Get your holiday job - on Twitter!
Oct-22-2010

This season Twitter may be delivering the most coveted holiday gift of all: jobs.

National chains are tweeting about job opportunities as the holiday hiring season kicks into high gear. On Wednesday, shipping company UPS tweeted "UPS Peak 2010 season has started. Please tell your friends @UPSjobs hiring Temp & Part-time jobs right now across US!"

The shipping company has 50,000 positions open for the holiday season and has already hired 100 off Twitter.

"Jobs are available," said UPS spokeswoman Rebecca Treacy-Lenda, who characterizes the company's Twitter strategy as "small but growing."

UPS's tweets direct users to the company's jobs site, where job seekers can apply directly to available openings, which range from entry-level to executive.

The company is anticipating about a million views per week on the jobs site this season, which is seven to eight times more traffic than other times of the year.
Who's hiring this holiday season?

Other companies, such as Crate and Barrel and Kohl's, are also relying on the micoblogging site to fill the demand for workers. Although, so far the response has been limited.

When Crate and Barrel at the Galleria Mall in Edina, Minn., announced via Twitter that the store is interviewing for seasonal housewares sales associates, job seekers trickled in.

Store manager Ellen Schaumberg says there are 30-40 positions available but fewer applicants than they expected. "We're doing just fine, but we did think there would be more resumes coming through," she said.

Job seekers, however, may be missing a great opportunity to snag temporary jobs over the holidays. "Sometimes the speed to respond is just as important as the content of your resume," according to social media expert and president of Affect Strategies Sandra Fathi.

And that's where Twitter can give eager applicants a leg up. "Monitoring for those types of search terms on twitter, following the companies you are interested in, and being able to respond quickly are critical," Fathi says. "It's a great opportunity for job seekers to get there quickly and find out first."

Posted by Clay Kohut at 12:00 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print