Tweet Your Way To A Nonprofit Job

Do you hear all that tweeting?  It's not the birds, it's the sound of millions of people using the popular social networking site Twitter.  The site was launched in 2006 and it has been an Internet sensation ever since.  It's most useful for connecting with celebrities and to drive traffic to website, but it's also useful for the job search.

How exactly can you tweet your way to a nonprofit job?  It takes a lot of work but it can be done.  After you have created your account, chosen an appropriate profile picture, and written a description of yourself, it's time to start following people.  There's aren't that many nonprofits that aren't on Twitter, so it should be very easy to find their Twitter handle.  You can look on their official website for a link to their profile if you are having trouble.  Organizations will often send out a tweet if they have open jobs, so it's good to keep an eye on their tweets.

That's not the only reason you will want to follow nonprofits on Twitter.  It's also so you can start grabbing their attention with your tweets.  In order to get your messages sent to the appropriate targets, you will have to make use of hashtags.  These are represented by the "#" symbol, and are placed before a word that describes the subject of the tweet.  Twitter users will often search for tweets by a specific subject, and making use of multiple hashtags will increase your chances of being seen.  For example, using the hashtag #nonprofitjobs would be appropriate to get noticed by recruiters.

You must always remember that Twitter is a social platform.  You want to build yourself up but you also want to participate in conversations.  It's not easy to say everything you want to say in 140 characters or less but with time, you will get better at it.  Here are some other helpful tips to help you tweet your way to a nonprofit job:

• Try to send out 2-5 tweets (or more) per day.
• Follow the hiring managers at nonprofits.  They will be the ones going through the job applications and, if you are impressive enough, you could be given extra consideration if they recognize your name from Twitter.
• Introduce yourself to people who follow you through a direct message.
• Get to know Twitter lingo.
• Send out links to your LinkedIn or professional Facebook profile (make sure to use link shortening tools like bit.ly).