Twitter and Your Job Search: The Secrets to Harnessing this Tool for Maximum Success

If you’re not using Twitter for your job search, then you are missing out on one of the most valuable and fastest growing internet tools available to you. It is easy to learn and it is free! 

According to a recent survey by Jobvite.com, 80% of employers use or are planning to use social networking to find and attract candidates. Hiring managers, human resources staffers and recruiters covering every industry, profession and geographic area are using or plan to use Twitter. And, you want to be found! 

Marci Reynolds is the CEO of J2B Marketing, a “Job Seeker 2 Business”™ Internet Marketing & Online Copywriting Services Firm based in Boston, MA and the author of the new ebook, “How To Use Twitter For Your Job Search.” In this informative session, Marci will cover the three, most frequently asked questions from job seekers about Twitter, which are:

• Do I have to use Twitter? Why? How will it benefit my job search?
• Who should I follow?
• What should I Tweet about?

In addition, she will cover these bonus areas…

• How to use Twitter as a job board
• How to find expert job search advice on Twitter
• How to network within the Twitter community for your job search
• Quick overview of Twitter tools 

This call is ONLY for Career Mastermind Group members.  Not a member yet? Join now to access this call (as well as the archived calls and training materials) with Kevin’s special F.R.E.E. 1 month Membership trial.

By joining you also get access to past SME Calls (Ilona Vanderwoude on Resumes, Chuck Csizmar on Compensation Negotiation, Wendy Weiss on Cold Calling Hiring Managers, Katherine Moody on Networking, Lorena Stanley on Interviewing and numerous Q&A calls with Kevin) plus everything else the program has to offer.  Learn more about the Mastermind Program and take advantage of a one month F.R.E.E. trial.

When you first join Twitter, one of the challenges you may experience  is trying to determine who you should follow to maximize the success of your job search. This blog post will discuss the goals, the seven categories and the “how to” of who to follow on Twitter for your job search.

What are your job search Twitter follow strategy goals? By following the right mix of Twitter users, you will reap many job search benefits; It will help you stay current with industry knowledge and trends. You will get access to up to the minute information about and connect directly with leaders at the companies you may want to work for. You will get expert job search advice and links to helpful tips and articles. You will get access to real time job postings and recruiters that specialize in the jobs you are interested in. And, it opens up another audience for networking.

Ultimately, you have the ability to fast track your job search by increasing your knowledge, skills and targeted connections via Twitter.

There are seven specific categories of Twitter users that I recommend you follow on Twitter to maximize your job search success:

1. Experts, Top Bloggers & Thought Leaders:  For example: David Meerman Scott @dmscott is a well known expert in Social Media Marketing, Jill Konrath @jillkonrath is a well known expert in Sales and Guy Kawaski @guykawaski is well known for his technology and entrepeneurial advice.
2. Industry News Alerts & Industry Magazines: For example, technologists may want to follow CIO Magazine and fitness professionals may want to follow Fitness Magazine.  (Check out this Magazine list on Twellow.)
3. Recruiters: There are thousands of recruiters on Twitter, some working for specific companies and many working for independent staffing firms. For example, Peggy McFee, aka @salesrecruiter, is considered the “medical sales recruiter” and Harry Joiner, aka @ecommercejobs is an (you guessed it) ecommerce jobs recruiter.
4. Job Boards: Every major job board, ex. Monster, Careerbuilder and many niche boards, ex. GreenJobs, Tweet on Twitter. Their content includes a mix of job search advice, info about events and specific job postings.
5. Career Coaches: It’s amazing how much job search advice you can find on Twitter on topics that include interviewing, resumes, social media, career fairs, personal branding and much more. Some of the most popular career experts include: Alison Doyle from About.com, Susan Joyce of job-hunt.org and JT O’Donnel, founder of CareerRealism.com and, of course, Kevin Kermes, founder of Build the Career You Deserve.
6. Alumni Associations: Most alumni associations have a presence on Twitter and provide a conduit to learn about networking and career related events, and may give you direct access to other Alumni in your area. Your Alma mater wants to help in your job search success.
7. Companies: Hand picked by you- these may include companies you want to work for, Senior Leaders within a company you want to learn more about, ex. CEO or CMO, or even competitors of companies you’re targeting.

How do you find all these Twitter users? There are several different options: Leverage the Twitter “Find People” search function. Use Twitter search and enter job search related hashtags including #career, #jobs, #interview. (Click here to learn more about Hashtags.) Use directories like TweepSearch and Twellow. Use Twitter “who to follow” lists posted on TweepML and Twibes. And, you can Google “Top Twitter users to follow for XX” and insert the topic of your choice. Many bloggers have posted their recommendations for who to follow.

To make this process even easier for job seekers, J2B Marketing did extensive research on items 1 through 5 above and has created a series of Twitter Follower lists on  TweepML.  To learn more, simply click on the link next to the list description.

Marketing Job Search Follow List

Jump start your marketing job search on Twitter by following this powerful mix of Marketing Recruiters, Marketing Industry Thought Leaders, Job Search & Branding Experts & Online Job Boards.

Sales Job Search Follow List

Jump start your sales job search on Twitter by following this powerful mix of Sales Recruiters, Sales Industry Gurus, Sales Trainers, Job Search & Branding Experts & Online Job Boards.

Green Job Search | Clean Tech Job Search Follow List

Jump start your Green job search on Twitter by following this powerful mix of Green Recruiters, Green News Tweets, Green Experts, Green Job Tweets, Career Experts & Online Job Boards. (Sustainable Energy, Clean Tech )

IT Job Search- Technology Job Search Follow List

Jump start your Technology job search on Twitter by following this powerful mix of Tech Recruiters, Technology Thought Leaders, Tech Magazines, Job Search & Branding Experts & Online Job Boards.

Want to learn more?  Marci is not only this week’s guest blogger, but my Subject Matter Expert (SME) Webinar for the Career Mastermind Group on January 19th.  Her topic – “Twitter and Your Job Search: The Secrets to Harnessing this Tool for Maximum Success”  Read more about how you can join this call and the Mastermind Group for free.

Marci Reynolds is the CEO of J2B Marketing, a “Job Seeker 2 Business”™ Internet Marketing & Online Copywriting Services Firm based in Boston, MA. She is also the author of the new ebook, “How To Use Twitter For Your Job Search” and the “social media for job search” expert blogger on the award winning website Job-Hunt.org. Previously, Marci was the VP, North America Sales Operations at Monster.com, the leading online careers website. Learn more at www.j2bmarketing.com, on Twitter @j2bmarketing.

There are many ways that using Twitter can help job seekers with their job search strategy and online branding. I will cover five in today’s blog post.

It’s Not Just A LinkedIn World

I recently surveyed job seekers in the Massachusetts area about their online presence and found that while most job seekers had set up a LinkedIn profile, very few were using Twitter.

As you probably know, Twitter is one of the most popular, social networking websites on the internet and more than 20 million people visit Twitter every month.

These visitors include hiring managers, human resources staffers and recruiters that work for the companies that you want to work for. So,  I recommend that every Job Seeker uses Twitter. Here are some specifics..

1) Using Twitter can expand and reinforce your online brand

By writing a compelling, keyword rich profile AND publishing high quality, targeted Tweets you will promote and demonstrate your skills, abilities, knowledge… and differentiate yourself from the competition. (FYI- Here’s more info on a Tweet Content Strategy for your job search.)

2)  Your profile and your tweets can help with search engine optimization

Similar to how Google indexes your LinkedIn profile and Blogs, Google also indexes your Twitter profile and your Tweets.

If someone searches for you via Google or other search engines, your Twitter activity will be displayed in search results.  This helps recruiters and hiring managers find out more about you.

3) You can find Real Time job postings on Twitter

Twitter now serves as a mini job board and recruiters and hiring managers across the globe are posting jobs there.  (Similar to postings on Monster, Careerbuilder or Dice.) For example, if you go to the Twitter search box and type in VP Sales Boston, you will find Tweets specific to VP Sales jobs in Boston.

• Search for the roles you are interested in
• Find the relevant Tweets
• Then follow the links provided to learn more about the open positions
• Check out a new Twitter App: http://www.twitterjobsearch.com/

You can also find and follow recruiters in your geographic area and industry, to automatically get their Tweets- real time.

4) You can find great job search advice on Twitter

There are hundreds of Career Experts who continually provide advice and links to job search resources on Twitter.

The quickest way to find these experts is to use the Twitter Search function and enter the hashtag #jobsearch, #career or #jobseeker. You will see page after page of posts from career gurus that you may find very helpful… and users that you may want to follow on a regular basis.  (You may want to read “The top 100 job search hashtags list“, compiled by Career Rocketeer.)

Here are a few of J2B’s favorites: @alisondoyle, @megguiseppi, @jobhuntorg and, of course, @kevinkermes!

5) You can directly connect with companies and people that you may want to work for, through your Twitter follower strategy

• Use the Find People, Twitter Search or tools like Tweepsearch to find them
• Follow them
• Read their Tweets, Read their blogs and learn more about them.
• Knowledge is power

If you eventually get an interview with one of the companies that you are following, you will be much more prepared for the discussions.

And.. they may start following you and perhaps it will be the start of an online relationship- that could lead to more.

Want to learn more?  Marci is not only this week’s guest blogger, but my Subject Matter Expert (SME) Webinar for the Career Mastermind Group on January 19th.  Her topic – “Twitter and Your Job Search: The Secrets to Harnessing this Tool for Maximum Success”  Read more about how you can join this call and the Mastermind Group for free.

Marci Reynolds is the CEO of J2B Marketing, a “Job Seeker 2 Business”™ Internet Marketing & Online Copywriting Services Firm based in Boston, MA. She is also the author of the new ebook, “How To Use Twitter For Your Job Search” and the “social media for job search” expert blogger on the award winning website Job-Hunt.org. Previously, Marci was the VP, North America Sales Operations at Monster.com, the leading online careers website. Learn more at www.j2bmarketing.com, on Twitter @j2bmarketing.