I’m all for using cyber social media to have fun and connect with friends, but Twitter is not Facebook.
The whole point of Twitter is you connect to the world at large and not just people you knew in college. Because of Twitter’s global paradigm, Twitter rants and Twitter stupidity can come back to haunt your career or your job search. Everyone from entertainers to average working stiffs have to watch what they say.
Did you know that the Library of Congress is actually archiving Twitter tweets? This is serious stuff folks so you need to be serious all the time, not just some of the time. Hiring managers don’t distinguish between your professional tweets and your not so professional tweets.
That’s why I advised a Twitter follower this morning not to tweet what you don’t want to be seen. She asked if she should only post her professional tweets on her LinkedIn page. For those of you who don’t know, you can automatically or manually have your Twitter tweets displayed on your LinkedIn page.
The tweeter asked: what kind of things are appropriate to post as LinkedIn updates? Everything that you tweet? Or only serious, business updates?
OK, here’s how this shakes down. LinkedIn is typically the first place hiring managers go when they’re considering a job applicant. That means you want to make your LinkedIn page as professional as possible, and you also want to show you’re tech savvy. So, it’s a great thing if you’re on Twitter and you have those tweets posted on LinkedIn.
But, just because you don’t post the tweets on LinkedIn doesn’t mean headhunters and people in your professional network won’t see them. Many managers tell me they often Google job candidates to see what’s out in cyber space about them, and guess what will probably come up pretty far up in the search, especially if you’re name isn’t John Smith? Your Tweeter tweets.
I often suggest you put your Twitter handle on your resume or emails to hiring managers to show how hip you are and that’s an invitation for people to check them out, which is a good thing, if they’re good tweets. I’ve also been told by many hiring managers that they tend to see Facebook as an applicant’s personal account and as a result don’t want to look at what you’re doing on there.
So, don’t tweet what you don’t want people to see. You can be funny, witty or cutting edge but just take a moment before you hit that “tweet” button. It’s easy to tweet what comes off the top of your head and that can be dicey. That’s why I choose to rhyme all my tweets. As a result, it gives me time to figure out if it’s something I should tweet at all. Give yourself a five-second rule to ponder your tweet.
I know you guys don’t think before you tweet. How do I know this? All you have to do is spend two minutes on Twitter this morning and before you know it you’ll come across a tweet like this:
My boss don’t know but I’m calling in Thursday and hitting it to Atlanta.
Yeah, his boss “don’t know” now but might know soon.
January 11th, 2011 at 10:44 am
agree and disagree. i agree that one should be careful about posts, etc - be it facebook, twitter, linkedin or other social networks. that being said, i find some of the more interesting tweets the ones where the person’s personality comes through as well.
i agree, be mindful of what you put out there but disagree that one needs to be serious all the time. i have been a recruiter for 14 years. i wouldnt disregard someone for less than serious tweets but would agree to put out thre “my boss dont know but im calling in thursday and hitting it to atlanta” is not a good idea…or anything of the like.
thanks for the post though. i do love your blog!
jan
January 11th, 2011 at 10:58 am
You make such a great point Jan. The tweets that add a bit of personal are often the ones that get the most retweets, thus building up the number of followers you have and making you look good to some recruiters. I have to admit, the ones I’ve written about cooking problems or my wacky lovable kids tended to be pretty popular. We don’t want to sanitize what people do in cyber space. Thanks for pointing that out.
January 11th, 2011 at 10:59 am
I like the idea of including one’s Twitter handle on resumes and communication. I’m going to do that from now on.
What worries me is not what a potential employer or colleague will find out about me, but what they think they’ve found out about me. My twitter account is for professional reasons only, and my facebook privacy settings are as locked down as they can be. However, I have a common name and I worry what other people with my name post. I don’t want to take the fall for their issues, nor take credit for someone else’s work. (There are people with the same name in my field.)
Are there other ways I can personalize my social media and search results?
January 11th, 2011 at 11:10 am
This question has come up before. A while back I heard from one guy who had an odd name and was worried because another guy out there had the same odd name but he had weird stuff written about him on the Net. One recruiter suggested bringing up the weird guy and making sure they knew it wasn’t him. If you have a fairly common name, I would suspect most hiring managers would try and make sure that they’re finding information out about the right John Smith. There’s also the issue of someone that has a really hard to spell name such as “Tahmincioglu.” I feared readers, and even editors, would have a tough time finding me because who the heck is going to spell that right.
That’s when the idea for “CareerDiva” came along. You can come up with a name you use for yourself and start tweeting, or commenting on blogs with that handle. That handle can be used on your resume and when managers Google that they’ll come up with stuff you want them to see up high in the search.
I would not suggest using this type of handle, which so many people do, “Elizabeth12345.” I never got why people do this, and it shows a huge lack of creativity. If you’re a nurse you could do “NurseElizabeth,” or if you’re an IT manager you can do “ITLiz.” Get what I mean?
It can set you apart and you can manage your own cyber presence better.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
The trouble with catchy monikers is that only the early bird catches the worm. I first got online in ‘92 and it was pretty easy for me to come up with unique monikers that would stick. My kids have had a harder time, because many of the monikers they want have already been selected by someone else. That’s when those logon systems typically suggest the monikers that are tailed by numbers (e.g., “‘Elizabeth12345′”).
January 11th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
@CareerDiva: good idea, and one I’m currently working on. I’ve been thinking of starting a blog, so I’m looking at this issue from a whole new angle.
@HikingStick: I have that problem with gmail. I was an early adopter, but now I frequently get emails for people with similar names — everything from newsletter subscriptions to legal documents! People forget a letter or a number and I get their messages.
That being said, I’m finding it very hard to come up with something for a blog url because there’s so much out there — and too many parked pages!
January 11th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I was even late getting onto Twitter, so I couldn’t snag “HikingStick”. I ended up with “HikingStickTwit” (which still reflects some of my disdain for Twitter in general–to many people use it to publish banal, mundane details, assuming that I and others care to hear about every little detail of every single day).
January 12th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
I deleted my twitter account due to this. If the hiring manager doesn’t like gay liberals and I post something about being a gay liberal, I can get fired for some bullcrap.
We need some laws in place to protect our right to saw what we’d like when not in the office!
January 12th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
I just wrote a post on my blog http://hrmargo.com entitled, “Begin Your Next Status Update With The Salutation: Dear Employer.” Some people think that they can hide behind the comfort of their computer screen and say, and do whatever they want. The fact remains that it is foolish. I wrote another post entitled, “Be Authentic, But Don’t Be Authentically Foolish.” We have to manage our image, our digital foot print, and our brand. Every time a person gets drunk and tweets they are ruining their career…Every time someone allows a so-called friend to photograph them at a party, they don’t realize that picture could be taken out of context. Heaven forbid if a person, particularly a job seeker fights with someone online, that is indexed too. Haven’t we all tweeted something we regretted? Maybe not to the extreme that some people have, but again, this post is a reminder to “not tweet the stupid stuff.”
January 13th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Very good article Eve. It is not only a matter of tweeting (can we type that now without quotations?) ridiculous comments but more using Twitter to your advantage. For someone to use social media effectively as a means to find a job then they must treat it like the work place. What you type into the internet is public AND remains public for a long long time. If you are more than willing to openly share your negative political opinions then go ahead and tweet away.
Maximizing your use of social networks is just like advancing within a corporate culture. Exhibit your enthusiastic attitude and professional manner along with find ways to give evidence of your ability and you will be successful.