Listen to the interview here from NPR

“Social networks are becoming a prime place to search for jobs as unemployment numbers continue to rise. Whether its through blogs, Twitter or Facebook, people are seeking out potential employers through alternative online sources.”

• A link to your home base. The URL in your profile must link to somewhere that describes you; whether it is a personal blog, a LinkedIN profile, or even website describing your past work experiencs. Also provide a link somewhere with an email address.
• Retweet-ability-Dan Zarella’s Retweetability Index, or formula to calculate your tweets to retweets ratio.
• View your follower/following recent friends. If you have 30 followers on Twitter, and 29 of them are spam accounts, you will be viewed as a spammer, or someone only looking to market something on Twitter.
• Search for your @username, to see what can be viewed publicly.  Any Twitter user can search for all @ replies sent back to you, to view conversations that you have had with people.
• Do you communicate with only brands and organizations, or are you talking with people too. If you want to find a job designing new bottles for Coca-Cola, asking @cocacola for a job will lead to 0% success. Leverage your connection to @cocacola to connect with a personal account of an employee within the company to make the first contact.
• Follow local career placement companies on Twitter. The speed of posting is quicker than any other medium, which will increase your chances exponentially for landing the job.

When beginning a new Twitter profile, a great place to start is by following many of the professionals on ExecTweets, and literally ‘doing what they do’.

@WHIZ Christi Day of Southwest.

Three weeks ago Murphy-Goode began a search for a “social media whiz,” a wine enthusiast interested in moving to Healdsburg, Calif., for six months to promote the vineyard’s malbec and chardonnay on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The job — which comes with the official title “lifestyle correspondent” — pays $10,000 a month, plus free accommodations at a private home within walking distance of the tasting room. Ms. Casgar, a former magazine marketing executive, has been endorsing herself as enthusiastically as she would a bottle of petit verdot.

New York Times

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In today’s tough job market, it’s critical to stand out. So how to make sure your application gets noticed: A flawless cover letter? Killer résumé? Glowing reference from the CEO?

Not even. In the worst job market in 25 years, building an online presence is crucial to getting a job. Who you connect to, “follow” and “friend” can be just as important as conventional tools like résumés.

“Not only are employers looking for better candidates, but ones that are well versed in social media and seeking out opportunities,” said social media expert and president of Affect Strategies Sandra Fathi. “These mediums are here to stay and also a great way to differentiate yourself.”

Not only are valuable connections forged with potential employers and colleagues on sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn, but openings are also posted there, sometimes in lieu of job boards.

www.money.cnn.com

Although the total number of IT jobs is shrinking due to the recession, some companies are still hiring — and using social-networking tools can help you land those jobs. In fact, being in the IT industry just might give you an advantage over the average laid-off worker.

That’s because social networking Web sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are foremost among those new tools, and IT people are more likely to be comfortable with them and with related technologies that can help in a job search, such as automated scripts, customized search engines, RSS feeds and the like, experts say.

www.computerworld.com

Tom, AKA @BostonTweet created a Twitter tool at www.BostonTweet.com to interact with his Twitter friends, and post their suggestions for local Boston happenings.   Various topics like favorite taco’s(Anna’s), pizza, beer(Publik House), or even places to look for jobs receive large amounts of local feedback. Not that Tom is looking fora job, but his network is now contains thousands of influencers and thought leaders in the area, which makes value skyrocket!

Check out Tom’s post about job hunting for college grad’s!

This is a great article with a step by step list to interacting with Twitter career placement tools

$$$

As unemployment continues to soar, job seekers and candidates are pulling out all the stops and doing everything possible to network and look for new opportunities.  This includes using social media and social networking sites as another tool during their search, and while these are not new methods, more and more candidates are getting creative to give themselves an edge.

Twitter, as an example, is getting more and more attention on the hiring scene.  In fact, at a recruiting conference a few months ago, the site was mentioned (in addition to the use of social media and social networking) in almost every session for Recruiters.

Here are 7 ways to use twitter to network your way to an interview or to land your next job.

www.thetalentbuzz.com

(CBS) Last week I ran a Beginner’s Guide to Twitter where I described the very basics of the service that’s getting so much play its creators are among the most 100 influential people according to Time Magazine. One of my main pieces of advice was to use Twitter not via the Twitter.com Web site itself, but rather through an application.

This week I’m looking at the best of these apps. By doing so I’m reiterating my advice: You can love Twitter and hate Twitter.com without worrying about the conflict. Twitter (the communications platform) is an interesting new medium. Twitter.com, the default site that most people use Twitter from, is a mess.

Try these apps and services instead:

www.CBSNews.com

Find us at @NewSchoolResume