What's your social media story?
All the hubbub lately about Twitter (Google acquisition? No acquisition? – Originally read through Scoble) has made me a bit curious about the new trends in social media.
Heck, even Mini-Microsoft (the mystery Microsoft blogger) started Twittering, so you know it’s time to start paying attention!
Last Friday, I finally broke down and started my own Twitter account. (Started is kind of a loose term... I’ve had it for a year, just never used it!) Then today – after seeing a ton of Tweets about the updated FriendFeed Beta, I decided to sign up and give that a try also. Now that I’m busy going about building yet another social network, it’s got me thinking: Do people really find jobs using these? As a recruiter, I’ve found several excellent employees through social networking sites (namely LinkedIn and Facebook – see Ryan’s recent post for more). But Twitter? The Micro-Blog? I’ve heard stories – mostly through someone who knows someone, who knows someone who hired or was hired through Twitter. But these only carry so much weight. I want to hear it from you!
So, tell me: What’s your social media story? How has the world of social networks helped you land that perfect job? Do you use Twitter? FriendFeed? Looking forward to your comments!
Oh, and while I’m at it -- feel free to connect: My Windows Live; My LinkedIn; My Twitter; My Facebook; My FriendFeed.
-Kenji
6 Comments
Dew Drop - April 10, 2009 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew said:
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BlogMS Weekly Articles Published – 6th April to 12th April said:
237 Microsoft Team blogs searched, 106 blogs have new articles in the pa st 7 days. 256 new articles
Nintendo Blog said:
I'm not sure of my opinion of Social Media as a whole yet. I believe it is still in its infancy and has a lot of maturing to do with the direction it takes from here.
The popularity of certain sites needs to be proven long term. look at eBay's recent sale of StumbleUpon and it's mistaken purcase of Skype though that is not necessarily Social Media, it does go to show a doubt of long term popularity and possible lack of direction with these sites.
File Rename Guy said:
The problem is with finding potential employees on social sites is that you cannot always verify what who they say they are and what they do in their profile. There's a big trust and truth issue. Also there's always some form of hidden bias with hiring, reading something off screen and talking to them is different. I've never found a job through any of these networks, although I've had recruiters contact me I was just never interested. It's easy to keep a network of contacts though.
Dylan Salisbury said:
If an old colleague helps you find a job, you are going to give yourself and your colleague all of the credit. But maybe you would have lost touch with them years back if you weren't Facebook friends or LinkedIn contacts.
For job hunting and recruiting, I think the real power of social networking lies in staying connected to people that you already have some real-world relationship established with.
Jobs for Karma said:
Creating a Twitter account and following Corporate recruiters is a great idea, to hear about hot jobs/dreamjobs. There are several executive recruiters that twitter the new opportunities to the followers. The most recent story i read was about career builder offering custom job twits. Twitter is a killer app for job seekers.