Twitter can be a great tool to promote yourself without a huge time commitment - both before and after job search
Twitter is another great tool in the toolbox to promote your qualifications both during and after job search. For those working, my philosophy is “We are all candidates for new jobs; it’s just a matter of when”. Therefore, it never hurts to start promoting yourself.
The intent is to have potential employers and networking contacts read your past tweets (not as they happen).
As you are not concerned about a steady stream of Tweets to satisfy a following (leave that to the celebrity crowd), focus on developing a set of Tweets that are an expansion of your pitch, marketing plan and resume.
Thoughts on what to Tweet:
- Keep it professional, positive and apolitical
- Focus on your profession only, especially where you can give advice from personal experience
- Offer proof behind points made in your resume or pitch – lessons learned, practical advice, etc. will show you have experience, not just exposure.
- Show your cultural fit,
management style, etc. to add depth about who you are in addition to your experiences - If you have skills that cannot be easily trained, put those in your tweets, as employers will need to hire someone with them
- Tweet on issues/experiences that will likely be raised in an interview/networking
- Include URLs that link to files/examples of your work.
- Before starting to Tweet. Write your first 50 tweets. People will go to your profile and review your tweets – so best to have them organized versus random thoughts. So tweet with purpose (I’d wager no one has ever told you that before).
- Retweet other good thoughts from people you follow – recognizing good content is as valuable as giving it
- Manage who you follow and who follows you (e.g. Blocking anyone who has ‘Check out my hot profile’ is a good tip)
Put your Twitter ID on your business cards (along the URLs for personal blogs, LinkedIn profile, etc.) – so people know you’re tweeting.
If you commit to using Twitter, set aside 20 – 30 minutes a week, to post new content (whether your own or Retweets), find people to follow and manage your followers.
Good luck today!
Mark Richards