If you are one who is still saying, “I don’t get Twitter”, then you may want to get up to speed quickly, especially if you’re looking for a job because some employers are looking for employees who not only get Twitter, but also have a minimum Twitter following.
Why are these employers seeking people with an established Twitter following? Target market sphere of influence. Assuming that the employer knows anything about marketing and target markets, and specifically about social media, they are going to want to find people who have found and followed people with similar interests in their business field or target market or niche. They recognize the power of Twitter and the reach that a tweet has; and if that tweet is sent to a specific targeted group of people, it can provide a very positive response to a marketing campaign – all at little to no cost.
4 Tips on How to Use Twitter Effectively
While having an established Twitter following is perhaps not the norm in job descriptions (yet), it could be to your advantage to follow these four tips when using Twitter to possibly improve your chances of getting a job.
- Target Who You Follow
- Share Quality (Relevant) Content
- Be Social & Network
- Be Professional
Target Who You Follow
Employers aren’t seeking out new hires with a minimum number of followers if that following includes merely your parents, siblings, best friends and old high school buddies. They are seeking a new sphere of influence in their target market- to expand their reach potential through social media marketing.
Maximize your networking appeal to a potential employer by ensuring that your followers are within your target market. If your current Twitter account is mainly personal, set up a new account just for business, then find and follow others within your same business field or that have an interest in your field of business.
Share Quality (Relevant) Content
Communicating in 140 characters is a learned art form. Even though it technically says up at the status box ‘What are you doing?”, that is not a question meant to be answered literally. Twitter is micro-blogging, due to the limited characters, but it’s still a form of blogging expression. So just as quality content is king on a regular blog, so is it in a Twitter tweet.
If you provide tweets of value, then others will want to retweet (RT), or forward your tweet to those whom they follow and your tweet then becomes ‘viral’ as it spreads rapidly around the web. This is the key reason why employers are seeking to hire people with established targeted Twitter followers.
- Share a link to an online article you discovered that is relevant to your business or niche.
- Post a tweet asking a question having to do with your business, to get feedback.
- Have a tweet sent to announce your newly published blog post
- Monitor keyword phrases relevant to your business/niche and help answer people’s questions via Twitter and/or via blog posts
Be Social & Network
The second reason why having a Twitter account with followers is important is the social networking aspect of Twitter. It’s all about being social and connecting with people. Twitter isn’t a one-way communication device for you to broadcast out your sales messages with a bullhorn; it’s a networking community of people with which to connect.
Is it ever appropriate to share a promotional link on Twitter? Of course! But if you are at a business party, do you stand up on the table, in the middle of the room, and start yelling out your sales pitch to everyone? No, of course not. You mix and mingle, chatting with everyone; getting to know them. You socialize. There’s room for both in ‘Twitterville’, but if you show up looking at everyone in your followers list as a sales prospect and not a person; and you’ve never talked with them, said hello, good morning or even what is it you do for a living? Then you’re not likely to get a very favorable response when you send out a promo link.
People tend to respond to people they Know, Like and Trust. Take time to interact and be social with those you’re following; reply to tweets and learn a little about the people you’ve chosen to follow and allow them to get to know you too. That’s what networking is all about.
Be Professional
It is certainly acceptable that while networking and being social you share some about your family or personal life, but you must always remain professional in your manner and speech.
Remember, whatever you tweet is forever archived on the web and can be found. Do not say or upload anything online that you would be embarrassed by if found on Google, as it could very well come back to haunt you.
Final Thoughts
Twitter is best learned by doing. You can read and watch conversations from the sidelines, but it’s best if you just jump in the tweetstream and start participating in the conversations and meeting people. Soon you will find your follower numbers growing organically; meaning – you did not have to seek and find new people, they found you either by something you tweeted with someone else, something you tweeted that was retweeted or by searching for specific keyword phrases.
Make sure that your Twitter bio includes keyword phrases relevant to your business field or niche so that others can find you, put a link to your business related blog or web site, and your location. Make it easy for others within your business field, niche, target market and/or specific location to find you.
Following the above tips should make your Twitter profile hire-worthy.
Does your employer use social media marketing such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?
What do you think about an employer requiring an established Twitter following before hiring ?
Share your comments below.
