What if a little bird could help you with your job search? Well, it may not be the bluebird of happiness, but social networking and microblogging site Twitter can be one tweet job search tool.
Say What? As a career-minded woman youre always who embraces the latest technology trends such as Twitter, so you’ll definitely want to spend time at the site with an eye toward how it can lead to employment opportunities.
If you’re new to Twitter, you’ll first want to familiarize yourself with the basics of the site. Twitter, like other social networks, allows you to create a profile. Unlike other social networks, the profile isn’t in-depth.
In fact, that’s the beauty of Twitter: Everything is abbreviated. At Twitter, you’re limited to what you can say. Posts, known as tweets, must be 140 characters or less. You can, however, link to other sites, and many people use the site in this way.
The concept of Twitter is to post short messages, while getting people to follow what you have to say. You gain followers and you follow others. Okay, it all sounds fascinating, but what does any of this have to do with looking for a job? Plenty.
Think of Twitter as a platform, a soapbox, if you will, from which you can broadcast your message. In fact, the image here of a chick on a microphone is a good metaphor. And Twitter really can help you get the word out.
That word might be that you’re an expert in your field. By providing regular commentary about your industry or profession, you can establish yourself as a person in the know, and you will gain interested followers.
Your followers are now contacts, who have other contacts. If you tweet that you’re involved in a job search, particularly once you’ve established yourself as a legitimate professional, your contacts will likely offer assistance in the form of information and/or job leads.
Your tweets about a job search can also include links to your personal website or your LinkedIn profile. This, in turn, will provide people with easy access to your background. With a tweet and link, you can let others know how accomplished you are.
Twitter as a job search tool
Twitter allows you to do the talking, but you can also listen in on the conversation, with an ear open for job openings.
Increasingly, employers tweet their open positions, with links to their corporate careers sites where full job postings are available. Likewise, an increasing number of executive recruiters and job board operators tweet their job openings.
And employment professionals aren’t the only sources of hiring information. In the true spirit of social networking, ordinary folks share their knowledge of job openings with one another.
How do you find these tweets? Using the site’s search feature, experiment with various keywords in order to find appropriate job leads. For example, entering “job marketing” (without the quotation marks) in the search box returns a wide range of available marketing positions.
Entering “job marketing ny” (again, without the quotation marks) returns marketing jobs in New York.
You get the idea. Remember though, not everyone uses the same words, phrases or abbreviations in their tweets. This is why experimentation with keywords is necessary.
Twitter offers tremendous opportunities when it comes to finding a job. Nevertheless, it’s important to realize that Twitter, like other online job resources, and social media sites especially, can be like the Wild West. Scam artists and other shifty characters will crawl out from behind their rocks and try to pawn their employment solutions. Don’t be taken in. The old expression, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” certainly applies to a job search using social media.
But don’t let this deter you from using Twitter. This bird can assist in your job search. It might even help your career soar.
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