Is Spending Time on Twitter Worth It For Freelancers?

Many freelancers believe that what applies to small business owners don’t apply to them—including haivng and building up their Twitter presence.

One popular opinion is that Twitter is only for politicians and celebrities, not for freelancers. That’s why so many freelancers choose to only focus on Facebook or Instagram, if freelancers utilize social media at all.

However, Twitter can be a major source of lead-building for freelancers. It’s a great platform to connect with potential clients and interact with followers.

But what are the best ways for freelancers to use Twitter? Today we’ll look at now only why spending time on Twitter is worth it for freelancers, but also how to make sure freelancers really benefit from it.

Connect with your followers

The first major reason that spending time on Twitter has a lot of value for freelancers is that they’ll get a great chance to spend time with their followers.

One of the most important things for freelancers—and any businessperson—to do is to make sure their clients and potential clients are satisfied.

This includes great customer service, which is where Twitter shines. It allows users to quickly respond to requests and filter our discussions by hashtags.

Get new clients

Another reason that Twitter is great for freelancers is that it allows them to get in contact with potential clients very easily.

The presence of direct messaging (or DM) is a great feature that should not be underutilized. Normally, there are a lot of spammy DMs in everyone’s inbox.

However, users normally read the first line and decide whether to delete the message as spam or to open and read it fully.

That’s why with a simple, unique DM freelancers can cut through all that spam and make their pitch to potential clients.

Let’s see some great ways on how to use Twitter to gain leads and clients.

Find out how you can add value

The first thing to do when you consider writing a DM to a potential client is to check their website or business (whatever is related to your  niche) and find out how you can add value.

For example, if you are a freelance writer, you can check the company’s website or blog and look around.

How often do they update their blog? Is it the same person posting? Is the copy on the site strong enough to convert? Do they seem to be a high-value, quality company that needs some help?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to give a nice value proposition to them through DM, one that they’ll be happy to respond to.

Keep your DM short and sweet

Don’t go overboard when you send a DM to a potential client. You shouldn’t be messaging your entire resume plus cover letter.

After all, it’s called direct messages, not direct mail, so you should keep it short and to the point.

Your DM should have these four parts:

• what you liked about their business
• the parts of the site/business where you can add value
• what your credentials are
• what you’re asking

For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you can state that their design elements are great and the topics they discuss are amazing. However, you’ve noticed that they blog about once every two weeks, and you think it would be a good idea for them to increase the frequency.

You’ll then mention that you’ve written for X, Y, and Z (popular websites) on topics A , B, C and D, and you want to know if you can send a few of your writing samples for them to look at.

That’s it—simple, short and to the point.

Twitter for freelancers

With these tips, you’ll see that you’re getting a good amount of positive responses from the people you contact.

Of course, as I mentioned above, it’s important that you do your homework well. Don’t send out a thousand DMs to every one of your followers.

Instead, target the ones you really think you can work with, who are worth working for, and you’ll see your successses increasing.

Then you’ll see the real value Twitter can bring for freelancers.