The rules that apply to any other online marketing effort apply to marketing job boards as well. One of those rules is this: You must have a presence on social media.
Social media gives your job board the online exposure that you’re really not going to get anywhere else. It’s not advertising, so your presence there doesn’t come across as spammy. If you post something interesting, your followers can share it and it has the potential to go viral.
One of the more popular social media channels is Twitter. That’s the site that lets you provide updates that are 140 characters or less. You can also follow other people/companies who will, from to time, also provide updates that are 140 characters or less.
SEE ALSO: Social Media and Job Boards: Why You Need Both
Here are three ways that your job board can get the most out of Twitter.
1. Use Twitter To Provide Customer Service
Good news: Sometimes job seekers will contact you on Twitter. When that happens, you’ll want to apply the same rules to that request that you would apply if the job seeker contacted you by email. In other words, you want to respond as quickly as possible, and you want to provide actionable information to the candidate.
Sometimes, you might receive criticism via Twitter. That’s certainly not as exciting as when you receive a request for information, but it’s important that you respond. Be polite, validate the critic’s sentiments, and then explain your side of the story.
All of this is tough to do in 140 characters or less. You might have to get creative or respond to multiple tweets, which is not uncommon.
2. Connect With Companies That Hire
Social media is all about building relationships. This is even true in the B2B world where you want to establish a solid partnership with companies that are hiring. That way, they’ll use your job board to advertise open positions.
When companies that you’re following on Twitter tweet about a job opening, be sure to retweet it to your followers. When you do that, you’re telling people that you’re someone who will advertise jobs independent of your website and that you’re willing to help others. This is good PR.
Also, follow individual recruiters who might be self-employed. Even though it might seem like you’re fraternizing with the competition, you’re really establishing a mutually beneficial relationship in a market that’s big enough to sustain a lot of players.
Promote Your Services
Generally speaking, people who provide B2B services on social media are advised to portray themselves as a subject matter expert (SME). Along those lines, use Twitter to talk about your successes (“Hey! We just placed another candidate at XYZ Corp.!”) and experience (“Let me put my 15 years of headhunting experience to work for you!”).
Use social media to build your job board as a brand. Brag about the number of open positions on your board. Tweet about the high-paying jobs with great benefits that you have listed.
Social media can be a huge benefit to any online brand. Be sure to maintain a consistent, online presence on Twitter to promote your job board.