With Twitter’s popularity growing exponentially with time, companies want to make the most out of this free and accessible social networking service to lower recruitment expenses during these difficult times, economically speaking. Its value however as a means of getting qualified professionals remains unproven conclusively.

If you have been living under the rock all this time and have not heard of Twitter, in a nutshell it is a blogging platform wherein users can communicate in140 or less characters. It has since emerged in the social networking arena as a useful accomplice for job seekers.

According to survey results conducted by O2, a UK-based mobile network operator, 62 percent of businesses surveyed cite cost-cutting as the greatest benefit and primary use of Twitter. Respondents mentioned as well that to reduce overhead, recruitment and marketing functions have been done via the social network and as a result a considerable fraction of them have saved thousands.

Organic, a US-based digital agency, has shifted three fourths of its recruitment initiatives to social networking platforms like twitter. With its free services and its tech-savvy clientele, companies like Organic find platforms like Twitter especially appealing.

This may be good in theory but in the real world, it has not yet been proven if Twitter does yield tangible benefits in the form of recruitment savings for the majority of companies who use it. As some employers can attest to, instead of getting the top talents, more often than not what they got instead are more recruitment agencies, so they end up with offline contacts just the same.

For job hunters, it’s an entirely different story though. Twitter can tremendously change the way you get in touch with an employer, or better still, the way you get a hold of the recruiters that closely work with the top companies out there today. With more and more companies embracing and taking advantage of Twitter’s potential to broadcast their job postings and connect with the top talents, Twitter is bound to get more attention. Among the big names that employ Twitter to communicate and contact job seekers are Best Buy, Sodexo, and Ernest & Young, just to name a few.

There are many ways to stand out in Twitterville to improve your chances of getting the job you want. First, since your username identifies your Twitter persona, create your account using a good and professional sounding username so you can establish your Twitter brand early on. Next, build your network of Tweeters that belong to your industry, as they may just lead you to a recruiter for an interview with THE company that you have been eyeing for the longest time.

It would also help to tweet on any expertise or experience you are passionate about, as it can spark interest in a potential employer to want to learn more. The important thing to keep in mind is that it can work either as an asset or otherwise, so it has to be managed wisely to reap the rewards just like with any other social networking platform.