alstin communications

Twitter. Sure, I was a bit skeptical the first time I dipped my toes in the Twittersphere. I understood the basic premise-in 140 characters or less announce to the world (or at least your followers) what you’re doing/viewing/contemplating/reading/whatever. Search around for like-minded people, your friends, family, colleagues, clients, etc. and start “tweeting.” I tweeted as more of an experiment. About my blog, my current projects, a question about a work-related puzzle, etc. To my surprise, a bunch of followers came out of the woodwork. Interesting. Some were a bit odd (like the pro-Christian fellow who was tweeting about Pamela Anderson – blocked, no thank you) but others were industry-related (web site designers, fellow ATS gurus, etc.).

More recently, I started to dive right into the Twitterpool, and then I really started to be amazed. For me, the greatest thing about Twitter is it’s applications (or Apps) that have been developed. TweetMyJOBS, TweetDeck, TweetBeep, Twello…it’s the Apps that make Twitter so amazing from a recruiting standpoint.

Any recruiter can start tweeting out his/her jobs on the appropriate channels of TweetMyJOBS (like eQuest just started doing for its customers) and reach Twitterers who have the exact skillset/interest/geolocation that you’re seeking. (Cuts out the job board, I mean middleman, huh?). Jobcircle.com recently announced a Twitter-based recruiting tool for employers. Their “Social Media Recruitment Pack,” provides companies the ability to create a privately branded Twitter job channel, which is an account on Twitter that allows them to tweet open positions to the Twittershpere in real time. Your jobs are wrapped and automatically “tweeted” to the company channel and distributed to over 160 vertical and industry niche job channels (established by JobCircle.com on Twitter as well). One of Jobcircle’s first clients on board with their new product was QVC. QVC was in the discussion stages internally and considered building this Twitter job channel themselves. Once they heard that Jobcircle would have their channel built and functioning in 48 hours, their decision to outsource this task was made. With over 120 followers already retweeting their open positions out into the market, QVC has seen 20-90 more views per job posting. Soon they will have updated SEO data to report and they expect a significant uptick in organic traffic. Pretty amazing.

I signed up (all in the interest of research of course) for a few Twitter job channels related to my skill set/industry. I was amazed that within 3 minutes I reviewed an “On Call Copywriting” job in West Chester, PA and emailed my friend on Facebook about it (a copywriter living in West Chester, PA) and she started chatting with me on FB (she’s a FB-addict like myself). After this all happened within 10 minutes of me viewing the job-tweet, I really started understanding the sheer power Twitter, and social media recruiting, possesses.

I’ve read all the blogs, posts and articles on NYTimes, CNN, etc. about Twitter and the “fad” of tweeting, but until you witness it first hand (or know someone who got a writing gig or publishing deal from their “novella” tweets or a friend who landed a new job from a Tweet) you don’t really grasp the power and (in my opinion) longevity, this type of communicating possesses within the business and recruiting world. Tweeting isn’t a fad, it’s a form of communication, and I’m thinking this could get seriously addictive! Well,…gotta get back to my TweetDeck notifications, it’s been chirping non-stop. 

Ready to learn more about the impact social networking has on recruiting? Alstin offers on-site workshops, consultation and customized strategies for implementation with sociability – a full suite of service offerings for when employer marketing meets social networking. Contact us today at blog@alstin.com.

Author Bio:  Jennifer Greenfield, Consultant, Interactive Services, seems to have coffee, not mortal blood, running through her veins. Juggling her bags (laptop, spinning stuff, cool purse, projector) and array of web-based duties with professionalism, composure and a random assortment of funny faces, Jen, has been with Alstin for more than 13 years, lives and breathes the 'net.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under The Daily Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.