It’s not lost on me that in my previous blog entry, I said I have limited time, yet here I am telling you I’m on Twitter.
If there’s an award for “Biggest Sucking of Time on the Internet”, surely Twitter would be among the nominees.
However…
One of the things I love about freelancing is being able to dabble in a variety of things related to building a successful business. I can try just about anything and keep what works and discard what doesn’t.
It’s difficult to ignore the success some people are having on Twitter. I’ve been involved in a few discussions that have focused on the success angle rather than the “I just wasted an hour” angle. So I finally decided to stick a toe in the water and try it out.
But in my mind, just going on this adventure alone would be a bit wasteful. I might as well share what I learn along the way right here. So I’m going to explain today why I joined and what my goals are. As the months roll on, I’ll provide some updates on this blog where I have more than 140 characters to explain myself.
First, let me give you the link: http://twitter.com/dmdesigner
I debated what “name” to use. My own name would have been the obvious choice, but it was taken. My business name, Klassen Communications, would have been the next logical choice, but it’s too long. Instead, I went with my occupation: direct market designer, or dmdesigner.
For everyday folks, dm doesn’t mean much. But for the people I want to talk with and market to, dm is well-known as direct market or direct marketing.
So when I get involved with people on Twitter, my feeling (hope?) is that dmdesigner will instantly signal what I do.
As of this moment, I’m only following one person. That will grow, but I want to be careful. One of my hesitations about joining Twitter is all the useless information that I’ve seen when I poke my nose around different Twitter accounts. I guess it is useful for someone, but I’m not there to socialize with family and friends. I’m doing this purely for business reasons.
So maybe your cat, Snowball, is sick and you’re going to be late for work. Sorry to hear that, but I’m not really interested from a business point of view. Likewise, if I’m a little under the weather, do I really need to share that with the world? Probably not.
That led me to a handful of guidelines for using Twitter:
1. Maintain a professional image
If I’m posting original material, for now it will probably be links relevant to either designers, copywriters or marketers since that’s the business I’m in. If I have something to sell (which is rare) that’s OK, but I don’t want my posts to be a stream of commercials. Like this blog, part of the reason for me being on Twitter is to help people. That’s simply in my business DNA.
But this Twitter account is an extension of my business. I don’t send e-mails to my clients telling them, for example, that my kitchen sink backed up and I needed to take apart the pipes to clear it. So why would I think it’s OK to do something similar on Twitter? (Again, we’re just talking about using Twitter for business, not personal Twitter.)
Some clients now spend a bit of time researching a freelancer’s contributions on the Internet before hiring them. So I want to be able to stand behind the things that I say and have them reflect my beliefs about how I operate.
2. It’s mainly about enhancing and generating business
As much as I enjoy helping people, I do have a business to run. For the most part, activities like LinkedIn and Twitter must have a business value for me. The people I’ve been talking to recently have been telling me about the business they’re generating from these social media avenues, so I’m willing to give it a try. But if I find it’s not holding any business value for me, away it goes. (That’s basically what happened with my forum participation.)
3. Follow people that I can contribute to professionally
One big concern about jointing Twitter was that I’d have nothing to say on my own that would be relevant amongst all the other Twitter accounts. What value I can bring in my own original postings remains to be seen.
But the other side of the coin is contributing to what others are sharing. That, to me, seems far easier. This will be a bit of trial and error. Sometimes I won’t know how useful my contributions will be until I’ve followed someone for a time. That might mean adding and dropping people I follow with more frequency in the beginning.
4. Use keywords
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over two and half years from this blog it’s that keywords bring more traffic to this site than people who know me from somewhere. And that’s a good thing… I get people to this site that I’d never know to invite because they’re not in the circles I normally run around in.
I want to transfer that keyword philosophy to Twitter. One of my first tweets (ugh… I hate that word) included a link to some really good free fonts. I happen to know that “free fonts” is a fairly popular search term.
So when possible, I want to make sure I’m using words that will generate relevant search hits to my Twitter site. That should help expose me to new people that I might not have met otherwise.
5. I won’t get my feelings hurt if people stop following me
The thought of people following me and then dropping me after a few days makes me laugh… worth someone’s time one moment, not worth it the next.
I don’t pay much attention to how many people read this blog. It’s here if you want it and if no one wants it, I’ll keep writing anyway. It’s just what I do as someone who needs to write.
But on Twitter, it’s very clear how many people are following you and will be easy to see if people stop. In other words, how interesting you are is a bit more in your face and harder to avoid.
No matter, though. This is a bit of an experiment. I don’t intend to take it personally. But if you’re thinking of joining Twitter for business purposes, it is something to be aware of.
I guess that’s it for now. I’ll add more “guidelines” if necessary and will update my progress (or lack of it) here on this blog when appropriate.
