Utilizing Text Messaging in Recruitment of College Students

By Victoria Robertson on December 16, 2019

Recruiting is often a thankless job, especially when reaching out to college students that don’t quite know what they’re looking for.

Thankfully, in this age of technology, the recruitment of college students has become much easier due to the ease of text messaging. Now, recruiters can shoot out a text message to keep in touch with their contacts and alert them if there’s a new job opening on the horizon.

To help you utilize text messaging in your recruitment plan, here are six tips to keep in mind!

Photo Via: Pixabay.com

1. Keep It Succinct

Nobody wants to read a page-long text message. When you’re reaching out to a college student via text, make sure that you are keeping your message short and to the point, immediately letting them know what you need.

If they’re interested, you’ll hear back almost immediately. If not, you can move on to other candidates. Keep in mind also that students will be in class, so give them a generous window to respond, but don’t hold your breath for more than a day.

Provide as much detail as you can in as few words as you can, and you’ll be all set!

2. Avoid Formality

Text messages aren’t designed to be formal, so when you speak formally within them, it can be a bit off-putting to interested students. Rather than formatting your texts like an email, make sure you are sending the type of text message that you would be interested in receiving.

Keep things casual, friendly and, most importantly, informative. There’s no need to be formal, but you should certainly be providing the individual that you’re texting with as much information as possible. If they feel comfortable speaking with you, you’re far more likely to have effective conversations with them via text.

3. Reach Out at Convenient Times

Many recruiters will make the mistake of sending early morning text messages, or messages late at night. Students are most likely to read through their phones between classes while in college, so this is your best time to catch them.

Texting is more convenient than calling in that an individual can respond when they have time, but it’s still important that you don’t reach out too early or too late, as they may read the message and forget to respond to it, which leaves you without an appropriate candidate for a position. So make sure you’re reaching out at the most convenient times for them!

4. Gather As Much Info As Possible

For one, you’ll only want to reach out when you actually need something from the individual that you’re reaching out to. In addition, you’ll want to make sure you get all the details you need right away, rather than returning to the texts later to ask for details.

If you hesitate to get all the information you need, you will likely end up waiting on the information, which can put your candidate behind in the line of potential candidates. For this reason, you should always be gathering as much information as possible (everything that you need to get them in for a specific job) and running with it immediately upon receipt.

Many recruiters accidentally leave out information and end up returning with follow-up questions an hour later, at which point the candidate may be in class and unable to text. So as soon as you have their attention, ask away!

5. Be Available

Last, but definitely not least, you’ll need to be available as much as possible when texting potential candidates. College schedules can be a bit hectic, which means that you will likely be hearing back from students at random throughout the day. The best thing that you can do is be attached to your phone and ready to go when they get back to you.

As a recruiter, you know that positions move quickly, so the more available you are, the more likely you are to successfully submit a candidate for a position before the competition can do the same.

Again, you should note that this could mean some after-hours work. While this is obviously not a requirement, being available after hours means you’re far more likely to snag an available candidate and submit them before your competition is able to do the same.

Again, recruitment is only as easy as you make it, so when the opportunity arises to take some work off your plate, take advantage of it!

Text messaging is not only an easy means of reaching candidates quickly but also a convenient one, as most college students would prefer text messages to scheduled phone calls anyway. The likelihood that you’ll be able to reach the students is much higher, and the overall return you’re going to see in placing students in jobs will amaze you.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get College Recruiting News Monthly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format