Twitter Job Search - get hired or fired using Twitter
Posted by Brett Pringle on 21 Apr 2009 at 01:12 pm | Tagged as: Social Media
I’m sure by now you have heard of Twitter in some form or another. Whether through a friend, TV or even the radio. Twitter has grown in leaps and bounds since the beginning of 2009, hurtling forward each month with new users and ever increasing popularity online. Popular celebrities using twitter have also helped to drive Twitters popularity to the masses such as Ashton Kutcher and recently Oprah. A recent Hitwise UK study showing UK visits to the popular Twitter increasing 32 fold (1382%) in over 12 months as seen in their chart below. Twitter during the week of 13th - 17th of April 2009 was the 43rd most visited website within the UK.
How does this effect the job market? With the growing number of Twitter users and the continual increase of visits to twitter, personal branding has become important, more so than it was in the past for individuals in the job market. Opportunities for networking and possible career shifts can be made just from a few well placed tweets. Mashable posted a great rundown on basics you should be aware of when trying to place yourself in the job market and establish yourself as an expert through the use of Twitter and social media to find a job.
Searching for a new job using twitter has just become that much easier. There are a number of Twitter job search tools available as well as a number of Twitter accounts dedicated to niche job markets which users can follow to stay up to date with potential job openings through Twitter. Twitter Job Search is an ideal job search engine to use for anyone looking to find that new job. TwitterJobSearch searches through twitter and filters through messages that contain information on new job openings.
Twitter Job Search provides companies with the ideal platform to advertise job openings through social media, and target and active user base on twitter in a cost effective manner. Job related searches within social media have increased over the years as seen from the graph below.
For individuals using Twitter, not all is that easy as any small mistake using your 140 characters can result in you losing your job… getting fired by using twitter?? The most popular example of this was the “cisco fatty” example, where a potential Cisco applicant tweeted:
“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
Before long Tim Levad from Cisco stumbled across the tweet and responded:
“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”
It didn’t take long for the incident to spread through twitter, even with the applicant deleting the tweet and protecting his Twitter account updates. The damage had been done. The incident has become widely known as “Cisco Fatty” and used as a cautionary tale for those using twitter to be aware of what is tweeted regarding work.
Social Media is fast gaining the attention of the world, along with the job market social media provides an alternative to traditional advertising for jobs as well as a direct platform for users to search for jobs. Companies looking to stay ahead in the job market need to be aware of the potential social media has from either advertising jobs as well as finding the right candidate for the role with the information now available online.
