One of my ex-Ubisoft colleagues, Frederick Brassard, reached out to me yesterday. Fred is a headhunter specializing in videogame recruitment and he would like to leverage Twitter to promote his services. He asked me a very simple question: how can you get more Twitter followers? As I often get that question, I figured I would write something taking Frederick as an example (with his permission).
First, Fred should create a Twitter account using either his real name or the name of his company. He should upload a nice picture of himself or the logo of his company (depending on his “branding” choice he made earlier). He should put the various locations (Montreal, San Francisco, etc.) he serves in the “location” field. He should insert a detailed bio of what he does and what he can do for prospective recruits and he should link to his corporate blog (if he has one). Finally, he should create and upload a nice background image supporting his corporate image strategy.
Once he’s created his Twitter account, but before he starts following anyone, he should start “tweeting” about things that will interest the people he’s trying to attract to his practice. In this case, I believe he’s trying to reach existing or prospective videogame graphic artists, developers or game designers. Fred could talk about the following topics:
- Trends in videogame recruiting (hottest job positions, salary trends, etc.)
- News from the companies he recruits for
- Announcement of projects he’s trying to recruit for or that he’s recruited for (previews, games “going gold’, launch, positive reviews, etc.)
- General videogame industry stat (yearly sales, growth potential, etc.)
- Conferences he’s attending (GDC, etc.)
- Positions he’s trying to fill
- New blog posts (if he has a corporate blog)
Fred should be regular (maybe write 3 to 10 messages a day, every day of the work week). His tweets should position himself as “The” expert in videogame recruiting, answering questions from prospective recruits and counseling people on how to make career changes or career moves.
Once he’s “tweeted” 10 to 20 times, he should start following in Twitter all the people he’s been in contact with over the last couple of years by using the “Find on other networks” function. This will scan his e-mail addresses in Google, Yahoo!, AOL and/or Hotmail and it will match existing Twitter users with current contacts. Because these people already have a relationship with Fred, they will reciprocate the follow if they find the “tweeted” topics interesting.
Then, once he’s built a solid base of followers (at least 100), Frederick should use a site like Twellow.com to find new prospects. Twellow allows you to search for the information found in people’s bios on Twitter. Fred could find people that work in the industry but that he doesn’t know. He could find interesting talents that do not work in videogames but that fit the profiles he’s looking for. And he should start following all these people.
Using Twitter can definitely help you professionally. It takes time and you need to be regular but I believe it can enable you to reach out and create even more awareness around your personal brand. And it can lead to actual “sales”. If Fred’s company doesn’t have a corporate blog though, I would also start blogging. But that’s another story…
Seb Provencher's Blog 
Very good tips, Sebastien. I cannot stress more the need to publish at least a dozen tweets before starting to follow anyone. Many people tell me they do not do it because they do not know what to write. Facts do not support their reasoning since the public timeline is available without login. With the phenomenal Twitter growth attracting impersonators, writing good tweets before starting to follow anyone is a must these days.
Thank you for these additional points Kim. You also made me realize I wanted to say “tips” in my title and not “tricks”. I changed it accordingly.
Sebastien – great advice, but I would add:
– Learn about hash tags #games, #jobs, #Ubisoft, etc. this will help people find him and the specific topics of interests.
– Begin commenting on others blogs, leave your twitter URL as your website, especially if you don’t have a blog.
– Leave your twitter account in your signature when you send email and comment on others websites.
BTW – If he has an twitter account what is it?
Matt
@feedyourconsole
Great post Sebastien. I wish I had research these kind of things before starting using Tweeter
On the same topic, Mr Tweet offers recomm along a tool to find connections according to your past communications. Thx all for your tips.
So Twitter is awesome for Taking traffic to you website . It is very
simple to setup and its a fun positive way to keep in contact with
people.
Twitter is really a great invention, but I think blogging is even more important to create some traffic. But I can use some of the tips.
Twitter stepped in and took over the real-time information aspect of social media, something that even news websites had neglected to execute. The witnesses and participants of events were now ‘tweeting’ their experiences as they were occurring, feeding audiences with pure insight and uncensored content. Although Twitter feels like a lose end waiting to be tied, its unusually exponential world-wide growing will maintain its community and – more significantly – create a connection among audiences that neither Facebook nor any other media can come close to achieve.