Ah. I love it when a plan comes together.

Other adaptations of social networking techniques create new takes on a traditional job board. Online Recruitment owner Geoff Jennings says he runs a number of different Twitter accounts that “feed” (provide updates to) “followers” (people who agree to receive his messages) a one-line description of particular categories of jobs, followed by a weblink to the job ad on a different website such as Careerone.com.au. The information he uses is collated by a third party, a website called an aggregator (www.recruit.net), which “scrapes” information off a number of websites and collates it into a single-line description called a “news feed”. Jennings takes this news feed, combines it with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed from other sites than ban aggregation, and mixes in a few of his client’s positions that he is contracted to fill. He then broadcasts the jobs on Twitter, under account names such as ITjobsbris and ITjobssydney and gamerjobs.

“At this stage I am just testing the service. My company is not yet big enough to draw a large following on Twitter if I only put the jobs my company was recruiting for. But if I put many jobs on I can feed to a broader audience,” he says.

“That’s my strategy, anyway. I am very up-front about it (on those accounts).”

He maintains a personal account under his own name: “I don’t flog jobs in there, it’s to brand me as a recruiter. But on the other accounts, people don’t want to see me in there among the jobs.”

He says while he doesn’t get a large number of inquiries from Twitter to his company’s positions, the response so far is promising.

“I do get a lot of people ‘re-Twitting’. That’s when people pick up my Tweet and put a RT in front of it and send it out to their network. Then you get that community-based thing going. From that, I have had emails saying ‘I am interested, tell me more’.”

Social networking expert and author of Connection Generation Iggy Pintado says Jennings could possibly represent the future direction of Twitter.

I hope they’re no applicants out there, on tenterhooks, waiting for news.

And it’s no wonder. Even the folks who should be supporting MyCareer aren’t advertising with them.

Fairfax NZ is advertising for a Acquisitions and Retentions Manager . Where did they place their ad? Seek.

Then there’s Online Marketing Group, the folks who boast in their job ad that “Fairfax Digital is a strategic investor in our company”, have posted a job for a Online Account Executive position. Guess they don’t have much faith in their investor. They chose to advertise exclusively on Seek.

Dear Geoff,

As you may know SEEK reviews pricing structure at this time each year.

I want to let you know that there will be no price rise of SEEK products in 2009.

This decision has been made in recognition of your ongoing loyalty to SEEK during an extremely challenging economic period for all Australian businesses, and as a demonstration of our support of your business and our industry during this time.

SEEK remains absolutely committed to supporting your business by delivering:

* Australia’s largest job seeking audience
* Products that better suit your needs & attract a more relevant audience to SEEK
* Superior customer service and flexibility

Thanks again for choosing to use SEEK and for your support.

I wish you all the best for the coming year.

Kind Regards,

Joe Powell
Managing Director
SEEK Employment

Also: Spammers using photos now. They will try anything to get published.

So, in an effort to practise what I preach (amen, do you you hear me brothers and sisters?); in an effort to get that particular ball rolling, I’ve decided to have a shot at a couple of social job boards. Here they are: SalesZoo & GamerJobs

Go and check them out. Here’s a chance for the members of the congregation to critique me for a change. Be gentle:)

Dear Careerone Employer,

As a valued customer, you are receiving this email as our records show that you have posted a job ad with CareerOne.com.au and we want to make sure your account remains active.

We are currently updating our records to ensure we continue to offer our advertisers the best service and support. As a result, any accounts that have not been accessed in the last 18 months will be deleted.

To keep your account active, simply login to your account today.

Forgotten your password? We can resend it to you.

I appreciate the need to keep business and sometimes the way to do this is to get customers who have dropped off, back on board.  I have not advertised with CareerOne for over three years.  And I daresay there’d be many others in my position.  Is this email going to inspire me to begin advertising with them again?  Unlikely.

There’s nothing wrong with a phone call.  This seems to be a lazy way of doing a necessary job.  Plus, it looks like one of those bank scam emails and I am not about to click and find out…