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…

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.