Today’s topic, using Twitter when job hunting…

First of all, it’s important to understand the employers are now searching the web to gather information on potential candidates, and search engines LOVE social networking / social media sites. Your FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube… postings are being viewed by hiring companies.

There are a lot of articles out there about how to use twitter in general, and how to use it for job hunting. I’ve condensed some of the best information I’ve found into a few simple helpful hints. Enjoy!

• Use your real name as your twitter name (or at least include it). This helps search engines find you.
• Create a professional profile with a good “One Line Bio”. You can also create a background image that includes more information about yourself or your skills.
• Follow other twitter users who are leaders in your industry, as well as companies you’re targeting for employment.
• Employers know that people tweet about things that are important to them. Make sure to tweet about any work or industry related projects you’re doing, articles you’ve read, or anything else positive that you want employers to know you care about.
• Don’t post tweets that may be seen as too controversial or contain information that may reflect poorly on you to a potential employer.
• If you have a video resume or video profile, you can share it by simply posting a tweet with a link to your YouTube video (use tinyurl to shorten the link), or you can use tools like TwitVid, Twiddeo or several others.

Thanks for reading and happy job hunting. Please feel free to comment on your own Twitter experiences while job hunting.