Twitter job search tips and tools

Can Twitter help you find a job?

Yes.

But only if you use it right.

It can be a huge challenge sorting the wheat from the chaff on Twitter, where millions of updates appear daily, only a few of which contain useful job-search information.

Let's start at the beginning, then explore two case studies.

Twitter is the micro-blogging service that lets users send updates ("tweets") of 140 characters or less to people in their network. You can follow the updates of any other Twitter member with one click.

When it comes to meeting hiring managers, Twitter is like a cocktail party, according to Mary Lower, President at Sterling Cross Communications, in Maple Grove, Minn. (sterlingcrossgroup.com). "Twitter lets you reach employers where they have their guard down. You can use it to start conversations that you finish later."

How was Jones hired? Through Twitter, of course.

"I met a woman at a political convention, followed her on Twitter, then looked through her followers for possible connections in PR, where I wanted an internship. I found Mary Lower, who works in PR in the Twin Cities," says Jones.

She exchanged tweets with Lower, which led to phone conversations, which led to an internship being created for Jones at Sterling Cross Communications.

Action Steps: If you're on Twitter, your user name ("handle") and profile picture are keys to making the best first impression, according to Lower. Her handle? @PRMoxie. At a glance, anyone searching a long list of profiles can see what she is about.

If you already have a Twitter user name, put extra effort into uploading a professional-looking picture to your profile, one that invites others to learn more about you. But no cleavage, please. (You laugh, but it's been done.)

One such service is TweetMyJOBS.com, based in Charlotte, N.C., which bills itself as a Twitter-based job board.

"It's free and lets job seekers search Twitter for openings by geographic area, industry, and job title," says Founder and President Gary Zukowski.

Paul Gilmore, from Lantana, Fla., used TweetMyJOBS to land a position as a Staffing Coordinator at Synerfac Technical Staffing, in December 2009.

"I was working a shorter term consulting project, when I found the posting for Synerfac on TweetMyJOBS. After sending my resume in response, I had a series of phone and in-person interviews, and got a job offer in less than two weeks," he says.

Action Steps: Although I'm a firm believer that you should spend no more than 20% of your time looking for advertised job openings online (the remaining 80% should be spent meeting people offline), tools like TweetMyJOBS, JobShouts, and Tweetajob can automate the process and save you time. So consider using one or more of them.

This means you should combine old school methods (offline networking among them) with the most-effective Internet-based tools.

Should Twitter be among the tools in your job-search kit?

Yes.

Try it, ration your time carefully, track your results, and judge for yourself.