Twitter seems to be the latest rage in the recruiting community, and beyond. It is one of the few resources that we utilize that has also received wide coverage in the mainstream press, mainly due to it use by movie stars and other important people.

But…we don’t care much about them.

What we do care about is the way this micro-blogging service can easily help us reach out to those groups of people we are trying to reach out to. In a nutshell, you set up a very (very) simple “profile” and then you start “following” those other Twitter users of interest to you. You receive from them what are called Tweets. These are very short one-sentence messages simply announcing to their followers what is going on in their lives. Many non-recruiters use Twitter as an efficient means of just keeping in touch with friends and family. Many Tweet about daily activities. But we don’t.

Once you start the process of following people, then you start the process of getting people to follow you. Hopefully, many of your followers will consist of those professionals that you would like to keep in touch with on a regular basis. Once you build up a group of followers, then you will Tweet them on a regular basis. These Tweets are probably going to be mostly informational in nature. Maybe links to news items of interest to this group, maybe statistics on salaries, employment data, but every now and then you might Tweet them a job you are working on. Twitter is an easy way to inform your followers of anything new going on in your life and/or your business.

The beauty in Twitter, is that it is very simple. You profile is simple, Tweeting people is simple, and searching for people is simple. Yes, searching for people. You can either search Tweets for keywords or you can actually search profiles for keywords. Twitter is a great recruiting resource, as well as a wonderful way to market your service…all for free.

Another great aspect of Twitter, and one that greatly enhances it use and functionality in the recruiter community, is the entire cottage industry of software applications and websites designed to work with Twitter. These offer special features or increased functionality and are all free as well.

An easy way to find out more about Twitter is to attend our Twitter For Recruiters program on Tuesday, June 9.