As I mentioned here, I joined Twitter earlier this month, albeit reluctantly.
I also mentioned that I would keep you updated because I know others are in the same position I’m in: Wondering if the hype can translate into work for a freelancer.
I’m certainly aware this is a process that takes time, so you’re not going to read about all my job successes via Twitter today because there aren’t any yet.
But I have learned a few things about how I need to approach Twitter and how some of my early assumptions were off-base.
One of the reasons I joined Twitter was not just because people I knew were having success finding work there, but also because I realized my beliefs about Twitter were not based on personal experience. Since Twitter accounts are free, it was easy enough to create an account and see things up-close for myself.
Remember, I’m doing this strictly for business reasons and there’s a certain level of professionalism I want to maintain.
For that reason, one of the first things I wanted to do was ditch the horrid backgrounds Twitter offers, and create an icon that was useful.
First, the background. I did a search for “twitter backgrounds” and came across a great site that had Photoshop templates that you could alter. So this is what I ended up with: http://twitter.com/dmdesigner
I saw that other people did something similar. Sometimes the results were stunning, sometimes embarrassing. In my case, I wanted to provide useful information like how to contact me, my websites, what I do, and what my focus on Twitter is. (More about that last point later.)
It did also occur to me that making professional backgrounds for companies is a potential income source. When you see how simple a background template is, anyone with even minimal knowledge of Photoshop could crank these things out.
For my picture icon I created something incredibly simple that tells people what I do and clarifies my Twitter name: dmdesigner which is short for direct market designer.
Most people seem to use their personal picture which, in this case, isn’t such a bad thing. But because most people seem to do that, easily readable text as an icon with a white background actually stands out in a stream of tweets that someone is looking at, filled with personal photos or complex images.
Based on numerous recommendations, I downloaded the free TweetDeck to manage my account. It’s a separate program that runs independent of your browser. For me, it’s far more efficient.
I’m still trying to find the best folks to follow. I do follow some colleagues and other “names” in the industry. I’m still a bit shocked over how some big names seem to pass along rather useless information, like what they had for breakfast that morning.
If my family and I, scattered all across the country, were following each other on a personal level, what everyone ate would be fine. But for business, I’m not so sure.
I was following one person whom I thought was going to be providing a solid stream of design-related info. He didn’t. He seemed to have an obsession with one topic in particular. After about a week, I stopped following him.
I’m not sure, but I may be breaking protocol in not automatically following people who follow me. I do take the time to check out the people who follow me. If I see that they have something to offer that I can learn from, I’ll follow them back.
But some people following me are simply on a mission to get others to sign up for their “get rich” product. I’m OK with a little selling, but when just about every message from you is a sales pitch, no thanks. Or, they seem to look at Twitter as a sport in that they want to have as many followers as possible.
I couldn’t help but notice that some big names follow far, far fewer people than the number that follows them. Some type of lesson there, perhaps?
For some people who follow me, I have no idea what their Twitter purpose is. That’s not such a great sin because there’s no law that says you have to have a purpose. But if I’m going to follow someone, I want some sense of their focus.
That’s why I include a “Twitter Focus” on my home site… I want people to know what to expect from me so they can make an informed decision about whether they want to follow me. I might be inclined to follow some of these followers if I had a clue as to what they’re using Twitter for. (Although, it wasn’t hard to guess the purpose when “hornie hottie” started following me. Thankfully, the account had been banned before I could even block that account from following me.)
One thing that I had originally wanted to stay away from was non-business chit-chat. However, I think this is an area where I was wrong about how to use Twitter. A great lesson I learned (which I’m sure you’ve heard before) is that people like to do business with people they know. And, frankly, some of this non-business chatting is one way of doing that.
So I’ve made some comments totally unrelated to business, but certainly useful in just bonding with people on a personal level. That is a good thing. And, honestly, it’s a fun thing, especially for those of us who work from home and don’t have much face-to-face interactions like people who work in an office.
Like most others, I’ll still post links I find of interest, or some quote I find interesting. I wish I was providing something deeper, but I’m still new to this and can’t say I’ve found my comfort zone yet. If you’re just posting links and quotes, I think it’s a little harder to build meaningful connections. At some point, you’re going to want/need to actually have conversations with people.
Bottom line: Still learning, still finding my way, still finding the right people I want to follow, still trying to contribute something useful, no longer thinking Twitter is a complete waste of time, but not yet convinced it’s as amazing as others do.
To be continued…