I dislike the idea of reviewing someone’s book. I’ve done it in the past, both here on this blog and professionally for others.

Instead, I’d prefer to give you a couple of thoughts that stood out for me from a book, point you to the book’s site, then let you decide for yourself whether it’s a good buy.

The book in question is Smarter, Faster, Cheaper by David Siteman Garland. Garland is the passionate personality behind The Rise To The Top. If you’re not subscribed to that in iTunes (or getting it some other way) you should check it out.

By going to Garland’s book site, you can learn more about its focus and what he covers. But the subtitle clues you in: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business.

I want to highlight two things that stood out most… enough that while reading in bed, I reached over for pen and paper to make sure I didn’t forget to share them with you.

(There are far more than just two good things in the book, but I have blog length issues as it is.)

First, people generally link to (or tweet) your content, not your home page. I’m not even sure Garland said those exact words, but what I read in his book inspired me to write that down to pass along to you.

I watch the stats of all my sites closely and I can see very clearly that my blog content is bringing in more traffic than my home page. And that shouldn’t be a surprise.

On this site alone, I’ve covered a lot of ground in five years while my home page has remained pretty static in terms of covering what I do. So the blog content increases my chances of being found when someone is searching on topics I’ve written about.

And that content is generally not about the hard-sell. On this site, it’s about my passion for some topic that I wanted to share with other freelancers. That’s what people relate to. It’s what can open the conversation to a sale down the road. Or maybe it leads someone to reach out for possible business partnerships.

If all it does is inspire other freelancers to keep pushing on, in my mind that’s just as good.

So… do you have a blog for your site? If not, why not? (If you’re not sure on the value of a blog, or worried about what to write about, check out my 1/9/11 interview with Christine Whittemore on my podcast.)

The second thing that stood out was the question of what would happen if Twitter went away tomorrow and something new popped up. How many of your Twitter followers would make it a point to connect with you on the latest social networking tool? How many of the people you follow would you want to track down on the new whiz-bang tool?

This is something I touched on recently in my article, Here’s A Novel Idea: Connect With Your Connections. A lot of us are connected to people we know nothing about. And we couldn’t name most of them if our life depended on it.

We got wrapped up in the numbers, not the people. For every tweet that someone sends talking about meeting someone new, I’d bet there are twice or three times as many tweets of people talking about hitting some Followers milestone.

We tend to measure things with numbers because numbers are concrete. But it can also get the best of us.

Sure, it’s not like all our connections are total strangers. But could we do better at reaching out and learning more about the people we’re connected with without trying to make it into a sale. Of course! (And that applies to Facebook and LinkedIn, too.)

And this, to me, ties into one of the themes of Garland’s book… making sincere connections with people.

I’m not a blog… I’m a person sitting on a chair in my studio (Canucks hockey game in the background if you’re really curious), sharing what’s on my mind in the hopes that you get some value from it.

And you’re not a browser connecting to my site. You’re a person who is likely looking to be a successful freelancer.

I think that’s important to remember as we send out messages each day on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and whatever other tool we might be using.

So those are two key things among many that I walk away with after reading Garland’s book. Check out his site and see if what he’s saying resonates with you. If so, grab the book. And if  you do that, take an even more important step… put the advice into practice.

After the last article about my one-year anniversary on Twitter, I recalled something that’s worth mentioning.

As a freelance designer on Twitter, are you just talking about design (something cool in Photoshop, something you learned in InDesign, etc.) in the hope that clients will see what you have to say on the subject and hire you because you know your design tools?

If so, that could be a mistake.

Now if you just want to talk about design and primarily connect with other designers on Twitter, that’s fine.

But clients don’t really care about the nuts and bolts of design. That’s why they hire you so you can care about it for them.

So what do clients care about? Great question! I’m going to let you mull that one over yourself.

If you don’t have enough clients right now, I’d be willing to bet you don’t have a really good answer to that question. Or if you do, you haven’t done a good enough job of showing prospects that you know the answer.

If you’re using Twitter to attract clients, talk about what’s really important to them.

I hadn’t realized this until I looked at past articles on the blog, but I’ve been on Twitter for just over a year.

I said when I first started that I would update you as I tried to figure out if Twitter was for me.

If you’re interested in those past articles, here they are in order:

http://mikeklassen.com/blog/2009/06/04/despite-many-doubts-im-on-twitter/

http://mikeklassen.com/blog/2009/06/27/twitter-the-journey-continues/

http://mikeklassen.com/blog/2009/09/22/at-least-one-benefit-of-twitter/

It was interesting for me to reread those articles and see whether my feelings and approach have changed.

Here’s the short answer to what I think of Twitter today: I don’t really like it.

Here’s the much (much) longer answer… and these are based on using Twitter for business, not personal use…

It’s hard to stand out in the mass of tweets

For the most part, any one with a decent number of followers isn’t really paying attention to what you’re saying any more than you’re paying attention to what they’re saying. If you’re spending so much time on Twitter that you can read everyone’s tweets (assuming you follow at least a couple hundred people), you probably should focus more time on finding new clients.

As soon as your tweet comes through to your followers, it starts getting pushed down as newer tweets come in. Suddenly, your message is gone.

Your tweet could literally arrive just as one of your followers is running off to the bathroom and by the time they get back, your tweet is long gone simply because  each new tweet that flows into your follower’s Twitter viewer pushes yours out-of-sight. (In newspaper language, we might say your tweet quickly moves below-the-fold.)

Granted, there are people with a strong fan following. What they say is read by most of their followers. But with the millions upon millions of people on Twitter, I think those folks are the exception.

My approach today: While I hope everyone who follows me is interested in what I have to say, I know that’s not the case. Some people follow you simply because they expect you to follow them in return to boost their “Followers” number. Others just want to sell you something right now. Bottom line: It’s a numbers game.

What I learned is that when I post links to articles that I write, it helps my search engine ranking and can be helpful when people are searching Twitter on topics related to what I do. There’s a lot of value in that.

Whether anyone following me reads it is almost secondary… kind of like a happy bonus.

You can’t please everyone, but you can drive yourself batty trying

I have to admit to changing my approach to Twitter multiple times in the last year based on what I felt people wanted.

Some people don’t follow anyone who doesn’t engage or re-tweet. In other words, if all you’re doing is promoting your stuff, they don’t follow you. (Mental note: tweet a lot.)

Some people won’t follow you if you tweet too much. I unfollowed one gal – a business coach – who seemed nice enough, but she tweeted multiple times an hour. I couldn’t figure out how she managed to get any work done for her clients. (Mental note: don’t tweet a lot.)

Some people won’t follow you if they don’t like your picture. (Mental note: Go with a logo.)

Some people refuse to follow anyone who doesn’t use his or her own picture. “It’s social media,” they argue… they don’t want to connect with a logo. (Mental note: OK… back to a picture.)

Some people will unfollow you if you direct-message them. (Mental note: Ugh! Is all this really worth it?)

It’s easy to forget to do things your own way. Yet as you try to figure out how to properly use Twitter for your freelance business, you’re not totally sure what “your own way” should be.

My approach today: When potential clients go to my Twitter page, I want them to see information or links to articles that will help them or show I’m an expert in my field. Maybe it’s my own content, or maybe I’m retweeting a great article or link from someone else.

For the most part, no more chit-chat on Twitter for me. A couple of people I respect take this approach. Twitter doesn’t consume their lives… they simply use it as a tool to promote ideas they believe in and are passionate about.

The chit-chat model can work for people. I just decided it was no longer for me. (OK, I may do a little, but not as much as I used to.)

I followed you, now you should follow me, right?

This is back to the numbers game I mentioned earlier. It’s clear that some people who follow you have no interest in what you do. They’re just in full-blown “boost the numbers and try to get people to buy something” mode.

And I’m OK if with that if you feel that’s what you need to do. But I’m no longer returning the follow if you’re not saying anything I don’t think I’ll find value in.

I do look at the recent tweets of new followers. If you’re saying stuff I think I can learn from, I’ll probably return the follow. But I no longer feel guilty for not following some people who follow me.

The funny thing is, if you don’t follow those people, they’ll usually unfollow you after a few days. So much for thinking they initially followed you because they actually liked what you have to say.

And I don’t feel bad if people I follow don’t follow me back. I follow people because I think I’ll get value from what they say. If they don’t feel that way about me, they shouldn’t follow me. (But, of course, we’re back to the real issue of how much I or anyone else can truly follow what everyone says.)

My approach today: When someone new follows me, I’ll see what they’re about. If I think I’ll learn from them, I’m happy to follow them back. But because I get so many followers who are in constant sell-mode without offering any sort of real value, I’m more picky about who I follow.

To wrap this up…

I hope I don’t sound bitter or anti-social. And I know some people are having great success on Twitter. I simply found that my marketing efforts were better placed in other areas. Your mileage may vary.

In truth, I really want to have a deeper connection with people. But I’ve found that desire is not being satisfied on Twitter.

I’d prefer to share ideas with people in forums where we’re not limited to 140 character tweets that disappear from view almost as soon as you send them.

I think I said in my first article a year ago that I see Twitter as a business tool. If it’s not doing enough to pull in business, I have to evaluate how I use it and even whether I use it.

For now, I’ve found my comfort zone and the journey continues…

I believe people when they say they find Twitter valuable for connecting with clients. Personally, I haven’t seen it yet, but I still believe them.

What I do see is lots of people repeating inspiring quotes, or passing along links they find interesting. And some folks do a good job of carrying on some sort of conversation given the 140 character limit. Conversations equal stronger connections and stronger connections can equal future clients.

One thing I have found is that a link included in a tweet is an easy way to get search engines to your site. And that’s a great thing.

Let me explain…

When I post an article on one of my blogs, I usually promote it on Twitter. Almost instantly, I can see via my website stats that the blog article is getting hit by all kinds of search bots.

You might recall in a prior blog post where I said that most hits to my blog come from search results on sites like Google. That’s a great thing because then I’m getting hits to my site that I probably wouldn’t otherwise have. That exposes me to more potential clients. For a freelancer, free exposure is as good as gold.

It almost doesn’t even matter whether any of my Twitter followers read the article (although I hope they will.) The real value is ensuring that the tweet is allowing me to get “scanned” almost immediately and placed into relevant search results. That’s a lot of fantastic promotional heavy lifting for 140 characters worth of info.

While I’m here, let me mention someone worth following: twitter.com/DesignNewz

It’s not often I click on links in tweets. If I did, I wouldn’t have time for client projects. But I find myself clicking on links from DesignNewz more than any other person or group I follow.

I want to introduce you to Jeremy Tuber. I found him through Twitter and glad I did. Jeremy is a freelance graphic designer and author. I’m going to talk a bit more about him after this article. Jeremy and I did a “blog exchange” where he used one of my articles and I’m using one of his. But after today, you’re going to want to bookmark his site and follow him closely.

So more on Jeremy in a moment. For now, here’s what he has to say about why you’re not making as much money as you could…

—–

From talking with designers over the years I’ve found a direct correlation between how much they make and several undeniable factors – many of them aren’t related to their design prowess. Recently I’d see a post on another blog that listed the “Top 10 Things They Don’t Teach In Design School“, it inspired me to put this together.

If you asked 10 designers if they aren’t making the money they want to be, 9 out of the 10, or in some cases 10 out of the 10 are going to say, “No”. This got me thinking, “If they’re not happy with the money they’re making why don’t they do something about it? Do they not have the talent? Are they just lazy, or are they uncertain what to do about it?“

In this post I’ll address the later: designers that want to bring in more money but aren’t sure why they aren’t. For those designers who really (I mean really) want to start to bring in more money, the process starts with looking at what’s going on now. Here are my non talent-based reasons why designers don’t bring in the money they want:

They:

1. Weren’t taught, don’t care about or are scared how to market and sell their services. Can’t market or sell? Better learn to do something else.
2. Don’t understand that being an expert in Photoshop won’t by itself bring in business. They don’t get that clients don’t care if you’re a Photoshop expert.
3. Mistakenly feel like everything they need to know about freelancing they learned in school, can learn online for free or will just be able to figure it out themselves.
4. Invest way too many resources in “fun” things: picking up the latest Adobe CS, checking out the latest free tutorials, IMing, Twittering, etc… instead of focusing on expanding their business. They are unwilling (not unable) to invest any time, money or energy in growing their business…but they’ll spend an extraordinary amount of resources if they are being entertained.
5. Don’t have a mentor or someone that is willing and able to provide sound advice for the specific situations, challenges the freelancer runs into (no, buddies and freelancers on the chat rooms don’t count…if the chat room freelancers were that good, why aren’t they working on projects instead of wasting time in the chat rooms?)
6. Weren’t taught and don’t know how to communicate with clients in an effective, compelling way, so they end up working with the wrong clients, spending way too much time on them, not getting fairly paid for their talent and giving away free services.
7. Have difficulty understanding what clients truly want from them (it’s not “good design”), so they end up talking about things clients don’t care about…and the client decides not to hire them.
8. Fool themselves into thinking someday “it’ll just happen”. Here’s an exact copy of a tweet I pasted directly from a designer on Twitter, “Being poor sucks, but… it… builds character????? I’m a “starving artist” myself. 1 of these days I’ll be tattooed & rich!“ What do you think his chances are?
9. Bonus one here that happened after I initially wrote this entry – on the 15th I had a user (both in the figurative and literal sense of the word) systematically went through every single page of this blog trolling for free information. Not only is this a snarky thing to do, it’s really not going to help him/her become successful. In doing my own research on what’s out there I’ve just found the free information I stumbled was stuff I already knew…and overly simplified as well. If freelancers really think they’re going to find the secret to their success by rummaging the Internet for free tidbits are just fooling themselves…I should know, I tried this approach early in my career. I went through a marketing expert’s blog and copied all of his entries, thinking I hit the jackpot…in the end, I didn’t spend a lot of time on them and they didn’t do a damn thing for me.

Pretty harsh stuff I know, almost like getting a cold bucket of water tossed on you. But for those of you out there that are thinking about freelancing, just starting out or in need of a boost, I would rather be honest with you rather than try to sugar-coat it, I hope that makes sense.

I know that most freelancers that read this will ignore it – that’s cool. Over 75% of freelancing businesses don’t make it after 2-3 years…and someone has to make up those statistics. But I also know there are a few of you who will see some wisdom in this and take action.

You can listen or you can ignore, the choice is all yours, my role is just to show you where the water is…your role is to decide to drink it or not.

—–

Thanks, Jeremy.

For the rest of you, head over to Jeremy’s site, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks.

Once you’re there, bookmark the site. Next, do I like I did and spend a few hours pouring through all of the past articles. I like that Jeremy is brutally honest about things. I appreciate straight talk. But more important than reading the information is finding ways to apply it.

There are plenty of designers out there with blogs, but not so many have content that we as direct market design freelancers can relate to. Quite a number come from designers and artists who seem to be in the word of agency work and projects that are outside the realm of some of things followers of this blog are into.

After you’ve seen Jeremy’s blog, do what I did… buy his book, his iTunes “album” and any of the other items that you feel will help you at this point. I just started reading Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks which I ordered from Amazon.com. It’s 500 pages of good information, especially if you’re totally new or relatively new and not sure what to do next.

As soon as my Kindle arrives this week, the first purchase is going to be Jeremy’s book, Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers. (You can also buy a non-Kindle version.)

OK… it’s up to you now. If you’re serious about building your freelance graphic design business, you’re going to look into what Jeremy is offering and find ways to apply his advice to your own situation.

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.