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Stalk Your Way to a New Job
Stalk like a career professional
Tania Khadder | NursingLink
Twitter may not reveal the information you’re looking for in the most organized, upfront way (a la Facebook), but following someone over time can give you a very intimate glimpse into their daily life and personal character.
If you know how to use it, Twitter can be a very fruitful stalking tool.
One of Twitter’s greatest assets is that it has made it perfectly acceptable to “follow” strangers without seeming creepy –- especially if they are visibly part of your industry. (For more on how to use Twitter, go here).
Once you’re following your person of interest, you can “retweet” their tweets, or reply to their tweets if they are of interest to you. An appropriate retweet would be responding to an article in your industry. An inappropriate retweet would be responding to that person’s tweet on how much they love their wife or what they had for breakfast. Keep it professional or you’ll earn a reputation for being creepy.
Someone I know scored a writing gig by following the editor of the target publication for a few months. From time to time, and where appropriate, she would reply to the editor’s tweets with links to her own articles. She was simultaneously emailing the editor, pitching story ideas and requesting an interview. Eventually, the editor agreed to meet her and she got the job. Not bad for a few tweets.
Twitter is also helpful because, unlike Facebook, it allows you to follow people without their consent or reciprocation. And now, thanks to the new app Tweet Stalk, you can follow people without them even knowing.
Finally, Twitter can be used to track down leads. You can search for the name of the hospital you’re interested in to see if anyone in the Twitterverse is affiliated with it. Once you find them, begin following and ask if they have contacts. They may ignore you altogether, but they might just help you out. Either way, there’s no risk in trying.
Nurse_John
almost 4 years ago
28268 comments
That facebook idea sounds good, but some people are not on any social sites. I interview for positions on my unit and NL is the only site I am on. If they check here, they will find me, but at others, no luck.