Twitter can change your job search!  Still unsure? Well, I am here to tell you how. Twitter is one of the only networks that allow a single company to have multiple accounts, which can be great from a job seeking standpoint.  Because companies can have multiple accounts they are starting to create recruiting specific accounts.  Specific accounts are good because companies can put all job-related posts into one account.  This keeps followers who aren’t job seekers from being inundated with “We’re Hiring” posts but allows job seekers to see just that.  The key to Twitter is following the right people and searching for the right hashtags.  It can be overwhelming at first with new information being posted every second, but once you get the hang of it, it can have great advantages.

You

On Twitter you only get 160 characters to tell people about yourself, that is the allotted space for your bio.  With that being said think carefully about what you would like to say and how you will be using your account.  If you are using it specifically for your job search consider an employer-focused bio to show companies you are a good investment.  Twitter is the fastest growing social platform, so think of ways to stand out, brand yourself.  Also, make sure to upload an appropriate profile picture and keep your handle simple.

Follow
After you set up your account or have spruced up your profile you are ready to start following people.  You can follow any public profile.  For jobseekers to get “in the know” information you can follow industry or company leaders.  You’ll also want to follow companies you are interested in, and maybe some recruiters or employees there.  Hashtags are another great way to search and follow trends.  Twitter can often offer insider information if you are following the right people.

Research     

Twitter is also a great tool for researching.  Once you are following people in your industry or desired industry pay attention to what they are tweeting about.  This allows you to stay up to date on industry trends or company happenings.  “If you have an important interview coming up, experts agree it’s important to look up your interviewer and potential managers ahead of time. Their recent tweets could be clues about what topics they’re interested in and what the company culture is like.”

Engage

Gaining followers and watching industry trends is not enough to stand out or impress anyone.  You need to join the conversations.  Retweeting is an easy way to show interest and agreement, the person who originally posted it will be notified, but if you comment on something this notification will be even more prominent.  Companies often struggle to get people engaged on social media.  If you are interested in working there someday, an easy way to stand out and be seen is to favorite items they share and reply to posts!

Lists

With all the information constantly streaming in, it’s hard to keep up.  One way to organize your feed is to create lists.  You can organize these however you like, but make sure they are set up in a way that makes sense.  Put things in order so you have uncongested lists to refer to.  “To improve your experience on Twitter and to keep things organized, create categories or lists … For example, if you start following the marketing industry movers and shakers, create a list, and add new people you follow into the right category. When you want news on marketing trends, all you need to do is go to your list of marketing peeps and view only the updates from those accounts.”

Twitter can be a tricky place merging our personal and professional lives.  From the beginning, it was never tagged as a professional platform, but it is starting to become ever more useful for just that.  There are still a few kinks to sort out.  Time argues that they should create a more job-friendly set-up to add value and interaction for their growing number of users and job seekers,