Still wary of entering the Twitterverse?
Don’t be. It’s time to overcome your Twitter aversion, banish all doubt and make your triumphant entrance on what is THE world stage for up-to-the-minute information sharing.
And by “sharing” I don’t mean what you had for breakfast today. That’s old school: a myth still occasionally circulated by people on Q&A sites such as LinkedIn’s. You know who I mean: the folks who smugly answer every query posted about Twitter’s usefulness to them with a variation of “It’s just a lot of noise.” Ignore those naysayers. They know not of what they speak.
First impressions can be deceptive
That Twitter is so widely misunderstood — though it boasts 200-million or so registered members worldwide, it actually has few active users — is due to its ongoing struggle to more clearly define and position itself. And, as job seekers, and aspiring masters of reinvention ourselves, I think most of us can relate. I know I can.
What’s the point, you might ask, of trying to draw the attention of potential employers when your tweets will vanish in a millisecond? You’re right: there is none. It’s like shouting your name down a well.
Which brings me to Twitter’s new incarnation as a media platform. By finally recognizing what it does best, serving as a search engine and discovery tool, Twitter has taken positive steps to make itself more transparent and a lot friendlier. With that comes a fresh, new opener — “Follow your interests” — and an easy-to-use Search homepage.
How does that help your job search?
Now you can zero in on the all-important task of finding job postings without battling the pitchy seas of irrelevant tweets that make for such a quease-inducing experience many first-time users vow never to return. So enough with the “Nevers.” Today’s the day to start your voyage of discovery by entering the keywords on Twitter’s straightforward new homepage that might well lead you to your next job.
Wishing you bon voyage!
— Judy Margolis
Twitter Search
Twitter: http://twitter.com/judymargolis
Judy:
How true, I always see those negative comments about Twitter and to those I say if you are just using Twitter as to tell your followers that you went for a walk with your dog guess what all what you are creating yourself if noise and you will get only noise
I agree with you Judy Twitter is the one of the best search engine competing with Google but with an edge being real-time
Great post
Thank you so much, Sahar.
I was one of those old school people Judy. I had found little use for the Timeline stream but have used and set up 5 different searches that I use regularly.
Good tip.
Glad you’ve come around, Dave. I’ve set some Searches up, too.
Hi Judy
Thank you for inviting me over to your blog. There is a lot of fear assocciated with Twitter just because of the jargon used and the stream of information that flows by. I have been developing on an online course about how to use Social Media for Jobs. LinkedIn is the obvious one to use, but Twitter should never be underestimated.
You’re bound to attract a lot of students, Nicky. That sounds like a really worthwhile endeavour.
Hi Judy,
I couldn’t find an email address so I’m posting here.
I wanted to reach out and ping you about a new service we’ve just launched called Path.To.
Path.To is a network that promotes your talent, passion and personality in a professional way.
We’re combining clean, beautiful design with a simple professional connection philosophy that’s based around meaningful endorsements.
With Path.To we let you express as much or as little of your personality as you’re comfortable with, all the while maintaining a clean, professional representation of your professional identity.
I also mentioned endorsements. In Path.To our graph isn’t the social graph but rather connections are made around endorsements. This is something we’re paying a lot of attention to.
In Path.To all endorsements are not created equal. We’ve built an algorithm that constantly reevaluates and scores each individual in the system. This scoring helps drive the weight of your endorsement within the system. It also decreases with each person you endorse which makes it important that you’re selective.
In a lot of ways we’re trimming the fat away from LinkedIn and giving it a make over. It’s about people, talent and connections.