Twitter’s been touted as everything from a micro blogging site to an instant news service, but there’s one use still being put to the test – could Twitter gain you your dream job?

I’ve reached the final six of a gruelling nationwide job search, to become the UK’s Ambassador for Meerkovo, the village that’s home to the comparethemeerkat.com founder, Aleksandr Orlov. Our final challenge: to win our position by running a social media campaign.

The job itself is fantastic – being sent round classic British summer events such as Glastonbury and Wimbledon, spreading the word about the plight of Meerkovo on Facebook and Twitter, and being paid £40,000 for the six month, part-time role.

However, campaigning for it has been hard – no budget and only twelve days to make an impact. How do you persuade people you’ve never met that they should spend their spare time in voting for you to win a fantastic job?

I’ve been emphasising the benefits of giving back, that as Ambassador, I’ll run fun games and give out free meerkat ears, while my Facebook event promised charitable donations and the temptation of an iPad giveaway. I’ve used alumni groups on LinkedIn and provided helpful advice on forums in the hope of driving more traffic to my link. I’ve even tried to run an interactive game with meerkat toys on the Underground to engage more casual passers-by.

But one of the most helpful mediums has been Twitter. If you walked up to someone’s house, hammered on their front door, and demanded they vote for you and tell all their friends, they’d probably slam that door shut pretty quickly.

Only on Twitter can you directly approach complete strangers and be met, not only with kindness, but praise, advice and those crucial re-tweets. I’ve been aiming my Tweets at social media and advertising figures, but my competitors have had success with local groups and national celebrities.

LinkedIn’s shares may just have been priced at $35, but for effective networking and job seeking – even job winning – maybe Twitter should be your first port of call.

The voting has now closed, but you can take a look at my campaign video below and my blog is here and I’m @PhilippaDunjay on Twitter.