Networking Tips: 6 Quick Tips for Using Twitter to Build Your Business Network
In previous newsletters, we gave advice on how to use both LinkedIn and Facebook for professional networking. This month, we provide six quick tips to help you use Twitter – the “real-time information network” that features “tweets” of information limited to 140 characters – to build your business network and augment your job-search strategy.
Twitter boasts 175 million registered users who generate 95 million tweets daily, according to the Web site’s statistics (updated on September 14, 2010). So what makes Twitter a great tool for networking? Unlike such sites as LinkedIn – where users typically add only colleagues and friends they know – Twitter allows its users to follow anyone they want to connect with. So it’s a great way to find and network with new people all over the world who may have professional interests similar to yours. And it may even help lead you to your next career opportunity!
Here are six quick tips for using Twitter as a professional networking tool:
- Use the 15 characters for your Twitter username wisely. Think about making your profile easy to search for. So using your full name, for example, is a good option. Also consider including something that indicates your industry area of expertise, such as RonaldSmithRAC or JoanBrown_R&D.
- Include a link to your CV or resume in your Twitter profile. You only have 140 characters to work with for your Twitter profile, so include keywords for your industry and link to more information about yourself. In addition to a CV/resume link, you could add one to your LinkedIn professional profile, as well.
- Find and follow companies in your industry. Use the Twitter search function to find out if companies you’re interested in have a Twitter presence. If they’re on Twitter, follow them and connect with current employees who also are on Twitter.
- Find fellow industry professionals to follow. You can use tweepz to search for industry keywords to identify other people on Twitter with similar professional interests. The directory tools TwitDir and Just Tweet It are also great ways to find new people to follow and build your business network.
- Use your tweets (your posts on Twitter) to help brand yourself as an expert. Share your industry knowledge by frequently tweeting links to relevant articles, blog posts, updates, events, and news.
- Check out Twitter job-search functions. Here are a few sites that help connect job seekers with recruiters:
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