7: USING THE INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA
X, formerly known as Twitter This micro-blogging social media platform allows members to follow one another and send messages of up to 280 characters, or around four sentences. Politicians promote ideas to constituents, news organizations provide information about developing stories and job seekers can keep their networks updated on their progress. A message is called a tweet. By linking a message to a longer article, video or photo gallery, users add more value to their tweet. These short messages provide an electronic platform to let people know you are looking for a job and to establish yourself as a valuable candidate. You could use X to refer your followers to your LinkedIn page, to inform them you recently graduated from a post-secondary program, or to tweet about things going on in your career. You can impress employers and people in your network by linking to articles or grabbing relevant quotes on your industry. If you want to tweet a link to something, but the URL consumes most of your 280-character limit, use a service like tinyurl.com to create a short version of the hyperlink. You can search for jobs on X in a number of ways. One method is the use of hashtags ( view Using Hashtags later in this chapter ), but you can also use the advanced search option to narrow your results. Following companies on X will add their posted jobs to your Home Timeline, which is a display of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to track. Make sure to edit your profile while you are in your job search to reflect your professional background. How effective X is for your job search will be dependent on how active employers in your area are on the site.
137 Creative Job Search | CareerForceMN.com/CreativeJobSearch
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