Who would have thought the ability to broadcast a few lines of text to the world would become so popular? But Twitter is rapidly gaining in importance to social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. A micro-blogging site that allows you to send messages of 140 characters or shorter, Twitter can do a lot more for your career than simply letting your friends know what you’re doing. Since Twitter is open ended, companies and people are using it in many different ways, including searching for a job. 

Among the resources that Twitter offers to job seekers is JobShouts, where employers can post their jobs for free, which are then automatically “tweeted” to Twitter users. With the Twitter tool Twellow, you can search people’s bios and URLs on their bios. Twitter Search will find the people you want to follow.

Twitter provides the chance to share information and demonstrate your expertise in short, pithy bursts of text so make sure your messages are well written and concise.  

Twitter Do’s: 

• Use Twitter to connect with recruiters and hiring managers in the field that interest you. Unlike Facebook or Linkedin, Twitter does not require you to know the people with whom you connect. When you find someone you want to link to, simply hit the “follow” button and you can see everything they write and you are free to respond.
• Use Twitter JobSearch.com to search Twitter for jobs that match the keywords you enter. You can subscribe to an RSS feed to “tune into” conversations using your keywords, such as “Web design” or “PR internship.” Just enter the keywords in the upper right hand corner where it says, “feed for this enquiry.”
• Let the world know you’re looking for a job by using Twitter to alert the people who can help you with your search.
• Share your ideas, link to your blog posts and tweet about topics in your field so you can establish yourself as knowledgeable.
• Use your brief bio on Twitter to give good information about yourself and link to your blog or personal site or to your Linkedin profile, so that people will want to know more about your skills and abilities.

Twitter Don'ts: 

• If you’re using Twitter to make job connections, don’t tweet about what you’re making for dinner, when you have to pick up your kids, what’s on TV or other personal information that may detract from your professional status.
• Don’t just add people as fast as you can to build up your total number of connections. Instead, focus on people who are in a position to offer you a job.
• Don’t use Twitter if you are trying to keep your job search a secret. Twitter is all about spreading the news far and wide that you are looking for a job.