Using Twitter in career-boosting moves

So how do job-seekers find these openings and more importantly, stand out from the crowd to get noticed?

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Follow dream companies

It all starts with prospective employees finding and following the companies they are interested in.

Official Twitter profiles are a great source of constant news and updates from organisations, including their HR teams. Following businesses not only helps keep job seekers up-to-date on their announcements, but also gives an insight into the their culture. Moreover, engaging with companies and their tweets makes candidates visible, giving them a leg-up in the hiring process. Additionally, Twitter accounts of recruiters or specialised handles that work as job boards for various industries are worth following, giving a wider insight of who's hiring and for what positions.

There are several recruitment accounts in South Africa that are active on Twitter that give prospective employees a better chance for landing their dream job including: @joblistafrica; @ZA-jobs; @jobportal_PNET; @bizcommunity and @careers24jobs.

Engage in conversation

Using Twitter can boost a candidate's personal brand by allowing them to create meaningful content to show people who they are and what they care about. Twitter also gives them a chance to better market themselves, and improve how others perceive them, starting with their bios, especially since a huge number of companies check the social media profile of a potential employee before moving further. In essence, the bio is the new elevator pitch - it needs to sum up a person's interests, expertise and background, all in 160 characters. However, creating content goes beyond bios; Twitter is a great platform for candidates to display their knowledge of their field, such as sharing industry-relevant articles or commenting on industry topics.

Another way that Twitter can help people reach their career goals is networking with others outside their immediate circle. With its wide array of users, Twitter allows job seekers to make new "important" contacts including those they never thought they could connect with. They can take advantage of the different communities and chats on Twitter to connect with those of similar interests. New features like group Direct Messages (DMs) and sharing a public Tweet privately make it easier than ever before to create and maintain those connections.

Find good content and share

Once candidates have found relevant accounts, started building their brand by commenting on meaningful subjects and grasped the fundamentals of networking, the next challenge is to find good content to read and share constantly. One of the best ways of tapping into and engaging in existing conversations is tracking hashtags, which allows job seekers to follow topics and fields they are interested in. For example if you are a graphic designer or in advertising, you may be interested in following the hashtag #youngcreatives or #Loeries2015.

Engage, listen, learn

A platform like Twitter gives users the opportunity to create lists to group together people and receive their Tweets and updates in a separate feed. Alternatively, candidates can follow already curated lists created by other users. The main benefit of lists is that they provide real-time updates from particular accounts (usually Tweeting about a similar topic), but separate from the main timeline, which makes it easier to access and utilise this data.

Ultimately, Twitter is all about engaging - what makes the platform stand out among others is the opportunity to interact liberally with brands, organisations and people in real-time. For candidates, the most important aspect of using Twitter as a tool to land their dream job is to constantly listen, interact and respond to others, whether proactively tweeting to people, retweeting, or replying to mentions and DMs. At a time when recruitment is foregoing the traditional route for social, one fundamental truth of the process remains the same: it is all about creating an impression.