Thursday, January 28, 2010

Job hunters, recruiters utilizing Twitter

Scouring newspaper classified ads for available positions is a job search tactic of days past.

Job hunters today have found a new search device— Twitter.

Tweeting allows recruiters and human resource departments to quickly and cheaply reach a large audience of job seekers, and they have increasingly utilized the social media Web site to announce job postings and connect with potential hires.

The New York Times Bits blog reports 340,000 jobs have been listed on Twitter within the past month, said William Fischer, co-founder of WorkDigital, which created TwitJobSearch, a Web site that searches Twitter for jobs.

On the flip side, job seekers can follow companies' human resources departments, career coaches, recruiters and job boards, including MLive’s classified job listings at http://twitter.com/Michigan_Jobs.

The newest feature job seekers should use is JobDeck, a new device from TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck, a desktop Twitter application that allows users to control their various social media accounts from one application.

JobDeck allows job hunters to find Tweets from human resources professionals, set up continuous searches and find the status of listing updates from LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site that recently formed a partnership with Twitter. Advertisers, such as KFC and Adidas, also submit job postings and can pay for premium placement within the search engine results, according to the New York Times Bits blog.

Several employers are finding Twitter to be a successful recruitment tool, sparing them time, money and other inconveniences related to traditional advertising.

Richard Barton, chief executive of the real estate Web site Zillow.com, found his company “deluged with resumes” after tweeting on Jan. 7, “Greg Slyngstad & I are cooking up a consumer internet startup. R U our founding CTO? Seeking smart, passionate team-builder.”

Barton told the New York Times Bits blog, “It’s the most powerful recruiting tool I’ve ever used.”

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