WEEKEND EDITION: The Twitter Job Search Experiment
Many of you, no doubt, have been on social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. And that's a good thing. After all, it's now joust as important to be found by employers as it is to find jobs. Since social networking results tend to show up well in search engines, employers will be able to find you.
There's one wildly popular site, however, which may or may not benefit job seekers: Twitter.
You've heard of Twitter. Users regularly answer the (unasked) question "What are you doing right now???" Tweets (entries on Twtter) have to be 140 characters or less. You probably also know you can tweet on the Twitter site, by IM and by SMS text.
Like most in the blogosphere, I've been trying to figure out a practical use for Twitter. Sure, there's the recent story of that guy who sent a one word Tweet ("arrested") that sprang his followers into action to help him when he was arrested in the Middle East. But for day-to-day purposes, does Twitter provide a value?
More specifically, can Twitter help you find work? Can twitter help you dig up networking contacts?
I don't know. But I finally decided to join Twitter yesterday to see if there could be some value for job seekers. I say that I "finally" joined Twitter because my name was taken, so I had to go with the handle "mikethomas1" - which solidifies Dan Schawbel's advice to claim your name on every social networking site.
I've decided to run an experiment. But I need your help. Here's the deal: I'll be putting a Twitter widget in The Daily Machete sidebar this weekend which will show the tweets of those whom I follow. And, if you'd like to have your tweets run in the Twitter widget, let me know (follow my tweets through Twitter name "mikethomas1"), and I will add you. Given the number of employers, recruiters and HR reps who read this blog, this experiment may help connect jobs with job seekers.
So, if you're on Twitter and looking for work - OR if you're an employer - let's see if this Twitter experiment can help.
There's one wildly popular site, however, which may or may not benefit job seekers: Twitter.
You've heard of Twitter. Users regularly answer the (unasked) question "What are you doing right now???" Tweets (entries on Twtter) have to be 140 characters or less. You probably also know you can tweet on the Twitter site, by IM and by SMS text.
Like most in the blogosphere, I've been trying to figure out a practical use for Twitter. Sure, there's the recent story of that guy who sent a one word Tweet ("arrested") that sprang his followers into action to help him when he was arrested in the Middle East. But for day-to-day purposes, does Twitter provide a value?
More specifically, can Twitter help you find work? Can twitter help you dig up networking contacts?
I don't know. But I finally decided to join Twitter yesterday to see if there could be some value for job seekers. I say that I "finally" joined Twitter because my name was taken, so I had to go with the handle "mikethomas1" - which solidifies Dan Schawbel's advice to claim your name on every social networking site.
I've decided to run an experiment. But I need your help. Here's the deal: I'll be putting a Twitter widget in The Daily Machete sidebar this weekend which will show the tweets of those whom I follow. And, if you'd like to have your tweets run in the Twitter widget, let me know (follow my tweets through Twitter name "mikethomas1"), and I will add you. Given the number of employers, recruiters and HR reps who read this blog, this experiment may help connect jobs with job seekers.
So, if you're on Twitter and looking for work - OR if you're an employer - let's see if this Twitter experiment can help.
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