Here is the eighth column in the weekly Tuesday feature “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job” by Yael K. Miller and Phyllis Zimbler Miller, co-founders of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.
Yael and Phyllis are writing about the FICTIONAL CHARACTER Amy H., who will be a senior this fall at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in English. Find all the posts in this series, organized for your convenience, here.
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Last week Amy read Chapter 7 – “Using Facebook to Strategically Connect With Potential Job Opportunities.” She followed the ebook’s advice about joining a few groups and pages on Facebook.
She now reads Chapter 8 – “Learning to Participate on Twitter Effectively.”
Amy has heard a lot about Twitter and wants to learn how to use it to help her get a job.
The ebook warns that, when you first set up a Twitter account, you should choose a unique password just as you needed to do on Facebook because both sites are subject to hackers.
Second, it’s important to carefully choose your username. The problem is that you only have 15 characters for a username and many common names are already taken.
It’s not advisable to use an underline in your username, such as First_Last, nor does it make a lot of sense to put JohnSmith15 if there are 14 John Smiths already on Twitter.
Try using a middle name or a middle initial. Or, if you have a special interest, combine that interest with your name. For example, let’s say you’re a photographer. You could put FirstLastPhotos.
While it’s important to choose a usename that presents a professional image, you can later change your username if you don’t like what you started out with.
The ebook says that you need to set up an effective Twitter profile and recommends you get the detailed step-by-step free report on how to do this at http://www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com
Then write two interesting tweets (each tweet has a maximum of 140 characters) about yourself on your account. For example, if you are an architecture major, you might tweet: Read a great new article about the architecture of the Getty Museum in LA. Then include in your tweet the link to the article if it is available online.
Next find 10 to 20 people to follow; these people should be relevant to your career interests or other interests.
To find people to follow: Use the SEARCH box on the righthand sidebar of Twitter to find tweets on topics of interest to you. You do this by typing in topics in that SEARCH box. Then you click on the Twitter username of the person whose tweet you like and check out that person’s profile.
If he/she sounds of interest to you, click the person’s FOLLOW button below the Twitter profile photo.
You can also click on the FIND PEOPLE navigation button to do a search for people, organizations and companies that you know are already on Twitter. When you get several results for a person’s name, read each result to see which one is most likely to be the person you wanted to find.
The beauty of Twitter is that you can follow whoever you want without asking permission (with the exception of the few people who have locked Twitter accounts for a variety of reasons).
Now these people may or may not follow you back, but if you engage in Twitter conversations with them, such as tweeting an insightful reply in response to something they tweeted, you have a better chance of having these people follow you back.
The homework for this week is to set up an effective Twitter profile, complete with the same headshot you’ve used on LinkedIn and Facebook, and then start adding your tweets to the Twitter conversation.
Bonus tip: If you want to jumpstart your understanding of Twitter, check out the ebook “The Wonderful World of Twitter” at http://www.millermosaicllc.com/wonderful-world-twitter-ebook/ The information works for positioning yourself in front of people who might be interested in hiring you as well as working for business owners who want to position themselves in front of people who might be prospective clients/customers.
Phyllis and Yael hope you’ll sign up for new post notifications here at ebranding.me through the RSS feed or email. Then do the ebook assignments for yourself so you’re ready for next week.
And leave comments below if you have any questions on the material in this blog series “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job.”
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Yael K. Miller and Phyllis Zimbler Miller are the co-founders of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Get the free tips booklet HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS (also good for personal branding) at the company’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/powermarketing – and for information on the Miller Mosaic social media monthly mentorship program see http://budurl.com/joinmmic
