Tag Archives: twitter

How Are You Using Twitter?

By Amanda Smyth ConnorTweeter

Twitter, in my humble opinion, is one of the greatest inventions to come about in the last century. I believe it falls right after “Facebook” and right before “platform heels” in terms of the greatest influences in my day-to-day life. Not only have I focused on using Twitter to info-share, but I use Twitter as the world’s greatest free marketing tool.

How are you using Twitter? Are you interacting or are you just “selling yourself?”

If you are simply posting links to your blog posts, you’re missing out on all of the great opportunities to get new followers by interacting with great Twitter posts. You SHOULD be retweeting great tweets, Tweeting @ people and letting them know what you thought of their posts and interacting with Twitter-ers on a deeper and more meaningful level. Twitter superficiality won’t get you any more recognition or followers.

Yes, you should be posting links to all of your blog posts and articles, but make sure your Tweets are engaging and interesting. Do not Tweet “New blog post! Please read it! [link to blog post.]” That’s the surefire way to lose followers.

HINT: Pay attention to some of the fun hashtags that pop up. #FF = Follow Friday. This is a day when people recap and give a shoutout to their new followers for that week which, in turn, encourages others to follow you. In order to participate, just end your shoutout tweet with #FF. Fun times with socialization.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business, and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

Writers – You Need To Be Available

Catherine L. Tully
Catherine L. Tully

by Catherine L. Tully

I was talking with a fellow writer about people who have a poor web presence and I voiced one of my own “pet peeves”. What is it? The person you are unable to find contact information for on their own website.

Is this you?

If so, you might be losing potential clients (and their $$$).

It’s as simple as that.

People have  a low tolerance for spending time online searching around for information. I include myself in this rather large group. I was just looking for a freelance writer or two to solicit a quote from and I went  through five sites that ranged from difficult to impossible to find contact information for the person in charge.

Again….this could cost you money.

This doesn’t just apply to your website, but to your social media accounts as well. Include a link where people can find you on Twitter. Make sure your website is available on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages. If people like what they see, they just might reach out to you…but you have to make it easy for them.

Have you ever had an issue finding contact information on a particular website? If so, did you abandon it…or continue searching? If I can’t find it on the main page, under the “about” tab or under a specific person’s tab, I go elsewhere.

I’m sure I’m not the only one.

And by the way, if you want to contact me, my e-mail addy is info (at) catherineltully (dot) com.

Catherine L. Tully has been a full-time freelance writer since 2002 and is co-founder of Freelance-Zone.com. She is also the owner/editor and webmaster of 4dancers.org, co-founder of Pas de Trois at dancing3.com and owns the group Dance Writers on LinkedIn.

Social Media For Freelancers

book and script editor for hire Joe Wallaceby Joe Wallace

While browsing Freelance Switch I ran across this post discussing five ways NOT to use social media in your freelance work.

Melanie Brooks writes,Facebook and Twitter are different beasts. For marketing purposes, your Facebook status update should be updated a few times a day, max. Tweets should be used more frequently. If you tie them together you run the risk of annoying your Facebook followers with too much information; you don’t want to alienate your followers…”

To which I would like to add that I tried an experiment on Facebook and came up with quantifiable (to me) results that bear this out.

I decided to see what the tolerance is for daily posts on Facebook on a page which requires “likes”. Since liking a FB page is totally voluntary, and the users can opt out at any time, I figured paying attention to how many people liked a page versus how many dropped it based on the frequency of posts would be something valuable to know.

The page I was using had an average of a new “like” every two or three days.

I had been posting four or five times per day, and I noticed that for every two or three followers, I would lose one or two in a few days or a week. I decided to dial it down to three to four times a day, and noticed that the numbers leveling out a bit. The light had come on–there was still a two steps forward, one step back element going on.

Next, I played with posting three times a day but posting within the typical eight hour work day. No real change here. I didn’t start seeing a steady increase in numbers until I spaced three posts a day out to about six or seven hours between each post. I post around 5:30 AM, again at around 1 or 2PM, and once more at 9Pm.

THAT schedule has earned steady upward numbers with few, if any, ditching the page once it’s been liked. Is it a magic formula? No, you still have to have relevant, engaging content, but it is a system that certainly has worked for me–and one I now use as a default with new clients when appropriate. Naturally, you have to watch your audience on each individual account and pay attention to the nuances.

But if you’re looking for a posting schedule that seems to work, you could do a lot worse than starting off with that.

Joe Wallace is a freelance editor, writer, and social media manager for companies including Bank Administration Institute, VALoans.com and MilitaryHub.com. He is currently editing a book on voice acting and recently finished editing a video game script for military accuracy, jargon and American idiom usage. Contact him: jwallace (at) freelance-zone (dotcom).

Top Twitter Tips For Writers

Twitter for writingby Catherine L. Tully

OK–tell me true–have you embraced Twitter yet? Writers tend to fall into one of two camps–the “tekkies” and the “old-fashioned”. (Yes–I know I’m generalizing.) Today I’m going to share some Twitter tips for each.

Old Fashioned

If you haven’t set up a Twitter profile yet, there’s no time like the present. You can get yourself up and running in just a few minutes. It really is pretty simple.

Typing a tweet (or “update” as they are also called) is not difficult either. Once your account is set up, try it and see how it goes.

Be sure you know the rules and best practices before you get going full steam.

Learn how to follow people and how to promote your profile.

Once you do these things, you’ll start to get a feel for Twitter, and hopefully, begin to like using it!

Tekkies

I don’t need to convince you that Twitter is cool–but I can give you some really terrific tips for using it better that you may not know about already. For example, did you know that it is a good idea to keep your tweets under the 140 character limit (this post says 125) so that people can re-tweet you more easily?

Need to find an old tweet for some reason? Friendfeed enables you to do that.

Want to share media on Twitter in real time? Use TwitPic.

Try running a poll on Twitter for something different. PollDaddy is a good resource for that.

So there you go writers…Twitter tips for everyone. If you have something you can share that will make Tweeting more fun (or cool) please do!

Using Social Media To Listen

Joe Wallace freelance social media.jpgby Joe Wallace

One tactic some businesses use with social media is to cultivate Twitter and Facebook followers to crowd-source ideas. This happens in some non-traditional ways when the web savvy business types get to it, and these techniques can be used be smart freelancers to get ahead in their own work.

If you use Twitter and Facebook to monitor trends in your area of expertise, you’re off to a great start. What’s the biggest complaint from users about some iPad apps? In my own particular case, I’m fascinated by what’s going on at the Times in London, where the entire newspaper has gone up behind a pay wall, and by the failures of Rupert Murdoch’s Daily to deliver a user-friendly reading experience to mobile users.

Those trends inform the decisions I have to make about issues like mobile versions of Freelance-Zone.com, the mobile needs of my clients, and due consideration for any future clients I take on who might want to hop on the iPad bandwagon.

Because I pay attention to the complaints on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, I feel better equipped to answer someone who might ask “Why can’t we deliver Content X as an app for the iPad?” I don’t know jack about designing iPad apps, and I’m sure my clients don’t, otherwise they’d be developing them instead of asking about them.

So the first question for them is, “How much can you spend?”. The next question is “Will the end result help or hurt based on all these user complaints I’m showing you about similar bright ideas that were poorly executed?” Sadly the execution factor and the budgetary factor can be linked together in ways that don’t help the client’s blood pressure.

In a lot of cases, staying out of the early adopter game is a smarter move than rushing something into an app store that delivers poorly and fails to live up to user expectations. And that’s exactly what I can tell people based on keeping my ear to the ground, so to speak, on social media.

There are plenty of other examples of how using social media to listen and not just talk can help you get ahead. Feel free to share your own strategies in the comments section–I’d love to read how others are paying attention to the trends in their freelance spaces.

Hey, Tweet Thang

by Mike O’Mary

iStock_000005848850XSmallOkay, I never thought I’d say this, but there’s some fascinating stuff on Twitter for writers. I see lots of job postings and writing advice. Have you gotten a freelance job via a Twitter contact? I haven’t gotten that far, but I’m finding decent advice and interesting revelations in 140 characters or less. Here are some of the results from a recent #writing search (followed by selected parenthetical comments from Yours Truly):

“Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer’s a good idea.” Richard Ford @AdviceToWriters (Do you think Richard Ford really abbreviates writer + is = writer’s?)

I have a Leadership Devel (sic) Freelance Writing Jobs (sic). @writingjobs_in (As they say, the devel is in the details)

Article Writer Needed for 20 Articles on Health. @TWeelanceWriter (Writing the articles is cheaper than actually going to the doctor.)

To (sic) Good Online Writing Websites. @williamswafford (Because to is better than won?)

I have an online class. I want you to take it and do it for me. @Elance_Writing (That was my post from 30 years ago. Except classes weren’t online back then, so I had to pay somebody to actually go to class for me too.)

A brief rundown of novels and historical fiction set in Vancouver. @vancouver_rt  (I think that was the full text.)

Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.” Elmore Leonard (He said knowingly.)

Writer wanted for occasional work. @writingjobs_in (Is there any other kind of work for writers?)

FlashFiction vs Short Stories: What’s the difference? @iwritepoetry (That’s what I keep saying!)

Have a new idea for a story. Gotta start writing it down. @AntMan0623 (Doh! Too late. I forgot it!)

The Impotance of Edditting @OnUrge (Very clevver.)

I just cried writing a scene. So either it was really good, or I’m totally delirious from being locked in this room all day! @capetownbrown (I cry when I read my own writing, too. Good writing? Delirium? I attribute it to writing with an onion.)

Possibly the best book I’ve read about writing and living the creative life. @DreamofThings (Hey! I said that!)

Bottom line: Don’t waste a lot of time there. But if you have a few minutes, get your Tweet self on over to Twitter and find some occasional work!

Mike O’Mary tweets as @DreamofThings and @TheNoteProject