Engauge hires Korey Thurber...Local.com appoints Scott Reinke general counsel and Ken Cragun VP of finance...Geoff Schiller named national sales director at Hearst Digital

Euro RSCG hires Fernanda Romano...DMW promotes promoted Tara DiFrancesco...Inter/Media Group promotes Malena Cruz...Catalyst Group appointes Ethan Farber director of client dev...iPerceptions names Claude Guay president/CEO...Morsekode promotes Paul Jongeward

Once you have inventoried the employers who are hiring, the companies you want to target, and what positions are available, it is time to get creative. In addition to posting your résumé online, consider using a featured résumé listing or résumé distribution service to directly market yourself to employers and differentiate yourself.

Most people would agree that the best way to land a new job is to network. Now, there's some new research to back that up. The Bernhart Associates Employment Report has been surveying hiring trends in direct marketing since 2001. This was the first time we asked employers to identify their largest source of new hires.

The Twitter phenomenon has taken the social networking world by storm. While policy wonks, celebrities and even your own mother may be Tweeting, Twitter also has very practical applications.

As an executive recruiter, I am speaking with many concerned, distressed or outright panicky direct marketers these days.

If a candidate said something like this to me, personally, I would continue to look in other places. If a candidate is coming in for an interview, you need to understand that there may be other options that they are exploring.

The best thing to do is not get into the clutter in the first place. Right now, the first thing people do when they are looking for a job is they get on the Inter­net. Candidates think that job-hunting is spending hours and hours in front of the computer. Turn off the computer, get outside and start face-to-face interaction with people.

To get the best new employees, I recommend a pretty lengthy interview process involving a portfolio review with art and creative directors. Don't just be interested in a candidate's skills, but also who they are as people. This ensures that there is good chemistry and synergy with the rest of your team.

Social networking is one of the fast­est growing segments of the Web. If you are looking to hire, it is a tool that can provide a variety of data points on a candidate from several different perspectives.