"Why should I care what you had for lunch?"

You shouldn’t, but the mini blog, Twitter, with its tiny tweets (140 character limit), can do a lot more than blather on about inconsequential events. Twitter can establish you as a player in your field, either as a thought leader or as an involved contributor. In fact, in my opinion, Twitter eats Facebook’s lunch in terms of job search.

Twitter allows you to search for the content that’s relevant to your industry and/or function as well as to search for jobs, recruiters, and job search advice. You can follow just a few tweeters or thousands to find out what’s happening. People will ask permission to follow you.

Although you just have 140 characters, you will have the opportunity to communicate valuable information by leveraging the links within your tweets. You can link to online articles, blog postings, and other sites that you think would be useful to your followers.

Recruiters and hiring managers watch Twitter. You want to be sure your participation is professional in content, because anything that is in poor taste (!) can rule you out, just as a consistently professional brand can rule you in.

If you want to proactively search for jobs advertised on Twitter, you can do that. You can also go to websites that aggregate job openings found on Twitter. Sample tweet: “Go to www.TwitterJobSearch.com, www.twithire.com, or www.tweetmyjobs.com to see if there is a job for you.”

Make Twitter part of your daily diet to build your brand and find job leads.

Comments

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Good reason to use Twitter for job search. I'd recommend folks follow @jobangels as well as any of the local agencies in your town that tweet jobs.

Also, Twitter is only 140 characters, not 160 as you mentioned, so it's EVEN FASTER :)

Happy Tweeting,
@philgerb

[Abir M.]

I honestly still do not used twitter as it is not so popular in the area I work in, MENA. I am really curious about this and have just seen twitterjobs. Sweet!

[Marie Adams]

While some people still use Twitter to (sadly) let us know what they had for lunch or how bad their drive to work was, the tool has developed into something much more than a status update. Like you said, recruiters are watching and want to know what your personal brand looks like.

Using Twitter to voice complaints about how bad your sandwich at lunch was, or worse, how much you dislike your job, won't help you out very much the next time you're looking for a new opportunity. Be useful, not just another voice in the crowd.

[jay hofmeister]

Be informational, and yes always professional. Great post!

Jay Hofmeister
www.careerpier.com

[Louise Fletcher]

Marie Adams, my favorite tweets recently were the people who got so angry about American Idol that they yelled and cursed via Twitter. First, you just don't look good using the f word online, and second you don't look good getting quite that invested in a TV talent show!

[Account Deleted]

There's a funny cartoon in the New Yorker that has a man up against the wall about to be executed by firing squad and one soldier holds out a PDA or iPod and says "one last tweet?"

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