Make Your Tweets Power Your Job Search

by Rosa E. Vargas


What do you tweet in order to get closer to an actual job lead?
There are many steps you can take to job search via Twitter but in this blog post I will focus on your tweets’ content because a great tweet can propel you closer to a job — a bad tweet can help you lose the job you currently have…AND QUICKLY!

Micro Blogging as Part of Your Job Search Toolkit

Project and strengthen your professionalism, brand, and expertise. If you provide valuable and spot-on content, you will gain influential followers. If your Twitter “followers” find your content useful and insightful, they may recommend others follow you or better yet (RT) re-tweet you, helping you expand your reach and networking possibilities.

Don’t Tweet Anything You Wouldn’t Say to Your Future Boss

For some odd reason people share more than they should via their tweets. You should be even more cautious because what goes online stays online, forever! Be tactful and remember employers will Google you!

Stay on Topic and Provide Useful Content

Say you are seeking employment as a Pediatric RN, stay on that subject. Tweet about an article you wrote regarding health care, your thoughts on excellent pediatric care, provide advice, and share links to interesting on-topic blog posts. You may even tweet a job lead you did not pursue. Don’t. Please. Don’t start tweeting about…say…your trip to the grocery store or about your romantic relationships. (I know the little Twitter box request “What’s happening” but don’t literally answer that!) Sure, engage in conversation but at all times be cognizant of what you’re discussing.

Incorporate Keywords into Your Tweets

Include jargon/keywords specific to your target industry. Your tweets will become pages on the Internet and so be sure to optimize your job search tweets for the web. What are keywords? Keywords are industry-specific nouns and noun phrases such as tech skills and job titles. However, perhaps the most imperative reason for incorporating keywords in your tweet is so…your tweets help shape or fortify your expertise!

Hash Tags

Adding a hash tag (#) to your industry keyword (e.g.,  #CEO, #sourcing manager, etc.) will help professionals within your industry find you when they conduct an on-topic search.
Sample Keywords and Hash Tags in Tweets:
#Nursing advice: age-appropriate bedside care is even more important when dealing with #pediatric patients.
#Sales #management: a client-focused presentation is the key in closing deals in a tough economy.
#Webdesign: beautiful layouts that are also search engine friendly are essential for great #SEO.
You should aim to keep tweets even shorter than the allowed 140 characters in order to encourage re-tweets (RTs). If someone does not have to edit your tweet in order to re-tweet it, then that person is more likely to! More RTs means more people will learn you are job searching.

Re-tweets Brand You, Too - More tips and complete article