Guest Guru: Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools, Part Two: Twitter

Organizing a Job Hunt with Social Media Tools, Part Two: Twitter

By Alicia Wells, a public relations professional

This is part two of a three-part series on organizing a job hunt with social media tools. It can be said that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. Searching the job boards, sending out resumes and networking can take up a lot of time and quickly overcome the job hunter. Social media tools are a great way to supplement a job search and grow one’s network, but even just maintaining these resources can become a burden. Instead of letting them get the best of you, this series will provide tips for organizing a job hunt with social media tools.

Twitter is another great tool to grow your personal network during a job hunt, but can quickly get out of control and become ineffective if used the wrong way (i.e. just to follow celebrities and friends). To keep your activity on this network organized and effective, here are a few tips:

Find people to follow by looking at the “lists” of a few relevant Tweeters. Lists allow you to organize those that you follow into categories- for example friends, co-workers, and other individuals in your industry. If you find one person in your industry you’d like to follow, chances are their profile will have a list of other people they follow within that industry. You can also find people to follow through WeFollow.com– a free service that allows individuals to register in a categorized directory. Examples of categories on this site include technology, advertising, education and others.

Hiring managers, recruiters and HR professionals are on Twitter. They not only discuss the industries they work in and share job hunting tips, but oftentimes they will post job openings at their companies and others that they know are hiring. Do a Twitter Search for #HR, #Recruiting or #Jobs and you’ll see what I mean. This is a good list of Twitter accounts that share job openings, but I also recommend finding and connecting with hiring managers on your own organically (meaning, spending some time on Twitter and seeing who’s talking to whom about what).

As you start to follow people, separate them into categorized lists that will help you stay on top of who is who, for example: industry influentials, hiring managers/HR, job hunting experts, and current or former colleagues.

Start reading and sharing relevant news and opinions, and joining in on the conversations taking place on Twitter. While Twitter is not guaranteed to find you a job, it’s a great relationship building tool. If you interview with someone you’ve conversed with on Twitter, chances are you’ll stick out in their minds when it comes time to make a hiring decision.

Alicia Wells is a public relations professional and helps hire soon-to-be and recent graduates for a mid-sized PR agency. She writes a blog about entry-level PR and job hunting, and can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.