The problem is with what most assume the definition of “tool” is versus what many of these items are: social media.

Social media isn’t just about marketing (or sales). If it was it would merely be a tool. Traditional marketing (or sales) is approached by recruiters as a way of finding people and TELLING THEM WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO HEAR. Blogs, who’s “comments” sections are sparse these days, and Linkedin are of this type (although there are some new offerings).

Social media is about a CONVERSATION between two parties. Most recruiters aren’t intersted or know what they have to offer (besides an opportunity or their corporate brand). You can’t effectively use Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Plurk etc. if you just want to broadcast your message.

Why use social media then? Because you are committed to building a community (maybe it’s with recruiters or a particular industry or a specific skill set) and will CONTRIBUTE to the conversation, not just “hit it” and give nothing in return.

And as for Facebook, MySpace, etc. They are useful – I was amazed at all the potential they hold when I helped research a course at my current employer on how to use these virtual world sourcing sites. MySpace in particular you can XRay by job title and find potential candidates. Granted you may find more than you bargained for, but that’s part of it, fortunately or unfortunately.

Twitter, I’m a fan and regular user for the last 6 months. You can search the site, like you would user groups, search by expertise like “ruby on rails” or again XRay it and search on keyword (not just job title). Twitter is good for relationship building and exponentially expanding your talent base. And when you develop advanced searches to FlipSearch the site – you get nice results as well.

And these sites are just the tip of the iceberg, they all have competitors jockeying for online users, so that increases where you can find people.

Twitter is a great name, a great idea, and a great brand, but like Kleenex and Coke, there are other SMS tools around and there will be more, not to mention the hundreds of status tickers running on various sites. I think most ATS and Web2.0 sites will provide seamless SMS features as parts of their offerings, and this may include some kind of aggregation of tickers.

Inevitibly people will maintain fairly standardized kinds of online personae to deal with the world, and to be dealt with by the world. Scary for some, opportunity for others, but its happening as we speak; LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are ancestors already many times over.

I could go on and on but I trust you get the point. Of course the Internet is cool but it pales in comparison to electricity. (And I don’t even work for a power company!).