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Tweet Success: Landing a Job 140 Characters at a Time
Susan Johnston
Celebs like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher use Twitter to entertain and expand their fan base, but the microblogging site also provides an opportunity for job seekers to grow their own network.
Just ask Kelly Giles, a recent graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill who majored in journalism and psych. Last January, the then senior was torn between applying for jobs or attending law school. Giles gave Twitter a shot, tweeting (Twitter's term for posting short status updates under 140 characters each) as @KellyGiles.
Sure enough, her tweet about how UNC-CH's career services office should teach personal branding caught the eye of a career counselor at Bowdoin College. She says the lawyer-turned-career counselor "took an interest in my story and law school decision. We tweeted back and forth and spoke on the phone. She helped me decide that law school wasn't for me, and she also noticed my interest in web 2.0 job searching strategies."
Giles' says her contact later "(tw)introduced me to my current employer, OptimalResume.com — a company that helps job seekers create traditional and web 2.0 job-search materials." She remains active on Twitter to keep up with marketing and social media news, as well as to maintain her network.
Miriam Salpeter, the founder of Keppie Careers who tweets as @Keppie_Careers, also sees Twitter as a useful tool. "Unlike LinkedIn," she says, "where you're advised not to connect with those you don't know, Twitter is an open forum where you're encouraged to connect with and follow people who don't know you and you don't know them. It's an opportunity to expand your loose network."
Want to know more? Here's how to network using Twitter:
Choose your name carefully. Just as you wouldn't use email addresses like HotChica88 or BigBadBen to apply for jobs, you'll want to give serious thought to your Twitter name. "If you're in a niche or have identified a type of position or job title, you could use some kind of combination of your job target and your name, like MarketingSusan," suggests Salpeter. "That helps people really figure out what you're going to be tweeting about, but it does put you in a niche. For young people who are going to be doing a lot of different things, it might be preferable to just use your name."
Keep it professional. "If you're using your Twitter account for professional networking, make sure everything you tweet is something a potential employer could see," Salpeter says. For instance, instead of tweeting about playing beer pong, pick a relevant article and post the link using a URL shortening service like bit.ly or tiny.cc. As Salpeter points out, you could have more than one Twitter account if you want to use one for networking and the other one for posting off-beat observations on life.
Interact with your followers. You can find people to follow by looking at lists (Salpeter recommends the ones created by @JobHuntOrg) or using the search feature. Once you've begun following, Salpeter says you can "attract someone's attention by retweeting (RTing) something they send out, interacting with them, asking a question, sending direct messages (DMs), sending out tweets that you know would be of interest. Observe how they interact on Twitter and respond in kind." Rather than asking for a job, start a relationship with followers and show your professional expertise and personality.
As Giles puts it, "you have to be yourself, because Twitter is all about inbound marketing and leads. If you have an interest in design, physics, or whatever, don't try to hide your personality. Tweeting is a 24-hour-a-day interview."
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