Posts Tagged ‘Tips’
10 tips for freelance twitter-ers.
Monday, April 20th, 2009
It seems like everyone’s on twitter these days. And why not? Its such a brilliant service. I tend not to class this like the rather overkill social networking site, but rather, as most people like to call it - a micro blog. It lets you post cool and nifty links, tips and quiffs, which are then read by your followers. Its basically like one big RSS feed, generated by humans and a lot more interactive.
So, with so many people on twitter, its easy to see why people are writing “How to game twitter, and make $16,000 doing it” type articles. Simarly, there seems to be hundreds of “How to succeed on twitter” type blog posts. This is not one of them. However, I will admit, that you can use twitter to grow your business, find new clients, and spread the word about your business. If dont right… Incidentally, you can follow the PFF team on twitter: @freelanceknight & @baronbarry.
So, lets find out how you can use twitter organically to help you as a freelancer.
1. Treat your followers like real people
As with most popular web start-ups, twitter has its fair share of people jumping on board the site to use it as a marketing tool. Which it can be. But, they totally over do it. Remember, twitter isnt designed to be used as a platform to spam unwitting web users!! So, treat them like real people, interact with them, and generally show them some respect.
2. Dont retweet too much!
Retweets are essentially when someone aggregates a tweet they like or found useful to their follows. And, when used sparingly they add that extra something to your twitter feed. But, when somebody takes it upon themselves to essentially act as a content delivery method, rather than tweeting original content of their own, they’ll find that unless the content is very interesting to fellow twitterers, they’ll become rather unpopular, rather quickly.
3. Only share useful or pertinent links
You dont need to tell your followers about every blog on the internet. Rather, only post links to those extra special posts and sites that you found useful.
4. Dont have an Auto-DM
Please, dont thank every single new follower for following you. Its just tasteless. Whats even worse is including a “Thanks for following me, check out my site” type my message. DONT DO IT. It only proves your on twitter for the traffic you can get from it.
5. Keep your tweets sensible
If I had a pound for every time I’ve been downright grossed out by some of the tweets in my twitter feed, I’d be sat on a beach somewhere with a shiny new macbook pro. But Im not. Seriously though, please dont tell us about how your cat just emptied its stomach contents all over your iPhone or how you found a piece of 10 year old cheese in your fridge. Its not very proffesional is it? Likewise, dont go posting things you wouldn’t want potential clients to see, like “just been on the phone with a stupid client who wants a table based site”. What if they saw your tweet? How do people feel about you bad-mouthing those who pay your bills?
6. Dont follow friday every week! And Dont follow friday everyone!
Follow fridays are a great way of giving your followers a great big thumbs up. But dont do it every week. It gets a bit annoying. Rather, save your fridayfollows for those who are truly great twitterers. Your followers will thank you. Likewise, dont go through your entire list of people your following and #followfriday them! Its too much, and thats why we see the fail whale so much!
7. If you ask people to do something, give them something back
Answer the “Whats in it for me?” question and your onto a winner. If you ask people to “head over to my site and sign-up to my newsletter”, why should they? Yes your a freelancer, and potentially they might need a freelance consultant in the near future, but why should they spend of their time signing-up? Try offering them something in return. A simple free PDF, Video or similar should do the trick. But make sure its well carried out and reflects who you are and your company in a good light. You could try something like “Sign-up to my newsletter and receive a free PDF, warning you about 10 mistakes people make when designing websites”. Something like that….
8. Dont tweet too much!!
We dont really want to know every single little detail about you to the point where we feel we are stalking you. So dont tell everyone that your “sat on your mac, twittering” in answer to the “what are you doing question” because you cant think of anything. Its plain annoying! We dont want to know.
9. Do fill out your profile
Fill out your profile properly, and you could see a decent amount of traffic come from twitter. Having said that, try keep it original and unique. No more of those “I’m a web guy”. Whats that when its at home???
10. You cant win!
Yep, thats right. I just said you cant win! Because, twitter is not a game. Its not a marketing tool. Its designed as away for people to share their thoughts, feelings and emotions. So stop treating it like some sort of giant bill board, and start using it as it was meant to be used.
All the above tips used will help you present a better image for you & your company over twitter. But, before you do anything on twitter, I want you to stop and ask yourself “Will this detriment the core-values of the twitter service?”. Nobody minds organic techniques, but hard sells can and will ruin it for everyone.
Tags: Tips, Twitter
Posted in Twitter | 7 Comments »
