Social Media & Job Search #6

Can you tweet your way to a new job? Maybe — and some people have!

What is Twitter anyway? In my Are you on board? post, I talked about how the presenter at a Chamber event, Gerald Mortenson, Flapjack Creative introduced the audience to the complex concept of social media marketing by opening Twitter and writing, “I’m having mashed potatoes.” He asked the audience if this was their impression of Twitter. Everyone laughed.

But for many people, that is their impression.

When I first came to Twitter in fall of 2008, I knew nothing. I started noticing that there were a lot of interesting people out there talking on Twitter. Tools like Twitter Grader by Hubspot helped me add to my connections.

I found people who knew how to use this new tool and followed them. I followed bloggers, career experts, marketing people and interesting people. I researched, connected, and learned, like a sponge, about everything such as tools to make Twitter work better and easier to track, like Tweetdeck.

Friendships and connections grew by talking with people. The words “authentic” and “transparent” are big in social media but to me they come naturally. I like connecting with people and as I have said before, I like helping. My initial Twitter experience was very positive.

Then whitewater season rolled in and with marketing and river hours as Wausau Whitewater’s Operations Manager, I didn’t tweet much. I grew disconnected. When I came back in the fall, I felt lost and thought Twitter didn’t work for me anymore. But as I started connecting again with people I knew before and meeting new friends, I found that it wasn’t Twitter not working, it was me.

How can Twitter work in a job search? I suppose you might be lucky enough to be in the right place with the right people at the right time to directly be offered a job on Twitter. But more likely, if you incorporate Twitter as part of your networking strategy which has to have both an online and as we call in social media a “real life” component, you will grow connections.

Connections I met first on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook have turned into “real life” lunch meetings. Converting those conversations with people you value doesn’t happen instantly and it won’t happen with everyone but it can happen. I also created business alliances with people on social media and connected with new clients.

Can it happen, yes! You have to learn to use the tools and you have to be “authentic” and “transparent” but honestly, that’s how I want my real life friends, colleagues, business partners, and clients to be too! Honest, real, trustworthy, caring… brave, truthful…

What do you think? and what else would you like to know about how to use Twitter… in a job search? in business? in life? What tricks, tips, and tools would you like to know better? #hashtags, what are those anyway? You ask me, I’ll find out and tell you.

Talk to me! I talk back!