How to use Twitter to Search for Jobs

We all know the job market is looking pretty grim these days.  It's not impossible to find work as a radiologic technologist, but the competition is fierce.  It seems like every day there are new job search engines or websites on the internet and it can be exhausting visiting every single one of these.  Enter the vast world of social media and the apps that can be utilized with it.

Twitter is considered a "micro-blogging" website where you can write a few characters of words or post links to let all of your friends know what you've been up to.  Social networking might be the last thing on your mind if you're actively looking for a job, but there is a way to make it work for you as an organizational tool, and the beauty of it is you don't even have to post (tweet) anything... just set up an account and let it do the work for you in three easy steps:

Step 1: Get a Twitter account at www.twitter.com.  It takes only seconds and an active email address to establish a twitter account.  Make sure to fill in profile information and consider leaving it professional if you are going to be using it for job-hunting.

Step 2: Get a TweetDeck account at www.tweetdeck.com.  You can log in with your newly created twitter account without having to provide much information.

Step 3:  Set up custom columns.  Once logged into Tweetdeck, you can create columns by clicking the "+" sign on the left hand side.  Here's where you may have to do a few minutes of research on how you would like information presented to you.  You can CLICK HERE to see the different types of information available to place into your custom columns.

Once you've done these things, you will see the tweets roll in while you sit back and relax.  If they're moving a little too fast to read, consider filtering the column (top right icon of each column).  There are filtering options to help keep the feed you see more pertinent to your needs.

In the picture on the right, you can see two columns I have created in the "search" category.  I used "radiography" and "radiologic technologist".  If you're going to use this type of search, make sure you are using terms that you would normally type into a job search.

Be creative with these columns... if you set one up and don't like the info you are seeing, feel free to tweak it just a bit.  Sometimes a small change in the filtering criteria can make a huge difference, and it's very easy to do.  Here are a few of the custom column options I thought were most useful for job hunting:

• Timeline - this allows you to follow a single account.  It also includes interactions with other account holders who interact with this account. 
• Search - allows key-word search like the example above (i.e. xray tech, rad tech, ARRT, fluoro, etc).  While not all tweets in this column will be composed of job opportunities, they can generate to new leads.
• Tweets - similar to the timeline column, it follows a single account, but will not include outside interaction.   I would recommend this if you have a stand-out preference for where you would like to work.  Place one company's twitter feed into its own column.  Make additional columns for other companies you would consider working for.
• Custom - this column is a place for you to transfer and store tweets hand-selected by you.  For instance, if you don't have time to respond to a potential job opportunity, place it here and return for it later without having to search around.  You can assign your own names for these columns (job opportunities, apply, research more).

TweetDeck isn't the only service around that offers filtering of twitter feeds, but I chose to use it for two simple reasons; it's free and it's user-friendly.  You can learn how to use it in about ten minutes.  Even if you're not "tech-savvy", their help center is fantastic for the tools you'll find.  There are also a lot of YouTube video tutorials out there you can view for free if you're more of the visual-learner type (like me).  Once your feeds are set up, you can visit the site any time and watch it feed live.  The only think you have to do is click on potential opportunities.

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Regardless of your field of work, new tools are coming out every day to get information faster.  While I would never recommend using twitter as your sole source of employment prospects, a lot of employers are breaking into social media, and are posting external job opportunities to these accounts.  Why not be first among those hearing about them?

How are you using social media to search for a job?

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