Matt Charney of RecruitingDaily says Twitter is a waste of time for recruiters, and offers some compelling reasons for why this is so.

Try to build a business case for increased spend based on these less publicized Twitter usage statistics, ones that kind of prove that any long term benefits of a successful Twitter recruiting strategy, while minimal, would likely be fleeting. Twitter, sadly, is already dying off.

Consider that while over 80% of workers report looking for new jobs online during regular working hours, only around 9% of those same workers report to using Twitter while on the job – a pretty wide disconnect between potential candidates and employers trying to reach professional or exempt talent on this network. Supply and demand must work for a source of hire to be successful, and oddly, this might be one channel where there are more recruiters than job seekers….

Twitter has long had fairly stagnant user numbers, likely because while people continue to sign up for the service, many promptly abandon it – in fact, 44% of MAUs reportedly have never actually sent a tweet out from their account. Someone’s listening to something, but most of the conversation is marketing, trolling or links to Business Insider articles…

If your targeted candidates largely avoid Twitter, then you don’t actually need to make it a part of your recruiting processes or programs. It’s like paying for ads targeting veterans in Mother Jones or Global HR Leaders in Wired or Crunchbase; it’s not going to work, and if you don’t recognize that targeting is key to scalable, sustainable sourcing, slating and selection strategies, then you’re never going to find a fit, because there’s probably no way in hell they’re going to find you.

Aime Echevarria from MDR Healthcare Search blogged about how personal touches on site visits can help close deals.

The general ideas in her post will already be known by anyone who’s been recruiting for more than about one minute, but she does offer some specific suggestions, such as putting toys and puzzles into gift baskets for candidates with children, which recruiters can add to what they are already doing.

Key Take Aways:

Don’t just think about the candidate – think about their family as well! Make the site visit enjoyable for the whole family to help get everyone on board with the move.

Get to know your candidate before the site visit and figure out what they enjoy outside the office. This can help you plan little events and details that can make them feel at home and help them picture themselves living in your community.

Create a sense of community by planning company events, cookouts, and social gatherings that can help the candidate get to know your organization and the people they will be working with better.

Kyle Schmidt for BluePipes pointed out 8 common job search tips which could actually be hurting your job search.

The post is targeted to nurses, but the advice given is suitable for any profession.

If a job seeker walked up to me at a career fair and asked, “What does your facility have to offer?”, what I would hear is, “Hey, what can you do for me?” That’s essentially what is being asked. And that’s the worst approach to take when making initial contact with prospective employers.

Instead, engage in conversations about the challenges the hospital faces, the goals they seek to achieve, and initiatives they’re implementing to achieve those goals. This opens the door for an engaging conversation in which you can display some of your industry knowledge while expressing a genuine interest in helping the employer. All the while, you’re trying to find a way to relate your skills and achievements to solving their problems, achieving their goals and assisting with their initiatives. That’s the way to land job offers. You can discuss what the employer can do for you after the offer.