Twitter your way into a job! Yes, you can.
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Pete Cashmore, CEO at Mashable, a social media company, and one of the most followed Tweeters on the Net at 319,528
Followers explains #followfriday at Mashable on Tumblr – How #FollowFriday and Hashtags Work. :
Since a lot of people are asking me about hashtags, and a Tweet isn’t enough space to explain, a few quick lines on how hashtags and #followfriday work:
1. Hashtags are used to identify a topic on Twitter. Add # to the front of a word to make it a topic. Example: #followfriday
2. #followfriday is a game in which people suggest who to follow on Twitter. It helps everyone find interesting Tweeps. You list the users you recommend following and add “#followfriday” so people can find your tweet. My suggestions: #followfriday @adamostrow @sharonfeder @jbruin @adamhirsch
3. You can find everyone’s #followfriday suggestions here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23followfriday
Hope that helps.
PS. Pete had nothing to do with the invention of #followfriday. You can thank @micah for that!
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I don’t know about you, but I’m still learning all the best tools for Twitter, learning to tweet and need all the best help I can get. I found this pretty useful and hope you will too.
GissiSim.com | How to Tweet Deck like a PRO.
People have been asking me for more tips about how I use my Tweet Deck. I was sort of wanting to give twitter a little rest. However the response has been overwhelming, so here we are. I’m personally under the impression that there is no other client worth using. Yes it’s not the prettiest client around. At first it can be awkward to use. However once you learn how to use it like a power user, you’ll never know how you tweeted without it!
When you first start your tweet deck up, you’ll be greeted with 3 columns. All Friends, Replies, Direct Messages, and there might be a TwitScoop column all the way at the right. If TwitScoop column is there, close it quickly with the X in top right. Also close the Replies column. What you want to do first is click on the Search button in the toolbar in the top left, it’s the magnifying glass icon =) 
Now you’ll get a nice search box popping up. Write your twitter username into it. This is the column that will replace the replies one we closed earlier. The reason we do this is because sometimes people forget to add the @, also you’re own tweets come in there so you can remember what people are replying to =) Now use the arrow at the bottom of your new column to move it to where the old replies column was.
Something that is worth getting out of the way quickly. There are a few things you want to change right away. Start by turning off the annoying noise tweet deck does every time new tweets come in. Select the Narrow column view, lets you fit more columns in. You can uncheck the “Include All Friends Notifications” since it’s not a very informative notification. I personally prefer the Tweet Window at the bottom, try it out for yourself and see. One other thing that is optional is to Open profiles in web page, it’s good if you are big on looking at profiles since looking at them takes API calls. You only get 100 API calls an hour. I actually have this selected at work. Here is what your general tab might look like: 
You can play with the Colors/Font tab all you want, I’m not going to give you any pro tips on that =) However the API tab is something you need to look into. It’s hard for me to tell you exactly what is best in your situation, so here is a screenshot of how I have mine set. 
Once you reach a certain number of people that you follow, your going to want to set up a group. Click on the group button in the top toolbar. 
In my case I only have one group set up. This group is for my close friends and family, people who’s tweets I don’t want to miss at all. I have very few people in this group just so it doesn’t get over crowded. I’m sure that once people have even more followers it will be nice to set up a few different groups for different groups of people. One for professionals, one for co workers, etc etc. Now there are a few ways to add people to your newly created group. However I find the best way to do this is by mousing over their profile image, click on the more icon. You’ll get a dropdown where you can choose to add them to any group that you would like. 
Looking at this menu you will see a lot of very useful features. One that I actually use on this list is the Translate one. Sometimes the people I’m following will write one and one tweet in a different language, and instead of unfollowing them like some people do, I just translate the tweet =) Once you reach this point you should have a window that looks something like this: 
Now it’s on to what makes twitter so powerful. I’ve learned to use this to watch how my blog articles are traveling. See what people are talking about on a certain subject. You name it, the search functionality can do it. I’m sure I’m not using it for everything it can be used for yet, however it’s been very useful with how I’m using it as is. You’ve seen how to do a search with your username and replies, so you achieve this in the same way. What I like to write in there is the name of a blog article that I’m promoting at the moment, since people that tweet about it rarely include my name in it anymore. Also this way I can find new people that like my articles and webpage, in return following them or get to know them. If your blog article is long enough it should be enough to just write it as is, however sometimes you might want to put quotes around it “How to blog like a pro” that way you get those words in exactly that order. Another thing I like to do is have a open search on something I’m interested in like Sharepoint, Apple, CMS, PHP, WordPress etc. This way if I see someone write anything interesting about something I’m INTERESTED in, I can add them =) So here is an example of how my TweetDeck is now: 
Now there is really one more thing left to talk about and that is the filter. I’ve talked about this before in an earlier article, however I want to include it here as well. At the bottom of every column there is a filtering button. 
Like I’ve talked about here you can write things like http and RT @ to get some of the best of what your friends are talking about. You can filter more things than just for text, you can filter by User, by Time, and by Service they entered the tweet. So another thing I like to do is select services and write blip to get some good music people are talking about =) 
One last thing about filtering before I wrap up this article is that you can also select to filter things MINUS a specific word, or time, or person etc etc. Can be very useful if someone is tweet spamming, or however you would like to use it =)
If you have some more tips or hint on how to best use Tweek Deck, please add a comment or Tweet me. Thanks.
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Long ago, I used to wonder what was up with Twitter. I read in glossy magazines about vapid celebrities using Twitter to announce their comings and goings at glamorous water holes. Or the more mundane announcing they’d had a ham sandwich for lunch or gone shopping or their cat rolled over. Who, basically, cared. But, once I got into Twitter I found it addictive for several reasons. #1: Thought leaders in the Internet space were constantly telling me what they were thinking and what was the newest and the coolest. And #2. I didn’t need a ton of bricks to fall on my head to see what an incredibly powerful marketing tool Twitter could be.
So let me let GissiSim tell you how Twitter can work for you. He sets this out in 6 Ways how I let Twitter work for me.
Twitter is excellent for this. Even my mom who is an interior designer is meeting people in her profession. I have not found another network, not even Linked In, where I am meeting such a wide range of people who share my expertise. I’ve gotten help from my friends on twitter concerning my job, I’ve also helped a lot of people in my field, it’s a two way street. Best part is that I can really get to know these people. To get to know these people the first thing you need to do is find them. I use a range of different ways to find new people to follow. However, if you are looking for people who are professionals in your field, let me recommend Twellow, a kind of twitter yellow pages. Another really good place to go is Just Tweet It, basically a user directory which organizes them by profession.
How to get them to follow back.
This is a very good question, especially when you’re new. If you found someone that you want to build a relationship with, but they are not adding you right away. Watch their feed, respond to a question they have, Re Tweet a link that they post, or make other types of conversation. This makes the likelihood of them following you back huge. Don’t seem desperate though, don’t pester them. If they still don’t add you. They weren’t meant to be your friend!
This is a no brainer. However, you really need to be careful how you do this. There are right and wrong ways of promoting your content on twitter. If all you do is talk about your articles, and your product. The likelihood of people taking anything you say seriously is very low. The likelihood of people actually following you is even less. You really need to build up a relationship with your followers. Find other interesting sites and share them with your followers. Write helpful information. Help people get their content further by re tweeting. I would personally say that you should only tweet about your own site 3-5 times a day. Anything more can be overkill. Of course this has a lot to do with how much you tweet. I would not recommend tweeting every single blog post you write, only your best.
You want people to be able to find your twitter account on your website. This way if people really like what you have to say on it, they can find you on twitter and add you. I find that this has been the best way to build my following in recent days.
I have found asking and being upfront about things to be the best policy. If I have a link that I really want people to re tweet, I ask people to please re tweet this link if they like it. This makes the likelihood of people sharing the link a lot greater. Some people might think that it’s not cool to ask for help, or whatever. However I find that when I see people asking for a re tweet, that I will actually go out of my way to re tweet their link for them.
Also ask for help if you need it. People on twitter are a very helpful bunch. I actually owe me passing a Microsoft certification to a twitter friend! Let twitter work for you, but remember that you have to work for twitter in return.
A huge reason for my twittering is just to find fun things online. People are constantly tweeting about the best information they are finding online at any given moment. If you want to kick back and relax and have some fun, a very good way to do this is in Tweet Deck.
Find good content
At the bottom of every column you will see 5 icons. The one all the way at left is a filter button. Click it, now you will get a box to type in. To find every link that people have tweeted, simply type http:// into the box. This will show you all the great links people have found throughout the day for your enjoyment. However, if you really want to get the best of the best, type in RT @ into the search box. This will give you all the links that people found to be good enough to Re Tweet. The default search is for text. However you can also search for Username, Source, and Time Frame.
I’m going to London in a week. I knew that I had a lot of twitter followers that lived in London, or other people that had been there. I actually tweeted that I was going there, and asked if people could suggest a hotel, place to stay, restaurants, things to do etc etc. I got a whole bunch of people giving me really good feedback. My trip probably would not have ended up being as well planned and thought out if it wasn’t for twitter.
Here we come back to the reason for why finding and following people in your field is such a great idea. Once you have shown to be a good and reliable person on twitter. Shown that you know your stuff and can be trusted. Then the jobs actually find you. One thing that I’m very excited to try out is if I move back to the US from Iceland, to see if I’ll be able to get some business hookups in the areas that I’m going to, and having job interviews all lined up for when I arrive. I’m sure that I’ll be able to use twitter for this when the time comes.
Twitter is a hugely versatile tool. It can help you with anything you need in reality. You just need to be willing to spend the time and energy to let it work for you. I’ve only been active on twitter for a month, so I’m just scratching the surface of what Twitter can do for me. I’m also not using it in all the ways that I have already seen possible. Like promoting a product I’m developing by integrating it with twitter. It’s an exciting time we live in right now. Get involved!
Also see How to twitter like a PRO
If you like this comment, Tweet me.
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