How to Find Freelance Jobs Using Twitter

If you are an online freelancer, regardless of your digital-tool-belt of choice, there is a good chance that you've been lightly pinched, or even maliciously mauled, by the downturn in today's economies. While many established freelancers could probably navigate these turbulent times without going under, the under-established workers -- those who don't yet have a solid client base -- might feel the need to abandon ship before their finances capsize completely.

However, even while these times are troubling for many -- there may be a lifeline for the struggling freelancer looking for their next quick cash-fix: Twitter. While Twitter is an unworldly-popular social-networking tool for some, and a time-wasting, too-much-information-sharing pastime for others, it offers something that major search engines cannot when it comes to finding a freelance job -- up-to-the-second results.

How to search Twitter for freelance jobs

There are two ways to utilize Twitter as a job-searching tool: using Twitter's built-in search function, and using a third-party application. Honestly, the third-party application that I'll highlight will probably give you more accurate results, but there are leads to be found using Twitter's own built-in search utility.

To get started on your freelance job search using Twitter, you just to pull up Twitter's search page in your favorite web browser -- http://search.twitter.com -- and use this handy reference guide to pick the terms that will help you to find those freelance jobs and gigs.

Hashtags -in order to effectively dig into a freelance job search on Twitter, you need to understand what hashtags are.

Hashtags are simply words, preceded by the pound sign (#), which allow Twitter users to categorize their tweets. If you think of a hashtag like a category, that's essentially what these are. Here are the best general hashtags for job searching that I have found on Twitter so far -- these are listed in the relative order of importance:

• #jobs

• #job

• #hiring

• #hire

• #employ

Alongside the hashtags, you should place the word(s) or phrase(s) that represent the type of job that you're looking for. A little qualifier here, though -- while this guide is focused on helping freelancers to find jobs using Twitter, and this group will likely have more success finding jobs via this method, there are plenty of 9-5 jobs being advertised on Twitter as well. So, if you happen to be looking for a traditional job with a brick and mortar company, instead of a contract / telecommute job -- these tips will work equally as well.

To check out which jobs are available, just do a random search with the hashtag #jobs, or any of the above hastag examples, followed by a vocation that interests you -- php, web design, banker, writer, cashier, even pet walking and grooming show up with available positions as of this writing.

Locating local jobs using Twitter

While this particular type of search is probably better suited for the third-party website that I'll bring up in a minute, you can sometimes localize your job search using Twitter by including the US State, or US State abbreviation within the search field to hone-in on local job listings.

As an example, all of the following search queries produce location-specific job results:

• #jobs real estate NY - Real estate jobs in New York

• #jobs php AZ - PHP jobs in Arizona

• #jobs news FL - News jobs in Florida

• #jobs writer OR writing CA - Writing jobs in California

While this will not always provide the best results, especially with less-popular vocations, or job-searches in less-populated locations, it's still a method that you can use to find local jobs through Twitter -- freelancer or not. The localized job search can likely be replicated for countries around the world, so if you live in Canada, UK, Australia, or wherever -- try it out with abbreviated state or province names.

An alternate website for Twitter job searches

The alternate website, aptly named Twitter Job Search, allows you to search job-focused 'Tweets', but with a twist -- the Twitter Job Search website uses context, rather than exact-word-matching, to help you find the jobs you're looking for. Theoretically, this will give you more results for your job searches, and results that are more accurate.

There are no tricks to using the Twitter Job Search website -- you just visit the website:

http://www.twitterjobsearch.com

Enter in what type of job you're looking for:

Php in Texas

Writer in New York

Web design in Georgia

and search through the listed job postings. While the system is by no means perfect, by using Twitter's built-in search function, and Twitter Job Search's website, you should be able to find freelance jobs, and even traditional jobs, that you probably wouldn't find elsewhere.