The Best Trick I Know To Source Candidates Using Twitter

by Phil on September 8, 2011 in Sourcing/Recruiting with 4 Comments

Parakeets

I’ll admit I had no idea what sourcing meant a few months ago so here it is: the identification of job candidates through proactive recruiting techniques.

 

What’s the best thing you can get from a unavailable but talented candidates? Referrals for other talent people they know.

But let’s be honest, they don’t always come easily.

So picture this, what if every time you find a potential candidate on Twitter, you’d find an extra 5 or more? Sounds good right?

Well, this is such a deceptively simple technique, I feel like I need to write some meaningless stuff just to make the post longer.

Seriously, next time you identify a great candidate on Twitter, look right away for the ‘Similar to @username‘ section in the right column of their Twitter profile page. Click the ‘View all’ link and start digging. I bet you’ll find 4 or 5 persons with similar occupation living in the same city.

Twitter is using the gigantic amount of data they have to find similarity between people, most probably based on the links they shared, the people they know and who they interact with.

Needless to say that it works better for people that have at least 150 followers/following and tweet at least partially about subjects related to their professional occupation (but it works pretty well for Justin Bieber too!).

That’s how I help a contact with an intro to an awesome web designer I hadn’t met yet and how I found our new part-time web designer.

Let me know if that helps you out and good luck!

PS: To reach qualified and referred candidates on LinkedIn, take a minute to try matchFWD referral tool.

About the author

Phil Hi, I am Phil! Been involved in product development for 12 years and I recently co-founded matchFWD to put back people at the center of the employment game. I am always happy to meet smart people and talk about startups, running shoes, bicycles and a long list of other things ;-) Advice about technological choices only cost you a coffee. Personal email is p [at] philgo20.com.

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  • http://twitter.com/jonahmanning Jonah Manning

    Good tip.  You can also use search tools like TweetAdder3 to search twitter profile data. 

  • http://twitter.com/Jonsflush Jonathan Dixon

    Interesting logic Phil. I’d take you up on that coffee, but I gather you’re in the US ;-) Be a long way to come. 

    • http://philgo20.com/ philgo20

      I am in Montreal actually which is far more interesting yet a bit far from London.

      We have a bigger post about distributed talent community management coming that take this logic much further to build a pipeline of talents around your company.

      I keep the coffee offer in mind next time I am in London. Cheers.

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