A guest blog from Andrew Knowles
Twitter makes me money and I don’t know how I’d manage without it.
No, I’m not a spammer and I’m certainly not selling a get-rich-quick scheme lifting cash from the pockets of the gullible.
I’m just a regular bloke (if there is such a thing) who’s decided to go freelance because the hours are longer, the pay’s worse but the job satisfaction is a million miles higher than it was when I was on a payroll. I also like to think it has good long-term prospects!
As I said, Twitter makes me money. How? Because I find work through it. Using Twitter I make contacts who give me jobs and I get paid for doing them.
When a non-Twitter user asks me how I do it I tell them to think of Twitter as a huge room packed with people engaged in thousands of separate conversations, or simply calling out. Some are sharing news while others are looking for advice or help. Some speak in foreign tongues and others shamelessly peddling their wares.
The difference between Twitter and the real world is that it’s not considered rude to join a conversation that sounds interesting. No one’s offended if, as you’re walking past, you casually offer them a suggestion about an issue you overhear them discussing.
As I amble around this infinite space with its cacophony of voices I can choose to focus on subjects of my choice. Twitter lets me search on specific words such as, say, “copywriting”. Suddenly I hear people using that word and before I know it someone throws out: “Know a good copywriter?” I’m familiar with several and so the conversation begins.
That’s how it works for me. As I spend time in the vast Twitter space I make new friends, some in my line of business and others not. We share snippets of our lives and it’s around this day-to-day trivia that business begins to flow.
Twitter is not my exclusive source of work. But for me it’s become a vital channel of communication and an invaluable networking tool.
If you’re lurking at the doorway to the cavernous void that is Twitter I’d encourage you to step just inside. Don’t be shy – say a few words to the crowd; they’re not listening to you but one or two might hear.
Butt into a conversation that sounds interesting. Offer some advice on a subject you know about. Shout out a question and see if anyone answers. Before you know it you’ll be willingly swept away from your comfortable pre-Twitter world and, like me, you’ll be wondering how you ever managed without it.
Andrew Knowles is a freelance writer: www.writecombination.com
He also publishes a blog for business: www.bizoh.net
This is great. I have to teach some science faculty Post Docs on ‘New Tech in Info Dissemination’ tomorrow morning – and will be sure to reference this post. Thank you.
A very nicely phrased treatise on jumping in with both feet to Twitter. I remember it well. Got into it heavily for a while and then dropped out. Now back, with a different head and having more fun. Have 8 accounts for different things. Can’t seem to break the 885 followers barrier on one of them, and I won’t use one of those deals that gets you 25K followers with 25K following. Fake isn’t what I’m about. What’s the point in that?