On the heels of our interview with Andrew Houle about the merits of designers using twitter, we decided to write up our own tutorial on the right and wrong ways to use Twitter.

Social networking can be one of the most important strategies for Freelancers to generate clients and new business leads. With that being said, simply having a twitter account or a blog will not equate into anything other then another site to update if it is not used the right way. There are definite basic strategies and concepts which utilize these powerful tools in the right way to help increase your client base. So let’s get started:

Common Mistakes:

I wasn’t far off in my initial reaction to twitter. The reality is that nobody cares if I am brushing my teeth before bed or making a salad for lunch. Too often Designers makes the mistake of tweeting useless information or think just by being there it will result in more business. Here is a listing I came up with of some of the most common mistakes often made that are most certainly not value added:

• Tweeting useless information – the old adage of “content is king” still applies on twitter. Tweets need to be useful and or interesting to your followers.
• Not having an avatar. Do yourself a favor and upload an image of yourself or your logo for your Twitter account shortly after you register. As designers we are expected to be web technology experts so you may as well and try to appear as one. Default images are for amateurs, is that the kind of impression you want to portray?
• Not commenting on other’s tweets. How many times have you made a new friend or client by simply talking about yourself? Probably not that often. Make sure that you are adding more to the site than just your own updates, join the conversation!
• Turning Twitter into nothing more then a depository of links to your blog. Sure we all love the widgets that streamline updates from our blog to twitter but there needs to be more to your twitter page then that.
• Not customizing your homepage background. Most designers like to think of themselves as creative artistic types in one way or another. Well your Twitter home page is a blank canvas, treat it as so.
• Not Tweeting. This is the equivalent of having “Copyright 2001” on the footer of a website. It serves way more harm then good. Either decide to invest the time into Twitter or cancel the account.

I am sure there are a ton of other ones out there but I figured this covered a lot of the big ones,

The Right Way:

Now that we have covered what you shouldn’t be doing with your twitter account let’s delve into the ways you can use it to help improve your business:

• Use Twitter as a resource! How many times as designers have we stumbled across something you were not able to figure out right away? By having a good following of other designers you can get input on solutions from some of the bet designers in the world, improving your productivity and final product
• Help potential clients out. If they have a question and you can answer it, don’t hold back, go for it. They’ll view you as an expert in the field and as a resource they can rely on. It’s a great way to build relationships with potential or current clients.
• If someone follows you, introduce yourself. Initiating a somewhat random conversation can lead to all kinds of opportunities. The person on the other end could be the head of a large company that in 3 months from now may be hiring a designer and you will be glad you took the initiative.
• Get more traffic to your site. While Twitter may not allow you to tweet images from your portfolio, it will allow you to link to it on your sidebar. You can also tweet about completed projects. The benefits of this can be twofold. First you can receive valuable feedback from other members of the design community. Secondly, you may impress a future client with your work.

My 3 Most Useful Twitter Tools

• TweetLater: is a wonderful productivity tool to use with your Twitter account. It allows you to schedule tweets over time. Another very powerful feature is the ability to receive email digests of keyword activity in the Tweetosphere.
• TweetDeck: is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more.TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date.
• Ping.fm: If you have accounts with many services, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, this simple and free service allows you to post to multiple social networks simultaneously.