Twitter can be more effective than LinkedIn for Job Searching
Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 02:19PM 
On LinkedIn you can make your profile page look incredible. You can fill out every detail and even have your colleagues provide recommendations. But this is something that essentially everyone can do. And when looking for a job, what everyone can do is what you don’t want to do.
On Twitter, you can’t create a reputation as easily (although people certainly do try). To earn respect within this network you need to provide genuine content and engage with your fellow Twitter users. This translates directly to how strong your network is and how many resources you will have available to leverage towards employment opportunities.
500+ LinkedIn Connections is Not Equal to 500+ Twitter Followers
This goes for most social networks. LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, etc. The numbers accumulated here are for passive interactions which don’t convert into developing professional relationship unless connections know each other in real life as well. An active twitter network engages with you several times a week and thus grows to learn more about your specific expertise and your intelligence. The majority of people using LinkedIn are using it solely to find a job or recruit others, which means they aren’t using every day and thus not being exposed to understanding who people really are. (A fundamental problem with using this network to grow relationships)
If we stop and think about all the people who have reached out to us for job help, we are much more likely to go out of their way to recommend people who we know. Why? Because when you recommend someone, their future performance reflects on you and no one wants to stick their neck out unless they’re confident you will live up to the promise you made.
Twitter has no built-in Barriers
The only barrier between a college kid talking to the CEO of a major company on Twitter is if the CEO ignores the kid. On LinkedIn you need to jump through hoops to make that kind of connection such as having a referral or knowing a specific email address that grants access to connecting with someone. Twitter doesn’t guarantee any kind of connection but if does give you the opportunity to prove yourself. If you spend the time to truly impress a group of people then maybe that CEO will just happen to notice you someday and give you an opportunity that a network like LinkedIn wouldn't be able to.