After debating about joining Twitter for quite some time, I finally joined Twitter in September 2009, not necessarily an early adopter but certainly not late in the game. According to a recent blog about the 25 Most Influential Recruiters on Twitter at www.thetalentbuzz.com in early 2009 there were 900 profiles with the word recruiter and now there are over 10,000. In less then a year, the number of recruiters using Twitter increased more than ten-fold, yet I still know a lot of recruiters that are not using Twitter.

This begs the question - how does Twitter use among recruiters compare to other social media sites? For example, let's look at LinkedIn. If you search for recruiters in LinkedIn, it yields ~250,000 results. Based on the number of recruiters on LinkedIn's, one would expect the number of recruiters using Twitter to continue to rise. As a recruiter, I've found a lot of value in using Twitter to stay current on articles and blog posts written by recruiters and other HR professionals. From a continued learning perspective this has been useful. I've even started to reply and get in on the conversation, which has allowed me to start developing my own presence.

I've also used Twitter to post articles that I've found that I think others might find interesting. I've also posted the occasional job or the occasional piece of company news. I do try to limit self-promoting my company. At a minimum Twitter seems to help get the word out and is a great source to keep on top of what's new.

Even though I feel I get personal value out of those I follow, I find myself asking- what value will I get out of Twitter in terms of job placements? Since I'm a corporate recruiter for a pharmaceutical company, the answer will depend on whether or not scientists and engineers really start using Twitter. To date, there aren't a huge amount of them tweeting. While, I have found some, it is nothing that indicates to me that Twitter will end up anywhere near or on the same playing field as LinkedIn for recruitment. When I first started using LinkedIn in 2004/2005, there wasn't a high volume of scientists actively using it. However, today it is drastically different. If scientists and engineers have flocked to LinkedIn during the past 5 years, does that mean they will eventually flock to Twitter? I will continually monitor Twitter for these individuals. However, for the time being I am going to continue to focus my sourcing efforts elsewhere. Although, Twitter is a gold-mine for recruiters seeking information technology individuals or social media "experts".

Find me on Twitter @cherylnoga