Does Twitter Need A Lesson In Being Social?

Posted on February 19, 2009. Filed under: Observations, Social Media, twitter | Tags: Blind carbon copy, Blog, Human resources, Social Media, twitter, ValleyWag |

I am sure you have seen the story circulating about Twitter’s mass rejection email that was sent out in an open manner.

I came across this story on a couple of different blogs Koo’s Corner, ValleyWag and a few others. What piqued my interest in the story was less that the HR manager didn’t know the difference between CC & BCC in an email. It wasn’t the fact that she revealed the email addresses of 186 candidates for a Twitter position.

What I found interesting was that the email was identical to one I received from Twitter for a completely different position that I applied for about 4 months ago. Same wording, same phrasing exactly. This leads me to believe that the email is in fact generated by whatever HR system Twitter has in place.Either that or they are really lazy and keep template emails for rejections in Outlook and then just add addresses to it. But I digress.

What interests me is that the company that is behind one of the biggest Social Media platforms right now, is still employing old school thinking in its hiring. Oh I am sure they have cool, whacky interview techniques, you only have to read their HR Manager Krissy Bush’s Twitter feed to see odd references to candidates being asked to do push-ups to get a sense of the “cool factor”.

However, it’s examples like this that really show how a company works. It also shows that although they are responsible for a great Social Media platform, it doesn’t actually mean they have any better understanding of Social Media than any other Tech company, which is what Twitter really is.

So if the hottest Social Media platform developers can’t be more creative with how they communicate with applicants to their company is it any wonder that other companies struggle to understand how to utilize Social Media ?