So, we just started a new project at work, a big, America-wide “Sales Talent” Recruitment project for one of the largest Gaming & Entertainment Groups in the world. As a number of contractors join our team from different parts of the continent, to facilitate the “ramp up” for this project, the immersion of web 2.0 into our industry has become painfully obvious.

I’M LOGGING IN

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, are now our de facto “communities” and recruitment pools. Monster and CareerBuilder are yesterday’s news, and not a single one of my peers even suggested we post or mine for candidates there. We are using HodesIQ to manage our posts on the 50 or so job boards that we use, and track all applicants, MS Sharepoint to compile all common documentation (i.e. job descriptions, interview questionnaires, etc.), Zoho.com to manage all project related interaction within the project team, and Outlook to communicate with co-workers outside of the team. Due to the widespread use and regional instant messaging biases, I use MSN Live Messenger to instant message one half of my team, and Yahoo Messenger to ping the other half of the team. To simplify our weekly meetings, my Project Manager suggested that we should all get webcams and host web conferences in Windows NetMeeting….

I’M LOGGING OUT

I thought web 2.0 is supposed to make our lives easier…I take 15 minutes of every morning just to launch every project related tool…And easily spend 20% of my time simply staying on top of all the resources…What happened?

Why couldn’t there be one clear winner in all of this? Sure competition breeds innovation…but, this is insane!

Are you on Twitter yet? If you are a recruiter, you should be.

Here are five reasons why recruiters should be using Twitter to help find qualified candidates:

 1.       You can use your years of experience and knowledge to help others find employment or advise them on what steps can be taken prepare for the new market of jobs that will be available once the economy turns around. This makes you a valued contributor to the online world and will increase your business in the long term.

2.       Via Twitter, your message is accessible to candidates through many forms of media; not just the internet, but by phone and other mobile devices, as well as dashboards and desktop applications. Just by using Twitter, you will increase your reach exponentially.

3.       You can represent yourself (personally and professionally) honestly and transparently. This will help build you and your company as a trusted brand and resource.

4.       Follow industry leaders in the sectors of the market you specialize in. Listen and learn from them. It will help you to understand your target market better and will help to increase your expertise in that field.

5.       Broadcast your job openings. Your Twitter account is a free platform for you to advertise vacancies you are recruiting for, so utilize it. If you are a trusted resource your message will be rebroadcasted by your followers. Also, there are third party sites like jobsearch.twitter.com that will advertise your jobs for free just because it is on twitter.

So, if you are not on Twitter yet click here and sign up. It’s FREE and it will make you a better recruiter.

Questions? Comments? I’m all ears. 

In today’s job market, it is essential for the employer (recruiter/hiring manager) to utilize every tool available to them in order to attract and hire the best talent. Several of the newer tools are coming in the form of social media sites.

Social Media sites are basically places online where people gather to communicate and interact with one another. As many of you are becoming aware, these sites are readily available for anyone and everyone to use, and boy are they using them.

According to Alexa.com, six of the top twelve sites on the web are social media sites (YouTube #3, Facebook #5, Wikipedia #7, Blogger.com #8, MySpace #9, and Wordpress #12). The other six sites are search engines. That means when people are on the web, they are running searches or they are interacting via social media sites.

By the way, if you are not familiar with any or all of the sites listed above, stop reading this post and click on those links.

Overwhelmed yet? Don’t be. This is a good thing for recruiters and/or hiring managers. You now have access to literally millions of users (people) that you are able to contact and communicate with simply by creating a profile and logging in to one of these sites. The best part about this is that every user shares their information when creating a profile. The more they use a social media tool, the more information they divulge. And that’s where this becomes are real weapon in your recruiting arsenal.

As you learn more about social media tools, you will be able to search for candidates based on specific job criteria. In some cases, you will be able to advertise in the same way. Oh, and did I mention the price tag for using social media sites as a recruitment tool? The answer is nothing, as in $0. Only your time.

Intrigued? Thought you might be. I’ll do my best to offer easy to follow advice on how you can make these sites work for you. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please comment and share with the class if you are currently using social media sites to aid your recruitment efforts.

If you want to get a head start, check out 2K’s post on how he utilizes LinkedIn to help fill vacant positions.