Christopher Penn is a friend of Chris Brogan, who is a friend of mine. Anyway, through Chris B, I (virtually) met Christopher P and signed up for his newsletter. There’s some neat stuff in it each month … and there’s always something in there to make me smile.

This month: a tip on finding people by job role in Twitter:

“… Twitter and Google combined are going to help you find more decision makers than the want ads. Try this search on Google (not Twitter, but Google): “VP Marketing” Boston site:twitter.com

What’s it do? It looks for people who are Vice Presidents of Marketing in the Boston area, restricted to Twitter.com. Obviously, find the ones most relevant to you, then start following them. Human nature being what it is, anywhere from 20% to 80% will follow you back and you’ve got a foot nudging the door a tiny bit. It’s up to you after that to cultivate the relationship so that if and when you need work, you have a strong network to draw on.“

Mmm, with a project I’m contemplating at the moment, this could be very useful.

Read more: Christopher Penn’s Out of Date Newsletter