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Accounting firms are beginning to tweet in force, using Twitter to reach job seekers and educate junior employees, making them aware of job development groups and activities. They believe that in the near future Twitter will begin to play more of role in recruiting at other levels, too. Among the early converts, Ernst & Young started a Twitter initiative last month while KPMG plans to launch a program in August. The Twitter programs - in conjunction with other recruiting efforts already in motion - are intended to help keep audiences abreast of workplace-related events and information, while enabling the firms to reach wide groups quickly. Smaller national and regional accounting firms, including Grant Thornton, are also using Twitter to complement traditional recruiting methods.
Many recruiters believe fast access to large numbers of people gives them an edge in finding top employees, and over the past two decades they've benefited from advances in technology. Twitter, with its rapidly expanding network of followers and 140-character messaging, is seen as the latest breakthrough. "It's a new toy," says Mark Mehler, a long-time follower of recruiting trends and founder of the consulting and research group CareerXRoads. Recruiters "just want to connect to people. When there's interest, than we can go into more depth."
To be sure, these are early efforts. Mehler himself has reservations about Twitter's staying power. (The company is still wrestling with a model to generate revenue.) Accounting firms have focused their tweeting on younger job seekers who are most receptive to the new social media technology.
Focus on the Young
Ernst & Young's initiative is targeting about 200 summer interns in the Northeast, which encompasses parts of New England and the New York metropolitan areas. The firm typically hires most of them for full-time, junior-level positions the following fall.
The firm's lead campus recruiter in the Northeast, Joe Maturando, welcomed the interns to Ernst & Young in his first tweet. He said he would be tweeting on company events, the accounting profession, individual skills and professionalism. He also plans to ask senior company executives for comment in future messages.
Partly out of concern for security issues, Maturando says the firm is being careful with how it uses Twitter. People who want to receive tweets will have to register for a special "privacy account," he says. Yet he foresees an expanding role for Twitter because messages are easily accessible by both computer and handheld device. He believes Twitter can help Ernst & Young reach candidates at schools and other organizations that haven't been regular recruiting stops. The firm has had success in using Facebook for marketing and recruiting.
KPMG will also target college candidates. A small marketing team will tweet on events and topics related to work experience, career development and leadership skills. The firm's national managing partner for university relations and recruiting, Manny Fernandez, sees Twitter as a complement to other resources and a way to build a large network of followers who may become candidates, or simply spread word about the firm.
In the past, KPMG has used its own YouTube channel to promote itself. The company also employs online and print materials to provide information to job seekers. Fernandez and Marketing Director Megan Marco say that helps them cover more ground. The firm's research has shown repeatedly that many job seekers are more responsive to traditional outreach. "You have to integrate all the contact points (to potential candidates)," Fernandez says, and adds: "People really want to know what’s happening at KPMG."
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