Have you been ignoring your followers?

Your followers took the time to check out your profile and thought you were cool enough to follow, but how are you treating them in return? Have you allowed your large number of followers cause you to develop Twi-lebrity Syndrome? Suddenly, you’re too good to respond to or retweet anything and you think everyone should stop what they’re doing and retweet your tweets? If so, then you’ve probably begun to notice that for some strange reason the number of your followers are dropping. Why? Because you’ve been ignoring them. Followers are special – they can do more for your business than you could alone, that is if you would do more for them. I admit, when I first joined Twitter, I was totally confused by this new platform of reaching people. I’m sure I’ve offended several people with my random and even borderline spammy tweets. It wasn’t until someone took the time to say hello in a direct message that it finally clicked for me.

When I received that DM, it caused me to notice them…I took a moment to visit their profile and noticed there was some cool stuff there, so I clicked on several links, visited their blog and realized… that person gained more exposure to their blog all because they took a moment to say hello to me. Next thing you know I was retweeting their content and still enjoy interacting with them to this day.

But up to that point, I had been ignoring my followers. I noticed a big difference in the way people respond to my tweets and increased retweets when I changed my methods. This is what I did:

1. Profile Check: Whenever someone became a follower, whether I was already following them or not, I took a moment to check their profile.

2. Sent a Direct Message: I sent a Direct Message, thanking them for following. I took the time to write an authentic message and would comment on something I found on their profile. I’d say something like, “It’s wonderful to have you as a follower! Thanks for stopping by, I love your background by the way.” It’s even okay to post a link to your blog if it appears they might be interested – but don’t over do this one. If you’re posting a link in ever DM you send, you’re probably overdoing it.

3. Followed back: If I found that our interests were similar or if they’d piqued my interest, I’d thank them for following further by following them back.

4. Retweeted a tweet: If while on their profile, I found an interesting tweet – I’d retweet it.

5. Tweeted a blog post: If they had a website or a blog, I’d visit it, and if I found something noteworthy there, I’d tweet it.

6. Follow Friday: On Fridays, I’d take a moment to post a Follow Friday tweet for new and noteworthy Followers.

7. Responded to tweets: If I ran across an interesting tweet or question – I’d take a moment to respond with a reply or answer their question. People like to be heard, they won’t know that you’re hearing them if you don’t respond.

8. Added them to a List: So you can keep better track of followers create a list and make it a point to keep up with each one. You can do this throughout the week. For example, on Mondays, stay up on your “Crafters” list, or Tuesdays, check in on your “Bloggers” list. Whatever lists you’ve created, use them to help you stay in touch with followers.

9.Helped 5 a Day: Everyday I made it a point to visit 5 profiles and retweet 5 tweets; respond to 5; or visit 5 of your followers blogs or websites.

10. Tweet 3-4 of my own original updates. No one will know you’re there if you don’t Say something. Ask a question. Post a blog update. Do something at various times throughout the day. Use Hootsuite.com to schedule tweets if you know you won’t be available later – do what you have to do to remain active.

The point is, if you want your followers to respond to you – you’ve got to respond to them. You get what you give on Twitter. If you ignore people – you’ll be ignored. If you love people, you’ll be loved in return. It’s that simple.

Please click the header link for the original post (via Mashable by: Sharlyn Lauby)

Organizations are using Twitter (Twitter) for just about everything from ecommerce to legislative awareness. Given the variety of messages that Twitter can be used for, why not use it for one of the most critical needs an organization has – finding employees?

While I don’t know if Twitter users make better employees, it’s no secret that candidates are using Twitter as a job search tool. So companies should go where the candidates are. And when I talk about candidates, I’m referring to those who are actively searching (i.e. unemployed) as well as the people who, under the right circumstances, could be willing to consider a new opportunity (i.e., the passive job seeker).

I’ve always used my personal experience as a gauge for my recruiting strategy. My first job was based on what I knew and the rest based upon who I knew. So, I made sure I was tuned into the mojo of my best employees; I was always looking for the company’s next rockstar… even when the company didn’t have an opening. It just makes good business sense to keep this top of mind.

If you’re constantly on the lookout for talent, your goal is to create what I call a ‘pull’ strategy for recruitment — you want to pull candidates in even when you’re not actively searching for them. This contrasts with what a lot of companies do, which is wait for an opening to occur and ‘push’ out employment ads in order to attract job seekers. On the surface this might sound easy, but it does take some planning. You need to build a foundation so you’re not viewed as just constantly recruiting.


Here are 5 ways to leverage Twitter to find employees.
1. Connect with People in Your Industry or Local Areas

You should always know what’s going on in your backyard – period. There are tons of great Twitter apps out there to help find local twitter users; two good ones are Twitter Local and Tweetmondo. Once you know who the local players are, engage them and draw them into your Twitter community.

Then leverage the relationships you’ve built online in the face-to-face world. For example, take advantage of the informal settings that Tweetups provide as a way to meet the people you converse with on Twitter. There are social media clubs forming all over the world and many local newspapers and blogs (including Mashable (Mashable)) are hosting Tweetups.

Use this combination of Twitter and Tweetups to build connections with people that might (1) want to work for your company or (2) know someone who does (or both!).
2. Organize your Connections

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with quantity on Twitter. But for recruiting purposes, the name of the game is quality. Once you start meeting and following the “A” Players in your industry or geographic area, stay on top of the conversation by separating them from the rest of your Twitter followers.

I’m not saying you need to drop your other friends, rather I am suggesting that you’ll want to stay on top of what’s happening by putting this conversation is a separate place.

Two of the most popular Twitter applications that allow for categorizing followers are Tweetdeck (TweetDeck) and Seesmic (Seesmic). Both have their pros/cons, and for a comparison of each, check out this post.
3. Post Jobs Directly (and Get Your Network to RT Them)

Serendipity would be if the job opening and the perfect candidate arrive at the same time. Unfortunately, in the real world that doesn’t happen very often. So when you have job openings… post them in your Twitter stream!



And don’t be shy about asking your followers to retweet the posting. Most people are happy to retweet items of value – and having a job opening is always a very valuable thing, especially in a down economy.

4. Search using Hashtags (or Create Your Own!)

I believe the real power of Twitter lies in hashtags. Hashtags are essentially a way for Twitter users to organize tweets under topical tags that are included in the tweet itself (for a full guide check out Ben Parr’s Getting the Most Out of Twitter Hashtags post). So let’s say you have a job opening and you’ve sent it out to your network, but you want to get it out to the masses. You can use a hashtag to have it show up more readily in search queries.

One good example is the #JobAngels hashtag. This hashtag was created by Mark Stelzner who wondered what would happen if each of us helped one person find a job? Those looking for jobs post using the hashtag and others can help them find open jobs that match their skillset. Employers have used the tag along with job postings as well, so that job seekers can more easily find the listings.


Another way to use hashtags is to search for candidates. Maybe you’re not ready to spread the word about a job opening but you want to see who’s out there. In May, I created a hashtag called #whatido, because that’s the first question people ask when they meet: “What do you do?” I wanted to find out the answer to that question about my followers, so I asked them to post what they did for a living along with that hashtag. I later discovered my recruiting friends were using #whatido as a way to search for candidates – both active and passive.

Finally, here’s an example of a company that’s using their company name as a hashtag (very creative!) If you have a lot of employees on Twitter, this could be a valuable way for candidates to find you.

5. Set up Alerts

Many of us use alerts to monitor what is being said about our companies or ourselves. But you can also use services like Google Alerts and Notify Me to see what jobs are being offered. Call it competitive intelligence in the job market, if you will. Let’s say you’re recruiting for a specific position – set up an alert for that position so you can see if anyone else on Twitter is also recruiting for it.

Using Twitter to post jobs might not work for every position but it can be a valuable resource for getting the word out and monitoring the job market. There is also a strong community of experienced recruiting professionals on Twitter that can help you with your efforts.

Keep you Facebook profile privite:

Earlier this month, an 82-year-old man in Auburn, Calif., was scammed out of $5,200 because his Facebook profile was too forthcoming. The first thing I did after reading his tale of woe on the Auburn Journal site was to examine my own Facebook profile from a stranger's perspective.

I didn't like what I saw.

What I saw was too much, so the second thing I did was edit my Facebook profile to remove some personal information and further restrict access to it. Unfortunately, the process took longer than I expected.

A Facebook privacy makeover begins by hovering the cursor over Settings and choosing Account Settings. The Settings tab shows your name, contact e-mail address, and other basic information. The Networks, Notifications, Mobile, Language, and Payments tabs are self-explanatory, although I unchecked several of the Notifications options that were selected by default.

The real work begins when you rework Facebook's privacy settings. Hover the cursor over Settings and choose Privacy Settings to open the service's Privacy Overview. Your privacy options are presented in four categories: Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications. You can also add someone to your Block List by entering his or her name in the text box near the bottom of the page and clicking Block.

Facebook Privacy Overview page

Facebook's Privacy Settings are listed in four categories along with a tool for adding names to your Block List.
(Credit: Facebook)

Click Profile to view your personal and contact information. Your options in each category are everyone, people in your networks and friends, friends of friends, only friends, and a Customize dialog box, which provides a bit more granularity to your options. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page once you've finished making your selections.

Facebook custom privacy settings

The custom options in the Facebook privacy settings let you limit access to your personal info.
(Credit: Facebook)

I reset each privacy option to Only Friends, with the exception of the Basic Info category, which is viewable by everyone. To see your profile as your friends do, enter the name of a friend in the text box at the top of this page. (You can view and edit the entries in your Basic Info by clicking Info on your profile page and choosing Edit Information.)

You might be surprised by the amount of information about you that Facebook's search function makes available. To change Facebook's search settings, click Search on the Privacy Overview page. The default option under Search Visibility is Everyone, but you can change this to Friends of Friends, Only Friends, or a custom setting for people in your networks.

I chose to show in search results only a link to send me a message. I also unchecked the option at the bottom of the screen to create a public search listing for me to submit to Web search engines. When you're done, click Save Changes.

Facebook search privacy settings

Uncheck options on the Facebook Search Privacy page to restrict your personal information shown in search results.
(Credit: Facebook)

The default selections in Facebook's privacy settings for News Feed and Wall are similarly too open for my liking. It wasn't so much the options under Actions within Facebook, although I did uncheck several of these. The settings under Facebook Ads were a bigger concern to me.

There are two options on this page: "Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to" and "Show my social actions in Facebook Ads to." You can choose either "Only my friends" or "No one." Opting for the latter choice was a no-brainer for me.

More unpleasant surprises awaited on the Applications Privacy page. What your friends do affects how far afield your personal information travels. You can read about it under the Overview tab, which concludes by promising that Facebook won't sell your personal information and that "(y)our contact information is not exposed by the Facebook Platform."

I'm sure the Facebook Platform offers some real benefits, but until I have a better understanding of those benefits and their potential risks to my privacy, I'm opting out. To do so, choose "Do not share any information about me through the Facebook API." Take that a step further by selecting the other two options on this page, which block friends from viewing memberships in Facebook Connect sites and prevent Beacon sites from posting stories to your profile.

These days, I spend more time in Facebook than any other Web service except Gmail, and Facebook is gaining fast on that top spot. Of course, the bad guys are spending a lot more time there, too. Minimize your chances of catching their eye by lowering your profile.