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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Twitter and YOUR job search

How are you using your social media to help you find a job?

What are some pros and cons about using Twitter while your job search progresses.

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question. Do all of your tweeps (the other people you follow on twitter) care if you are unemployed? Will that help or hurt you in your search?

There are two schools of thought on broadcasting over Twitter that you have recently lost your job. One thought pattern is that you are seeking sympathy; another is that you get the “news” out to everyone in one fell swoop and then when you see the person face to face, you can move on with other topics.

Twitter – Twitter profiles provide some of the same information that Facebook and LinkedIn provide. The information shared on Twitter is in 140 character "tweets".  Often it has a “pay it forward” concept.  You might find something and share it.  Someone else tweets something you think is worthy – you retweet it.  If you are looking for a job, try to hold back from tweeting what you had for breakfast or that you just went for a great 12 mile run.  Follow others who will provide job leads or useful information for your job search.

Search tools for Twitter allow you to find people or organizations as they do in LinkedIn.  Use this to your advantage to “follow” potential employers or contacts at an organization at which you would like to work.
You may even use Google or Bing or other search tools to find a person or a company and then search for them on Twitter.  You can search by company, field, job type, region, or in general.  Often, websites will post their Facebook or Twitter account with a link to follow them. Or you can search for people or organizations to follow on Twellow or on We Follow.  Mashable also has a suggestion for 15 Twitter Directories in a comparison. Look for recruiters to follow who hire for companies that do not publicly post their job openings.  Use Twellow (will search people's bios) to search for a company for which you would like to work and follow anyone from that company that might have twitter profiles.

If you are tweeting, a good source to follow for valuable tools about all aspects of social media is @mashable. Mashable suggests jobseekers follow: @microjobs and the hash tag discussion #tweetmyjobs. As you follow more people, you will discover more #resources. A few other hashtags to use include: #jobs, #jobhuntchat, #jobsearch, #jobadvice.  Be careful to watch the ratio of who you follow to those that follow you to prevent yourself from being classified as a spammer.

Read more of our articles on Social Media on our webpage - kcdee.org
What other hashtags have you found? Post in our comments please.

2 comments:

  1. Great tips for using Twitter as a jobseeker! The tool can be very useful if used correctly. It's all about participating in the conversation and paying it forward.

    You can find me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/kbaumann or @kbaumann). I tweet all sorts of things related to careers, resumes, interview tips, and more. My blog, Campus To Career (http://campustocareer.wordpress.com) is where you can find content that I have authored. Let's help each other! :)

    ReplyDelete