Will Tweet for Work

If you prefer to live in the real world you will agree that the job situation in the US is not getting better any time soon. If there are any political pundit types out there who want to duke it out about the what’s and why’s of this situation that’s fine. I’m just stating a fact.

This reality of the times we live in is played out all the time across social media channels. In particular, LinkedIn is the recruiters haven of social media as headhunters who collect connections like the business version of baseball cards. Collect’em all and trade with your friends who need a new VP of something or other. Hey, I’ll trade a VP of Biz Dev for two Directors of marketing!

Of course, you can’t expect something as current and pervasive as extreme unemployment to escape the grip of Twitter. The social media powerhouse is still figuring out those revenue thingys while other are using it for more and more practical purposes (that generate a penny for the company).

The newest is TwitJobSearch. We learn more from the New York Times technology blog Bits.

In the last month, 340,000 jobs have been listed on Twitter, said William Fischer, co-founder of WorkDigital, which created TwitJobSearch, a site that searches Twitter for jobs.

The latest tool that job hunters can use to find openings is called JobDeck, a new product from TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck, a desktop Twitter application.

TwitJobSearch scans Twitter for job postings by paying attention to the context in which employment-related keywords appear. For example, if a Tweet links to a story about the construction industry losing jobs, that should not show up on the list. If a Tweet says there is a job listing for an assistant to the vice president, the search engine needs to categorize it under openings for assistants, not vice presidents.

There are many early success stories in using Twitter as a job search tool and recruiting tool. JobDeck even pulls job listings from LinkedIn. This all makes sense especially of you are looking for some help with social related activities since those using the service are already at least on the platform. It doesn’t stop there though as the opportunities for many different jobs are popping up on Twitter.

The article gave this quick sketch of a real success story.

On Jan. 7, Richard Barton, chief executive of the real estate Web site Zillow.com, fired off this Tweet: “Greg Slyngstad & I are cooking up a consumer internet startup. R U our founding CTO? Seeking smart, passionate team-builder.” (Mr. Slyngstad and Mr. Barton helped start Expedia together.)

“We were deluged with résumés,” Mr. Barton said. “It’s the most powerful recruiting tool I’ve ever used.”

He has also hired three Zillow employees using Twitter, including its new marketing director. Mr. Barton says Twitter is especially useful for job announcements because, unlike e-mail, recipients do not need to respond unless they are interested in applying or know someone who might be.

So if you are in the market for a job or are looking for new job opportunities don’t discount Twitter as a great resource. Just be ready to make that first impression in 140 characters or less.

In-House Training: The Plan Versus Reality

As part of your job managing in-house search marketing, you’ve no doubt created a training plan. At some point, you either have delivered training, or will need to. Whether it is natural search optimization, paid search management, social media, link building or any of the other disciplines that orbit around the world of search, training [...]

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Twitter Conferences Are In

As part of the Internet marketing industry have you done the conference circuit? Have you been to SES, SMX (put cardinal direction here), Adtech, PubCon etc, etc? On a yearly basis how many of these trips can you justify or get away with? Well, with shrinking budgets everywhere now you have to add the new spate of Twitter conferences to your hit list of things you absolutely have to do to get out of the office learn more about the industry.

TechCrunch tells us of the growing list of conferences that are starting to sprout up as a result of the use of (or confusion around the use of) Twitter for business purposes.

It looks like the trend of Twitter conferences is growing, with more events popping up around the country. As we’ve said in the past and will continue to say, there are tremendous opportunities for businesses, brands, non-profits and individuals to use Twitter as a tool for customer support, fund raising, brand management, advertising, job search and much more.

I have not attended one but I can imagine they must be pretty quiet because everyone is likely to be talking to everyone but those right in front of them. I gotta tell ya that when someone tweets that they are talking to someone I wonder if they are even listening to them or concentrating on their 140 characters of brilliance they are allowing the rest of their audience to ingest.

Of course, if you attended the 140 Character Conference in New York in June the venue itself (which was literally underground) forced Twitterheads to actually listen to others since there was practically no connectivity for the attendees.

Twitter is so fascinating in that it appears that so many folks are finding ways to monetize the service without the service monetizing itself. At least with Google (which face it, is why most of these conferences exist in the first place) makes money and knows that these conferences will only help it make more.

So if you are tired of the usual shows and you need more opportunities to ‘network’ then think about these:

• TWTRCN 09 DC- for non profits and government types. October 22 in Washington, DC.
• 140 Twitter Conference / LA – Endorsed by Biz Stone. Need we say more? September in Los Angeles (for those who didn’t get the LA part of the title).
• 140 Characters Twitter Conference – Jeff Pulver’s deal goes west coast on October 27th in Los Angeles.
• Cool Twitter Conferences- Apparently this is a traveling road show that has stops scheduled in Boston and San Francisco.

So don’t miss your chance to blow off work get out and learn more about Twitter and the future of communications. Hotel bars in the areas of these meetings can’t wait to serve you!