Danny Cox is: The PRospective Employee

As Twitter continues its seemingly unstoppable progression towards world domination, I find that as a PR student and ruthless social networker (I’ve had personally designed business cards since my Freshman year of college) I view and use Twitter differently than my peers.

Continuing my search for a Public Relations job in Chicago, I recently turned to Twitter. Thanks to the advice of my good friend and technological mentor, John Raymond, I hopped on Twellow and began targeting exactly what I was looking for. Under the category ‘Public Relations’, I typed in Chicago and hit search.

I was given a list of hundreds of Twitter users who all had two things in common: Chicago and Public Relations, the two things I am hoping to utilize in my ideal life equation (Chicago+Public Relations= Gainful, Enjoyable Employment).

After taking some time to go through some tweet backlogs, I followed quite a few of folks whose interests seemed to match mine, and many followed back. As time progressed, I began refining my search for individual public relations firms in Chicago. Weber Shandwick, Edelman, and Fleishman-Hillard are three that I have researched and would really like to pursue as potential future-employers.

@DannyCox anyone in Chicago work for Weber-Shandwick? Would really like to meet a few when I’m in the windy city, need some guidance.10:27 PM Jul 20th from web

The next morning, I had several Direct Message responses from Weber Shandwick associates.

OwenDonnellyI work for Weber in Chi and can meet with you or set something up while you’re in town. Lot of Bobcats in our office (myself included)9:38 AM Jul 21stdan360manThanks for the follow, dude. I’m with WS in Chicago. What’s up?10:28 AM Jul 21st

The most interesting response that morning, however, came in the form of an @reply.

akeats@DannyCox morning, Danny. saw your tweet. i lead Weber Shandwick’s digital/social media team in chicago. what can i do for you?8:49 AM Jul 21st from Power Twitter

The man who leads WS’s social media team personally replied to me less than 12 hours after my night-time post looking for information. Iwas even more ecstatic later in the day when Mr. Keats informed me that he would put the “right folks in touch” with me.

Sure enough, not two hours later I had an email in my inbox from a hiring director with Weber Shandwick looking to talk with me over the phone.

In a similar sequence of events a week later, Allie Osmar, the outstanding creator and author of The Creative Career, tweeted about an internship opportunity with Edelman, the firm she works with. A few tweets and emails later, and that evening I was fielding another phone call from a hiring director/recruitment officer for a major Chicago PR firm.

When I first signed up for Twitter last October, I had no idea how to utilize it to its full potential, and thus felt it was a silly way to spend even more time on the internet. This is where many of my peers stand right now on the topic: confused as to why 140 character status updates are a good idea.

While I still have a long journey ahead to (hopefully) procuring a post-graduate internship/job, it’s very encouraging to receive such positive responses so quickly when utilizing the appropriate channels. And therein lies my interest and commitment to Social Media: for those that can learn its subtle nuances, it is a power of immeasurable force.

So my advice to any public relations students who are looking for PR jobs or PR internships is this: learn the new technologies. Twitter has the ability to help you connect in the first degree with people who can give you invaluable advice, share wonderful resources, and maybe even land your foot in that oh-so-heavy door to employment.

Have you used Twitter successfully to procure a job or internship? Do you know someone who has? What other strategies are you using to network?