Tough economic times call for more original approaches to doing countless things in your job searching, career advancing, or recruiting. Numerous job seekers and recruiters are turning away from traditional resources and are looking towards more innovative approaches such as Twitter. Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user messages. Employers and recruiting firms post job openings on Twitter, and job seekers use Twitter to help facilitate their job search. But truthfully—it’s not just as simple as making an account and letting the jobs come to you. There’s numerous ways to make the most out of your page and I’m going to describe a few ways. The first and most important way is to make your Twitter employer friendly.

Make superior use out of your bio. You only have 160 characters to post your job pitch. This section says a lot about the candidate so it’s where it can make or break your potential interview. Next, make sure you use a professional looking avatar (profile picture). Refrain from any images from your college days where you are t-shirtless with a beer in hand. Your picture says a lot about you as a person so make it polished and professional. The last part about getting your basic page set up is to utilize your twitter background. There’s a lot of space you can use to promote yourself and show potential employers your level of creativity or interests. If you choose to keep it simple and professional, no one has ever complained about a solid colored background.

Now that your basic page layout is set up, it is necessary to include many things on your Twitter to make it easier for recruiters to know your credentials. The first and most important approach is to post a link to an online CV or resume. You can use a tool like https://www.visualcv.com/resume_resources/resume_templates?_oskwdid=5356672 to make it a trouble-free experience. Next, make sure you establish yourself as a professional on Twitter. Show what you’re capable of while refraining from ways to misrepresenting yourself. When employers begin looking at you as a candidate, you’ll have a lot more than just a resume to back up your prior skills and experiences. Show what you’re capable of through examples of your work.

Now that you are promoting yourself in a positive way through Tweets, while your whole page is set up and everything is included that recruiters need to know about you, your next step is understand who to follow and who to trust. Many candidates are flustered about not knowing the right people to get in contact without realizing that more people are viewing YOUR page. Before you come in contact with a recruiter on Twitter, make sure you check out a link to their website, ask others to figure out credibility, check out their follower/following ratio and lastly and most importantly, their bio. A recruiter’s page just is as important as a job seeker’s for the same reasons. For a great example of a solid recruiter’s Twitter, observe one of Execu|Search’s non-profit recruiter’s page at http://twitter.com/nonprofitrecrtr

Good luck on your Twitter job search/recruiting experience! Remember, if you ever have any questions, the internet has 1,000’s of answers.

  Dustin Willoughby
  Interactive Resources

We’ve all experienced how social media has drastically changed the way we, as job seekers, engage with employers; there’s job boards and candidate sourcing via LinkedIn and Facebook, a Twitter #JobSearch engine, and plenty of Diggs, Likes, and Reddits connecting potential employees with hiring managers. But last week (and again just yesterday), Executive Creative Director Mike McKay of Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles (aka @mikemckayECD), a national ad agency, took things to an entirely new level by offering a $70,000/year writing position to the person with…..the funniest Twitter response.

Is this some kind of sly joke or a clever marketing ploy? Or is this the future for the creative industry’s job market? Can a prospective employee’s worth accurately be assessed from a 140-charactar-or-less response?

Probably.

Obviously, this kind of thing wouldn’t be quite as effective for mainstream industries, (or could it? “Highest GPA from best school gets an entry-level accounting gig!”). Because the advertising and marketing industries thrive on whimsical creative types who can sense the thin line between genius and madness (and rarely cross it), it’s almost surprising that such an offer hasn’t been made sooner. While it takes strong experience, an impressive book, and effective interpersonal skills to be an asset in the industry, an amateur who can tweet a witty, clever response (on demand!) most certainly has the raw talent to eventually become an asset. Of course, it takes a keen creative eye to snuff out the duds for the diamonds in the rough, which may explain why McKay re-tweeted the offer yesterday (official reason: “This contest has been re-opened due to humor issues”).

What do you think?  Is tweeting job offers for best responses a legitimate method of hiring? Tell us in the comments section below!

Melody Yaghoubi

                         Interactive Resources

Believe it or not, we live in a time where having a working knowledge of the Internet and a handful of social networking sites can offer you a leg up on the competition in your search for employment. The internet provides an assortment of free digital property for you to put yourself out there for potential employers to observe. Some of these sites are more popular than others, yet almost all of them are very simple to sign up for. The internet is an extremely quick and easy way for people to check up on things you may have included on your resume. Sure you can put “internet savvy”, but why not also back it up?

It seems like every human being has a Facebook page so I won’t go too in depth with that site, although in my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with having one page for personal use and one specifically for professional use. There are no boundaries as to what you can and can’t use these free services for. You could start a blog at one of many free blog hosting sites such as: Blogger, Wordpress, or Tumblr, specifically for your resume. Some employers are so busy that they won’t even open an attachment, so posting a link to your resume that is available online not only shows your previous work history but shows your initiative to actually find the space on the internet to have your resume out there. It’s a bigger step than you would think. The word “blog” itself may intimidate some people to a degree, so they think “blogging” is something particularly specific. The truth of the matter is you can use these blog hosting sites for whatever you want.

Having a presence on the Internet is becoming rather essential and is growing by the day. Twitter, for example, has its positives and negatives as most sites do, but what’s important for someone that wants to actually make good use of these social networking sites is to find out the positives that can help you market yourself. It’s true, Twitter is used by many people to let their followers know what they ate for lunch on a given day, but it can also be used for marketing and research alike. Twitter is the closest thing we have to live media coverage. It’s all about who you choose to follow.

A couple of years ago there was a massive brush fire in California. The fire fighters were “tweeting” about their progress live from inside the blaze. Amazing stuff. There are astronauts that tweet live from space! What does this have to do with you finding a job? It’s simple. Once you realize how useful a tool such as Twitter can be, you can then use it to draw interest to yourself as well as stay abreast of jobs, opportunity and pretty much everything else.

General up to date knowledge is also useful within an interview setting.  At this point, virtually every blog has an option that will link your twitter to your blog or Facebook and vice versa. Again, having multiple accounts with any of these sites should never be looked down upon. The more digital space you occupy the better your chance of getting noticed and having a potential employer’s interest peaked by your “internet savvy”.

There are many other sites that are a must for job seekers. A staple for professional networking on the Internet is LinkedIn.com. As you can imagine in our recent economy, a lot of LinkedIn’s membership has become job seekers, but I can tell you from experience that many employers and recruiters faithfully sift through LinkedIn profiles and resumes for their next hire. If you are reading this and are a bit over-whelmed by starting up a new Facebook page, Blog, Twitter, or LinkedIn, don’t be. It is really quite simple and one very important factor in doing anything on the Internet is this: If there is something that you do not understand or cannot figure out: Google it. There is an answer for virtually every Internet and computer related question via the Google search engine. Good luck in your job hunt!

  Michael Denny
  Interactive Resources

Happy Social Media Day! Social-media-web-giant Mashable.com has declared June 30th “Social Media Day” – a day to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. Over 619 meetups have been scheduled in 90+ countries around the globe in honor of the new holiday. You can keep up with the celebrations on Twitter by tracking @mashSMday or #smday- or you can watch live video streams of other meetups at: http://mashable.com/2010/06/30/watch-worldwide-social-media-day-live-streams

Here at Execu|Search, we are very excited to celebrate the holiday, and invite you to visit www.execu-search.com/socialmedia/ for a list of all of our social media links! Let us know if you are attending a meetup or you are celebrating the “holiday” in any other way!

  Stephanie Urban
  Interactive Resources

Over 200 professionals have joined our recently formed a LinkedIn group- New York City & Tri-State Jobs!

The group was formed for professionals seeking new opportunities & networking in the NYC & Tri-State area! Join our group today to post jobs, start discussions, and network with other professionals from New York, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, Central Jersey, Northern Jersey, Connecticut, and more! Professionals from all industries are welcome to join!

Expand your network! Join us in the New York City and Tri-State Jobs Group today: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=3005272

  Stephanie Urban
  Interactive Resources

What do you check first when you start your day online? According to a recent study by ExactTarget, 58% check their e-mail, while 20% go first to a search engine or portal site and 11% start with Facebook.

Those who start their online day by checking e-mail “tend to be more task-oriented online than people who start their day on Facebook or Twitter,” says the report. In-line with that general tendency, the e-mail-firsters “are more likely to approach online interactions with the goal of finding deals, promotions or new product information.”

By contrast, those who start their online day with Facebook “are more likely to have socially oriented motivations when interacting online.” As such, adds the report, they “feel Facebook is more appropriate for entertainment and showing support for brands” as opposed to transacting business with them in that venue.

Read more on Adweek: Where People Start Their Online Day

We are proud to announce our first-ever social media contest aimed at recognizing the importance of our followers and community. Today we launched a “Choose Our Charity Contest,” allowing our Facebook followers to help choose which charity we will raise money for in the month of July.

As part of our community initiatives, our firm raises money for a different charity each month. We believe in supporting the charities that our followers are involved with, which is why we have created the “Choose Our Charity Contest.” The contest is simple: by visiting The Execu|Search Group on Facebook, you can fill out an entry form to suggest what charity the firm will raise funds for in the month of July. From May 24th through June 25th, all entrants will be compiled and a winner will be chosen at random.

The Execu|Search Group’s Facebook page and the “Choose Our Charity Contest” can be found at www.facebook.com/execusearch

For more information about The Execu|Search Group’s community initiatives, please visit: www.execu-search.com/OurCompany/CommunityInitiatives.aspx

We recently formed a LinkedIn group for professionals seeking new opportunities & networking in the New York City & Tri-State Area. Join our group today to post jobs, start discussions, and network with other professionals from New York, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, Central Jersey, Northern Jersey, Connecticut, and more! Professionals from all industries are welcome to join!

Expand your network! Join the New York City and Tri-State Jobs Group today: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=3005272

  Stephanie Urban
  Interactive Resources

Did you know that we have an Execu|Search Facebook fan page where we post stories, news, and other career-oriented content? We would love for ALL of our blog readers to become a fan- so join us on Facebook today!