Job Seekers: You Don’t Have To Be GaGa To Get Value From Twitter

So why should I be interested in Twitter as a job seeker? Is it just a bunch of people talking about what they had for breakfast and place for celebrities to blow their own trumpets?

While there are ample opportunities to follow the likes of Lady GaGa and talk about food on Twitter, Twitter has some very powerful uses for job seekers and business owners.  There are now well over 100 Million Twitter users worldwide and over 150,000 registered users in Ireland. Many of these users offer valuable information, news and advice in “Real Time”. Typically we get information tweeted to us as it actually happens in the world. Twitter in some ways is the “Live TV” of Social Media.

Okay, so Twitter has great numbers, live information…..but how can Twitter help me find a job? Many companies have started using Twitter to advertise their roles and source top talent. Companies using Twitter as part of their recruitment strategy worldwide include Accenture, KPMG, Citigroup, Microsoft, Intel and Tesco.

Here are some ways you can use Twitter to add value to your job seeking strategy:

1. When you set up your Twitter account. Add a professional looking photo. Write a quick bio. Add a link to your LinkedIn profile, Visual CV or Blog.
2. Engage and talk (Tweet) to people in real time. Very often our emails can get buried in a recruiters or prospective employer’s inbox and may never be replied to. Twitter can be great way to ask a quick question and get a quick answer. So follow people that you want to work for, recruitment consultants, career experts and engage with them.
3. Organise your followers into lists or columns. There are many great tools for managing your Twitter activity. One of the most user friendly ones is – Tweet Deck. Tweet Deck enables you to organise all your followers into columns. This should help you from being distracted by large volumes of unrelated tweets. So you may decide to have individual columns for Career Coaches and Career Guidance, Recruitment agencies and consultants, Companies, Personal friends, Business publications etc. NB. You may also decide to save searches into columns. For example #.Net Jobs  #Dublin. Tip: Keep adding new relevant followers to your Twitter account. I find the Twitter page great for suggesting relevant people to follow.
4. One of the real benefits of Twitter is to create awareness and drive traffic to a blog or a site. So why not demonstrate your expertise on Twitter and link back to your blog posts, LinkedIn profile or even your cv? NB. Twitter is a “Social” media site, so be careful not to come across as a “desperate sales person”. It can be viewed as spam and will alienate the very people you are hoping to impress.
5. Share and RT (Re Tweet) posts that are relevant to your area of expertise. People will start to associate you as an expert and as a great source of information. Now that can help you get noticed, help raise your image and reputation amongst prospective employers.
6. Use Twitter as a search engine to find opportunities. A great site to look at is “TwitJobSearch” –  it is a real hidden jewel. A well put together search engine specifically designed to find vacancies on Twitter. Use the advance function to make your searches specific.
7. TweetMyResume and TweetMyJobs are very useful resources for job seekers to look at.  NB. Very US focused, but well worth taking a look at. A big thanks to Michelle J. Iseman for sharing these with me.
8. Last but not least look out for popular hashtags for recruitment and job seeking. Eg. #IT Jobs, #Dublinjobs etc. Add those popular tags to your tweets and search for opportunities using tags. Probably the most popular tag for job seekers on Twitter is #HireFriday. Thanks to Darren Bayliss who also recommends  #UKJobs and #HRUK for job seekers seeking opportunities in the UK.

Remember Twitter is not a substitute to any of your current job seeking activities and in fact may prove more effective when using it alongside email, Linkedin, job boards, agencies, job fairs, off line networking events etc.

Has this article changed your opinion of Twitter? Do you see “value” in using it as a job seeker?

I realised when I started writing this that I could in fact write a book on this subject, so the above are some brief thoughts only. Let me know if you have any further questions and I will do my best to answer them for you.