Is it possible to get a job by using Twitter? While it may feel like a long shot, social media is creating opportunities for job seekers that weren’t available in the past. Since Twitter allows you to directly interact with the decision makers of the company, anything is possible. However, to effectively use Twitter as a job search tool, you need to be strategic about it. Here are five tips that will help:
Have great tweets. The best way to build a presence and make connections on Twitter is by having tweets that are interesting and relevant. Since you are trying to use Twitter to make an impression on potential employers, it might be a good idea to create tweets that are related to your industry. If the content of your tweets is consistently good, people will come back to visit your page.
Follow your target companies. When you follow your target companies on Twitter, you find out about their news, updates, and available jobs. Any of this information can serve as a competitive advantage when you are looking for work.
Make strategic connections. Just coming up with awesome tweets isn’t enough; you have to reach out to people. Find people in your industry with common interests and contact them to introduce yourself. You can even reach out to key companies in your industry. On Twitter you are allowed to send a direct message to anyone who is following you. While you don’t want to be too aggressive about it, if you just send a note to say hello, most people won’t mind.
Join the conversation. Social media is all about the interactions, so you’ll get the most out of this tool when you join discussions, comment on other people’s posts, and respond when people talk to you. This interaction will help you build strategic connections and will make employers more likely to approach you through social media.
Use the search function. By using Twitter to search key words relevant to your target job, you can uncover opportunities that you didn’t even know were available. It is a good idea to do a search a few times a week just to see what you find.
Since most jobs aren’t widely advertised, today’s job seeker needs to be creative. Social media provides a variety of tools that you can use to get information and make connections with employers. If you can learn how to use these tools strategically in your job search, it will give you an edge over your competition.
(Written by Karen Bivand, Image Courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
