As we’ve all said countless times in our lives, “it’s all in how you look at it.”  If you see Twitter users as a bunch of self-absorbed people with too much time on their hands Tweeting about what they ate for breakfast, then that’s what you’ll see when you go to Twitter.  Not necessarily true…

5 Worst Reasons to Use Twitter for Job Search:

1.  Because your job search coach or career counselor told you that you should do it.

2.  Because you read somewhere that you should do it.

3.  Because “everyone else” is doing it.

4.  Because your spouse/significant other/teenager/tweener/neighbor set it up for you.

5.  Because you don’t have anything better to do.

Much MUCH better reasons to use Twitter for your job search exist!  Below are the first 5 I could think of.  Many more exist – feel free to add them in the comments.

5 Best Reasons to Use Twitter for Your Job Search:

1.  To stay up to date with your “field.”

Whatever your field may be, someone is Tweeting about the latest news: products, services, companies (employers!), the latest research, the latest disasters, the latest successes, and much more.

2.  To expand your professional network.

I’ve met so many wonderful people through Twitter that I can’t count them all. And I have learned more about what is going on in my field, found wonderful resources to share with my Followers, been offered excellent opportunities to speak and to write, and enjoyed interesting and educational Twitter “conversations.” 

3.  To find opportunities.

Many, MANY employers Tweet links to their most recent job postings.  I identified 500 of them, and put them in my Employers-Recruiting Twitter list.  Follow the ones you have targeted. And Follow useful Twitter accounts like @TwitJobSearch and @JobHuntOrg (of course!).

4.  To enhance your job search skills.

The experts in the 101 Top Twitter Job Search and Career Experts consistently provide excellent information to make your job search more effective and your career more successful. 

5.  To appear (and to be) up-to-date with social media.

Demonstrate to family, friends, colleagues, and – best of all – to potential employers that you “get it” when it comes to using social media.  Social media skills are in demand (and that demand is growing).  Particularly if you are over 40, looking up-to-date is important for your job search.

If those people Tweeting about their breakfast are nuitritionists, dietitions, food or restaurant critics, or FDA officials warning about some contamination in the food supply, then those seemingly self-absorbed Tweets are providing useful information and are “on-brand” for those Tweeters,  not nonsense

So, carefully consider the context and the content when you use Twitter.  Think about the image that you want to project, the information you can provide, the people you can help.  Figure out what is on-brand for you.

Bottom Line

The world has shifted dramatically in the last 5 years, and that has certainly had a big impact on job search.  We’re leaving the please-PLEASE-PLEASE-HIRE-ME approach behind and moving to the see-how-wonderful-I-am-hire-me-if-you-can days.  An interesting change/challenge for both sides of “the desk.”

BTW:

Tip of the hat to Women-Unlimited.co.uk and Julie Hall for the idea behind this post – 5 worst reasons for using Twitter for your business which helps businesses understand why to use Twitter. Excellent post! Thank you for permission to “borrow” your idea.

Good luck with your job search!

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Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce, USMC veteran, has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @JobHuntOrg.

Career Spotlight:   Did you enjoy college enough to work there? I worked in HR in a large university, and it was very interesting, a tightly-knit community within the larger world with different standards than most other industries.  College Administrators, on average, now earn $81,000 year (much more than I earned!), with an expected 10-year job growth of 14%. Over 8o% hold at least a bachelor’s degree. More about this and other careers in Job-Hunt’s Career Changers’ Guide to Careers.

Quote of the Week:  The most RT’ed quote of the week is from the amazing @2MorrowKnight who was RT’ing a quote by PBS’s Tavis Smiley (@tavismiley) -

Failing does not make you a failure.

New Articles:  Four new articles this week -

• Handling a Layoff on Your Resume 
  Given this economy, many people have been laid off and have employment gaps on their resumes.  In this article, Job-Hunt’s Resumes Expert Susan Ireland provides a sample resume and describes how job seekers can address this issue.
• Careers in Green Homes & Buildings
  “Green” career opportunities exist in home and building construction and related fields, and Job-Hunt’s Green Job Search Expert Carol McClelland shares the career information with you.
• Fighting Marketing Mistakes & Sales Avoidance
  Job-Hunt’s Self-Employment Expert B. Michelle Pippin helps small business people address their mission-critical marketing and sales skills.
• Growing Demand for Social Media Skills
  You may not be wasting time with Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, as data from Indeed.com shows.  Employers are recognizing the need for people with “social media skills” on staff, and the jobs they are posting reflect that recognition.

Meet all of Job-Hunt’s  Job Search Experts.

Stay tuned, more next week, as usual. 

And, of course, good luck with your job search!

The trend data from giant job aggregator Indeed.com, bottom, shows something very interesting happening.  Social media terms like “Facebook” and “Twitter” are appearing in more and more job descriptions every month. Since its founding in 2004, use of the term “Facebook” in job descriptions has grown an amazing 550,000% (that’s not a typo, the number really is five hundred fifty thousand percent) through July, 2010.  And it was the fastest growing in the 12-month period which ended in July, 2010.

Employers add social media terms to job descriptions because social media
is growing in importance, and they need employees with social media skills.
So, the value of your social media skills is increasing.

You can leverage your social media skills to benefit your job search in many ways.

The Do’s:

• If you have social media skills, you need to add those keywords (as appropriate for you) to your resume and other online profiles.
• Be sure you have a good, 100% complete LinkedIn Profile, and throw in a Google Profile, too. [See Job-Hunt's Social Media & Job Search section for more information.]
• If you don’t already, separate public from private (and don’t trust Facebook to guard your private side), or just act like a grown-up.
  • If you’re going to rant about politics, sex, religion, or something else controversial, don’t do it with a social media account that is in your real name. Or don’t do it at all.
  • Do a mature/employment-ready version of yourself in social media that is associated with your real name or recognizably you.
• Learn as much as you reasonably can about how companies are using social media for your field (marketing, HR, recruiting, sales, customer service, entertainment, teaching, etc.).
  • Who are the people and companies on the “leading edge”?
  • Who has done something remarkably good (or bad)?  Pay attention.
• Demonstrate your knowledge and skills
  • Focus on a few venues (3 at most) so you can show consistent, high-quality participation.
  • Participate and contribute, if possible, in a meaningful (and public) way in your field.
  • If you are over 40 or 60, this is a way to show that you aren’t the proverbial “roadkill on the information superhighway.”  You may be over 40,  but you “get” how to leverage this technology.

The Don’t:

If you are employed, don’t ignore social media.

AND

Don’t stop participating and learning – when you get your new job. (You WILL get a new job!)

What’s Happening NOW:

A search for jobs using the word “Facebook” showed these amazing results (click on the link to see the results for each of the sites named).  From “Social Media/Corporate Communicator” for a town to a “Facebook Product Manager” for a marketing company, a “Facebook Pages Developer” volunteer opportunity for a charity, and much more:

• Indeed.com
• JustJobs.com
• LinkUp.com

The Indeed Trend

So far this year, with data analyzed through the end of July, 2010, “Facebook” was the # 1 fastest growing term used in job descriptions in the previous 12 months!  Four of the top 10 “trending” (fastest growing) terms were related to social media (Facebook, social media, Twitter, and blogger).

Bottom Line:

These days, very few people can sit back and relax, “resting on their laurels.”  In this competitive job market, when you stop learning and  improving, you get left behind.  For older job seekers, demonstrating your knowledge about social media demonstrates that you haven’t been left behind.

————————————————————————————-
About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm and also served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

Your avatars aren’t blue and sparkly and on another planet, like the ones in the movie of the same name.  But, they are in another world: Cyberspace (or maybe we should call it “Google-Bing-Blekko-space”).

In a sense, we’ve been using avatars in our job search for years. We called them “résumés,” and they are still important today, particularly  when you are reaching out to potential employers. 

Your 21st Century Avatars Bring Employers to You

Unlike resumes, which are similar in function to a product sales brochure, the new, 21st century avatars are more like a smart marketing campaign attracting employers and jobs to you!  You aren’t trying to find employers, employers are finding you because they are finding your avatars everywhere.

Seen Avatar, the movie?  (No?  GO!  Or watch the DVD!)  Picture your avatars in cyberspace, showing you at your best - demonstrating your skills and knowledge, cataloging your accomplishments and education, collecting and displaying recommendations, helping you pull the jobs in to you rather than you reaching out for them.

You don’t have a 21st century avatar? You could!  You should!  And you probably do, whether or not you know it.  Here’s how…

Now, in the 21st century, we have many more avatars than just our resumes, and they are much more active and visible than in the past.   We have our LinkedIn profiles, our Google Profiles, our Amazon Profiles, our Twitter Bios, and our Facebook pages, even our VisualCVs and (millions of) blogs.

More on Social Media & Job Search: Social Media & Job Search Home How to Get Started with Social Media Top 6 Employer Magnets Activate & Manage Your Avatars Social Media Is Like Online Dating Social Media No-No’s 5 Ways Social Media Keeps Skills Up to Date Social Recruiting LinkedIn vs. Facebook vs. Twitter vs. (Fill-in-the-Blank) Social Networked Out?

A recent study, funded by Microsoft, shows exactly how important those new avatars are to our careers and, particularly, our job searches: 

• 29% of job seekers think their online reputation is important, but…
• 79% of employers research potential employees online - always or most of the time!

Negative Avatars – or a Lack of Avatars – Can Damage Your Prospects

The newest aspect of 21st century avatars is that we haven’t created all of them, and don’t own all of them, but we need to monitor them, and, as best we can, manage them.

Watch for negative avatars (e.g. report of a DUI conviction) - even if the person involved is not you but someone else with the same or a very similar name. An employer may not be able to discern the difference, and could assume that the negative avatar  belongs to you.  You will drop off the list of “possible hires” as a potential problem or just someone to avoid hiring.

While being “invisible” is a goal for some, viewed as a means of protection against indentity theft and other hazards, having few or no positive avatars (e.g. a LinkedIn Profile)  is both a credibility issue as well as a personal marketing issue.  Without them, your job search will take much longer.  You will drop off the list of “possible hires” because nothing about you can be confirmed by another source online. 

So, Put These New Avatars to Work for YOU

Technology has changed the rules of the game, particularly in the last 18 months, and smart job seekers manage their avatars. For example, in addition to your résumé, you may – or should- have several of these avatars, too:

1. Your LinkedIn Profile and LinkedIn presence (Groups, Discussions, Answers, etc.), including LinkedIn for a stealth job search.
2. Your Twitter Bio and Tweets (on-brand, hopefully)
3. Your Google Profile
4. Your blog and/or guest posts on other blogs
5. Your Facebook account
6. Your Amazon profile (books you read and review, etc.)
7. Your Business Week Business Exchange Profile
8. Your Fast Company Profile
9. Your Visual CV
10. Your Brazen Careerist Profile

Manage Your New Avatars

• Don’t wait until you need your avatars to create them. 
  The longer you work with them, the stronger they become.  Just like waiting until you are unemployed to start networking, waiting until you are unemployed to create your avatars is not the best plan.  Nurture your avatars when you are employed, and you may never need to job hunt again.
• Keep feeding your avatars – new information, new posts, new Tweets, new Friends, new Followers, etc.
  Keep them looking cared-for and current to present you at your best.

Put Google to Work for You

Google yourself regularly to see what’s online.  Is someone else’s avatar hurting your chances for a new job – has someone with the same name done something that could damage your chances at a job (murderer, child abuser, porn star, etc.)?  If you find bad stuff, pick a different version of your name (with or without your middle name or middle initial, etc.).  Then consistently use that new version of your name online to separate yourself.

Set up Google Alerts on your name and topics.  It’s simple to do and free (thank you, Google!).  Google Alerts  help track new or high-ranking references, comments, or posts about you and your favorite topics.

For more on this topic, check out my SlideShare show - 21st Century Job Search Revolution.

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Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

Last week, I had the honor of speaking to a very smart, and congenial, group of professional women at the New Hampshire Women in Higher Education Leadership (NHWHEL).  My topic was 21st century job search and career management, so – of course – I spoke about Twitter.

I encouraged my audience to focus on Tweeting “on brand” for their careers.  Near the end of the talk, one of the questions focused on what an on-brand Tweet would look like – what it would contain and how it would be worded. That’s when I realized I had a gaping hole in my presentation.

What is “on-brand” for your career?

Using myself as an example, “on-brand” for me is simple:  solid, relevant information about job search, employment, and careers.

I look for good articles to share and good Tweets to Re-Tweet, all good enough to be Re-Tweeted by others, hopefully.

“On-brand” is anything related to your career or to what you want your career to be.  If dermatology is your career of choice, Tweet about things related to dermatology – research, trends, news, leading practitioners, etc.

“On-brand” for someone interested in movies could be Tweets about new movies (reviews and announcements of new releases), movies going into production, movies under consideration, books that would be great movies, books that would be terrible movies, directors, actors, box office trends, protecting copyright, etc.

“On-brand” for someone interested in restaurants would be Tweets about new restaurants, new recipes, maybe new foods, etc.

I try to focus on the positive rather than the negative, but it’s a personal choice.

What is NOT on-brand for you career?

Tweets that are NOT related to your career: what you ate, what your kids are doing, what your pets are doing, vacation plans, etc.  Those kind of Tweets can certainly be considered “sharing” and “conversational,” but not really on-brand for most of us, unless your brand is related to kids or pets or vacation plans.

When I’m presenting my career brand, I’m careful about what non-career information I share because I think my Followers view the off-brand Tweets as “noise.”  They’re worried about their careers, their job search, their jobs, and, while I find my pets fascinating, most people won’t find Tweets about them to be relevant to what they want and expect  from me.

Finding on-brand information to share

I find information by:

• Visiting the sites I regularly read to stay up to date.
• Google Alerts I have set up to send me daily updates of news and blog posts on specific keyword phrases.
• The New York Times has an “Alert” function for readers that sends me daily alerts every morning on what is in the current issue of the Times.
• Twitter (of course!) – a wonderful source of information IF TweetDeck organizes it into digestible columns of Tweets for me.  The whole Tweet stream is just too big.
• LinkedIn News posts shared on the Groups I follow.
• Articles or blog posts you have written or friends and colleagues have written.

Structuring on-brand Tweets

When I find a good article that I want to share, this is what I do:

• Do a “Find People” search to see if the writer has a Twitter account (e.g. @JobHuntOrg) that looks active.  If the writer doesn’t have a Twitter account, I look for one for the publication.
• Structure the Tweet to not exceed 110 to 115 characters, to leave room for Re-Tweeting, hopefully.
• Start with the article title, perhaps shortened, if necessary.
• Include the publication where it appeared (e.g. NYTimes, a blog, Website, etc.).
• Include the Bit.ly version of the URL for the article
• Finish with appropriate hashtags, which in my case are usually #jobsearch #jobhunting, etc.

Example 1 – Tweet about a great on-brand article

Jodi Glickman Brown has written 2 excellent blog posts on the Harvard Business Review site delineating an effective process for getting written recommendations from people for your job search.

It was very hard to find Jodi’s Twitter account using Twitter’s “Find People” search, but she sent it to me when she saw this post – @greatonthejob.  (See Jodi’s comment below.)  And the Harvard Business Review has an account that is easy to find.

Jodi’s article is entitled, “How to Ask for a Reference Letter, Part II: The Template” and the URL is http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/04/how_to_ask_for_a_reference_let_1.html

This is a 112-character Tweet:

Reference letter template process, by @greatonthejob in @HarvardBiz: http://bit.ly/cr2GNz #jobsearch #references

That’s not very inspiring or enthusiastic, so here’s a 121-character version:

Excellent! How to Ask for a Reference Letter by @greatonthejob in @HarvardBiz  http://bit.ly/cr2GNz #jobsearch #reference

Example 2 – Re-Tweet an excellent on-brand Tweet by someone else

If you have an on-brand truth that resonates for you and would help others, Tweet it yourself (if you “discovered” it) or Re-Tweet it, if you see that someone else has Tweeted it.

Gayle Howard, a professional resume writer and job search coach, typically sends out a constant stream of Tweets about mistakes she sees people making as she is helping her clients.  They are definitely on-brand for me, so I Re-Tweet them when I find them in my Tweet stream, like this one.

This is a 132-character Tweet which is too long, but it’s such great advice. Note the use of “RT @GayleHoward” is telling readers who originated this Tweet.

Right! RT @GayleHoward No matter how friendly & engaging the interviewer, don’t commit faux pas of bad mouthing a former employer.

Bottom Line

View your professional Tweet stream as your own personal AP Newswire about your profession.  It can help you build and expand your brand.  And a strong brand is great for your career!  It’s only too late for you if you don’t start now.

——————————

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

Recruiters and potential employers search Google for job candidates, even in this economy, and Google loves Twitter.  So, by leveraging search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in Twitter, you can make it easier for them to find you, not only in Twitter but also in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

As a job seeker, you want to be found if someone searches on the job title you want, your profession or industry, and also your name.  Your Twitter account will be helpful for you even after you’ve found that next job.  Recruiters and employers are always searching for good people, so this account can become a major long-term asset to your career:

• People Googling your keywords (your job title, profession, industry, etc.) will find you because your Twitter account will appear in the search results, if you have used those keywords as described in the rest of this article.
• People Googling your name will find your Twitter account in the search results if you have used your name as part of your Twitter identity.

Accessing Your Twitter Account Settings

To implement the tips 2 thru 4, you’ll need to access the “Account” tab page of your Twitter settings.  First, login to your Twitter account. Then, click on “Settings” in the links at the top right of your Twitter page to
access this page - http://twitter.com/account/settings It should look like this:
The information collected on your Twitter Account page (above) is displayed on your Twitter pages, with most of it visible on your Twitter Profile page (see Guy Kawasaki’s Profile page below as an example). When you are logged in to your account, you can see what others see by clicking on “Profile” at the top of the page.

Power SEO for Twitter

More on Social Media & Job Search: Social Media & Job Search Home How to Get Started with Social Media Social Media Is Like Online Dating Social Media No-No’s 5 Ways Social Media Keeps Skills Up to Date Social Recruiting LinkedIn vs. Facebook vs. Twitter vs. (Fill-in-the-Blank) Social Networked Out? More About LinkedIn: LinkedIn Basics Leveraging Your LinkedIn Profile Effective LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn Applications and Your Profile How to Be Found by Recruiters in LinkedIn Search LinkedIn’s Company Follow Function Value of Growing Your LinkedIn Network Adding Misspellings to Your LinkedIn Profile More About Twitter: Twitter Toolbox Twitter as a Job Board Top 10 Twitter Job Search Lists 101 Best Twitter Career & Job Search Resources 8 Twitter SEO Tips for Job Seekers Top 50 Employers Recruiting on Twitter Top 50 College & University Career Center Twitter Accounts More About Facebook: Facebook & Your Job Search Social Media Experts: Miriam Salpeter, Social Media & Job Search Expert Marci Reynolds, contributor Alison Doyle, contributor Jason Alba, contributor

1.  Your Twitter Username (@YOU)

Use your real name, your profession, or your personal brand for your Twitter Username.

Your Twitter Username establishes your Twitter URL (e.g. twitter.com/GuyKawasaki or twitter.com/PublicityHound) and is your public name in Tweets (e.g. @GuyKawasaki or @PublicityHound).  So focus on maximizing the SEO benefit and the branding of your URL. Imagine Tweets coming from you as: @MarketingGuru, @FinancialWhiz, @EcommercePMP, @ProfitManager, @NYCityCPA, or something similar and appropriate for you.

In general, think long term, but, if you must, Twitter does allow you to change your Twitter Username later.  Best not to intend to do that when you start, but if you didn’t get off to a great start, you can still recover.

Twitter allows a total of 15 letters and numbers in this field.  Spaces are not accepted here, but underscores may be used to separate words or letters or numbers.  You have 4 basic options for your Username:

• Your name is probably the best Username you can have if your profession isn’t easily identified in 15 letters or fewer, if you are relatively well-known in your field, or if you want to become relatively well-known in your field.
• Your name + professional designation strengthens the connection between the two, particularly when there are in-bound links to your Twitter Username from outside of Twitter. Those links will usually use your Twitter Username for the text that is clicked.

Add a relevant and accurate job-related keyword to your user name, like [name]CPA, [name]PMP, [name]PhD, whatever is accurate and appropriate, for a little added marketing zing.

• Your profession may be the best choice for your job search because it loudly broadcasts what you do. If you use your profession here, use your real name in the Name field (see Tip # 2, below), to help Twitter, Google, etc. connect the two.
• Your business or blog/Website name, as below. If you have a business or blog you want to promote with this Twitter account, you can build brand awareness for your business or Website by using your business or blog name as your Twitter Username.  By including your name in the “Name” field (see # 2, below), you’ll create some visibility for your name, until you sell your business or Website. Probably not good long-term personal branding for you, however, unless you plan never to sell.

As with your personal email, save the @SexyBlond, @StudlyDudly, and @Colbert4Pres usernames for fun, not for your job search. And, don’t add your real name to those non-job-search accounts, unless you want that connection made for recruiters and employers.

2.  Your Twitter Name

Use your name, your profession, and/or other relevant keywords in the “Name:” field in your Twitter Settings, depending on what you are using in the Username field.

This field is 20 characters long, and will accept spaces and punctuation marks in addition to the usual letters and numbers.

When someone visits your Twitter account, they usually see your Profile page which displays your Name followed by your Username in parenthesis at the very top of the browser (the page “title” in HTML-speak) .  The words and the order of the words in your Twitter Profile page title are very important to search engines and to Twitter search.

Put your most important keywords first. That’s probably your profession or profession and location. PR expert Joan Stewart, right, is the “Publicity Hound” – the name of her business and her Website. So, Joan uses both names in her Twitter Profile.

See the examples below for more options and ideas.

Your keywords are the words you want to describe you.  Keep in mind that, in our example, Guy Kawasaki is already his own “brand” name.  For him, repeating his name is just good SEO because people will probably be searching for him using his name as the keywords.  Most of us are not in that position.

Assuming your name is Mary Jane Smith (work with me here, guys) and you are a CPA in NYC, here are some examples with options to consider:

[FORMAT: Twitter "Name" (Twitter "Username"), as they will appear at the top of the Twitter Profile page and be read by the search engines]

• Mary Jane Smith (MaryJaneSmith) – name used in both fields, Name and Username
• Mary Jane Smith (MJSmithCPA) – name plus name variation with profession
• Mary Jane Smith (NYCityCPA) – name plus location with profession
• Mary Jane Smith CPA (MJSmithCPA) – name with profession plus name variation with profession repeated
• New York City CPA (MaryJSmith)  – location and profession plus name
• New York City CPA (MJSmithCPA) – location and profession plus name variation with profession repeated

Options you have:

• If you’ve used your name for your Username, the Name field provides you with the opportunity to add some differentiation and marketing (e.g. New York City CPA in the last 2 examples above).
• If your Username is not your name, put your name in this field enabling Google (and Twitter search) to find your Twitter account if someone uses your name in a search query.

If you are like me and many others, your name is relatively common. Differentiate yourself by adding your middle initial or even your middle name for all your online activities. Then, use that name consistently with Facebook, LinkedIn, email, etc. to establish a consistent “brand name” for yourself.

You can change this Name at any time, but it’s wise to stick to one version of your name for consistent branding.  Having a unique name is becoming increasingly important when recruiters Google job seekers. 

If you have a common name, your identity may be mixed up with the identity of someone who has a bad reputation. See the Online Reputation Management for Job Search for more information.

3.  Your Location

Include where you are living or the location where you  want to work.

This is a very important keyword or keyword phrase, particularly for job seekers.

You can see that Joan Stewart has proudly indicated she is in Port Washington, WI.  If anyone searches through Twitter, Google, or other search engines for people in Port Washington, Joan will show up.

Guy gives his location as “United 3B” which sounds like he lives in first class on United Airlines.  Or, at least that’s where he was when he updated his Twitter Settings. Probably not something most people would search on, but effective and funny for Guy.

4.  Your Twitter Web address

Use the “More Info URL:” field in your Twitter Settings to connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn Profile, your blog, your Website, VisualCV, or other relevant personal Web address.

This will be a live clickable link that you can change as many times as you want to change it.  This field accepts only one URL, so pick the one that shows your most professional “face” to the online world for your job search.  This is where people will go if they want more information about you.

If you want to connect more than one URL (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), you may type an additional URL into your Bio. Do use the “real” URL, sans the http://, not a special shortened version in your Bio, unless you are prepared to check it on a weekly or monthly basis to be sure it’s still live.

NOTE: Because of the 140 character limitation for Tweets, URL shortener services (snipURL, TinyURL, etc.) are in widespread use. But, most of those URL’s do eventually expire, leaving links that point to dead ends. So, don’t include them in your “More info URL” or your Bio if you can avoid it.

5.  Your Twitter Bio

Put relevant, keyword-rich information in your “One Line Bio” on the Twitter Settings page of your account.

Your goal is to include the kind of keywords an employer would use in a search to find people like you.

Twitter gives you 160 characters to use for your Bio - don’t waste this opportunity!  Examples, with the keywords bolded:

Recent college grad, business major, seeking entry level product marketing job w/Fortune 500 co. Intern experience in marketing & sales. Prefer West Coast.

Attorney/corporate counsel w/10 years experience in NYC publishing industry. Skilled w/contracts, IP, & litigation management. Admitted to practice in NY Bar.

Leaving the Bio space empty is worse than having a blank billboard on a busy highway.  It doesn’t do you any good, and it could do you some harm.  Without some content here, you could look lazy and/or clueless or like someone who doesn’t know what job they want.  You may even look like a spammer.

If your Bio is empty, potential employers and followers will not be easily attracted, so a big opportunity will be wasted.

6.  Tweet daily, and Tweet on-topic.

Demonstrate your knowledge of your topic, your writing and research skills, and your work ethic, with the Tweets you publish:

• Be a good source of fresh, good, relevant information.
• Link to good information even if you didn’t write it.
• If you have a blog, link to the most relevant postings you make.
• Re-Tweet good content relevant to your topic and/or your target employers and their competitors.

Attract the attention of your target employers with your Tweets:

• If you find a news item, particularly a postive one, about one of your target employers, Tweet about it, including the name of the organization in your Tweet.
• RT positive Tweets by people working for your target employers or about your target employers (see the example in # 7, below).

Employers don’t care what your weather is, what coffee you ordered at Starbucks, or what is happening to your team in the latest round of the championship [fill-in-the-blank] playoffs, etc. UNLESS:

• The weather Tweet demonstrates your knowledge of weather or climatology for your weather forecasting/climatology job search.
• The Starbucks Tweet demonstrates your expertise as a foodie (coffee-ie?), critic, writer, etc.
• The sports event Tweet demonstrates your skill as a sports reporter, umpire, coach, caddie, etc.

You get the idea:  If it’s not on-topic for your employment and job search goals, don’t Tweet about it with this account.

BTW, it is probably a good idea to avoid Tweets about “causes” unless you are looking for employment supporting those causes.  Again, this is something better pursued with your personal Twitter account, not your “work” account.

7.  Make your Tweets keyword-rich.

If you are looking for a job in one of the green industries, be sure to Tweet on the topic using relevant keywords which would include:

• The names of your target employers
• The industry’s or profession’s jargon
• Appropriate professional and industry associations and groups (names and acronyms)
• Important company and individual names in the industry (particularly your target employers, when appropriate).
• Hash mark tags for specific Twitter groups and topics are usually important keywords, like #jobseekers for tweets about job search. [See Susan Ireland's collection of 38 job searchtags marks on Twitter.]

For example, with the keywords bolded:

#environment Green jobs initiative launched in Iowa to encourage energy conservation, use of wind & solar power http://bit.ly…

#apple Apple Computer announced an exciting new product today, according to…
(assuming that Apple Computer is one of your target employers, you’ve used the company name plus the Twitter hashtag for Tweets about the company.)

8.  Link back to your Twitter account.

People underestimate how important this step is.  If you have a blog or a Website, link back TO your Twitter home page – http://Twitter.com/[your Username] -  to encourage people to follow you and to build the search engine “credibility” of your Twitter home page.  Add your Twitter URL (twitter.com/Username) to your email signature, to comments you make on blogs, articles you write, etc.

The more links to your user name, using the user name as the click-able text, the greater the ”credibility” it has with Google and other search engines.

The more “credible” your Twitter home page is, the more likely it is to turn up in a Google search.

Bonus:   Structure your Tweets carefully, particularly the first few words.

Twitter turns the first 50 characters in each Tweet into the Web page title for that Tweet.  This means that the first 15 to 25 characters of each Tweet (depending on the number of characters of the Tweeter’s Name) are picked up as the page’s title - a very important field to Google and most search engines, helping them understand what the Tweet is about.

For example, using one of Joan Stewart’s Tweets:

Joan’s Tweet:
9 proven headline formulas that sell like crazy. http://ow.ly/fA0O

The TITLE of that Tweet generated by Twitter:
Twitter / Joan Stewart: 9 proven headline formulas

You can see that Twitter includes the content in the Name field in the page title of each invidual Tweet, as above.

With all the things you have to juggle while Tweeting (fitting into the character count limit, using the best keywords, leaving enough space for Re-Tweets, etc.).  I wouldn’t obsess about this one – that’s why it’s number eight.  Just keep it in the back of your mind when you are Tweeting, and try to keep the most important words first, if you can.

Bottom Line:

The more you understand about search engines, the better off you will be, particularly when you are job hunting.

If you find entries in the search results you don’t like when “vanity Googling” (searching Google on your name), you can supplant those over time with good content, like your blog and Tweets.  It takes time, but it can be done.  Might as well start now building a strong first page of Google results.

Good luck with your job search!

(c) Copyright 2009.  Job-Hunt.org All rights reserved.

About the author and list compiler…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joycehas been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. For the latest news and updates, follow Susan on Twitter @JobHuntOrg.