Twitter Lists Optimize Your Job Search Experience

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

With the lists feature on Twitter, you can drag-and-drop certain Twitter friends into categories. Job seekers can use this feature to their advantage by creating private lists of local recruiters, job boards, targeted companies, and so on. Each list only displays tweets from its members.

As your Twitter connections grow, your timeline moves faster and faster, increasing your chances of missing critical pieces of information, job postings, and relevant industry news. That’s where lists come in.

Twitter-management tools take advantage of this concept and very easily allow you to create, add to, and read lists. Twitter’s own native interface also allows you to create and manage list members.

Creating a list is easy. Simply go to Twitter.com, click on Lists, and then choose Create a List. You can title your list, write a short description, and mark it Public or Private.

If the list is sensitive, like a list of hiring managers at target companies, then you may want to make it private. If the list is topical, like a list of thought leaders in your field, then why not make it public.

You’re allotted 20 lists per Twitter account, and lists can’t begin with a number. Job seekers should create the following lists:

Local recruiters: You may name this list “Michigan Recruiters” or “Dallas Recruiters.”
Local job boards: Try to locate Twitter accounts that post job openings in your area, like @CAjobs or @RIjobsbot.
Personal friends: This list, which allows you to follow personal friends in your network, may be private.
Great companies: Having top-notch companies in a single list — especially the ones you’re targeting in your job search — can significantly simplify your research.
Top tens: You may want to list the best tweeps about a certain category, such as “Best job search advice” or “Best nonprofit tweets.”