Some time ago I was asked to write up a post on this subject, but it never saw the daylight, so I thought I’d share it here. You and I both know job hunt is never easy. You navigate the jungle of job boards, fire off kickass applications, write moving cover letters that would crack a stone yet doesn’t make the hiring director blink an eye. It could make anyone feel downright miserable. But as an online-generated motivational quote of the day would say (no reason not to believe them, right?) - eventually the right door always opens and if it doesn’t, try the window. After you finally make it through this, you’ll notice that some parts of it are actually quite comical and universally relatable. For instance:

1. You learn to get rejected

That may feel like anything but fun when you receive that negative answer (or worse - none at all). It can feel like the whole universe is against you. Well, look at it this way: some negative answers you’re bound to receive in the process will make you less afraid of rejections. The experience will prove useful when approaching your dating prospects, that’s for sure.

2. Going out becomes a chore

Networking is essential when looking for new opportunities - it may be more valuable than a good application. If you want to speed up the process, one of the main duties of yours should be going out, attending events and talking to people. Under regular circumstances that could be blissful, but when you actually have to do it, the couch and sweatpants somehow become that much more attractive.

3. Your desktop is crowded with CVs

Your desktop is a mess from all the different CVs and job applications you’ve saved there. You can’t find anything, but keep telling yourself it’s okay because some scientists found messy desktop owners to be better at numbers. You think there’s no way you can fit anything else in there, yet somehow, you always do.

4. There’s no shame in listening to people’s conversations

When you’re in public, it can be hard to avoid hearing people’s conversations. But if you overhear one steering towards anything job-related, you stop trying to. In fact, you do everything in your power to hear better. After all, you can’t afford to miss any opportunities and they do show up in the most unexpected places.

5. You become a self-proclaimed job search expert

After spending some time on the job hunt, you learn some things about finding positions, applying and interacting with recruiters. No matter how (un)successful you are in your search, you feel like you’re quite experienced in all its ins and outs. Discovering that someone else is in the same boat makes you jump right into the coaching mode and share your wisdom.

If you’re yet to reach the stage when it’s not your daily reality, hang in there. Like everything else, the bad part will be over - if you won’t take it from the motivational quotes generator, take it from a starting freelancer whose job description largely is repeating this over and over again. And when the time comes, you’ll be able to look at this period of your life with a smile.

Set up your base platform

We all know it’s hardly possible to tell a story in one tweet, despite the character limit increasing to 280 back in 2017. Luckily, there’s an easy solution - you can have a website or another platform to share the content from. It will save you the pain of coming up with new tweets, allow you to share longer stories AND increase your traffic. That’s what they call a win-win!

That being said, don’t forget to mix it up - post content from other sources too. While you might be worried about steering your audience towards the competition, it won’t be the case. It’s simply impossible for you to singlehandedly cover all your customers’ needs and it’s not a secret that other businesses do exist. Curating content related to your core operations poses no threat to you while your audience will enjoy seeing even more interesting, relevant content and engage with you more frequently. The best strategy would be using a few names that your audience knows and cares about as that will catch their eye quickly.

Consider your target audience

Different groups of demographics prefer different social media platforms. A very recent study on the US adult Twitter users discovered that the largest portion of 68 million monthly active users falls in the age range of 30-49 (44% of the users). For comparison, 71% of the US Instagram users are aged below 35. If your target audience includes millennials, Twitter is your place to be heard.

Interestingly, an average American Twitter user seems to have a higher level of education than a member of the general population. The numbers show that 42% versus 31% of people have obtained at least the Bachelor’s degree. Also (possibly relatedly) the higher level of average income is observed. These factors might be useful to consider when crafting your communication strategy.

Use your hashtags

Hearing the word “hashtag” might make you think “Instagram”, but Twitter is the one that did it first. Hashtags are crucial for increasing your reach and exposing content to your target audience. Write down a few main ones that you’re sure people will talk about and you’re good to go.

Knowing your hashtags and using them effectively is very important, but Twitter can help you out even more. It has a feature that shows a list of accounts related to the specific hashtag typed into the search bar, like this:

Twitter does the job for you by discovering new people you should target and listing them out so you can easily reach them with one click. Do you think it sounds wonderful? That’s because it is.

Make the most of your replies

The way you reply to your audience’s tweets may not be among your top priorities, but I’m here to tell you that it should. Before you do anything else, it’s essential to make sure you’re engaging with your audience at all -according to some studies, the Millennial generation truly values the connection to their chosen brands and an authentic conversation with them. Devoting enough time for talking to people is among the most important steps you can take to improve your results significantly.

The next step is to think about how that conversation sounds and looks. Embrace the conversational language and don’t shy away from using humor in your tweets, as it will get you far. While you should be friendly and approachable, assert a strong opinion and never forget the message you ultimately want people to get from your brand.

That goes for every tweet, both the regular ones and the replies. Twitter gives you a great opportunity by making responses as visible as other tweets and allowing the audience to engage with those by replying, liking and retweeting. An example of a reply that has received some reactions (as you can see, it doesn’t even have to be much effort):

Twitter offers plenty of opportunities for engagement. Besides the straightforward replies, you can also start conversation hashtags and participate in Twitter chats on a topic of your interest.

Twitter chats are regularly occurring conversations on a variety of subjects. Usually a question is posted and participants share their answers in the comments. Engaging in Twitter chats is an easy way to increase a company’s presence and make new connections. Bonus points if you host one yourself - it will attract your audience and invite them to interact with you. On top of that, Twitter chats can introduce you to fresh and innovative ideas, so there’s really no reason not to do it.

These are some of the most important yet incredibly easy ways that Twitter might help you boost your communication effectiveness. There are many more ways to improve your Twitter strategy, but the point remains — it is a great platform with tons of potential. Go and make the most of it!