A big shout out to Susan Whitcomb of the Career Coach Academy for the following lessons learned on Twitter:

Susan shares:
I'll admit that I'm not a Twitter expert, but I have learned a great deal over the past few months as I've jumped into the twitterverse with reckless abandon. I'm sharing my insights (and hard knocks) in hopes you'll: 1) learn a little something new; 2) save yourself some time on the learning curve; or 3) feel good that you already knew something I just recently discovered!

• Confused about what it is and where to start? Check out the video on Twitter's help page: http://help.twitter.com/portal

• Frustrated with no followers? Start following others. This will grow your followers. Don't ask me how. It just works!

• How do I find people to follow? Here's a great tip for job searchers. Go to http://search.twitter.com/search - click on Advanced Search to the right of the blank text box. In the "all of these words box" type "recruiter, healthcare" (without the quotations; of course, substitute whatever industry you're looking for a job in for the word "healthcare"). Dozens of options will surface. Click on a name, and then click Follow. Since it's not good etiquette to "friend" recruiters on Facebook, this gives job seekers a method to follow recruiters without stalking.

• Vary your posts. As helpful as information is, don't always point your followers to yet another website or cool article. People don't have time to read everything. Social media has an air of omniscience to it and, as tempting as it may seem, trying to follow everything will only send you into overload. (Do I hear heads nodding?!) Sometimes a thought-filled question or inspirational quote will be a welcome alternative to the info overload.

• Don't tweet from your phone without first setting it up: I learned this one the hard way. I busily tweeted during the Career Management Alliance conference in San Antonio via my cell phone and, only later, learned that none of the tweets appeared under the #careers09 hashtag set up for the conference. Bummer. (Go to Settings, then Devices, to turn on your mobile phone.) Deb Dib (follow her at http://twitter.com/CEOCoach) was kind enough to retweet my posts!

What's a hashtag? Read on.

• Use and/or search hashtags: Hashtags include a # sign followed by a short word, phrase, or abbreviation. For example, the Career Management Alliance conference was tweeted under #careers09. If you want to see all the thoughts flying during the sessions, search for #careers09 on Twitter. You can also search for #mcm - short for Many Career Minds - put together by Chandlee Bryan (follow her at http://twitter.com/chandlee)

See you on Twitter!

Follow Susan's meanderings at www.twitter.com/susanwhitcomb and my own at www.twitter.com/laurieberenson.