Twitter bio - what to put in
Key:
- Twitterer is a user of Twitter
- Tweet is a blog post by a Twitterer
Often job searching is seen as having to go out and find companies and agencies with openings. However in the advancing use of social media people get recruiters and headhunters to come to them.
In your bio it would bode well to list, bullet point your area(s) of expertise and 'for hire' as one of your keywords. A tech savvy recruiter would then do a search on a biography with those key words identifying your niche, availability and possibly see what you are tweeting about, and even in some cases, contact you directly either by direct messaging or by email if links are provided to a main contact website.
For some people who wish to be a tad more discreet then it is advisable to just have your web address, LinkedIn profile or other online bio which could hint or infer at you being available for hire.
Raise your profile through Twitter - hashtags
One of the other ways of to raise your profile is to demonstrate your expertise. Many Twitterers will post useful statements, observations and links with a hashtag at the end. For example one of my popular tweets was: 'leadership is dead if no one is there to follow.#leadership'. This post created a number of followers who were interested in leadership.
Now imagine if you are jobhunting and you post a statement demonstrating your expertise, e.g. gourney #nurses, negotiation techniques #sales, then when people do a search your historic or real time post will show up if those terms have been included in the search.
This simple action can then lead to you gaining a reputation in your field and if it is linked to a blog post or observation elsewhere could lead to you being possibly headhunted.
How to search for a job through Twitter
Ok putting the geek hat on for a moment there are a number of ways that people can search directly through Twitter or any of the search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing for work. For example if you typed #jobs, #jobsearch or #hiring into the Twitter search engine, a list of jobs would appear. You could be even more specific and type in things like #hr + jobs, #greenjobs, #executive, #hotjobs or #tweetmyjobs or any other hash tags specific to your industry. One would need to refine such searches to a specific location or industry but even in tough times like these you would be surprised by the amount of jobs for hire out there.
You could also save these searches and go back to them or favourite some of the tweets that get your attention in case you forget them. A very useful addition is to highlight job boards or recruiters and add them to lists.
One other thing that I have found useful when advising clients about using Twitter is to use it hand-in-hand with search boards. For example imagine you saw a job posting for a firm you wanted to work for. A simple search of Twitter could possibly identify people who work for the company. You could follow them and get some insight from their company especially if there are hiring managers or tweeting on behalf of the company. I would advise caution of direct messaging asking for advice though. Discretion and subtlety are the bywords.
Refererrals through Twitter
One more great tool that could be used on Twitter is asking for referrals. When you are looking for work it could be great to ask those in your network for advice or contacts. As part of the job hunting campaign a gentle reminder to your colleagues that you are still looking for work and complimenting that with some insightful posts on the areas of your expertise show both keeness and a willingness to put yourself out there.
Obviously it depends on whether you are actively or passively looking for work as to how explicit you want to be about referrals but a simple post (you only have 140 characters anyway) with your intent speaks volumes. Often it could be people who are following you who could pick up on this and provide great referrals as well as those who know you well.
Twitter tools
Here are some tools that are specifically focused on helping job hunters to find work through twitter and they include the following:
- TwitterJobSearch
- Twitter Job Finder - Jobs advertised on Twitter in the last 7 days
- Twitter JobCast - local job searches
- JobMotel - Job board
- Workhound - a job board with twitter listings included
You could get job alerts as they arise from tools like TweetMyJob, TwitterHawk and TweetBeep.
Whatever work you are looking for the power of Twitter as part of your job hunting arsenal should never be underestimated. While it can be time disruptive if not managed properly the Benefits far outweigh the cons. Happy Twittering.