4 Tips On What NOT To Do On Twitter As A Job Seeker

Yes, opportunities are bountiful on Twitter for job seekers even with each tweet limited to 140-characters. If used properly, there are plenty of opportunities for job searching, job advice, and job networking. However, if used without caution it can come back to haunt you for years to come.

Here are some basic tips on what NOT to do on Twitter when you’re a job seeker.

Negative communication.

Your followers on Twitter aren’t limited to friends and family. Hiring managers and recruiters may also be screening you on the social media site to get an impression of whether you’re a suitable candidate for the job, so keep communication clean and positive. Don’t tweet anything you’d be embarrassed to say or present at the job interview.

Controversial topics.

You want to create dialogue, but don’t be pigeonholed into one corner. This can often happen when tweeting about a controversial topic like politics or religion. For the sake of your professional audience, it’s best to avoid the topics. Your views on the topics may be a red flag to employers and other professional contacts. One bad tweet or retweet of another person’s post can isolate you from many contacts. While you may have not written the post – by sharing it, you are essentially saying you approve the message.

Too much personal information.

Sharing what you like and your activities may help others understand you as an individual and your personality, but set a limit to how much information you share. Too much personal information can hurt you as a job seeker. For example, you don’t have to share on Twitter that you got drunk over the weekend and did some things you weren’t supposed to do. Don’t get into the details, just indicate you had an eventful weekend.

Old rants and other inappropriate tweets.

Employers screening job candidates aren’t limiting it to LinkedIn and Facebook. They are now also looking at Twitter. Before applying to any jobs, go through your Twitter account and take down anything that’s inappropriate for employers and recruiters to see. Old rants about your boss, job, etc. should not be there. Any tweet that can give the wrong message or impression should be removed (even tweets with poor spelling and grammar because that leaves an impression as well). If in doubt, change the privacy settings so you limit what others can see. For more tips, read: “How Employers Are Screening You Through Social Media.”

All these rules on what not to do on Twitter may have you feeling restricted to communicate with your personal audience, but keep in mind that Twitter is no longer just for personal use. More employers are showing activity on Twitter and when you’re job searching, this audience matters. One solution around this is to keep a separate Twitter account using a pseudonym. That account can be used to communicate to your personal contacts while you leave the one with your real name to communicate to the professional audience.

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