Do you know what you’re retweeting?

I consider a retweet an endorsement or recommendation, like the sharing of a good book or interesting news item. Yet, every time I see a link receive mass retweets  I wonder if the retweeters are recommending the link  because of it’s content, because they’re supporting the person who dropped the original tweet,  or because the headline is eye catching.

Over the past couple of days, I watched a link receive major, major (I’m talking celebrity even) retweets.  I was just about to retweet too, but then I felt it important to visit the link.  After reading the link I did a little more research and realized there might be more to the story than met the eye, and if so, how could I endorse it? I don’t want to share something I’m not sure about myself.

As I saw the retweets fly, and there were hundreds of them, I wondered how many of those people were tweeting because of a shocking headline or because a celebrity tweeted,  and how many stopped to read and investigate before tweeting.

So here are some things I think about when I see mass retweets:

• Are you sharing a link because you read the post or article and believe in what it says?
• Are you sharing because you know everything you want to know from the headline?
• Are you sharing because you were asked to?
• Are you sharing because you trust the person who originally tweeted?

Is there ever an occasion where you don’t read before you share, and if so, why?

Ever since joining Google+, I’ve been reading many discussions about how cool this new network is because there’s “less noise.” I’ve never been a fan of  ”noise” as a description of social networking  because most of the interaction there are legitimate attempts at conversation  and referring to it as noise is kind of insulting to those in the our streams.

However,  the complaining about “noise” kind of gets to me more because if our streams are noisy it’s our own fault.

• You approved every single person you follow. If they’re showing up in your streams it’s because you put them there.
• If you don’t like or can’t keep up with the conversations in your steams, you can unfriend, unfollow, or block. You’re under no obligation to follow people you don’t want to follow.
• It’s kind of unfair to want thousands of followers to hang on to your every word but then turn around and refer to their conversations as noise. It tells them they’re not as important as you are.

I love how quiet and clean Goole+  is. I can read everyone’s updates and I know everyone in my circles. Ditto Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been called out for not following everyone back on Twitter and for only making Facebook available to friends and family. And you know what? I like it that way. I like learning about the people in my streams and adding new people as I learn more about them.

I prefer the slow add over the quick fire “let me see how many followers I can get to show everyone what an influencer I am,”  because it enables me to build better relationships. Is my way the right way? Probably not. I don’t know that there is a right way to do this.  But I can tell you this. I don’t complain much about noise.

Now, I do mention often how hard it is to follow conversations on Twitter because they’re quick and everyone is talking at once. There aren’t any nested or threaded comments and if you aren’t “@’ed” it’s hard to follow a conversation.  I love Twitter for a variety of reasons but the inability to follow a conversation is my biggest gripe. However, that doesn’t make it all noise.

I think we  jumped into this social networking thing with both feet and learned some interesting lessons. For example, having thousands of followers is very cool and flattering, but unless you’re working hard to build relationships with all those people it doesn’t mean much or make much sense to follow every single person back. Sure, it allows you to share your links and internet marketing stuff with 100,000 people – but then you can’t complain that they’re all noisy. These are the people who you need to grow your community. If you’re referring to them as “noise” you’re probably taking the wrong approach. If they’re too noisy, don’t follow them back. Otherwise, consider them part of your community and get to know as many of them as possible

What makes your streams noisy – and what can you do to make it less so?

You may be thinking Twitter chats look like a bunch of noise and I’ll tell you that so far from the truth. Twitter chats, when done right, are organized and professional. The best chats have a good moderator to keep things on track.

Why should you take part in a Twitter chat?

10. Gather ideas

Twitter chats are inspiring. With so many great minds gathered in the same place you can’t help but walk away with business ideas, blog fodder, and collaborative efforts.

9. Learn who the top people are in a particular niche or industry

Most Twitter chats feature a weekly topic and guests who are ahead the game in their respective field. This is a chance to network and build relationships with the people who are getting things done in a big way.

8. Become a part of a community

Each Twitter chat is a different community. Here’s something else; when you’re involved in a Twitter chat you’re talking with a large group of people in a specific niche which means you now have a bigger list of contacts for your community and more people with whom to share your passion.

7. Jump in any time

It doesn’t matter if you show up late or if you’re shy, Twitter chats make it easy for everyone to have a voice.

6. Gain new followers

Unless you act like a tool, you’re sure to walk away from a Twitter chat with some new followers. If you really have something valuable to add to the conversation, you’ll find yourself with an onslaught of new friends.

5. Have an enlightening conversation

The purpose of a Twitter chat is to, well, chat. But about a specific topic. So not only do you get to hang out with people who share the same interests, you can share your passion as well.

4. Share your own expertise and (dare I say it?) influence

One of the beautiful things about hashtag chats is how they’re so interactive. Rather than observe, we’re active participants. We’re able to add our own point of view, even if we’re not the guest of honor. That’s not meant in a braggy, boastful way, but in a way that allows us to contribute.

3. Learn something

Walk away with something of value from each and every Twitter chat. Whether it’s inspiration for a blog post, a fact you want to look up later, or someone you want to get to know better, these chats are never a wasted experience.

2. Make new business contacts

Most of the chats I attend have to do with some form of business, and through them I made so many important contacts. There are a few speakers I want to investigate for BlogWorld, some community professionals I’ll enjoy interviewing for my book, as well as other important connections.

1. Meet new friends

The best reason to join a hashtag chat is all the connections you’ll make beyond business connections. You meet so many intriguing people, some who will become good friends.

Twitter Chat weapons of choice

Here’s the thing: Sometimes Twitter chats can be difficult to keep up with because there’s so much information flying by so fast. You need the right tools.  I like to use Tweet chat, an app created specifically for hashtag chats that continuously refreshes itself so you can keep up. Also,  use the search function Twitter management apps such as HootSuite, Tweetdeck and Seesmic to keep up.

Recommended Twitter chats

Since you’re probably here because you’re into blogging, community or general social media, I can recommend these chats for you:

• #BlogChat – Sundays at 9:00 p.m EST  – Speakers and topics of interest to bloggers.
• #SpeakChat – Mondays at 9:00 p.m. EST – Public speaking tips and discussion.
• #cmgrchat – Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. EST – Discussion for community managers
• #BWEchat – Regular time TBD – BlogWorld Expo chat. After the first successful chat, we’re determining a regular time to keep it going.

Do you take part in Twitter hashtag chats? If so, tell us why, the benefits to you and your favorite chats. If you don’t take part in chats, share why as well.

I pride myself in a nice tidy Twitter timeline. I carefully consider everyone I follow and don’t do so for the sake of acquiring more followers or giving me high numbers. As a result, I get to know everyone I follow a little better than if I blindly followed a bunch of randomness. I do add new friends from time to time, but, again, adding them slowly gives me a better chance of getting to know them than if I did hundreds of rapidfire adds to grow my numbers. My Seesmic hosted my one and only Twitter account and my Facebook account and it was all nice and mellow-like.

Enter @blogworldexpo.

So I took over one of the BlogWorld Twitter accounts and added it to my Seesmic and now, all there are thousands more people in my Twitter stream. People and businesses I don’t even know. It’s all fine and dandy but two accounts are a lot to keep up.

Which brings me to the folks who have dozens of different twitter accounts.

I tried this years ago. I had my @debng account, which is pretty much where you can find me now, and twitter handles for each one of my blogs. Back in the day when I was a blogger for hire, that could mean up six or seven Twittter accounts. And yes, it got to be a challenge.

• Before Seesmic and Tweetdeck it meant logging in and logging out of several different accounts to post updates.
• After implementing Seesmic and Tweetdeck it meant the wrong announcements were posted to the wrong Twitter stream because I post and run – and don’t check where my Tweets are going.
• Multiple Twitter accounts generally means at least one account is neglected and only becomes a feed for links to blog posts.

Here are my personal feelings about individuals with multiple Twitter accounts:

• It becomes a lot to keep up with. The Twitterers create separate accounts for “branding” purposes yet invite me (and the same other people) to follow each different account. If that’s the case, why not have everything under one umbrella?
• I get having separate Twitter accounts for business and pleasure, but if you’re going to post the same thing in the ten different accounts it sort of defeats the purpose.  If you’re going to have a jillion different accounts, I want to see a jillion different updates, save for the occasional “big” announcement.
• If I follow someone on one or two accounts it should be enough. I shouldn’t have to follow one person at ten different accounts, especially if eight out of ten of those accounts aren’t relevant to me.
• More than a couple of accounts are confusing, especially for the branding thing. Wearing eight different hats doesn’t help with branding and folks aren’t sure of the real “you.”

So now let’s hear it from the peanut gallery. How many accounts are too many? When do all the different accounts start to get out of hand? Do you follow one person at multiple accounts?

Discuss…

There’s a lot of retweeting going on lately. This isn’t a bad thing, after all, social networking is about sharing, right? After several years of watching people tweet, I began to realize that retweets and the folks doing the retweeting, take on a type and personality all their own.

As Twitter evolves, I find myself naming the various types of tweet and retweets.

Behold:

1. Vanity Retweet

We’ve discussed this here before in detail; the vanity retweet happens when you retweet something complimentary that was tweeted about you. For example, if someone tweeted “Read Deb Ng’s blog because she’s so smart and amazing” and I retweeted that, I would be vanity retweeting.  It’s sort of like holding up a sign and saying, “Hey world, look! Someone paid me a compliment!” Vanity retweeters don’t usually come out looking very humble.

2. Blind Retweet

If you retweet a link without even looking to see what’s on the other end of said link, you’re giving out a blind retweet. Some folks do this because they’re retweeting a friend or a popular tweeter, and some folks do this because the title sounds like something they’d like. Still, if you’re tweeting out a link it means you’re endorsing the link, and if it’s a sucky one it can make you look bad. Best to know what you’re sharing, before sending it out to the masses.

3. Retweeting the Tribe

If you only retweet a select clique or group of friends, you’re retweeting the tribe, your own tribe. There’s nothing wrong with supporting or sharing your friends stuff as long as you truly believe it to be shareable.  If you share spammy stuff all the time, folks are going to be less inclined to click on what you’re sharing. However, supporting friends is a beautiful thing.

4. Everyone Else is Retweeting and So Must I

This is when the retweeter isn’t sharing for the share, but rather because it seems to be the in thing to do. “Hey I want to be one of the cool kids and retweet this link too.”

5. The True Sharing Retweet

A true share is when there are no ulterior motives other than bringing something awesome to other people’s attention. The retweeter saw it, read it, and feels others would enjoy it as well. It’s giving for the sake of giving.

6. The Mashable Retweet

This is kind of self explanatory. It’s retweeting a Mashable link simply because it’s a Mashable link. Some retweeters have gone so far as to hook up the Mashable feed to their Twitter timelines in order to share every single post. Because it is, after all, Mashable.

7. The Topic of the Day Retweet

In which the retweeter chooses a topic or link carefully in order create a discussion within his or her community.

8. The Retweet by Request

You had no intentions of tweeting out this link. But then a friend sent you a DM or email to please help her out by sharing her blog post on your Twitter stream. If you say no, you’ll feel like a sucky friend. If you say yes, you’re sending out a link you really don’t believe is shareable.

What do you do?

9. The Back Scratching Retweeter

Ah yes, recipriocity. You tweet my link and I’ll link yours. Better yet, let’s get a whole linking, tweeting party together. Let’s all share each other’s stuff every time we post. How cool would that be?

10. The Retweet with Commentary

There’s nothing blind about this retweet. Thanks to your description, folks are knowing exactly why you’re sharing. The know if you’re looking for a discussion or just want to pass along a good share. They know if a topic makes you angry or giddy. The retweet with commentary encourages further exploration and discussion. A gift that keeps giving.

Now, you’ve been on Twitter for some time. What are some of the types of retweets you notice?

Twitter is about sharing. I share, you share, we all share links to our blogging. Plus we share links to other people’s blogging. Plus we share links to videos, cartoons, articles and so much more. It’s getting to the point that when I turn on Twitter, I see more links than actual conversations happening. In fact, some people don’t even log into Twitter. They set up their feeds to do nothing but drop links. The don’t talk, they don’t reply and they don’t engage.

Is Twitter turning into a link farm?

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my Twitter friends what would happen if we stopped Tweeting links to our own stuff for just one day. Some were intrigued, some were appalled and many took it to mean I wanted folks to stop Tweeting links altogether.

As someone who Tweets links to my own stuff, I’m wondering if Twitter is reaching the link saturation point. I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to head to Twitter looking for conversation to see nothing but links. Or to ask a question and get links in response.

I get that Twitter is a promotional tool, but remember when it was more than that? Remember when it wasn’t so much about promoting your stuff as it was carrying on a conversation, meeting people or sharing ideas? I lose Twitter followers every day. Why? Because I talk too much and it has nothing to do with links. It has to do with having conversations.  People aren’t upset that I tweet out links to my blog posts or share other interesting links, they don’t like my having conversations.

Conversation to Tweet Ratio

I once read that one should have a conversation to link ratio on Twitter. That for every link Tweeted, one should send out at least five to ten conversation Tweets. They can be questions to friends, @replies or general observations but there should be a balance.

I don’t know about that.

I don’t know that there needs to be rules. I feel that the social networks are what we make of it and we don’t need for the social media police to tell us how to do everything. However, I do think we (and yes, I’m included in that) are getting carried away with our links sometimes.

Then next time you’re on Twitter, check out all your Tweets and your friends Tweets. See how many links are being passed around as opposed to conversational Tweets. What do you think of this?

Now, keep in mind that one of my favorite reasons to visit Twitter each day is to learn something new. I absolutely LOVE to read blog posts or to see who is sharing what. I just find it interesting to see how much Twitter has changed into being almost all links and not so many true discussions.

That’s why I would love to see a day when we don’t Tweet out our own stuff. That all links we share point to someone else. It wouldn’t cut down on the links we’re Tweeting each day, but it would it would show the true spirit of our sharing.

What would you do if you couldn’t Tweet your own links? Would it change the way you use or view Twitter?

You might also enjoy reading:

• How Paper li Can Become a More Attractive Option for Bloggers
• 10 Tips for Using Twitter to Find Social Media Jobs
• Confessions of a Prolific Tweeter

If you’re on Twitter, you may have noticed all of those Paper.li newspapers made up of tweets compiled from Twitter timelines, hashtags and lists. At first glance, it looks like a fun project and maybe something that will direct traffic to everyone on a Twitter stream. It’s a harmless way to share our friends posts and projects, but it could be a lot more.

When I first saw the Paper.li Twitter newspapers I wondered how they worked, how they would benefit those in my Twitter community, and how they would benefit me. Because let’s face it, even though we’re not supposed to say it, we really want to know how things are going to benefit us and what’s in it for us.

My Paper.li Twitter Experiment

I decided to see what this Paper.li thing was all about and set up two “newspapers.” One featured my favorite Tweeters and the other was for my favorite writing bloggers.

And what happened?

Well, nothing.

I don’t really know if everyone else who is using this service has the same results but it doesn’t drive any traffic to my blog, really. Without stats or metrics in place, I can’t even tell if it drives traffic to anyone else’s blogs, either.  It definitely is a unique way of sharing tweets from people who you admire or to create a newspaper around a common theme, but I can’t see it being anything more than that.

Who Benefits

Since all the traffic and revenue goes to Paper.li, they’re really the people who benefit. Again, this isn’t a bad service, but it is what it is. The folks creating the paper receive all the advertising revenue and most of the traffic, so they’re the only ones who reap the true rewards. Those on Twitter who create the newspapers don’t really see anything beyond good karma. There’s nothing in it for us beyond our own personal amusement. If that’s your goal, it’s cool. However, I know of plenty of people who now ignore Paper.li Tweets because they don’t get it and don’t get why anyone wants to use it, plus they feel it clutters the timeline.

How to Get Folks to Love Paper.li

I don’t hate Paper.li, though. Again, it is what it is; a newspaper made up of Tweets. Nothing more, nothing less.

The thing is, we bloggers are selfish people. We always want to know how something will help us (over the other way around). Seeing the Paper.li links in our Twitter streams wouldn’t be too terrible if we knew folks were reading them and profiting from them…and really that’s the key to us feeling this whole thing.

If Paper.li wants to be embraced by bloggers they have to offer some perks.

Advertising revenue: Each Twitter newspaper has fairly obvious advertising. However, if there is a way for bloggers to receive a percentage of the revenue or run their own ads, I’m not aware of it. If Paper.li wants more bloggers on board, monetization for all involved is necessary. Otherwise all we’re doing is promoting their stuff for free.

Traffic: I don’t know about you, but I receive very little traffic to my blog from the Paper.li Twitter newspapers. My blogs are featured in several daily but the days I receive traffic from any of the Paper.li papers are very rare. For bloggers to want to embrace Paper.li they have to receive more than the occasional bit of traffic.

Stats: Bloggers are analytical thinkers. Help us see the benefits with stats. As of now we have no way of knowing how many people are visiting our Paper.li newspapers and how many of our links people visit.

Promotion: If any service wants to appeal to bloggers it has to be mutually beneficial.So if Paper.li wants to appeal to bloggers and heavy Tweeters, they have to help to promote the “newspapers.” I realize that’s a tall order when there are so many Twitter newspapers created each day, but there has to be some way they promote a variety of the papers each day and help drive traffic and money to the targeted links.

Should Bloggers Create Twitter Newspapers?

Here’s the thing about Paper.li:  too many links on Twitter turn people off. We don’t mind sharing interesting blog posts, videos or news items, but we don’t want our timelines to be nothing but links, either. So they have to be worth our while. Ditto subscriptions. We don’t mind subscribing to cool stuff, but they have to be worth subscribing to.  There’s nothing wrong with creating a Twitter newspaper using Paper.li at all. However, if Paper.li wants to bring more bloggers on board, they would do well to look into ways to make this a mutually beneficial endeavor. That means traffic, money and promotion.

How do you feel about the Twitter newspapers? Do you use them for fun or find that they drive traffic to your blog?  Discuss…

You might also enjoy reading:

• 10 Publishing Options for Your Blog
• 10 Tips for Using Twitter to Find Social Media Jobs
• Confessions of a Prolific Tweeter
• Passive Income for the Technically Challenged Blogger
• Should You Monetize Your Blog? A Few Things to Think About
• The Benefits of Kindle for Bloggers

When I first began Tweeting, I thought I should follow everyone who followed me. Then, I thought that I should follow everyone who follows me, plus a bunch of people who don’t but who I find to be amazing anyway. Then I added a bunch of people who everyone else followed because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. Then I followed all the A-listers because I thought they might follow me back. (FYI? Most didn’t.)

Then, I realized I followed so many people I couldn’t keep track and decided to analyze my account.

I realized that:

• Many of the folks I followed way back in the day were rarely ever on Twitter anymore. So I unfollowed.
• Other folks only spammed Twitter with their links. So I unfollowed.
• There were folks who I never engaged with, or I tried to strike up a conversation but they weren’t interested in a chat. Ever. So I unfollowed.

Soon, I had unfollowed over 90% of the people who follow me.

Something amazing happened. I was able to better follow the conversation and engage with more people. After the mass purge I realized that  I was able to better find the people who made a difference. Also, being more picky about the people I followed meant that it was easy to keep up with those I truly wanted to talk to, as well as their conversations with others. Through those conversations I found even more great folks to follow. Something interesting happened after the mass purge, though…

Folks didn’t agree with me.

Something I didn’t expect was how many people would write to me or call me out as a Twitter snob. How dare I only follow about 500 or so people when I have over 8500 followers? Don’t I know that Twitter is about engaging with everyone? How dare I decide that certain people aren’t special enough?

With all due respect, it’s none of your business.

I don’t want to come off as rude, but I don’t understand why so many people are interested in how many people I decide to follow (and unfollow) on Twitter. We all have our own uses for Twitter and our own reasons for following who we follow. I’m not sure why my Twitter stream should matter to to others.

Twitter means different things to different people. There are certain bits of etiquette to follow, but no hard and fast rules. As long as I’m not bombarding people with spam all day (and if I am the can unfollow me too) why do we care how many followers I have?

I receive a perplexing amount of mail on this, and even some comments. I say perplexing because I don’t really understand why it bugs other tweeters how many people I or someone else follows. However, since so many people have asked why I have so many fewer followees than followers, I thought I might illuminate the reasoning.

I See What Everyone is Saying

Here’s the thing. If you follow thousands of people on Twitter, you probably can’t see what they’re all saying.You can’t read every tweet. In fact, Wired reported 71% percent of all Tweets are ignored (according to research by Sysomis).The way I see it, with a consolidated follow list, I can read most of what my friends are saying. In fact, since The Big Cull, I have been able to engage with people more.

I Add People Who I Wish to Engage With

Instead of mass following everyone who follows me, having fewer followers to manage means I can take the time to look over every follow message I receive and add folks one at a time, if it looks like they’re someone I want to get it on with. I don’t add too many businesses, unless  it’s a business I use (and use often) or one I’m considering doing business with, and I rarely add anyone who only Tweets out links to their stuff. My Twitter stream and conversations are more valuable because I’m not searching through the background to get to the good stuff and I’m not ignoring or not responding to most of the people I follow.

I Watch Actual Conversations

When I followed 8,000 people, it was hard to follow another conversation. Because let’s face it, that’s half the fun of Twitter; virtual eavesdropping – and maybe even butting in. With so many people in my Twitter stream I missed a lot of what was happening in those conversations and unless someone @replied to me, I didn’t always know what I was missing.

If you ask some of those people who follow tens of thousands of people, they will tell you that of course they can’t keep track of all the people they follow on Twitter. And yes, they miss out on many of the conversations. Well, I do want to keep track of all the people in my stream.  I’m not being cliquey about it and I follow more people every day, but with a smaller group it’s easy to keep track of what they’re saying.

There’s no rhyme or reason…

Why do I choose not to follow everyone who follows me? Because I don’t want to ignore good people, and that’s what I was doing when I followed 8,000 people. I was too busy adding people who I thought were the right people to add that I wasn’t engaging or reaching out to anyone.  Now, as I slowly build up folks to follow, I can learn about each and I every person I add. This time, if I reach critical mass, at least I’ll know who I’m talking to and I’ll be more better equipped to carry on a conversation with so many others.

If I don’t follow you yet it’s not a slight. Each week I go through my list of followers and add more people. I look at all your profiles and conversations and when I come across someone I’d like to get to know better, I add that person. I don’t lock my tweets and I (hope) I’m not unwelcoming. I just don’t think the mass follow worked for me. So if you’re patient, I’ll get that “follows” list back up again.  I just want to take the time to build each relationship as I do.

You might also be interested in:

• Confessions of a Prolific Tweeter: Kommein
• Vanity Retweets: Are You Guilty?: Kommein
• Twitter is Not a Numbers Game at Sysomos
• How to Follow a Lot of People on Twitter and Still Be Engaging at TwitTip
• Why Do You Follow People on Twitter? at David Risley
• How Well Do You Know Your Twitter Followers at gigaom
• Protected Tweets: The Good and the Bad Kommein

Twitter is more than just idol chatter, it’s an important tool for research, learning, sharing, and, yes, even finding social media jobs. Those of us who spend a fair bit of time on the social networks know that they present some amazing opportunities. Using Twitter to find social media jobs doesn’t have as much to do with searching for listings as it does with engaging with others and acting the professional.  Here are my favorite tips for using Twitter to find work:

1. Everyone is a potential client or employer

Everyone on Twitter has the potential to either hire you or know someone who is hiring. That means the people who you’re discussing the weather or parenting tips with might one day need your services. And you know what else? When it comes time to hiring someone, many people would much rather say, “Hey so & so  who I talk to on Twitter every day really knows his stuff, wonder if he’d be up for the challenge?” than have to deal with resumes and Craigslist listings.

2. Think about who is following you and what you’re saying

So if everyone is a potential client or employer, that means they’re probably paying attention to what you’re saying.

• If you talk about your work or projects but spend the whole day on the social networks, they may think there’s a lot of goofing off happening.
• If all your Tweets are assaults on companies, brands or individuals, they may wonder when you’re going to publicly turn on them.
• If you swear or you’re racy with your Tweets they may wonder if you’re the right person to represent their business or brand.

If you’re using Twitter as a job search tool, or in hopes of landing a new client, what you say can (and will, in some cases) be used against you. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t enjoy yourself, just be mindful of what you put out there – and how others might view you.

3. Use Seesmic or Tweetdeck to follow job-related search terms

Take advantage of the search function on your favorite Twitter apps.  Keep search windows open so you can view Tweets from job boards, search terms such as “social media jobs” or “community manager jobs.”

4. Use Twitter Job Search

Twitter Job Search is a search engine aggregating all the job listings around Twitter. Use it for your favorite search terms. It’s quick to load and will bring up some awesome results. However, some of the results aren’t really having to do with the search term, but that happens with just about all job search engines.

5. Follow the people who share job opportunities

There are so many people and profiles who share links to gigs. Learn who they are and follow them. Here’ s a list to start you off:

• @jobangles
• @jobstwit
• @problogger
• @socialmediajob
• @twitjobsmedia
• @imediajobs
• iCareerPortal
• @jaridsmediajobs
• @top_seo_jobs
• @jobsdirectusa
• @twitjobsusa

Do you have any great Twitter accounts to follow for job search? Please share in the comments!

6. Follow the brands and businesses that interest you

If you’re hoping to be hired by a particular brand or business, follow them. Learn about them. Engage with them. A few years ago, when I was in the running for a community manager job, I cinched the gig by following the CEO of the company. Not only did we interact but he was impressed by how I interacted with the online community and the job was mine. This isn’t to say you’re guaranteed a job simply because you follow the right people, but it doesn’t hurt to learn about a brand and the way they do business by reading their tweets and watching them engage with others online.

7. Don’t spam people with your job requests

Spending all your Twitter time asking others for work is annoying, spammy and reeks of desperation. If you learn of an available job, it’s OK to ask for details. Find out where to send your resume and cover letter. Don’t Tweet out about how you’ve been unemployed for 8 months and you’d like someone, anyone, to give you a job. Besides, desperation means you’ll get lowballed.

8. Take care with your Twitter page & bio

If the people who hire are online, they’re checking you out as well. Don’t forget to update your Twitter page and bio in a professional manner. Make sure your contact details are current and you list your areas of expertise. Have a friend look it over to make sure it’s clean, error free and professional.

9. Don’t be a pain in the butt

Don’t follow people on Twitter specifically to ask them the status of your application or resume as it gets kind of annoying. It takes time to choose a worthy candidate and if your details weren’t rejected right away it means you didn’t suck right out the gate. Give the hiring agent time to go over all the applications and make an informed decision. It’s fine to be enthusiastic about wanting a job, it’s a while other story to pester someone on Twitter to make a decision.

10. If necessary, create two Twitter accounts

If you like to be negative, racy, ranty or unprofessional, create a second Twitter account for only friends who are interested in that side of you. Having a second, professional Twitter account will help a potential employer to see your responsible side. My preference is to manage one Twitter account only. However, it depends on your purpose. For a job seeker, two will allow you to cultivate your different personalities, and also, your friends who aren’t interested in your job search don’t have to deal with job-related Tweets. Keep in mind that there is always a chance your potential employer will see those Tweets while searching for you online. If you’re going to truly X-rated, you might want to go the protected Tweets route.

Do you use Twitter as a job search tool?  What are some of your tips?