If all you’re using Twitter to do is build a base of followers to whom you can eventually send your resume, then you’re doing it all wrong. Of course, in a simple information-sharing situation, the follow agreements make sense, as you can quickly increase your contacts in a short amount of time. But what does it do for your personal relationships ‘in real life’? Not much, if at all. And this could harm your job search.

Those who try to boost followers by following the golden rule of Twitter sometimes miss out on creating stronger connections within the Twitter community. And if that’s the case, then how can adding those users to your roster of followers and following help your own cause, be that finding a job or marketing your services? It’s fairly easy to catch a spam Twitter account, or even a Twitter account that does little but promote its user. These sorts of accounts can increase your followers, but they also associate you with a part of Twitter that is a bit useless and clunky.

The trick, then, to better managing your contacts in Twitter is to carefully consider follow requests and the recommended users to follow list. If someone follows you, you are in no way obligated to follow them back. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check them out. You should definitely visit their profile to get to know what they do. That way, you can evaluate them as a worthwhile follower, or block them if they seem like a spam account, and you can also look at their history to see if you’d like to follow them in the future, thus building your own brand.

Twitter users should understand that the Twitter platform is just like any other online tool, and as such, there is a degree of separation from real life that needs to be accounted for. In real life, for example, you treat someone politely who greets you at a party. You don’t follow them home afterwards! Likewise, if someone follows you online, you’re more than welcome to @ them in a Tweet to thank them for the follow, but you don’t need to return the favor. Should they choose to drop you shortly afterwards, it’s no big deal. It probably wasn’t a worthwhile connection to begin with.

Similarly, you’ll have users that you follow who don’t follow you back. Evaluate how that makes you feel. If you’re not worried by that, then you truly understand how Twitter works, and you understand its uses and limitations. But if you feel offended that another user won’t follow you back when you follow them, then maybe you should step back and reevaluate your brand, and how your brand operates online. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if someone doesn’t follow you, that actually gives you an opportunity to think of how you could convince them to follow you. And you do that by connecting with them personally.

This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email katewillson2 at gmail.com.

The only challenge with Foursquare and other check-in services and games is they generate chaffe. Chaffe is defined as “Trivial or worthless matter.” Other culprits include Farmville, Mob Boss etc…Oh My!

Let me explain. Chaffe is something that clutters your inbox, news or Twitter feed when the update is not relevant at the precise point in time. What do we do? We can set up spam filters, feed filters or simply stop subscribing…begrudgingly.

Now, imagine 100% penetration and uptake of Foursquare by all the mobile users in North America alone. If each of us checked into Starbucks on the way to work, the office, the gym, the local pub, then home….this would generate 1.5 Billion updates per day in North America. Twitter is currently serving 50 Million Tweets per day. They would need to increase their already overloaded capacity by a multiple of 30 just for North America.

Since the average person follows 125 people, this translates into 635 Tweets that are simply chaffe…unless you are mobile and keen for a meet-up at the coffee shop, coming out of the office, the gym or at the pub.

Enter the phrase, context sensitive updates and tweets. Today’s developers should be building out system level preferences that let users accept updates that are in context. For me, this would mean turning on a preference to let trusted applications know I am mobile and keen for a choice meet up. I would also like a custom alert that would literally have my phone poke me, so I don’t miss out. Make no mistake, this would open privacy issues with my mobile provider…but they already know if I am out of my home.

Leave behind a comment and pile on this agenda. If we don’t get context aware applications, the shear volume of inane updates will turn us away.

Given the numbers and the questions we keep being asked by faculty, admin, and students alike, it’s time for another pitch for Twitter.

People’s first reactions include ‘why bother’, ‘I don’t get it’, ‘what’s going on’, and ‘I already using _______’.  At the beginning, Twitter is confusing, different, and looks like a big waste of time.  But just like exercise, you have to make a commitment to get results.

Twitter can be used;

To learn – The Twitterverse is all about sharing.  Once you connect and start to follow people you will start see a constant stream of information from like-minded people and subject matter specialists.

To stay up to date – Twitter is instant information.  World events of all sorts will be reported faster on Twitter then any other media.

To promote events – There is a constant stream of events that are being announced, linked to and promoted on Twitter.

To connect with like minds – Connect with people that are talking about the same topics that are of interest to you.  You can share information with them, add to conversations, and connect for partnership opportunities.

To communicate – Twitter is a direct communication channel that can be used publicly or privately.  The advantage of public chats is that others can chime in and add thoughts, resources, or links that add to the conversation.  You can also quickly jump into a private conversation where you can share emails or phone numbers for more detail.

You have to decide what kind of commitment you are going to make to Twitter.  It also helps if you start to see the value of it.  I have expanded my local network with Twitter, participated in several amazing events, connected and lectured in a class in Nevada, promoted events, have had contacts lecture in my class through video from Toronto, and next week I start sailing, all because of Twitter.

I’m strengthening my Twitter muscle and continue to get results that make the commitment worthwhile.  However, it took a commitment upfront to get some momentum and find the value.  I strongly suggest you give Twitter some time and attention.  It will open up new doors if you take the time to knock on them.

Rene is a 40-year-old father of three young children is expected to be in the hospital for at least a year through his recovery and rehabilitation. He did not have any long-term disability insurance. He had recently wound down his business where he worked with Andy and was starting to develop plans for his next venture.

Rene’s story touches Andy and I on many levels because we share many common values:  he’s an amazing dad and loving husband, entreprenuer and idea man, and an optimistic and caring soul.  He’s a good man who has been faced with a terrible situation that any of us could be placed in.  In Rene’s word to Andy at the hospital, “You don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

It is for all these reasons that we have been working with the Ottawa 67s to put on a Family Fun Game in Rene’s honour.  We hope that you will join us, our family and friends, and many of Rene’s family, friends and supporters on February 7th at 2PM at Landsdown.

I would like to send a special thanks to Patrick Whalen and Sheryl Hunt for being instantly ready to help and incredibly supportive.  The Ottawa 67s is an organization that also shares our values of community, kindship and enjoyment of life.  Hats off to you all!

Thomas Lynn was a student of mine three years ago in my Marketing 1 class at Algonquin College.  I remember that Thomas was a mature (returning to school after having a careering in social work) from PEI, with 2 boys and he was an excellent student that asked questions, participated and had a keen interest in Marketing.  Turns out that he has majored in Marketing at Algonquin.

Last summer, we briefly ran into each other in a hallway and swapped ‘hey how are yas’.  At the time, Thomas was working on a project for the business school.

I recently stumbled upon Thomas on Twitter a few weeks ago when I was looking for an update from the Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition which was held at Mohawk College on the weekend of November 19th.  I went to Twitter Search and was looking for anyone commenting on what was happening at the competition.  That’s when Thomas and I reconnected. These were the Tweets I was following that night:

With Twitter you read from bottom to top. You can follow Thomas on Twitter @thomaslynn.

After I read the post, I congratulated him, connected online and proposed that talk more about social media marketing and networking in Ottawa.  We ended up meeting at the first ever Gen Y Ottawa event at the Mercury Lounge along with close to 100 motivated Gen Yers.

At the Gen Y event Thomas and I talked at length about his experience with social networking tools, his win at OCMC and what his WhyHire.me experience would be like next term in his Transition to Marketing Professional class.  We also talked about my upcoming speaking engagement in his Integrated Marketing Communication class.  I needed to understand what level of knowledge the students had prior to my talk.

Our discussions have continued and Thomas is recently started a WordPress blog which we will help him attach to his WhyHire.me profile next term.  The story will continue as the pieces of Thomas’ social media marketing strategy for his personal brand evolve.  The icing on the cake will be pulling the pieces together and further explaining the potential next term.

The Experiment:

This post is legitimate post but also a test of SEO for student Thomas Lynn, Business/Marketing student at Algonquin College in Ottawa.  I will reveal the story as the experiment progresses.

Phase I – I googled Thomas Lynn and Algonquin College and in 1 minute after completing the post I found Thomas on the first page of Google in our blog.  I then googled Thomas Lynn and Ottawa and I found him in 1 minute on the second page of Google.  I tried Thomas Lynn and checked 10 pages and couldn’t find my blog entry.

Phase II – I added tags to the post including Algonquin College, Thomas Lynn, and marketing student.  I also added the first phase of our story, the past.  The results were that in 5 minutes Thomas Lynn and Algonquin College was the first entry on the first page of Google.  When I searched Thomas Lynn and Ottawa the blog post showed up on the first page as the 5th entry.  I still can’t find the post on the first 10 pages of when I just include his Thomas Lynn.  I guess I should point out now that my Thomas Lynn is fighting for search with a man that is on death row which makes this experiment more interesting.  Now to add to the story above; the present.

Phase III – I added the Twitter connection to the story which which included links and some new tags.  The results of the search did not change in 5 minutes but I will check again later this afternoon.  Google bots need some time to find your story.  Phase IV will come tomorrow.

Phase IV – Results are the same.  Phase V will occur as part of his WhyHire.me profile next term.

Many times over, school administrators and HR professionals ask why students should be coming out of school with an online brand. I was keen to get Dawn’s perspective on how social media has changed recruiting and how her clients react to seeing more than a traditional 2-page resume about a candidate.  For those that are interested in downloading the entire 10-minute podcast, simply click here.

For those interested in key sections, you can download and listen to key extracts:

Part 1

• How the Helping Friends Career Network got started
• The secret to her success becoming the top Twitter recruiter

Part 2

• Client reaction to social media in the recruiting world
• Stepping outside the traditional recruiting box – how and why
• Important employment trend – green businesses will mean more job / project opportunities

Part 3

• Advice to Educators and Leaders – become part of the movement
• Bring transparency and authenticity to the classroom

The next time you think about presenting your ideas, be it a school project, proposal or oral presentation, go beyond the research and facts you present. If you take the time to creatively sell the concept, your audience will take note and get all the more excited about your recommendations. Why is that?

When something catches your attention visually or through your imagination, the underlying proposal or idea behind the creativity simply resonates more.  I have walked away from some great presentations really fired up because someone took the time to educate and entertain me. Interestingly enough, I discovered this Vancouver based company exclusively focused on creativity at work.  They help business people through arts-based training, coaching and research-based consulting.

Keep this in mind as you think about your school projects and the content you build for your online profile. Creativity sells!