Forget James Taylor – I love traffic jam.

Don’t care what highway or parkway, and I’ll tell you why….

As a kid with a parent in the recruitment business, I learned at a young age that there were many non-conventional ways to get a feel for which way a job market, or economy for that matter is heading. Some people look at how full Trucks or Trains are, how many cardboard packing boxes are being sold, etc. We used to walk through Macy’s in New York, (the Flagship store on 6th & 7th avenues ) on the way to see the NY Rangers games. Ground floor at Macy’s – between Thanksgiving and Christmas was about as good an indicator of the economy, as you could get. If I wasn’t getting knocked to the ground by pint-sized New Yorker Grannies ready to commit misdemeanor crimes for the next bargain – then things were bad. This coming from someone who lived to experience New York’s bankruptcy first hand. Let me tell you – you could toss a football across the cosmetics department and not hit a soul in those days.

Anyhow, when things hit the fan a couple of years ago, a buddy of mine employed at a high level for a major automotive manufacturer give me the 1st anecdotal evidence on what was to become the most massive job carnage in our times.

“Hey Matt, have you noticed you little traffic there is on the commute home lately?” I hadn’t then – but started to. As the weeks turned into months, months to years, I actually began to miss my lunatic roadmates. Granted, they ALL drive too fast or too damn slow and at many times,  I HAD wished that they all go away. But when it actually happened…I wondered…was I responsible for their disappearance? Where was Rod Serling and the crazy spinning pyscho-hypnosis wheel?  (original Twilight Zone – look it up).

As luck would have it, maybe it’s the affordable price of gas – or at least in my neck of the woods, we seem to have a glimmer of light on the horizon – cause I can tell you first hand – TRAFFIC STINKS AGAIN.

Every one of my lost friends it seems has returned, back to cut me off,  jam the brakes in front of me, while simultaneously applying make-up at 75 (years or miles per hour….take your pick) and generally remind me that without jobs there’s no traffic, and without traffic there are no jobs.

So don’t be a hater, LOVE your traffic jams – because there are GDP points in every breaklight, every exhaust fume and every gesture casually exchanged between us as we journey to and from.

Way too much to do, too little time? As any good business owner or corporate climber knows, time is money. And anybody with an iPhone or iPad knows that wasted time is wasted money. Use apps to fill your otherwise wasted commuting time, travel time, and personal time with new ways to stop sweating the business details start getting things done. Better yet, these apps will make your business chores so fun you may not even notice that it’s long past five o’clock. Here are the 5 Best Business Apps for iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Dragon Dictation, Nuance Communications; Free. You know those movies where the hip young screenwriter picks up a voice recorder and says “Idea for a screenplay…”? Aside from being hackneyed and self-referential, that scene never depicts the tedious transcription process. “That’s what secretaries are for,” you say? Save that money, and let the app do the work–or more precisely, the cloud behind the app. You talk, it sends to the cloud servers, and back comes the voice-recognition transcription. Great accuracy, because the code is not squeezed down to app size. Just don’t use it to send national secrets to the other guys in NSA. If you’re worried about interception, use iTalk Reporter, and transcribe the old-fashioned way.
Cisco

WebEx Meeting Center, Cisco; Free. You’ll want to trot up to the deck and off the beach itself; loud breakers may distract other attendees. Yes, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center is mobile now, and if your company uses WebEx Meetings, you’re one persuasive pitch away from freedom. What you bring to the table is still up to you; remember, people talk all the time about “phoning it in,” and “iPhoning it in” won’t get you high marks either. Still, if the main problem is that the meeting is in Lansing and you’re in the Caymans, you can now get a full screen view, audio, and any shared documents through your iPhone. If you’re lucky enough to have the iPad, you’ll also get to enjoy all of your docs at nearly normal size.
Jobs,

Careerbuilder.com; Free. So, exactly how do you get that job where you lounge around in the Caymans WebEx-ing into meetings, and (we assume) doing other important business things? You may find it at Careerbuilder.com, and if you can find it by searching CB, the biggest online job-search site, you can find it using your iPad or iPhone anywhere with a wireless signal. Match your skills with what an employer is looking for–from the Caymans. If the guy in the WebEx meeting is doing the hiring, SCORE! If not, in this economy, you may have to settle for gainful employment in your chosen field.

USPS Mobile, UPS Mobile, FedEx Mobile for iPhone, Various; Free. They do exactly what you think they do. Call for a pickup and track the shipment from your iPhone or iPad with WiFi. If you’re on the go, and you want to make sure your package is behaving likewise, one or more of these apps is a must.

Office2 Plus, Byte Squared; Free. Office2 Plus gives you access to docs you take with you, docs residing on mobile-friendly cloud computing services such as Google Docs and MobileMe, and docs e-mailed to you. Through in-app upgrades, which are not free, you can also create and edit Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel files on your iPad or even on your iPhone if you’re in a pinch.
These apps are the best of the best — some trendy, some workmanlike, but all indispensable if you want to start running your business from your iPad or iPhone.

Find reviews on the best new ipad apps at AppCraver.com, a website dedicated to app reviews for the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.

ANY YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THE LIST? PLEASE COMMENT BELOW.

Recruiters and HR Professionals need to ask themselves,
“Is it time to dump your candidate database, and wipe your filing cabinets clean, in order to jump on the Social Media Recruitment bandwagon?

This is a question that Digital Personnel put to recruiters involved in the digital media recruitment space recently. Surprisingly most thought this was a ridiculous idea, taking the stance that an agency database is the ultimate USP and to remove it would be similar to cutting your telephone wires. In fairness it was a leading question as it would indeed be rather silly to remove your matured database of contacts and it will always be the primary tool for documenting feedback.

This is a great question that HookLineandThinker put to the recruiters involved in this ever changing, rapidly growing media scape. After conducting an extended poll, we found it surprisingly, most felt that this type of jump-ship mentality is a dangerous and ridiculous idea. The notion that an agency would go to such drastic length, would be like cutting their phone lines and relying solely on the internet to communicate. In fairness it was a leading question as it would indeed be rather silly to remove your matured database of contacts and it will always be the primary tool for documenting feedback. Social Media can begin to step in as the medium, yes, but can it stand alone at it’s own applicant tracking system, and accurate H.R. research and documentation?

That is yet to be determined.

The ability these days to network opportunities across social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook is both powerful and plentiful. Do understand, that it is extremely effective and important these days to build communities on social sites and target specialized audiences. These captive audiences will then determine your ROI by either directly showing interest in opportunities, or by passing your vacancies to their own network of contacts. ( Think of the pyramid marketing scheme, you may only begin 100 in your network, but each of those 100 contacts has their own 100…and exponentially, the potential to advertise is limitless. In many cases, the ability to network opportunities to groups of career-seekers through virtual “Word of Mouth” within the social networks, and identify fully qualified candidates eager to pursue vacancies….is continually achieved without the first step to search within a private database.

Think of what will happen when that candidate is happily settled in their new position, and grateful to have a pleasant productive work environment, with great benefits and growth potential, who do you think they are going to tell? That’s right, their social network connections. That right there becomes free PR for your company…right from the source.

Candidates from social and business networking sites are geared up and ready for the surge.  Sites like Linked In and Ryze help provide an in depth career history, a record of their affiliations, blogs and real and tangible references to connect with, in search of honest recommendations.

This technology is undoubtedly a dream come true to the recruitment industry! ( and unfortunately a nightmare to the giant newspapers and careerboards.)  The key to success on how to leverage this WOW technology is really how and who to align with as your ‘front-man’ to engage these thriving audiences.  What strategies need to be implemented to grow appropriate and rewarding communities? How much should you spend within your budget, and how easily can you measure your ROI?  Reportedly. many recruitment agencies are already re-inventing themselves as a brand that can communicate successfully through these mediums, as well as in print, mail, t.v. and radio, The real trick lies in finding which one to go with, If your current agency hasn’t been taking the initiative to weather the storm of social networking technology, and continually encourages the careerboards and newspapers, it may be time to jump ship on them.
There are also rewards to be found from clients. By building a stronger online presence, recruitment agencies can further their reach for potential business partners and if credible engagement with audiences is evident, an employer would be wise to make the first move. The canvas calls will not stop of course (utopia for many employers!) but this is potentially another route to increased revenue streams.

Social media is an unstoppable force that will engulf the recruitment industry, and has already become the lead medium in some market sectors. A recruiters’ unique database is no longer a selling point, the ability to tap into the unlimited talent across the web and capitalize on this is how agencies will ultimately be the key to getting the greatest talent.

“We’ve seriously sold our souls to the internet, ….and it seems that now we are buying them back. Our need and desire to be individualistic and expressive about our lives, photos, feelings and views, is the price we have paid.”

In the New Age of Social Media, it seems that nearly everyone is on board. Instead of having phone call conversations with one good friend once per week, we now have an unlimited “life-feed” of information available to us at the click of a mouse. WE can monitor the lives, updates, events, promotions, photos and status of hundreds of people per day, freely and easily. And WE’RE not the only one’s monitoring. In fact an industry has been created to delve into social media to gather what we once thought to be private, AND another industry has arise to clean up those little secrets you wish never got online.

Photos of new babies, broadcasts of new jobs landed, current moods and descriptive locations. All right there, for everyone to see, everyone that is looking. And by this, we can safely put Recruiters at the top of this list.

The great debate about whether or not it is an invasion of privacy to search someone’s social networking site for ‘character analysis’ of a candidate –has fallen on deaf ears.

Recent Studies have shown that more than 45 percent of employers and recruiters use Facebook or Twitter to screen job candidates. And this number is only growing. Whether it is considered ‘constitutionally right’ for a manager or boss to search Adam Jones’ linked-in profile, Facebook wall or Twitterfeed, after their interview has ended..doesn’t stop the actual act from happening. And it is a strong argument, upheld. Sure, Adam comes in with his perfect 4.0 GPA, impeccable references, polite manners and a relentless outlook of optimism. But not so behind the scenes in the land of the World Wide Web…there are photos of Adam doing kegstands at his Memorial Day weekend party, and doing belly shots off a scantily clad bartender– A huge departure from what the hiring Manager was shown just hours before in their ‘face to face’ interview. Further research found Adam’s twitter account had several racially charged insults and jokes, safely hidden behind the Twitter username RockStar88, still originating from the mind/heart/belliefs of Adam Jones nonetheless.

Kicking the Tires:

Just as any educated consumer would use a service such as a www.Carfax.com report to know where a used car has been, how many times the engine has been rebuilt, how many different owners, or accidents it has had…it is only common knowledge to know and believe, that right or wrong, social background checking is something that is very easily and very frequently performed. Accept this truth. Many new sites are popping up on a daily rate to assist people to obtain any information they would want about you. One of the most popular and highly controversial is www.Spokeo.com.  Spokeo.com is a human search engine, that for a reasonable fee, would show you anyone’s: age, address, phone number, e-mail address, religion, credit score, photos, affiliations, blog comments. ( Go ahead, search yourself on it,  you will be shocked at what you will find for free. ) Spokeo.com is one of several websites that collect personal information. The accuracy of the information varies from person to person and site to site. This site is a very resourceful tool to recruiters to get a better look at your life beyond the suit, tie and uber promising smile.

A recent survey that was commissioned by Beyond.com and conducted by students of the Wharton Small Business Development Center asked college students if they were concerned that potential employers may discover their personal information on social networking sites.  And 51% said yes. Which is a shame given that these sites were originally designed to be used in a social setting (hence the name ‘social’).

Past? What Past?

Because there are sites like spokeo.com that will publicly divulge your information for a fee, and a great deal of nervous college grads that will be soon seeking employment, and needing to cover the tracks of their good times and life experience, there are now also companies that help to protect your reputation, or any negative information that may be available on the internet. One of the forerunners is www.reputationdefender.com, which claims to help you remove information from the Web you don’t want out there…….for a fee.

We’ve seriously sold our souls to the internet, ….and it seems that now we are buying them back. Our need and desire to be individualistic and expressive about our lives, photos, feelings and views, is the price we have paid. We’ve all seem to have been led down the yellow brick road of social media. Yes! It is fun, liberating, exciting and inviting. EVERYBODY is doing it! Only to be led to a glorious castle that is made up entirely of smoke and mirrors…and it’ll cost you a pretty penny to get back to Kansas.

Aside from trying to find sites to ‘protect’ our reputation, how about a bit more of a preventative measure. Accept the reality that what you’re putting online right now is going to shape your digital legacy.

Adam Jones may like to challenge himself to the occasional keg stand, but he may also be the most brilliant salesman your company has ever had. But because of sites like spokeo.com, he’ll never get that chance to shine, unless of course, he has a subscription fee to pay www.reputationdefenfer.com for a year (whose membership list is assuredly confidentlial).

Many marketers fail to see what the big deal is regarding Twitter. They read Tweets about what someone ate for breakfast or what color shirt they’re wearing. They might sign up only to stare at a bare, lonely screen with zero followers. Initially, it might be difficult to see the potential. But once you get started, Twitter has a tendency to “snowball” into a HUGE deal for marketers – one that is absolutely essential for the growth of their business and their exposure on the internet.

Here are just a few of the ways Twitter can help to benefit your online business:
Establishing communication with your customers / readers.
Twitter allows for a bit more personal, less formal, more fun mode of communication. It allows them to catch a glimpse of you just as a regular person sending SMS texts from Wal-Mart, rather than as a serious, detached blogger or business owner. Why is this useful? It allows people to connect and relate to you on a personal level – it makes you look just like a “regular Joe”, especially if you include random/fun tweets among the more serious, business-driven tweets.
Keeping your customers / readers updated.
With a blog, you might only update once or twice per week. With Twitter, you might send a handful of tweets per day, keeping your followers “in the loop” and reminding them of your existence. Of course, it’s not recommended to send a million tweets per day. This will only serve to annoy people and they will likely unfollow you.

Building a loyal, steady customer-base:
“BUILD A LIST!” As a marketer, I’m sure you’ve heard this refrain many times over. Building a list is one of the most vital steps you can take in the advancement of your online business. Twitter is pretty much the same as building a list – although it might be even more effective in the long run.
When it comes to an email list, a large portion of your subscribers won’t even glance at the emails you send. Their eyes will glaze over and they may even send it to the trash. With Twitter, your followers will see all of your Tweets. They’ll digest its information in about half a second and if you include a link, they probably won’t get offended. Chances are, if you included an eye-catching description, they’ll probably click it! Additionally, it won’t SEEM like you are marketing to them, because you’re just another Twitter user tweeting about random stuff!

Building up excitement for a product launch:
Just like with an email list, Twitter can be used to build up excitement about an upcoming product launch. It can start with occasional Tweets about your “new project”, and by keeping your followers up to date and offering freebies and cool stuff that they’ll appreciate, you’ll build trust and anticipation. When your product launches, a well-timed Tweet may likely be just as effective as a blast to your email list.

Driving traffic to your website:
Wouldn’t it be great if you could instantly notify hundreds or thousands of people every time you update your blog? Twitter makes this possible. It essentially acts as an RSS feed. By building a sizable list of followers, you pretty much have access to an instant source of traffic to your website or blog.

People who would otherwise not be aware of updates and new content will be notified, giving them a chance to check it out. If your blog is high-quality, people will keep an eye out for more of your Tweets.
Building relationships with business contacts.
Twitter makes it easy to keep in touch with business partners and contacts. Traditional instant messaging is on its way out, and you’ll find that most savvy internet marketers use Twitter as their primary social networking tool. So take advantage of this fact! Hook up with your contacts so you can work on building a closer relationship.

Crowd-sourcing:
Crowd-sourcing is a unique form of outsourcing. It works by calling on your friends, fans, followers, email subscribers, etc. to contribute ideas and solutions. Basically, it is a form of “group intelligence”. By listening to the crowd, marketers and business owners can figure out the exact thoughts, needs, and wants of their customer base. In this way, innovative new ideas and strategies are born that are guaranteed to fall in line with the desires of the consumer.

By directly asking your followers what type of new software they’d like to see developed, or what their biggest setbacks are, or what they liked/disliked most about your last ebook, you can gain an incredibly amount of insight about your business!

Latest news from internet traffic rating sites shows that Indeed.com has joined the ranks of the major locations job candidates go to start the searches. Now surpassing Monster and on the heels of Careerbuilder, it’s clear that the Job Search Aggregator is gaining more traction.

After all – why see only one option when you can see them ALL? Indeed offers jobs from big job boards, applicant tracking systems, niche boards and even customized “branded” careerpages using technology provided by several vendors now on the market.

“Employers can get their job availabilities onto search aggregators for little or no money – posing another threat to the more mature Careerbuilder and Monster”, says Matt Peter, VP of Business Development at JP Media (www.jpmedia.com ). And they are through a variety of creative alternatives. Other critical search aggregator is SimplyHired, whose ads provide the backbone to the LinkedIn job search engine.

See our Alexa.com stats below for a little back-up.

Here is an informative article found on www.emarketer.com. Some statistical information that may be helpful to uninterested HR Managers…use tools to convince them that Social Media is the road to take.

Spend more time networking with peers than reading editorial content

Whether it’s to stay current, network with other professionals or share content with their peers, human resources professionals are turning to social networking sites to build the skills and expertise that will advance their careers, according to research from PJA Advertising + Marketing and community site Toolbox.com.

Active use of social media has become a vital part of many HR professionals’ careers, with respondents consuming an average of 3.77 hours of social media content per week for work purposes. That topped consumption of online editorial content (2.77 hours) and vendor content (2.13 hours).

Overall, the survey found that social media made up 43% of total media consumption among HR respondents. About one-half of respondents said a social media presence helped build their personal brand and made them more valuable as a job candidate.

The most helpful tools for career advancement were professional networks such as LinkedIn as well as best-practice communities, each named by about two-thirds of HR executives.

“HR professionals have been fast adopters of social media, not just for networking but for improving their value as professionals,” said Mike O’Toole, president at PJA Advertising + Marketing, in a statement. “They clearly identify social media channels as a way to increase their expertise and build their professional reputation.”

Today, all we need is a click of a button to reach and connect to the rest of the world. This online global village has given rise to the popularity of social media networks where a virtual platform is constructed to interact with likeminded individuals. The effectiveness of existing social media networks have given HR industry a perfect tool to recruit and reach a mass number of desirable candidates. The HR professionals can make use of social media to work in recruitment, employee engagement, increasing retention and more.

If you are a HR professional, you must have already utilized and experienced various social media networks especially in the year 2008, where the whole concept of using social media as HR tool gathered momentum. Phrases like ‘tweet’, ‘community’, etc have become acceptable part of our daily vocabulary. The sharing of job opportunities, new openings or even a new Public relation tactics has become instant, convenient and most importantly official through these social networking sites.

About a decade ago, if HR managers wanted to share or communicate any information regarding job assignments, recruitment, increasing retention or even to induce employer brand, they are expected to engage in month long planning activities and executing the information through various traditional mediums. It was a long process that consumed time, labor and money.

However, now, many HR departments of various corporate are getting free advertising, revolutionizing their marketing and PR strategies and investing a considerable amount of time and money to make their presence felt in facebook, linkedin or twitter accounts, something that would have sound absurd a few years ago. Many are embracing social recruiting.
So for those amateurs who are still unsure of how to make use of social media as a HR tool, here are few tips that I can think of:

1) Go where people “like you” might hangout virtually
Gather people who are like minded and face similar challenges like you. Choose any of the networking sites such as LinkedIn and consequently engage in live chats, discussions and Blog posts to create a group of professionals facing common challenges and vision.

2) Get familiar with twitter
Twitter can prove to be an excellent recruiter tool, coach and talent hunter at the same time. If you think Twitter cannot actually reach the niche group or target group you are aiming at, I am afraid I must warn you that it is a misconception. Twitter has become the ‘choice’ for almost all professionals and senior level executives as a medium to stay in connect with their concerned clients and followers.

3) Tap the power of facebook for recruiting
Facebook has definitely proved to be an important tool for HR professionals in the kitty offered by social media network. Many companies are already using facebook features to connect with and recruit young professionals. It has the right platform to engage in process of employment branding and social recruiting.

Social network indeed has taken the form of revolution as far as HR area is concerned. It has set its own game rules but has definitely left space for the HR team to make the most of social media. However remember even cyber space require certain amount of professionalism. Are you still thinking How HR Can Make The Most of Social Media? It is time to explore this.

Steve Sinclair is a writter on Social Recruiting and he advices companies on Social Media Recruiting strategies
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Sinclair

One of the most important aspects of your organization’s overall recruitment strategy is developing and managing your employment brand. Candidates rate an organization’s employment brand the 2nd most influential factor when considering employment opportunities. Google is the world’s most recognized employment brand. Google’s employment brand was built in a short period of time and exclusively through viral marketing. Google’s employment brand has been written about in every major business publication and as a result of its branding Google receives over 3,000 resumes per day. Other organizations such as Southwest Airlines, IBM, GE, Disney and HP have implemented similar employment branding techniques and are finding similar results.

While smaller organizations should not set out to compete with Google’s employment brand they can strive to become the number one brand in their vertical. A viral based approach to employment branding will result in the ability of the organization to attract top candidates. If you have to pay to get your message out it will not be credible. A successful employment branding strategy must be viral and must excite potential candidates to take action.

Successful employment branding emphasizes stories about an organization, an organization’s recruitment process and what it’s like to work in an organization which can easily be spread by employees and candidates. Employment branding has been called the #1 strategic way to increase application traffic yet on average companies spend less than 5% of their recruitment budget on employment branding.

The goal of any organization’s employment branding should be to build the organization’s reputation as a top place to work in order to attract top talent. Your employment brand should be credible, believable, and concentrate on the spreading of positive stories about the organization, being talked about in the media, and winning awards.

Some of the components of your employment branding
initiative should include:

· A well developed and implemented employee referral program.

· Development an execution of a “Recruitment Culture”

· Proper utilization of social networking
(LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Twitter, Ning, etc.).

· Viral Marketing

· Recruitment Video
· Career site SEO

· Award programs.

· Articles in targeted business publications

· Presentations at conferences

An organization’s employment branding should lead potential candidates to a strong career site. Candidates will visit the career site to confirm if what they’ve heard about the organization is true and read detailed information about the organization. The career site should clearly identify the organization’s culture, values, vision, current job openings and benefit programs. The site should reflect an organization’s brand and strengthen a candidate’s desire to consider employment with the organization. Included on the site should be testimonials from employees and video showing employees doing engaging work. Video should definitely be a part of employment branding as it can excite candidates and allow them to see feel and hear the passion and excitement of an organization’s employees. Google’s recruitment video “An inside look at Google” has been viewed over 500,000 times on the Internet.

Positive employment branding will result in a significant increase in the volume of unsolicited resumes, higher quality candidates, higher offer acceptance rates, an increased number of employee referrals, improved employee retention rates and an overall increase in the success rates of an organization’s recruitment programs. Remember that your employment branding is only as good as your candidate experience ratings.

Mike Astringer, Founder and CEO
Human Capital X701
mike.astringer@humancapitalconsultants.com

http://www.humancapitalconsultants.com
http://mikeastringer.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Astringer

Many news sites and reports have been buzzing about the latest and greatest contender for jobboards: Twitter. The ongoing conversation of the future of conglomerate job boards, such as Monster and Careerbuilder could not be any more black and white. Whether an extremely favorable, or an extremely skeptical vision, opinions have been made, launched, and continue to flood the internet and newsites. You can choose one of two sides, because there seems to be a startling lack of a gray area- you can believe that all printed and paper materials and old world forms of advertising will cease to exist, Newspapers, billboards, magazines, publications and the like. Everything we say, think, create and do, will be at the fingertips of our smart phones, therefore eliminating the need for a 7 am paper, or the 6 o’clock news. Others firmly believe that all of this social media hoop-o-la is a massively disruptive trend, unorganized, riddled with opinion and fiction, and one that will fade out in time.

Proper experimentation with social media will tell you, it’s all about building relationships. It’s all about connecting, listening and engaging in relevant conversations. The ability to do this to a large and captive audience offers the glimpse of an exciting new world for recruitment….one that is honest, one that can target better candidates…on a more human level, and defiantly without a word limit.

Some people predict that the job-feed feature that Twitter has yet to unveil, will be nothing more than a new venue for SPAM and BOTS. Keep in mind that Twitter job feeds are not necessarily mutually exclusive. After all following someone’s Twitter feed is an opt in choice and it is impossible to spam users on Twitter if they are not following you. The flip-side of this though is that not many people will want to follow an automated job feed, making its potential reach distinctly unimpressive.

As the creators of JOB-CAST, we filter through 3,000 available job listings per day, across the country. We as recruitment professionals, know where to look to get the latest and greatest availabilities, which may not mean signing on to Career builder, and creating a daily alert. There are thousands of smaller job boards available, targeting niche industries, that may not advertise on Career builder, due to the massive amounts of unqualified applicants flood the in-boxes of recruiters who use this technology…and the rest of the world…that has access to it!

JOB-CAST gets on average, about 50 requests a day from fellow Tweeters that would like to utilize our service to broadcast their open availability. Without costly advertising, banners, radio spots or commercials, we’ve successfully built our brand on a good thought, a free service, a  need for such a service to exist, then of course, purely word of mouth. And it works!

As twitter unveils it’s Job board, it will be a work in progress, and quite possibly something that will not fully catch on, or become automated…for another 12 months, or quite possibly the next 2-5 years. Connecting the right audience to the proper feed will be crucial, considering timing of tweet, demo-graphical information, location, and measurement of success. But the true success will lie in it’s nearly real-time capability, and accessibility. Job seekers who follow specific Tweet-boards, will have nearly real time access, ( even if currently employed) to the hottest job availabilities around them, and can learn and connect on a much deeper level, before even scheduling an interview. I think that twitter for jobboards may not necessarily entirely replace jobboards all together,..but it will certainly give them a run for their money, and attract a much more social media savvy flavor of talent…in minutes…and 140 characters or less.

Would you use Twitter to find or Post a job?