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Using Twitter to Find a Job

Posted on July 7, 2009 by BioJobBlogger

Amber Johnson at Job Profiles suggested that BioJobBlog readers might be interested in this post about Twitter and job searches. While I can't personally speak to the utility of using Twitter as a job search tool, it certainly can't hurt to give it a try in today's challenging economy.

100 Useful Twitter Tools and Feeds for Your Job Search

If you're searching for a job, surely you've learned about the extensive amount of tools available online to help you land your perfect position. But did you know that Twitter is the hottest job search tool out there today? It's true -- employers, recruiters, and job search sites are flocking to the service. Check out this list to find tools and feeds on Twitter that can be a great help to your job search.

Search

Use these tools to search for the jobs being posted on Twitter.

TwitterJobSearch: With TwitterJobSearch, you'll be able to find tweets about jobs posted on Twitter.
TwitterTroll: TwitterTroll is a really useful real-time Twitter search engine.
Twitter Job Finder: Find fresh jobs on Twitter from the last 7 days on Twitter Job Finder.
Tweet Scan: Perform searches and register for email alerts using Tweet Scan.
TwitterJobCast: TwitterJobCasts' local job search will help you see who is hiring on Twitter in your area.
NearByTweets: You can search Twitter by keyword and location with NearByTweets.
TwitHire: This Twitter-based job board broadcasts a variety of listings.
JobMotel: Search for Twitter web developer jobs on this site.

Connections

With these tools, you'll be able to find and manage connections with others on Twitter.

TwitterMind: With TwitterMind, you can seek out Twitter users from the companies you'd like to work for and ask them for referrals.
Twellow: Use Twellow to identify the leaders you should connect with in your industry or community.
Workhound: Find a directory of the best Twitter job feeds on Workhound.
Just Tweet It: Find other Twitter users with similar interests on Just Tweet It.
TwitDir: Find some of the top Twitter users in this Twitter directory.
Twubble: Twubble will help you find more people to follow, reflecting on who your followers are following.
Twollo: With Twollo, you'll be able to automatically follow users with similar interests to yours.
FriendOrFollow: Find people you need to ditch, or followers you've overlooked with FriendOrFollow.
Find People: With Twitter's Find People tool, you can find or invite the people in your email address books to join you on Twitter.
Tweepsearch: Search Twitter bios and find recruiters using this tool.

Organization

Stay organized in your Twitter job search with these tools.

TweetDeck: Use TweetDeck to categorize your Twitter feeds, separating contacts with job listing feeds, and more.
Twuffer: Use Twuffer to compose and schedule future tweets.

Flock O'Tweets: This Twitter tool allows you to get feeds of multiple Twitter users sent to you by RSS.
Tweepler: Organize your followers and friends with the help of this app.
Splitweet: If you're using separate Twitter accounts for different functions, Splitweet can help you out.
Twit.io: Twit.io offers a social micro database that works as a solution to list jobs and more.
twtjobs: twtjobs is a simple career manager Twitter app.

Monitoring & Research

Stay on top of job alerts with the help of these tools.

TweetBeep: Set up alerts to find out about jobs as soon as they're tweeted with the help of TweetBeep.
TweetMyJobs: Subscribe to Twitter channels for jobs types and major cities, then get instant notification of new jobs on Twitter from TweetMyJobs.
TwitterHawk: Find people talking on Twitter about your chosen topic and location using TwitterHawk.
Twilert: Use this Twitter application to get regular email updates about tweets containing your brand, name, keyword, and more.
Twitter Job Alerts: Get direct messages sent to your Twitter account that match your CareerBuilder searches by setting up alerts with Twitter Job Alerts.
ConnectTweet: Learn about what's going on inside companies using ConnectTweet.
Monitter: Monitter can be used to find information about companies and find conversations about them.
Tweet Tag: Browse popular topics on Twitter and join in the conversation with Tweet Tag.

Your Message

Make the most of your Tweets by using these tools.

VisualCV: Link your online resume created on VisualCV on your Twitter bio.
PingVine: Use PingVine's service to automatically post an RSS feed from your blog to Twitter.
HashDictionary: Become a part of a group by using their hashtag. You can find the most popular and usable ones on HashDictionary.
HelloTXT: Make the most of your tweets by simulcasting them to Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

Advice & Professionals

Learn all about job searching on Twitter and beyond from these professionals and advice feeds.

@exectweets: @exectweets will help you find and follow business executives on Twitter.
@cbsalary: @cbsalary shares news and tools for job seekers who want to learn about salaries.
@jobsearchnews: Here you'll find tweets full of the latest job search news.
@JobAngels: The guardian angels on @jobangels can help you find a job, and assist you when you help others find a job as well.
@PinkSlipParty09: Network with Pink Slip Party to help others find jobs, and find one for yourself as well.
@theonlinebeat: Use @theonlinebeat as a meta-engine for finding a job on Twitter.
@careertips: Get tips on your career with the help of Career Opportunities Broadcast.
@workerswork: @workerswork shares career, job, and work related news.
@JobHuntOrg: Susan Joyce is the owner of an award winning employment portal, Job-Hunt.org.
@jobwisdom: Get tips and advice for job hunting on @jobwisdom.
@PRjobs: Learn about Public Relations recruiting from Lindsay Olson.
@MonsterCareers: Get career advice and discussions from Monster.com.
@SimplyHired: Simply Hired works to make your job search simple and effective.
@CAREERALISM: Get advice from top career experts and be alerted about opportunities through @CAREEREALISM.
@snagajob: Get help with your part time or hourly job search from @snagajob.
@jobhunting: Jim Stroud shares happy news from the job market.
@ResumeBear: Follow @ResumeBear to learn how you can advance your career and improve your resume.
@jobnob: Learn about real salaries and find a job with Jobnob.
@jobshouts: Jobshouts is a great tool for finding a job through social media.
@workhappynow: @workhappynow encourages people to be happier with their work.
@BrazenCareerist: Get inspired to define your career and control your life by @BrazenCareerist.
@microjobs: @microjobs works to connect people with new opportunities on Twitter.
@applicants: @applicants shares information about jobs, freelancing, and more.
@cheezhead: Joel Cheesman stays on top of Internet recruiting here.
@tferriss: Tim Ferriss can teach you about loving your work more.
@twtjobs: Use @twtjobs, a simple Twitter career management app.
@CBforJobSeekers: Follow CareerBuilder's top job search experts here.

Job Listing Feeds

These feeds offer a direct line to job postings on Twitter.

@Elance_Jobs: Find out about the latest featured jobs on Elance.com here.
@freelance_jobs: Learn about fresh freelance jobs straight from @freelance_jobs.
@doscareers: @doscareers lists careers in Foreign Affairs.
@rocketjobs: Follow @rocketjobs to get updates about the best jobs in Ireland.
@thejobsguy: Ken Horst shares online recruiting and job search resources as well as new postings every day.
@hiremymom: @hiremymom works to connect at-home professionals with jobs and projects.
@RecruitDirect: Find direct jobs in Ireland on this Twitter account.
@HRCrossing: Check out @HRCrossing for the latest in HR jobs.
@media_pros: Find out about jobs for media professionals through @media_pros.
@joblister: Find work throughout the US and Canada from @joblister.
@myfirstpaycheck: Check out @myfirstpaycheck to find listings, resources, and more for teen job seekers.
@jobsitejobs: @jobsitejobs will send you personal job tweets to help you find work.
@travelnursejob: Follow @travelnursejob to learn about travel nursing opportunities throughout the US.
@37jobs: Get listings from the 37signals job board on @37jobs.
@elance: Learn about freelance opportunities through @elance.
@web20jobs: Check out @web20jobs for a real time tracker of Web 2.0 jobs.
@authenticjobs: Learn about savvy, authentic jobs available through @authenticjobs.
@journalism_jobs: @journalism_jobs will alert you to jobs in journalism, editorial, PR, and media sales.
@twitjobsearch: @twitjobsearch is the first semantic job search engine for Twitter.
@euractivjobsite: Follow the EurActiv JobSite to get an EU job of the day.
@execSearches: @execSearches connects talent with perfect positions.
@odesk: Follow @oDesk to be a part of the marketplace for online workteams.
@socialmediajob: Find your social media job on social media through @socialmediajob.
@newretailjobs: Get the hottest retail job opening leads every 30 minutes from major cities through @newretailjobs.
@juicyjobs: With @juicyjobs, you'll learn about green jobs in the UK.
@execjobs: ExecJobs finds six figure jobs for executives on Twitter.
@indeed: @indeed is a job search engine that aggregates all of the most important job sites.
@jobsearch: Emurse's Twitter feed offers listings, advice, and more.
@manpower: Find out what Manpower is recruiting for on this feed.
@Joblighted: @Joblighted offers a feed of Twitter tech jobs.
@publishingjobs: This feed will alert you to jobs in publishing available on Twitter.
@startuphire: @StartUpHire will alert you to jobs available at startups backed with venture capital.
@seojobs: Check out @seojobs to learn about SEO/SEM jobs available in the US.
@WorkInSports: Make your passion your career by finding a job through @WorkInSports.
@JobWire: Follow @JobWire to learn about the best jobs in Australia.
@krop_jobs: @krop_jobs updates on the latest creative and tech jobs.
@andywergedal PM jobs in Northern California

12 Solid Tips To Enhance Your Twitter Reputation

12 Solid Tips To Enhance Your Twitter Reputation: "

twitter Whether you are a freelancer, employee, professional, or a business, it is becoming increasingly important to manage your Twitter reputation. In this article, let us see what is meant by reputation in the world of Twitter, and how you can use free Twitter tools manage and enhance your reputation.

What Is Your Twitter Reputation?

Can your reputation be measured? Yes, there are many services that claim to do that using different methods. You can check your reputation on free Twitter tools like Twitterank, Twitter Grader, Twitterholic, Twinfluence, Twitalyzer, and Klout. There is no single model that defines Twitter reputation, and this guide tries to combine all the different approaches used by such tools and suggested by experts.

free twitter tools

Your Twitter reputation is important because:

It may well be the first impression you make on the social web.
Everything on Twitter is public (assuming you don’t protect your updates, which is 90% of Twitterers). This means your colleagues, current employer or potential recruiter can always see your Twitter profile and your tweets.
Reputation will play an increasingly important role in search rankings. Already, third-party Twitter search engines like Topsy and Tweefind incorporate ranking in their search results, and Twitter itself is also on the way to ranking search results.

Convinced? Let’s get started.

1. Your Profile

Use your real name, a (decent) profile picture, a meaningful bio, and a link to your website, blog, or social profile. If you have a custom background on your profile page, people are more likely to follow you back.

2. Follow Authentic People

Don’t engage in any “get hundreds of followers quickly” schemes. Follow people you’re already friends with on other social networks. Then grow your Twitterverse as you get comfortable. Use our previously covered 9 sites and 4 ways to find Twitter friends based on geography and common interests.

I use the free Twitter tool Topify to get informative emails when someone follows me. It shows useful information like level of engagement, percentage of tweets containing links, and recent tweets to help decide whether to follow back.

free twitter tools

3. Manage Your Followers and Friends

The days of “higher the number of followers, higher your reputation” are becoming a thing of the past, thanks to paid services that allow buying followers. Think of your reputation if there were half-naked women showing up as your followers!

Block suspicious accounts, spammers and bots from following you. I have recently started using Tweet Blocker to filter and clean my followers list and it works like a charm. Another service I find indispensable is Twerp Scan, which shows me a list of my contacts along with details of their number of follows, followers, ratio, etc. You can easily sort the list to weed out nasty spammers and indecent folks right within the app.

4. Get ReTweeted

The best way to increase your reach and influence on Twitter is to get retweeted. Statistical studies of retweets have found that links, quotes, trending topics, breaking news, questions, and creative/novel tweets are more likely to get retweeted. Shrink your tweet and reduce its length to around 100-110 characters so that it becomes easier for others to retweet without editing.

5. Mix Your Tweet Types

Do not restrict yourself to tweeting out informative links or indulging in pointless babble. Use a mix of tweets that are status updates, links, retweets, questions, and self-promotions for your blog posts.

6. Spread Your Tweets Over the Day

Services such as Tweet Stats let you see how your tweets are distributed through the day. Don’t send out a large number of tweets in short time spans and then disappear. Distribute your tweeting activity evenly through the day, using planned “Twitter-breaks” from your work. If you are going to be offline for a considerable amount of time, let your followers know.

twitter applications

7. Be Responsive and Engage in Conversation

Tools like Topify and Mr. Tweet now show your level of engagement. This influences whether people using such tools will follow you back.

Reply to others’ tweets using @Replies. Answer all @Replies and Direct Messages sent to you. Let people see that you don’t use Twitter simply to promote your links. Try to answer people’s questions and if you can’t, be a helping hand by retweeting them.

8. Don’t Misuse Hashtags

A UK furniture firm suffered a huge blow to their reputation on Twitter as they sent out marketing messages using #hashtags that were meant for completely unrelated topics. The Twitter community uses #hashtags for tracking specific topics they are interested in, so stick to conventions.

9. Avoid Many Twitter IDs from a Single IP Address

Some experts have proposed that multiple Twitter IDs created from the same IP address should have a lower Twitter rank in searches. This is a counter measure against spammers and bots who abuse Twitter accounts. If for whatever reason, you need to create a large number of legitimate Twitter accounts, don’t do it from the same computer.

10. Use DMs with Discretion

If I get automated DMs after I follow someone, I unfollow them. The same with people who play mafia-style Twitter games and send me invites to play via DMs.

Do not send Direct Messages to people you’ve recently started being friends with on Twitter. Most people consider DMs to be private messages that they share only with good friends. Use @Replies wherever possible, unless you want to discuss a sensitive issue that warrants a DM.

11 Use Recommendations

Recommendations are a great way to discover and be discovered. The most popular method on Twitter is the #FollowFriday hash tag. Like everything else in social media, the more you give, the more you get, so if you like this method, use it to give recommendations to others.

twitter applications

A better recommendation engine is Mr. Tweet, which is getting popular. It gives me decent recommendations since I joined, along with useful statistics.

12. Monitor Your Brand

If you own a brand name, create a search to monitor for all mentions of your brand. Most popular Twitter clients let you create saved searches, some like Seesmic Web even let you sync your saved searches with those on Twitter’s website.

Will these techniques help you enhance your Twitter reputation? Have any other suggestions? Do let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

How to Use Twitter Lists for Job Search

Original Post: Here

Learn how Lists make job searching with Twitter so much easier.

If you’re new to Twitter Lists, first read my handy guide How To Best Use Twitter Lists and then come back here.

In this article you’ll find:

Job Search Benefits of Twitter Lists

You’ll be better organized

Use Lists to categorize the Twitter users that you follow specifically for job search purposes and keep them separate from the other users you follow.
Simplify your Twitter usage
By organizing your tweets into relevant Lists, you can better focus on getting things done such as following up on job listings and networking with people who might be able to help you get a job.

Find relevant Twitter users to follow

By seeing other people’s Lists, you can discover who other similar job seekers found helpful for their Twitter job searches.

Lists save you time

If someone else has already spent the effort to make a List relevant to your job search, why bother doing it again yourself?
Lists let you target companies without them knowing
If you create a Shadow List of companies you’re targeting, you can learn a lot about them without those companies having any idea that you’re there.
Lists can help build your personal brand

Spending the effort to make Lists is a good idea if the Lists you make are valuable to other people AND relevant to your personal brand, so that people remember you later when they need help from someone like you.
And that’s just one personal branding tip with Lists. This next section has so much more…

10 Ways Twitter Lists Can Build Your Personal Brand

By attracting influencers to List you
If experts in your industry List you as an expert too, that testimonial will do wonders for your personal brand.
By attracting many people to List you
If many people List you, as can be seen by the listed count on your Twitter profile, it’s probably because you are someone valuable to follow.
By attracting many people to List you the same way
If many people List you similarly and in a way related to your brand – which you can check using Listiti – other people will get the right impression of you just as they discover you on Lists.
By growing your Lists
If you attract enough followers to your Lists, you will become known as a quality List builder, which will bring more followers to your Lists, and so on. When people appreciate the value you give them with your Lists, they’re more likely to follow then and/or you directly.
By the kinds of Lists you build
Creating Lists related to a certain industry or profession is a clear way of associating yourself with them. As you’d expect, I have already built a number of Lists related to job search.
By how you describe the Lists you build
When you create a new List, clearly explain its purpose in the description. Also, if someone inspired you to create that List, thank them. Giving credit always leaves a good impression.
By who you List
Adding someone to your List increases the chance that they will visit your profile out of curiousity to see who is Listing them.
By who listens to your suggestions
Help other people improve their Lists- if you think that someone’s List could be better with an addition or two, tell them.
By who you thank for Listing you
People always appreciate sincere thanks, and it’s a simple, positive way to stand out.
By having an optimized Twitter profile
If you follow these personal branding tips, you will attract ever more people to your Twitter profile but unless they like what they find, they won’t follow you or your Lists.

10 Twitter Lists Best Practices for Job Seekers

Now that you understand all the benefits of Twitter List usage for your job search, let’s get to how you can do so effectively right from the start.
If you haven’t already, go back and see the general purpose Twitter Lists best practices I’ve already given you. Here I’ll focus on the best practices that are specifically important for job searching on Twitter:
Confidential job search? Keep all your job search-related Lists private
If you’re currently employed and are doing a confidential job search, keep your Lists out of sight. The main disadvantage here is that there are people who you will want to be aware that you’re following but who won’t know you’re there because you’re following them privately. However, the risk of having your confidential job search discovered by your current employer is too high otherwise.
Don’t overload yourself with Lists
Before Lists, Twitter was a confusing flow of information. Lists may let you filter what you need, but having too many Lists will just waste your time in a different way and you’ll find that in the end, you only use a few of your Lists. If you plan well from the start and use the List strategy I recommend below, you’ll avoid wasting all that time from the start.
Create and use a job search VIP List
This is a List of the job search-related Twitter users whose tweets you don’t want to miss, such as people you’re networking with or people you’re learning from about job search in general or about improving your skills in particular. Use this List as your default Twitter stream when you’re looking for a job.
Create a List of job feeds
Use my directory of 400+ Twitter job feeds to build a List of job feeds to follow. If you find feeds that are very relevant, you might want to add them to your VIP List but most feeds that are worth watching will still have tweets that aren’t relevant. Instead of having them pollute your VIP List, keep them on a separate List to browse daily.
Attract people to your network by Listing them
If people are watching the listed count on their Twitter profile (which shows how many Lists follow them) or using a service like Listiti to send alerts when they’ve been added to a List, they will know when you’ve added them to your List and they just might click through to discover who you are, especially if they like the name of the List you’ve put them on.
For example, if you added me to your List of “Best Job Search Experts Anywhere”, I’d certainly be tempted to see who tagged me that way. Although you can save time by following other people’s Lists, this is one reason to create your own Lists instead (although you can do both).
Browse the Lists created by the experts on your job search VIP List
This way you can discover relevant Lists to follow and even other people to add to your VIP List.
Create Value Lists
If you’re trying to build your personal brand and make a name for yourself in your industry, create at least one Value List to attract attention from people whose attention you’d like to attract i.e. people in your profession who might be able to lead you to your next job. For example, you could create and maintain a List of job feeds that are related to your profession or the place you live or you could make a List of influencers in your profession.
Have a List for learning
Whether to follow relevant news or experts sharing links, either follow or create a dedicated List for daily learning and improving your skills. It might be tempting to integrate this into your VIP List but only do that if you can avoid getting distracted during the hours where you should be job searching. Another reason to make this a separate List is because it would likely be a Value List for other people.
Target companies by Listing them
Confidential job search aside, whether you decide to make this a public or private List depends on a number of things. Building a relationship with a company doesn’t mean you need to put them on a public List because you can always follow them directly, which will draw less attention than Listing them. If you’re concerned about competing job seekers knowing who you’re targeting – which they could know using Listiti – just make a Shadow List. Or, for example if you’re participating in a competition sponsored by a company, you might specifically want them to know you’re following in which case you should not only List them publicly, which raises the odds that they will notice you.
Research companies by following their employee Lists
Following Twitter’s lead (pun intended), companies are creating lists of their employees, which will be a great way to build relationships with them and ask them questions about (hidden) job openings. Cross-reference with LinkedIn or Facebook to get a better idea of a List member’s background.

17 Kinds of Job Search Twitter Users to List (with example Lists!)

Use these suggestions for ideas of who to List, or just follow the recommended List if it’s a good match for you:

Relevant job feeds like those in Cris Janzen’s Job Postings List.
Recruiters who might be able to place you, like Mark Stelzner’s great-hr-recruiting-peeps List.
Job search experts like Jennifer McClure’s career-coaches-job-search List.
Career success experts like Lindsey Pollak’s career-workplace List.
Personal branding experts to inspire you like Mohammed Al-Taee’s Personal Branding List.
Organizations that offer internships or apprenticeships like my Cool Internships List.
Student organizations like globalquad’s Student Organizations List.
Alumni associations such as EtiquetteWise’s Alumni Associations List.
University or College Career Centers like Lindsey Pollak’s college career centers List.
Companies who are hiring like Susan P. Joyce’s Employers Recruiting List.
Companies you’re targeting like thesoursop’s Brands_Companies_Bricks List.
People at companies you’re targeting, like this List of Google Employees.
Most important bloggers in your industry like my Top Job Bloggers List.
Experts to learn from in your industry, like you might find by searching for your industry on Listorious.
Professional associations, clubs, guilds, leagues, etc. like RecruitingBlogs’ Community List.
Industry news sources
Networking groups

Follow the most pertinent of these Twitter users with your job search VIP List.

A Can’t Miss Twitter List Strategy for Job Seekers

To get the most out of Twitter Lists while doing the least amount of work, you will need:

1 job search VIP List – check this first when you log onto Twitter for job search purposes. If you also use Twitter for fun, you might have a separate, general-purpose VIP List too.
1 List of job feeds – if you find another person’s List that covers your industry, copy the parts you need in creating your own List that you can update later. Check this List twice a day.
1 Value List (at least) that you create as part of your personal branding. Update this as necessary.
1 List for learning – there’s a good chance this will be a Value List created by someone else but if you can’t find the right List for you, just create your own and follow more relevant people as you discover them.
1 Shadow List of companies and people you’re targeting or considering targeting. Check this List once a day.

For best results, set aside time every day to interact with people on your Lists. In other words, don’t just follow Lists- build relationships with the people on the Lists.

Which Twitter Lists Tools You Should Use and How

These tools will also help you get the most out of Twitter Lists:
Official Twitter List Widget – a widget for blogs and other websites that displays tweets from a specific Lists. This is a good way to show off any Value Lists you’ve created in building your personal brand.
MustExist’s List Tags – a great tool for personal branding, List Tags lets you compare how people List you. If you’re wondering how successful your personal brand is, try this tool and check if the results match the way you’re branding yourself
Listiti – “Get notified whenever your brand / product / company / … appears in Twitter Lists of your choice.” Use this to find out who’s Listing you.
Listorious – a directory of Twitter Lists with rankings so you can discover and find popular Lists to follow.
Twitter Lists 2 RSS – if you like to follow blogs by RSS, you can now follow Twitter Lists as well with this tool. Since Twitter can’t tell you’re following those Lists, this is like following Lists privately, something you can’t otherwise do on Twitter.
TweepML – lets you follow all members of a Twitter List in one shot.
Seesmic Desktop – the first Twitter desktop client that’s compatible with Twitter Lists, the software pulls in your Twitter Lists among its Userlists. I already recommended this tool in [beginnner's guide]
Tweetvisor – a web client for Twitter that is also Lists-compatible, you might prefer it over the basic Twitter.com.

More Reading About Twitter Lists & Job Search

If you liked this article, you’ll appreciate my free ebook The Ultimate Twitter Job Search Guide.
Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for the best Twitter job search tips.
-- Jacob Share, Job Search Expert and Professional Blogging Consultant

Tweeting Your Way to A New Job » Blog | Great Resumes Fast

Twitter is no longer just updating your network about your tasty breakfast or what café you just walked into. The rapidly growing social network has become a place where people share interesting news and connect with industry insiders. And yes, that includes recruiters. Still not convinced? Here are some ways Twitter can help you land your next job.

Set up your account

Twitter is the fastest-growing search engine, with 800 million search queries per day, says its cofounder, Biz Stone. Yahoo by comparison, handles 9.4 million searches per day. As someone looking for work, why wouldn’t you want to have a presence on Twitter?

Go to Twitter and set up your account. Include part or all of your given name in your Twitter name. Make sure to include a professional-looking photo. This will make you seem approachable. Remember, Twitter is all about building relationships. Make your bio snappy. You have 160 characters to characters to promote yourself.

Find people to follow

Click on the Find People tab on the homepage. If you already know people on Twitter, type their names into the Find on Twitter search box. Many corporations run Twitter pages. If you have target companies in your job search, look for them too. Following companies will let you stay on top of the latest business developments.

You can also Browse Suggestions. The categories listed here, like business, news, and politics, provide good recommendations for finding the Twitter pages of large corporations, major media outlets, and the government. Following pages like this will let you stay on top of breaking news

Twellow is like the yellow pages for Twitter. If you work in IT, for example, click on the category Information Technology. You’ll get a list of recommended Twitter pages connected to IT. Be sure to check out the Recruiting category too for access to recruiters and job search experts.

One of the best resources to find people to follow on Twitter are the people you currently follow. Look through their profiles and see who looks interesting. Every new connection will open you up to more and more potential.

Hashtags and chats

Once you’re on Twitter, you need to expose your personal brand. Sharing relevant content is a great way to get your name out there. If you read an interesting blog post or article, post a link so your followers can learn from it too.

Many times, you’ll see hashtags in tweets. Hashtags are # followed by a topic. If you work in publishing, for example, type #publishing in the search box on the Twitter. All tweets tagged by their writers as relevant to publishing will show up. This also could help you find more people to follow.

Some hashtags are good for job seekers. #tweetmyjobs lists job openings. With #hirefriday, job seekers post what they do and where they’re located.

Twitter chats are real-time conversations centered around a specific topic, punctuated by hashtags. Moderators post questions, and lively discussions ensue. One of the best for job seekers is #jobhuntchat on Mondays at 10 p.m. EST. To find chats for your industry, see this online calendar.

Success story

A British study reveals that Twitter users are more likely to get interviews. This could be because Twitter teaches users to be concise, direct, and eye-catching in their communications, traits that are great for resumes and cover letters.

One Twitter user who had job success with the site is Brian Alkerton. Brian had “meaningful interactions” with someone he never met in person. That person referred him to a client. Another person he interacted with only on Twitter also referred him to a client. He says, “The thing is, passive monitoring won’t get you the job. You need a credible reputation you can point to.”

If you’re willing to engage with others, as Brian did, you’re more likely to succeed on Twitter. Not every Twitter user may get a job offer. But, everyone will build their network, make some friends and learn a thing or two. And that’s nothing to scoff at.

This guest post was contributed by Danielle Bullen who is a member of the fastest growing online education communities and writes on topics like education, “http://www.onlineschools.org”, and learning.

via greatresumesfast.com

Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Twitter Approved – Five Fantastically Fun Fansites

Original Post: Here By POYZN of WamWan – Follow them @POYZN.

Uploaded on January 27, 2009
by respres

There’s countless Twitter widgets, tools and sites out there to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable. But the following sites are the pick of the bunch chosen from those sneaky discreet third party text-ads on Twitter itself, placed on user profiles, displayed under the stats.

Since Twitter is officially endorsing these third-party fansites for free, then they must have some user benefit, right? Well, the following five chosen are actually pretty fun and useful:

We Follow – Directory of interesting Twitter accounts. This site is terrific for fishing out the Twitter users in your niche, or the ones which simply interest you. You can add your own Twitter account to the directory too so others can find you. All users are neatly categorized and tagged for you to choose from by; industry, niche and location. All the celebrity tweeters are listed there too. Happy stalking.

Favstar – Fast way to discover people’s favorite tweets. Favstar lets you track what your friends, followers, and everyone else has labeled as ‘favorite’ on Twitter. Ofcourse, you can also know how many Twitter users have your tweets as their favorite. Depending on your findings, it’ll either boost your ego or deflate it. Be prepared for a reality shock.

Twitter Counter – Fun way to explore your social graph. This is basically Feedburner in a Twitter costume. It lets you show off the number of Twitter followers you have. Which is useful for the braggers. For everyone else, it’s a great tool to explore your account’s statistics in terms of overall rank, followers, friends, updates, etc, all broken down in a neat graph. You can also compare your account to others too. For instance, you can compare yours to Ellen DeGeneres and Ashton Kutcher’s. Go ahead try it, aim for the stars.

Hype Machine – Easy way to find Twitter’s most popular music. This clever little tool keeps track of what Twitter users write about in regard of music selection. It’s basically an interactive music chart of songs being posted on Twitter. It’s a great tool in a way which you are able to find out and listen to what your fellow tweeters enjoy music-wise. The only drawback is that you’ll soon discover so many of which have terrible taste in music.

Trends Map – Simple way to pinpoint map of local trends. This tool is a real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the globe. It lets you see what the world is discussing right now on Twitter, and from which location the trend originated. It’s really neat. It’s Google Maps but Twitterized. You’ll particularly love this one if your Twitter trend obsession is few levels above the average Twitter addict.

Twitter for Job Search | CareerAlley

Photo courtesy Photos8.com

“Let us be thankful for fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.” – Mark Twain

This is not my first post on leveraging Twitter for job search (see Tweet Your Way to a New Job – Twitter for Job Search) and I know it is not my last (although I’ve found a different bird for this post, albeit, not the Twitter bird). Given the sheer diversity of Twitter resources for job search, this is a first in a series of posts on this topic. Today’s focus is a few articles on leveraging Twitter for job search followed by reviews of a few Twitter job search sites.

Twitter for Job Search:

Leverage Twitter for Your Job Search – This article, posted on Twitip.com and written by Miriam Salpeter from Keppie Careers, provides a detailed “how to” for using Twitter to further your job search. The article covers what Twitter can do for you, What to do First, Sustain your Twitter Network and more. The article covers branding yourself (like a name that won’t embarrass you), creating the right profile and building a network you can leverage in your search.

20 Ways To Get a Job Through Twitter – This list of ideas (20 to be exact) is provided by Newgradlife.com and covers many of the basics for launching your job search via Twitter. From the basic stuff like Sign Up for Twitter to more comprehensive ideas (like creating your profile), the article covers full range of topics. Ideas on how to keep “Twitter ready” versions of your resume and building your network are all covered.

Twitter Feeds for Job Search: Like just about everything on the web, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of Twitter feeds for job search. While I can’t cover them all, I’ve listed a few of the feeds that I’m familiar with. There will be more feeds in future posts. Links at the start of each of the following paragraphs are to each site’s Twitter site.

Postajobonline – This feed provides regular updates of job opportunities. Like what you see, just click on the link which will take you to their website (jobindexonline.com) and provides details on the listing. Once on the website, you can visit their job board (postajobonline.com) and search jobs and post your resume. There are tabs at the top of this page for various job functions. There are also links on the right hand side of the page for jobs by category, top employers, job type and location.

JobHitsUS – JobHits has a number of feeds depending on what you are looking for, they have feeds for the UK, Finance jobs, IT jobs and more. JobHits is a job search engine with updated vacancies from major job sites. Their feed (depending on the feed you follow) lists specific jobs. Click on the link in the feed and this will load the website page with that particular listing. Their US based web job search engine (they also have web sites for other locations) – Jobhits.net, leads with a search engine (keywords, location and then search), followed by popular search links (saves some time). Once you’ve done a search, you can use the filters on the left hand side of the page to narrow your search. They also have a link to their blog at the top left hand side of the page.

Jobsonwashpost – This is the Washington Post’s Twitter job feed. Similar to the other feeds mentioned above, this feed posts specific jobs. Click on any of these links and the Washington Post’s job page will load with detail on the specific job mentioned in the tweet. You can apply for any of these jobs by clicking “apply now” at the bottom of the job description. Their website has over 10,000 job opportunities posted and also provides a job search engine with career resource links at the top of the page.

Good luck in your search.

via careeralley.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

How to Mine Twitter for Information

May 11th, 2009 (7:00am) Dawn Foster via WebWorkerDaily

twitter Last week, I admitted that I am an information junkie, and I wanted to follow up this week with a few tips for feeding your information habit by mining Twitter for information. Twitter tools are popping up like weeds lately, so rather than try to be comprehensive, I'm just going to highlight a few of my favorite tools for getting information out of Twitter.

Twitter Search

Twitter's built-in search engine is probably my favorite way to find information in Twitter. It is great for quick searches to find specific pieces of information, watching trending topics, and persistent vanity searches for your name or company. While I do use the search engine to type in queries, the real power is in using RSS feeds for searches and running them through Yahoo Pipes for additional filtering. In many cases, I use Yahoo Pipes to loop through a series of keywords from a CSV file to search Twitter for each of those keywords and monitor the results as an RSS feed in my reader. I recently did a 2 minute video explaining exactly how to search twitter using Yahoo Pipes and a CSV file of keywords, so I won't cover it in any more detail here.

Twitter Stream Graphs

I'm a big fan of getting data via RSS, but sometimes you just need a picture. Twitter Stream Graphs are a great way to show your boss how much buzz you generated on Twitter with a particular tweet or a keyword. In this example, I searched for legionoftech, an organization here in Portland than organizes our local BarCampPortland event, and you can see that we did a call for volunteers over Twitter on April 21 and had some conversation leading up to the event on May 1 and 2.

TweetVolume

TweetVolume is a great tool for comparing the number of mentions across several keywords. With the recent Mother's Day holiday, I'm happy to report that mothers are more important than vacations, the beach and Star Trek. However, sadly, bacon seems to be a more popular topic on Twitter than mothers (shame on you!)

What are your favorite tools for mining Twitter for information?

8 tips for building a strong presence on Twitter

Original Post:8 tips for building a strong presence on Twitter

In this post Twitter enthusiast Garin Kilpatrick shares his tips on effective ways to get more followers.

It is hard to put a price on a Twitter follower but the host of The Price is Right, Drew Carey, is offering to donate $1 to cancer research for every new follower he receives this year. The following eight tips will enable you to make the most out of your tweets and help you connect with as many followers as possible

1. Save your best tweets for the best time

Tweet your best stuff out during peak times, and you will maximize your retweet potential. The perfect time for retweets is right after lunch. Between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. is when I usually get the most retweets. Fast Company recently published a post called Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted which is where the retweet graphs below are from.

You need to consider, of course, the time zone your followers are in. The better you can make yourself aware of the timezone your followers are in, the better you can target your best tweets for maximum exposure.

2. Build retweeting relationships

With retweets it is often true that you get what you give. Whenever someone retweets something I post, for example, I try to scan their stream for something good to retweet in my stream. Many people miss out on retweets from me if they have a purely conversational stream. I have found that good quotes retweet quite well so I would recommend throwing one of those into your stream every 10-20 tweets. Juicy content like this blog post is also perfect for retweeting.

3. Follow reciprocators

Twitterholic allows you to quickly find the most followed people on Twitter. The top 1000 most followed people on Twitter are listed and you can see which people are reciprocators. A reciprocator is someone who will probably follow you back because they have about as many followers as they have people following them. Twitter Counter is another website that counts and ranks people on Twitter and they also offer widgets that will display the current number of people who follow you.

4. Automate tedious processes

Social Oomph offers several tools that allow you to tweet more efficiently. These free services range from scheduled tweeting (the site used to be called TweetLater.com), to the ability to automatically unfollow anyone who unfollows you, and the ability to automatically follow anyone who follows you. Saving time here will give you more time to spend finding cool people and building meaningful connections.

5. Build links to your Twitter page

The more links you have, the greater your potential to find new followers. Even a few simple links on other social profiles you already have will convert to several new Twitter connections over time. Facebook offers a “contact info” field specifically for links in the information section where you can put a link to your Twitter account, blog, and other sites on the web you might have. An app I use for Facebook is Web Profiles and I also developed a custom Facebook twitter badge including a button that links to my Twitter account.

6. Cross promote your networks

My most-commented-on Facebook wall post was when I simply asked who is on Twitter and what their username is.

7. Separate content from communication

Open up another Twitter account if it is relevant to do so. Working as a community manager for Eduify I have been able to build followers much faster by using two complementary accounts, @eduify, and @eduifyQuotes, as well as a third support node for discussion and replies, @askeduify. By having @askeduify I can reply to everyone who sends a message to @eduify without polluting that stream with replies that are only relevant to a few people. This strategy of separating content from conversation has worked for me and recently @GuyKawasaki (and @guysreplies) adopted this strategy as well. Having two accounts also doubles your daily follow limit so that you can push your growth even harder, if you want to do that.

8. Take advantage of #FollowFriday

Reward the people who retweet you the most by suggesting others follow them on Friday. Retweets are one of the best ways to find new followers and FollowFriday is my best method of building retweeting relationships.

If you take the advice from these eight tips there is no doubt in my mind that they will help you grow your following on Twitter, and you do not have to stop here. There are plenty of Twitter tips and apps that will help you learn about Twitter and how to tweet more effectively. A great place to start is the free Mashable Twitter Guide Book. Another cool site is TwiTip.com, which was started by Darren Rowse of Problogger fame.

Keep reading, keep sharing, and keep tweeting! (And make sure to follow @pingdom on Twitter.)

About the author:

Garin Kilpatrick is a community manager for the writing website for students, eduify.com. Check out his personal blog at Gar1n.com.

How Zappos uses Twitter to find Employees

Twitter for Talent: Zappos' use of social networking to attract and engage employees

Posted May 26th, 2009 by Kevin Morris for wikinomics.com

At a time when managers and PR departments are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to approach employee use of social media (think: Wall Street Journal), online footwear retailer Zappos.com stands out as one company that just might have got things right.

I first learned of Zappos when I watched a speech CEO Tony Hsieh delivered at theBusiness Innovation Factory (BIF) about their "customer-centric approach to killing the competition". Since then, Zappos has received the praise of media, customers and employees alike, even after laying off 8% of their staff. (At the time of the speech Tony had *only* 10,000 followers on Twitter. He is now at 600,000+). One of my favourite parts of the presentation is Tony's statement that the brand is simply an extension of the company culture, and providing a compelling customer experience completely depends on hiring employees who fit that culture.

One of the keys to that culture is Zappos Core Value #6, Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. By Zappos opening up and sharing what goes on in a regular day at the company, customers and potential employees are invited to experience the corporate culture without ever making an appearance on the payroll. If a prospective employee likes what they see, they might make a great Zapponian, especially if they share similar values with CVF ('Core Values Frog'). Giving prospective employees a sneak peak into the culture of the company might explain why only 3% of new hires take Zappos up on their famous $2000 incentive to quit after training.

I was interested in how Zappos identified and hired people in the first place. I got in touch with Zappos Recruiting Manager, Christa Foley (currently twitter rank #4 attwitter.zappos.com ) to learn how Zappos uses social media to identify and hire quality people, and further encourages new hires to use those tools once part of the Zappos team (430+ employees are listed on the Zappos twitter page). I've included some highlights of our conversation after the jump.

How is Zappos using social networks for recruiting purposes?

We're using Twitter very heavily and to some extent, Facebook and LinkedIn. We're not using Facebook and LinkedIn as much as I'd like us to be so we're working on some strategies to use these networks more effectively in the future. For Twitter specifically, we're in a really lucky position because we have such a big group of employees on Twitter, over 400, and then, of course, Tony has an ungodly amount of followers on Twitter, something like over 500,000 at this point. So you definitely could say we're pretty active in the Twitter world.

It wouldn't fit within our culture to be salesy/pushy so we're not using Twitter to promote Zappos just for the sake of promoting Zappos. We're using it for what I think it was intended, which is a social network that we all enjoy. I've got a team of four people in recruiting and we're not blasting on Twitter every job opening or constantly directing people to our jobs page. To me, that feels like spamming, which I think goes against what Twitter was meant to be used for. I know spam happens online in general and you definitely can see that on Twitter too.

For us, we use much more of a passive approach to recruit on Twitter. Whether, through the following that various employees have or certainly through Tony's followers, there seems to be a buzz about Zappos which helps us identify possible candidates.

How are you finding potential hires on Twitter?

We use the search function on Twitter and search Zappos mentions on a daily basis. Anybody who mentions 'wow I'd love to work at Zappos' or 'just read this article about Zappos and it seems like it's a cool place to work' or 'I wish you guys were in New York' , basically any loose references to maybe wanting to work at Zappos, we reach out to those folks.

I usually follow them and if they don't follow me back in a couple of days, then I'll @reply to them so I can let them know how to find our openings and apply. But more often than not, if you follow someone, they'll follow you back especially if they've just mentioned Zappos, and I have "Zappos Recruiting " in my profile. In that scenario, I'll direct message them about our jobs.zappos.com site. So a lot of my Twitter activities are via direct messages versus public replies.

What's different about hiring in social networks versus traditional job boards?

I would say the quality of people, at least from an industry and skill-set standpoint, tends to be higher. When we post on a major job board, we may get 500 applicants but a large percentage of them won't be qualified or they are outside of the salary ranges posted for the jobs, or they don't want to move or those kinds of things. Whereas I think when you're using something like Twitter or Facebook or Linked In, someone connecting with you via these avenues has probably done their research or knows about your company more than just 'I want to be an AP clerk and there's 20 positions open in my city on Monster so I'm going to apply to all of them. '

How have social networks benefited employees once they are working in the company?

Twitter for us is also a really good way for employees to connect. We have a Zappos Twitter page, twitter.zappos.com , so employees can see just the Zappos employee feed . It's a great way to connect with people you share common interests with where you may not have otherwise. We have a very friendly, open environment but with over 700 employees in our Vegas office, while you would always say 'hi!' in the hallway to everyone, before Twitter you may not realize that person also loves to hike, has children the same age as your children, loves the same restaurant you do, etc.. I think as a company from a culture standpoint, Twitter has helped us tremendously with being another avenue for people to connect. This is important to us because one of our core values is to Create a Positive Team and Family Spirit where you don't view your co-workers as simply coworkers but where you connect with them on a personal level. .

Why has Zappos been so open about employees using social media, where other companies have been fairly resistant?

I think because we were fortunate enough to embrace it early on and see the many values it offers and how it helps enhance our culture. We believe that if you get the culture right, most other things fall into place. I think that maybe with other companies, their fears with social media are about what employees might say or how their activity might negatively impact their company's brand. We have embraced social media and encourage our employees to do so too. And as far as our direction to employees about what they can or cannot say, we don't really have a policy on this. If we did a good job with hiring for culture fit and training new hires about our culture, it's a non-issue. So maybe you have reason to worry about what people are saying, or how they're representing your company if everyone isn't aligned to the company vision and culture.

By no means do we have it all figured out. Everything that we do is a work in progress. It's almost more of an art in some regards than a science but I think our culture, openness and transparency aligns itself well with the basic premiss of social media.