Using Twitter to Maximize Your Professional Brand

May 5, 2017 Nicole Slaughter-Graham Job Search Frame of Mind

 
Social media is everywhere in today’s digital age. One would be missing out if he or she avoided the several social platforms.

Twitter is one of those platforms often avoided by the more seasoned employees, and I’d urge you to take another look at it as a tool to help bring awareness to your professional brand.

Here are some stats to consider:

• Twitter has 313 million monthly users who are active on the platform
• Customer service is regularly conducted on Twitter with an increase of 2.5 times seen in 2016
• Over 65% of U.S. companies use Twitter for marketing (companies with over 100 employees)
• Companies regularly use Twitter to post about open positions

In short, Twitter is a great, active community of users and sharing your brand on the platform is the perfect way to get noticed.

Here are some tricks and tips to using Twitter.

Keep it professional

If you’ve ever scrolled through the thousands of tweets posted every day, you’ll notice some people tend to share really personal information or voice their opinions on controversial topics.

When it comes to using Twitter for professional purposes, you’ll want to refrain from sharing this kind of information. Use the platform, instead to share information relevant to your brand or the kind of work you do.

For instance, if you’re a social media manager, share some blog posts you’ve found really useful.

Don’t hesitate to share any inspiring quotes or photos either. Twitter users love a good quote.

Engage in conversation

Do you like someone else’s tweet? Let them know! Retweet it or comment on it. The best way to get noticed on Twitter is to engage with others using the platform. To do this, you’ll want to:

• Post regularly
• Retweet other’s tweets you like
• Join in on Twitter conversations
• Search companies you like and follow them
• Find people—friends, family, people in the same industry, hiring managers at companies you’re interested in—and follow them

Engaging on the platform builds your list of followers and allows you to “meet” people and make connections.

In fact, it’s helped connect people to hiring managers and jobs in the past.

Learn the art of the hashtag

You’ve probably seen people making fun of the use of hashtags in the past. These pound sign statements actually have a really important use, though.

Hashtags are used by brands and people to create a buzz. Marketers use hashtags to build brand awareness, and people can use hashtags to participate in conversations.

For instance, every Wednesday, social media tool, Buffer, has a conversation with its followers. To do this, they use the hashtag #BufferChat. Participants can use the search tool on Twitter to find out what everyone is talking about during the #BufferChat.

Buffer regularly throws out questions to their following, and then users respond to the questions and include the hashtag, #BufferChat at the end of their tweet so Buffer can find their answers.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

You can search just about any topic using a hashtag in Twitter’s search field and pull up entire conversations to participate in. Want to know who’s hiring? In Twitter’s search bar, type in “#HiringNow” and see what comes up.

Tons of companies post open positions on their Twitter page and use hashtags so users can find the openings. Here’s an example of what that looks like:

Twitter is a great place to connect with like-minded people and build your professional brand. It can even be a great place to find a job. Have you used Twitter in this way? How did it work out?

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