Include Twitter as a key tool in your on-line, social media job search!
Like LinkedIn, Twitter is rapidly becoming a must-do social networking tool. And also like LinkedIn, it is rapidly becoming a popular hangout for job seekers. Unlike LinkedIn, however, Twitter is not just about adding contacts … it is mostly about making new (out of work) friends, be it socially, professionally, or both.
Twitter is a great tool to use for your job searching, but remember that it won’t happen the day you begin to tweet, but over time, as you build up your “Followers” and those who “Follow You” – you will have something going for yourself. You can raise visibility with recruiters in your geographic search area by sending out your “brand” statement or “elevator speech“; or, you can post comments on current marketplace issues, deliver subject matter expertise, and show that you are on top of current trends by linking to your blog site.
As those who follow you on Twitter become interested in your content, when employers are looking at you, you’ll have more than just your resume to back up your knowledge and experience. But don’t limit your job search to just Twitter. Personal/professional networking is still the best approach for job seekers. Face-to-face interaction always works best, and no matter how great social networking is, it can’t replace that type of connection.
For the non-user, Twitter can be confusing .. you are limited to just 140 characters and are bombarded with “tweets” and “retweets”. Where to begin?
Tips for using Twitter for your job search:
Twitter Account Settings
At the Twitter main page, look for the menu bar for Settings >> Account .. This is where you set up a One Line Bio; put a link to your blog (if available), include your e-mail address, and include the city you reside in.
In your 160 characters of bio – note the position you are seeking, the more targeted the better. Be as specific as you can within the 160 character limitation.
Start your “Tweeting”
Many times job seekers will tweet out little blurbs in the hopes that someone will notice them. An example might be: “I need a job, can someone help me?”
Since you are looking for work, forget about tweeting to rant or rave … especially a bad idea if you want hiring managers and recruiters to contact you.
Note that a good recruiter will search for a job seeker on Twitter and then look at the quality of the tweets he or she has posted. Remember, your “tweets” are public. Unlike LinkedIn, more folks than just your followers can read them.
“Follow” Job Search / Career Professionals
Twitter has many career professionals, from resume writers to recruiters to staffing agencies to placement firms. Niche sites are frequent users of Twitter as well. Looking for Human Resource jobs, Marketing, or IT jobs? You can find several specialty job boards on Twitter to follow, and check the Twitter job board ( www.twitterjobsearch.com )
As examples of who you may want to “follow” in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- San Francisco Business Times (http://twitter.com/SFBusinessTimes)
- SFBayJobs (http://twitter.com/sfbayjobs)
- Jobvite (http://twitter.com/Jobvite)
- BAJobs (http://twitter.com/BAJobs)
- HotWireRecruit (http://twitter.com/HotwireRecruit)
Key point: Take advantage of hash tags like #jobangels, #jobseekers, #jobseach #jobs #employment #unemployed #needajob #jobseekers. You can post the type of job you are seeking and then use one or all of these hash tags. Your post will then be read by everyone who follows those tags.
Search for interview subjects for that next article (examples: Twellow or Twitter Search). There is a world of wisdom in cyberspace – just waiting for you to find it!
Help your fellow Job Seekers
Twitter has many job seekers during this economic downturn / recession. You are advised to look for job advice, postings, etc. You will see many opportunities that may not be right for you, but they might be a good fit for someone else. If this is the case, then you may “retweet” or pass along those leads to a colleague, a fellow job seeker. Remember that real networking works – especially with Twitter. So. if you want to make friends, it’s a give-and-take relationship.
Twitter Profile
Twitter is a “branded online exposure” for your professional online presence; for searching for work. The key message is to promote your Twitter presence with an “employer-friendly” background. Your Twitter profile should operate like you would with a business card. Craft a well-written professional description in the spot meant for your bio. Personalize the background also!
There’s lots of space you can use to promote yourself. Use this link http://www.twitterbacks.com for ideas on creating a professional-looking Twitter background, including side bar identification information. You may also want your online resume or blog to be listed as a link on your Twitter Profile.
Twitterbacks.com has templates you can use to create your very own Twitter brand / background. Twitbacks.com is another solution that also lets you promote your Twitter profile / brand.
Twitter Tools
It is hard to “Tweet” when you are following many folks and sending and receiving replies and direct messages. A cool solution is to manage your “Twittering” with a free desktop client.
Desktop clients are software built specifically to utilize Twitter. Clients for the desktop generally do very helpful things, like let you put the people you’re following into groups, so you can be sure you won’t miss a tweet from those you care about the most, alert you when you get a new direct message or @reply, search Twitter without having to visit a separate page, or help you share images or videos. In other words, they help you get the most out of Twitter and not miss anything important.
As a job seeker, I recommend using TwitterJobSearch: http://www.twitterjobsearch.com/
TwitterJobSearch is a search engine that searches Twitter for jobs that match key words you enter; they claim to do the following:
- We’re looking at context.
- We use semantic tools to look at what was said.
- We then look at what they’ve said before.
- We then look at who was saying it.
- If we do this right, we can figure out why they’re saying anything at all.
This search engine pull in additional details such as location or job title to add more context than just links to a web page. So, the results are not only job-related but you get a link to the actual job posting (a link to another job site like CareerBuilder). With TwitterJobSearch, you search across all of them, and results are ranked by both relevance and by how recently they’ve been posted.
Another option; look at 2 other Twitter APIs for job seeking:
Twhirl and Tweetdeck are popular ones that help you organize the tweets of your followers by making groups and help you search on specific topics, just as “job search.” They also help you see when someone has specifically spoken to you even while you were away.
And there is TweetDeck to organize your results:
Tweetdeck shows your Twitter feed in columns of information based on your preferences, rather than one long stream. As an example, you might set up columns with headers such as:
- All tweets, jobseeker, direct messages, friends, thought leaders, and jobs.
You can click to see anyone’s profile, and from there add them to a particular column. It has a URL shortener build in, which is invaluable.
TweetDeck allows you to set up search columns so you can stay up to date with topics or brands you’re interested in. Search columns auto-update every minute using data from the Twitter Search API.
Still another option for job seekers; Twello and WeFollow:
Twitter directories Twellow and WeFollow organize Twitter users based on topic, and are great places to find other users who will regularly tweet about things you’re interested in.
You should also look into third party sites like Twubble and Twitterel, which attempt to give people friend suggestions on Twitter, based on the friends of your friends and the things you’re interested in.
One tool new Twitterers can use to find like-minded users is Twitter Search. Twitter’s own built-in search engine lets users search for others who are job seekers like you – just pick out some keywords.
BONUS: A Twitter Guide Book
Twitter can be very daunting for new users. It has its own set of jargon (#hashtags, @replies, retweets, direct messages, etc.), its own set of commands, confusing rules about who sees your tweets, and a sea of third party clients to navigate. That can be overwhelming for someone new to get into.
One place to start learning about Twitter, is the site’s own help portal and Getting Started forum aimed at new users. They’re not the most user friendly site, though, and might raise more questions than they answer for some users.
In addition, spend time on Mashable (http://mashable.com/) and look for the Twitter section to find a cool Twitter Guide. Too many people join Twitter and just start following as many people as they can without any thought to whether it makes sense to do so. The Twitter Guide Book should help both new and experienced users learn how to use the service and get the most out of it.
Final Notes
You should maintain your Twitter presence with regularity. There is no hard and fast rule, but lots of companies and non-profits try to post and tweet at least once a day, no more than five times a day.
You need to integrate your social media with other efforts, like linking to a site or a blog post in a tweet, coordinating with a newsletter, plan ahead as part of a marketing campaign, etc. Being a personality without tying back to your real-life business efforts is a great way to waste time.
Twitter’s value lies in two aspects: content and immediacy.
Content has to provide value to users (in no particular order):
- entertainment
- access to information otherwise unavailable
- feeling of inclusion into a desired group
- reciprocity with their own personal/business social media agenda
Immediacy factor engages user with time-based opportunities:
- breaking news (being the first to know/share, accessing info traditional media doesn’t have or won’t share, firsthand reporting…”unmediated” media)
- instant actions (flash mobs, political protests, emergency responses, calls for help, etc…often with a geolocative aspect)
- immediate input/feedback (user reviews, customer service issues)