What do you use Twitter for? To express your opinions about topics? Update yourself on issues? Or to throw bants and have fun?

A lot of job seeking people don't think of Twitter in terms of job search.

If you’re unemployed and you’re ready to step up your job search, you’ve got to learn how to how to use this micro-blogging platform to your advantage. And here, we are not talking about begging people on Twitter to give you a job.

Here’s how you can use Twitter for your job search

1.    Make it one of the channels you use to market yourself

A lot of job seekers are on LinkedIn and they are cool with using the platform for job search and networking. But hey, you don’t have to limit your chances of getting a job to one social media platform.

Like LinkedIn, Twitter allows you to market yourself. You can contribute to thoughtful conversations about your field. There’s always something to discuss on Twitter. Tweet about issues, conversations and anything that has to do with your industry . Also, try to always share links that’ll help people form sound opinions about industry topics trending on the platform.

2.    Stay up-to-date on industry trends and follow your target organizations

Another way to make Twitter useful for your job search is to be up to speed on what’s happening in your industry. Following organizations you’ll like to work for will help you understand the company’s culture and guess what; you can mention some of the things you’ve learnt about the company when you eventually get invited for a job invite. That could give you an edge over other candidates.

3.    Connect with industry experts and thought leaders

On Twitter, you can easily follow industry experts, thought leaders, CEOs and hiring managers. Stalking them gives you a first-hand accounts of the kind of things they tweet about. This also gives you the opportunity to directly engage with them by retweeting and replying their tweets.

Trust me, as a job seeking graduate, you’ll really help yourself if you follow someone like @OgbeniDipo on Twitter. You’ll learn lots of industry tips and what you need to do to position yourself for the job you want.

4.    Use it as a job search engine

Twitter isn’t just a micro-blogging platform you go to throw bants and check celebrity tweets. You can also make it your search engine for job search. Apart from using it to check what people are saying about an organization you’re interested in, you can also use hashtag to search and check updates about the kind of jobs you want.

For example, if you are interested in #digital marketing, search for it on Twitter and you’ll see what companies, individuals and industry leaders are saying about emerging trends in digital marketing.

What are you waiting for?

Now you know what you need to do to prepare and position yourself jobs using Twitter, Right? Don’t say who Twitter epp again. All you've got to do going forward is to ensure your presence on Twitter contributes to your job search in a more meaningful way. Take these steps now, you’ll like to thank me later.