Since last couple of posts in the series on building rapport with prospective employers, I have been talking about twitter etiquette, which I will continue in this post as well. A sound knowledge of particulars of etiquettes related to twitter is necessary to make it big in here.

Check your language for appropriateness

Seeing the informal nature of twitter, it is easy for us to give in to the temptation of using informal language (read slang), wrong spelling, and misplaced grammar when tweeting. You should avoid doing this. It can spell doom for your twitter job-search dream.

Advice when asked

Many a time, people sends out a tweet to anyone and everyone asking for advice on certain topic. Seize this opportunity and make big of it. Participate in the conversation and hang in there until the discussion is devoid of all its juices.

Use shortening services

Use URL shortening service when posting a link in your tweets. Shortening services like Bit.ly, Tiny URL, etc., will not only help you keep your URL short, but it will also help you track the clicks. You should also use these services to post pictures and videos on twitter. It will also help you keep your tweets clutter free.

With these tips, our discussion on twitter job-search etiquette comes to an end. You will get desired result, if you apply the tips I have shared so far. Each one of them is very valuable.

Use direct message or DM, as it is known on twitter

Do not start sending confidential or sensitive information on the twitter’s public timeline using @ symbol. This is akin to taking someone’s bedroom talk to nearest pub. No one is going to like it, and you by doing so are risking your reputation. Instead, send sensitive or personal information in a direct message. Send your résumé link, interview request, etc., in DM only.

Hit Reply

Many a time job seekers do not pay much attention to DMs sent to them, or to the messages sent to them using @ symbol. Always, always, always respond to all direct and indirect messages sent to you. This will paint a picture of a guy who is helpful, friendly, and prompt. These are the traits of an employee that anyone will like to hire.

Count your words before you write

Twitter allows you only 140 characters that also include spaces and special characters, so be wise in the word selection. 140 characters are all you have, and it is on you to decide how you will make each character add to the value your tweet will deliver. Do not use unnecessary superlatives, adjectives, and adverts. I will rather suggest you to stay away from every word that has nothing to add to the discussion.

Go and check your tweets, and DMs to see if your tweets and DMs meet the standard set above or not. Fix them, if they don’t, and continue using twitter the way you do, if you do not find any problem.

Engage yourself

Increase the frequency of your tweets to remain in the eyes of fellow tweeters — out of sight, out of mind phenomenon works more here. Tweet often and tweet regularly, but do not ever cross the thin red line crossing which raises the red flag.

Spread your net

Keep on finding people to tweet to. Do not just tweet to people in your follower’s, find people to add to your list, but, do not start mass following. By doing so, you will be call in spammers who do not listen on twitters. All they know is clutter the twitter time line.

Join the conversation

Tweeting your content is good, but joining the conversation is even better. Read what others are saying, join the conversation, comment on the discussion, be part of it, spread the word, send DM (direct message), and get known. This will help you form a lasting relationship with fellow tweeters. People like you most when you talk about the stuffs they care — in this case, the stuffs they share.

Spread the news

Talking about yourself on and on may make you sound braggart, and talking about what others have to say make you sound influential. See what others are talking about and be the first to tweet about it. This will bring you on the forefront of your industry, and the leaders cannot help but look at you, and recognize you.

Get personal with @

Use @ followed by twitter’s account name to share stuffs with people you want to network with on twitter. This will get their attention. Send out only meaningful tweets using @, and do it sparingly. Overdoing will raise the barrier.

As you can see, finding a job on twitter is not like finding a job on job-search portals. It is about engagement here. You have to engage people first and then ask for a job. This may look like too much work, but it is not. And on top of it, it is highly rewarding. By engaging your prospects in talk, you have crossed half the distance, as talking to them let them know about you. If they like what they see, they will hire you.

First tweet then follow

What most people do after joining twitter is they start following as many people as they can and as soon as they can. This is a very bad strategy to increase your twitter follower count. A good one is to start with posting informative and entertaining tweets followed by following people in the fields of your interest. This way you will get more active followers who will give you more opportunity.

No spamming please

Do not start tweeting in bulk as people with “spammer” tag does. Act with moderation and tweet only what is really, really important. If you want people to hire you for a job then do not post stuffs that will take away from your image.

Talking of quality content, I will recommend you to record a video of you talking about what you do, what is your qualification, and how much work experience you have, etc., and tweet this video cover letter once or twice a day.

Do not act desperate

This will not do any good. Tweeting too much may force people to ignore you, if not unfollow you. There is no need to post your résumé five times a day. Tweet your résumé or video cover letter maximum twice a day. That is enough.

You should not deviate from this tweeting practice for even a single day. Have patience, result will come.

One of the best tactics to do that, is the use of sites like tweetlater.com, which allows you to set up tweets at any future date, time, etc that you choose.  Sites like these are a great tool to keep your tweets regular.  So if you know you’re going to be busy later, or if you have a great idea now, you can always save them to use at a different time.  Keeping your tweets coming regularly, and keeping them all stellar, is the best way to keep interest.

Other tools like Twazzup lets you track hashtags, allowing you to see what’s going on in relation to your tweets.  This is extremely useful so that you can see who is re-tweeting your hashtags, and what context they’re being reused.  This can help you formulate strategies by sticking to campaigns that tend to be more successful than others.

Don’t forget to make use of tools that asses the market you’re trying to reach as well.  Services like the Forrester Profile Calculator help you find where and how potential customers are looking for information.  Making use of these can really help you grow your page, because you’ll know just how to target that demographic that’s most important to your page.

Finding them is easy enough, but remember that you have to keep writing interesting and engaging tweets to keep them there.  Holding attention in the long run is much more difficult that gaining attention at first.

So obviously the first step is to create a professional Twitter page.  Whether for your business, or personal business ventures, make sure that you update often.  The quickest way to be forgotten is to tweet only once every few days.  You have to keep your Twitter page active, usually with multiple tweets per day, so that there is always more content for an interested party to keep tabs on.

Use Twitter search to narrow down people, or other businesses that might be interested in finding your Twitter page.  Try and contact them, either through mention on your Twitter account or via personal message to let them know about you.  This way you can gain more and more followers.  Your efforts won’t be very successful if you don’t have very many followers accessing your tweets.

Remember to take care of your followers as you gain them as well.  Respond to them, mention them, etc.  Make them involved, as they will become interested, and also mention you in their tweets, and that’s free advertising.  Keeping your followers interested is key to building the Twitter page, and increasing your effectiveness.

Finally use Twitter’s search function to see how many mentions you are getting on other pages throughout the site.  This is a good way to keep up on how successful your efforts have been.  Also you’ll be able to keep track of what you should change to accommodate the greater interest.  Twitter feedback is valuable, so take full advantage of the ability to see accurate feedback so quickly.

In this article, we will see what you need to do to get clients from twitter.

Step 1: Use real name

Will you like to do business with sexykitten, or hotrode? I am sure you won’t, regardless of how smart hotrode or sexykitten is. This is the power of name. A good name creates a positive image, whereas, a bad name ruins the party. Use your real name or business name for the twitter profile. If your name or business name is already taken then use something close to that, but spare yourself the horror of bad names.

Step 2: Use real picture

Like a real name, a real picture helps create a positive image in the mind of onlookers. Do not go for cool looking cartoons, or any other thing. Let your prospect know that you are a real person behind the twitter profile by giving a real picture.

Step 3: Brand your background

If you do not know this then let me break the good news that you can brand your twitter profile the way you want. I will suggest you customize the background of your twitter profile with your corporate brand identity.

Step 4: Use compelling bio

Your one-line twitter bio says a lot about you. People get influenced reading that, so it better be good. Make your twitter bio forceful and SEO-friendly.

Step 5: Add URL

Many people leave URL field empty. Do not commit this mistake. Use a proper working URL in your profile. This will work as a door to your website.

Step 6: Create a list

Create a list of the tweets from your industry and make it publicly available. This will give your prospect an idea about how closely you follow the changes in your industry. He may regard you as a leader of the pack, which will mean more business for you.

Reason 1: To search what you need

Twitter is not just a micro-blogging platform, but it is a potent search engine as well. The keyword search tool of twitter is very powerful, and can fetch the result you are looking for in real time, for example, if you type #Movie 2010, Dallas in the twitter search, you will get all the results of recent tweets matching the word you entered. Check out advanced Twitter search or use the operators.

Reason 2: To filter the inflow of Information

Let’ face it. The amount of information produced on the Internet in one single day will require more than a lifetime to consume. You will have to born again 2 to 3 times to consume the information we produced in one day. This is what we call information overload, which confuses us big time and leave us paralyzed.

We need a filter, rather many filters, to make sense of the world around us. Twitter and tools based on its API help us filter the information without missing on the things we need to know.

Reason 3: To get breaking News

Reuters and Bloomberg are panting, and twitter is donning a proud smile of a winner who has achieved the goal faster. Breaking news reaches faster to twitter than it goes to any big media houses. Check out http://Twitter.com/breakingnews.

Reason 4: To know what others are thinking on a topic

Use # tag (keyword) feature of twitter to find out the opinions of people on a certain topic. See how people are reacting to the event or occurrence that matters to you.

Reason 5: Track a trend

Every day many trends and countless micro-trends come into and go out of existence. If you are an information junkie or a social scientist who wants to keep eye on what is happening in the world then nothing can help you as much as twitter will. Use #tag (keyword) to track what people are saying, doing, and talking about.