After a global recession, which put millions out of work, it seems that some jobseekers are having to come up with more innovative ways to stand out from the crowd. Not content to sit back and wait for the right role to be advertised, some are putting the internet to work for them in creative ways, and we could all learn a lot from how they’re doing it.

Alec Brownstein is a great example. In his quest for the perfect job he spent £4 ($6 USD) on Google adwords to reach five creative directors at major advertising and marketing firms: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Gerry Graf, Tony Granger, and David Droga. Basically he banked on the fact that these directors would be googling themselves at some point, and amongst the search results was his ad which simply read “Googling yourself is fun, hiring me is fun too.” He got four interviews, two job offers, and according to FastCompany.com, he’s now employed at Young & Rubicam. Definitely a slam dunk for Alec!

Eric, a recent graduate from an MBA program, is another great example. He bought Facebook ads that were targeted to employees at the companies he wanted to work for – mainly Microsoft. According to Consumerist.com, it cost him just under £35 ($50 USD) and he received 50,000 impressions, over 500 click-throughs and responses from over 20 Microsoft employees offering to help him.

“I chose Facebook for ads because it was unconventional, cheap, highly targeted and offered solid performance metrics,” Eric told Arbita.net. “I targeted all Microsoft employees nationwide. Given that cost per click was so low, that I could manipulate my bid price and put a cap on it for the day, I saw no sense in on limiting how wide I cast my net inside the company — you never know where help will come from.”

These are two individuals who really sat down and worked out who they wanted to reach, and how they could do it in a low-cost, attention grabbing, unique way. Now, what could social media do for your business?