you are not sure where to start with Twitter the best idea is to set up an account and start following some friends or organisations you are familiar with to see what they are doing.
Why not follow jobs.ac.uk and be the first to hear about new career development articles, changes to our website, new product launches and more about the team of people behind the website!
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