Top Twitter Strategies

Social media management is one of your best tools for career growth. Many of my colleagues focus on LinkedIn as the primary social media platform for job seekers, and it is important. Making use of these top tweeting strategies can extend your social media presence beyond traditional business boundaries and get you noticed. You never know when a social media connection will turn into a job opportunity or a valuable network contact.

The Basics

I mention these basic strategies every time I talk about social media, because they ARE the basics and because without them, your social media platforms are less useful and productive. If you haven’t already put these into place, start here!

1. Choose a professional user name for your professional Twitter (or any other career-driven social media) account. If your real name is already taken, consider adding a middle initial, or a short descriptor before or after your name (@realRobertRoberts is an example, @JaneSmithEsq, or use both, as in @DrJoanDoeMD).
2. Profile photo. Use a pro photographer for your business head shot, or at least use a great pic of you in a conservative dress. Think job interview! Once you have a great head shot, use it on ALL your social media and websites, and don’t change it often. With so many similar Twitter handles and LinkedIn usernames out there, you want to give a consistent visual to remind readers that this account is YOU. When you do change your photo, change it across your brand, so as not to confuse.
3. Bio and background. Fill in your profile information completely, and with an eye to polishing your personal brand. If you have “purely social” social media accounts, consider separating the two and using a nickname or pseudonym for those accounts. Use keywords that relate to your industry and your career, to make you as search-friendly as possible. If you add email or website urls, make sure they’re yours, not your employer’s. That way your bio/profile has longevity.
4. Make it match. Take a few minutes and make sure your resume matches your LinkedIn profile, that your LinkedIn matches your Twitter profile, etc. This is not only excellent personal branding, it’s just common sense that you’d want a polished, professional set of profiles that give a matching impression of your skills, expertise, and experience.

The Extras

These are the things you can do to make your Twitter account more engaging, extending your reach and piquing interest. Get “the basics” done first, so that you can properly capitalize on the difference “the extras” can make for your career.

5. Use the header photo like a billboard for your personal brand. Change it out frequently (at least once a month) and make it relevant to you. Use photos that relate to your industry, your charity work, your career, and have fun with it. An architect can use blueprints, photos of job sites, copyright-free images of drafting tools, the possibilities are endless. DO make sure you don’t use copyrighted images, or you’ll find yourself in legal hot water.
6. Follow with care. Choose industry movers and shakers, your professional heroes, and colleagues who are important network connections. Start slow and build up your follows as you build followers. Someone who has 20 followers and follows 200 others isn’t making good use of the tool.
7. Keep your tweets professional and relevant. Save your political commentary, your spiritual thoughts, and your family chats for other media or accounts. Be on the lookout for industry insight, new favourite quotes, or other information to tweet, re-tweet, or comment about. Have your personal brand in mind at all times.
8. Tweet steadily, at least once or twice a week. Between offering interesting news and information, connections, solutions, and great insight, all of it industry/career related, you’ll build a following slowly but steadily. You can plan ahead and schedule your upcoming tweets if it helps you manage your social media time, just be sure to make allowances in your schedule for posting unexpected news and events…the more timely your tweets, the more valuable they are to your followers!