The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day by Susan Britton Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan, and Deb Dib (JIST, 2010) is hitting bookstores this month. 

                                                           

If you're venturing out into the Twitterverse as part of your job search efforts, I recommend you heed the authors' advice in the following 5 areas:

1. Don't be a downer.  Avoid focusing solely on your job search, appearing needy, over-sharing personal information and problems, whining about frustrations, or boss bashing. These are not appealing to potential employers.
2. Don't forget your 15-minute-a-day plan (as outlined in the book).  Don't let feeling overwhelmed stop you from starting, and once you're in, don't get sucked in or lost in the stream.
3. Don't expect Twitter to "work" (in this case, land you a job) in 1 day or even 1 week or 1 month.  Relationships take time. Be strategic; allow serendipity.
4. Don't forget to ask!  Two great examples: Know of great companies in Philly for project managers? What's the best advice on the dreaded "weakness" interview question?
5. Don't forget to follow recruiters.  Engage in conversation and share information with them. Search #splits and send them candidates. They'll love you!

In exchange, be worthy of following. Engage in interesting conversation and generously offer help, information, job postings, inside leads, lessons learned, shout-outs, retweets, questions, Follow Friday lists, and more. It's also smart to shoot for a 75/25% ratio of professional to personal tweets. Interviewers will review your stream. People get hired for who they are, not just what they do. Remember that your digital footprint is an extension of your resume.

If you're intrigued and want to read more, I recommend picking up a copy of The Twitter Job Search Guide. It promises to be a great resource packed with Twitter-specific job search advice from more than 100 contributing authors, recruiters, successful job seekers, and career management experts (myself included).

Now, go off and tweet.  Or.... may the tweet be with you!           
Okay, okay, corny, I know.  I'm sorry!  Couldn't help it.