Why Twitter, Not Facebook is the Best Network for Job Seekers

Most people on the job hunt, especially those who have recently graduated, are aware of the need to incorporate social media into their job search and personal branding strategy. This is good. What isn’t as good is that many neglect to optimize their social profiles and often are weeded out of the selection process because of it. As a 2012 college grad myself, let me make the case for making Twitter your professional home base.

You’ve Had Facebook for Way Too Long

If you’re like me, you probably started using Facebook in high school. Those who graduated college this year probably remember when Facebook first became available to high school students and looking for a job was the furthest thing from our minds. And back then, looking at Facebook profiles was completely off the radar screens of most if not all recruiters and hiring managers.

Which pretty much means this: most of us haven’t been super careful about what we’ve been posting for the last 4-6 years. And even if you’ve managed to clean it up, chances are good that you don’t post a ton of professionally related content. That’s all well and good, but don’t invite your professional contacts to connect with you there.

You Haven’t Established Yourself on Twitter Yet

Many people have a Twitter but don’t use it because they don’t “get it”. This is a common sentiment and one I can sympathize with. However, this provides a perfect opportunity for you to create your brand on Twitter. It’s a fresh start in a lot of ways. Use Twitter to post relevant content and engage in conversation with industry experts and leading brands. Establish yourself as an expert and use it as your main professional network. You’ll be surprised by how quickly you’ll learn to love it and the kind of connections you’ll make.

Keep It Clean and Keep it Fresh

This goes for both Facebook and Twitter. Keep Facebook clean because hiring managers will find you, and unless you’ve done some work with your privacy settings, they will see what you have on your profile. Keep your Twitter clean because not only will hiring managers see what you’ve tweeted, so will all of your professional contacts.

Don’t let a hiring manager find this on your Facebook page.

Keep your profiles fresh, too. Use Facebook to be social with your friends like you always have, but make sure that you feed your Twitter regularly as well. Regularly posting great content and engaging with those in your network will establish a good rapport and lead to great opportunities.

What network are you using for your job search? Have you found Twitter more useful than Facebook? Let’s chat in the comments.

truApp Makes Career Networking More Social

And student friendly. In fact, says truApp evangelist Carolyn Boddy, “Facebook is purely social, and LinkedIn is purely professional. truApp meets at the perfect place in between, which really fits the student market.”

Leave it to a bunch of college students to figure out exactly what college students need. That’s exactly what truApp has done in the start-up friendly city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. What Carolyn says is true and hundreds of thousands of college students around the country can relate.

The days when social networks were purely social are far behind us. Employers do a preliminary sweep of a candidate’s profiles, and with a saturated market of hopeful college grads looking for the same jobs, can prevent someone from getting an interview just because of a few pictures. I’m not trying to argue with hiring managers but it serves as an example of how careful young adults need to be on their networks.

On the other side of the coin, many college students know that they need to have a LinkedIn profile but have either neglected to fill it out completely or get one at all. The biggest disadvantage many college students face on LinkedIn and on resumés  is lack of experience. Savvy students will find ways to creatively cover it up, but many students lack the skills or resources to do so.

This is where truApp comes in. Its most important feature is its ability to let the student tell their story.

Carolyn is front and center in her truApp profile

“truApp really shows employers who you are through what you do,” says Boddy. “It’s so hard in today’s technological landscape to try and separate your ‘professional’ self from your ‘social’ self – like LinkedIn vs. Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, etc. Besides that, there really aren’t many college students on LinkedIn – it doesn’t cater to us. We don’t get anything out of it. truApp, on the other hand, is for us, by us.”

“Us” meaning college students. I’ll have a breakdown of how truApp works in the days to come, but for now check out their blog and make sure you stay tuned here. I have a LOT of great stuff about these guys coming soon!