How to use Twitter in your Job Search

Top tips for using Twitter as part of your job search strategy

Twitter is a public platform for people to post and exchange short messages of less than 140 characters. People use it to interact with other people or organisations they find interesting or useful, including attaching links or photos that they want to share with the wider world. Businesses use it to promote their services, expertise and entice people to visit their website.

You can use many social media platforms to help you in looking for your next role, but a Twitter job search can be a successful strategy.

1. Be professional
   Twitter is a very informal medium but do remember that if you are trying to attract the attention of recruiters and others in your field, then you must represent yourself in an attractive and professional light. Your Twitter profile should include a professional looking photo, an appropriate bio and a link to your CV, LinkedIn profile or website. Twitter is much more informal than LinkedIn or conventional CVs, but you should not underplay your skills and expertise and you should still check your spelling. If you want to use Twitter for more fun purposes, then have a separate Twitter account under a different name.
2. Increase your visibility
   Tweets are short public statements that are sent out rather like mini-press releases. You can use them to provide business updates, commentary or for re-tweeting articles or content that you think others would be interested in. Use # before relevant keywords and phrases in your tweets so that it can be picked up by other Twitter users searching using those keywords. As with your LinkedIn activity updates, you can use twitter as part of a personal PR campaign to remind people of your expertise, share successes and encourage people to look at your online CV or website.
3. Make connections
   You can follow individuals and companies and get their regular updates. They will often follow you back. Use this connection to send a direct message with the aim of building a relationship that will translate to an email exchange, a telephone call and then hopefully a meeting. It is much more acceptable and easier to follow complete strangers on Twitter than it is on LinkedIn or Facebook.
4. Hunt for jobs
   Many jobs are posted on Twitter and you can set up Twitter and email alerts for the type of job you are interested in and be notified as soon as they are posted.
5. Show personality!
   Twitter is a very informal medium and it works well when the tweets come across as human and personal rather than too stiff and starchy. Express an opinion. Use humour. Show how passionately you feel about topics that matter to you. However, remember that if you are job-hunting you want recruiters to be impressed, so do not tweet anything that could have a negative impact. This includes criticising your current employer, colleagues or customers or anything that suggests you are less than a model employee. Recruiters are also completely disinterested in the minutiae of your day so make your tweets personable but relevant to a professional audience.

For help with your Twitter job search and how to tackle the job market and secure the role you want contact us by filling in our online contact form or call us on 01753 888995.

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Article by:

Corinne Mills

Article by:

Corinne Mills

Corinne Mills is the Joint Managing Director of Personal Career Management, she is a career coach with 15 years career management experience.

View Articles by Corinne Mills