The Ten Commandments for Job Seekers on Twitter

With so many companies and recruiters on Twitter, it is a great place for a job seeker to find a job. But there are some 'rules' that they need to be aware of to have a chance at maximising their chances of finding a job opportunity there.
Therefore I have put together my tips to help job seekers on Twitter, because after all, many job seekers arriving at Twitter, will probably be Twitter Virgins and trying to use every means at their disposal to find a new job.
So here are my Ten Commandments for Job Seekers on Twitter:

1. Understand Twitter and what it is about.
The best way to do this, is to take off your boots off, just dive in and have a good look around. See what other people are talking about, how they are talking and how they use the 140 character limit. Get a sense of the twitter sphere before you join in.
Spend some time looking at other people's bio's and how they present themselves. Then ask yourself a question - would YOU follow that person? have they got your interest? Take note of your thoughts - you will need to bear this in mind for yourself soon.

2. Create a quality Profile and Bio.
a) No cat or dog photos - just a good head shot image of yourself. It gives recruiters a good impression of you straight away.
b) Your URL - use your blog | website | LinkedIn profile. If you have none of these, create a LinkedIn profile ( Download LinkedIn for beginnersif you need a hand setting one up) . Don't put a profile up without a URL, because every serious job seeker will have some form of online profile, and you will lose the opportunity to get followed by the right people otherwise.
c) Your one line bio - you have 160 characters to sum up your career and what you are looking for. remember keywords from your industry. If you are actively looking for a job now - say so.
d) Background - go to TwitterGallery and choose a free background. It will be an extra way to help you stand out from other people.

Above all, be interesting - no-one will follow you if you have a boring profile and bio.

3. Twitter Tools
You need to be able to manage all the people you are going to follow, and respond to people following you (don't worry you WILL get plenty of followers soon!) Use Tweetdeck (my choice) or Twhirlon your PC, they are both excellent. Tweetdeck allows you to create groups to follow, which is great if you are looking at several different types of jobs/careers.

4. Go Mobile
Time waits for no one, and that is certainly the case in the job market. Make sure you can access Twitter on the move, by getting either Twitterberry (Blackberry), Twitterific(iPhone) or go to m.twitter.comfrom a normal mobile. They are all surprisingly good, and I find myself using Twitterberry too often, because it is so good!

5. Who to follow?
Now is the time to have some fun and start searching. First write down a number of the keywords from your industry or job that you are trying to look for. Then go to Twittersearch or Monitter and put these keywords in and see who is mentioning these words in their tweets. Don't forget to use the words like, job, hiring, recruiter, recruiting in some of your searches. Also look out for commonly used words that people are using, and make sure you search them too.
Follow all the people you find interesting and who might be able to help you at some stage in your job search, from your industry etc

6. Be someone that is worth following.
There are three rules that apply in Twitterland - Don't be rude; Don't be boring; Give to get. You need to be aware of these and practice them.
Share news, share industry tips or links to interesting websites and blogs. Jump into some of the Twitter conversations and answer people's questions, engage with others in the Twittersphere.
There are six types of tweeting to consider, to build your twitter track record and they are:
a) Info tweet
b) Re-tweet or RT
c) Help tweet
d) Postman tweet
e) Smiley tweet
f) YOU tweet.
Find out more about these tweets here.

The message is simple - be interesting!

7. Find the industry professionals in your sector
Use some of the excellent Twitter directories online such as Twellow and TwitDir to track down all the other people in your industry that are on Twitter - you will be surprised how many are! Also take a note of who they are following -you might find a few surprises (nice ones of course!)

8. Build your following.
You have already started to follow people on Twitter, but now start to develop a strategy, specific to your task - ie job seeking. Using some of what I have mentioned already, you will now (hopefully) have identified some interesting and useful people to follow. Keep this going. Take some time each day and endeavor to follow 10-20 people a day.
The nature of the way that Twitter is working currently, people will normally follow you in return, if you are relevent and interesting to them. This is how you build your following numbers up - some strategic job seeking twittering. But don't stop tweeting  and remember No 6!!

9. Watch your ratio's - you don't want to be tagged a spammer!
The worst thing on Twitter is to be following 200 peopl and only have 7 followers yourself. Yes you might be great, but to other tweeters (me included) you will be tagged as a spammer! Basically, you followed loads of people and becuase you were not interesting to them they didn't recipricate. Hence my point in No 8 - take it steady and only follow a certain number each day, and (presuming you have a good bio) they will start to follow you back, hence building up your ratio.

10. Don't be afraid
Twitter is still very new and even though there are many people with huge numbers of followers, there are also many,many people who are relatively new to it. So don't be afraid to try different things - the way you tweet, or the links you post etc. While there are 'guidelines' there are no hard and fast rules. Some things have worked for some people, and yet for otheres they haven't. So create your own Twitter persona and style and you will have fun.
I nearly forget - don't forget to tell people that you are actually looking for a job. Don't do it every tweet, but make sure people know you are on the market.

Well I hope this is of some help to you, while searching for a new job. There are of course other tips that you can use, and I am sure some other Tweeters will add some in the comments below. In the meantime, if you have a question, follow me at @andyheadworth and ask me on Twitter.