With job search behemoth LinkedIn being a job hunter's go-to website these days and Facebook being hot on their heels, Twitter often gets forgotten about.
With the microblogging site increasing the available character count to 280 per tweet, you now get a little bit more on-screen real estate to get your message out to a broad and varied audience. Being able to reach such a large audience has the potential to allow you to find leads for jobs that might not be advertised elsewhere, you can get a direct line to industry insiders and build your personal brand within your sector.
You can't just go in all ham-fisted though… you need to put a strategy in place.
Where to start?
We're going to assume that you already have a profile and have some knowledge of the platform.
Hit that follow button
Start following the accounts of companies and people that you want to work for and the people that work for those businesses. Many pages will have accounts that will share their latest open positions before they are ore widely distributed. Following industry insiders will give you a heads up on any trend or even companies that are growing their headcount.
Another top tip is to follow your recruiter's pages as they will also post new jobs to their feed every day…. @empsolrecruit ;)
Engage!
Be a part of the conversation, this is what social media is all about… Get involved in industry-relevant discussions, look what's trending add your input and retweet great bits of advice. Get to know the people who are seen as influencers in your sector and give them the chance to get to know you. Add some twitter "Friends" to your network.
#Hashtags
Use hashtags to your advantage! Include hashtags in your posts, but not too many this isn't Instagram. Make them relevant to your post, and they will get into the feeds of the right people.
Hashtags are fully searchable in Twitter so you can search for a certain term and it will bring up all the tweets that include that pat ocular hashtag. Try searching things along the lines of #Hiring or #NowHiring.
Network
The golden rule when it comes to networking Twitter is "be someone worth following".
"How do I do this?" you ask…
- don't be annoying, there's nothing worse than a spammer.
- Share great content
- Answer other peoples questions with great answers
- Share links to other great content
- Be active (no lurking)
- Make connections in real life, meet your contacts at industry events etc.
If you put all of these tips together, you should be able to kickstart your job search on Twitter and uncover leads for jobs you might not have found anywhere else!