Twitter is a popular social media tool that helps individuals to connect with friends and family, and businesses to connect with existing and prospective clients. Most businesses today understand the power of social media and come up with different ways to market their products and services and at the same time, touch base with their clients for some valuable feedback.

This powerful tool can also be used by freelance designers and designing companies to reach out to customers around the world because it cuts across geographical boundaries. It helps designers to effectively market their talents and help to get new business opportunities.

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Below are some tips that we think will help you to better market yourself on Twitter.

Tip # 1: Add a personal touch

The virtual world has made it difficult for people to get a personal connection with each other and this is the problem with Twitter too. Get around it by using a photo of yourself and not the logo of your company. When you use a picture of your company or design, people will feel like they are talking to an automated system rather than a human being. Put up your profile picture and your customers will get the feeling that they are talking to a real person and this can land you more projects. Moreover, this adds a personal touch to the relationship you have with your followers and this lays the foundation for a lasting relationship.You may like to check these tips for how for using twitter to promote your designing skills.

Tip #2: Do small talk through your tweets

One of the biggest mistakes that many people do on Twitter is to keep it professional. While being professional is good, you also need to do some amount of small talk with your followers to connect with them at a personal level. Casual conversations can go a long way in making your followers feel more comfortable with you and so, include these small talk tweets also into your marketing style. However, do not make it casual all the time. Understand what amount of professional and casual conversations work best for you and stick to this ratio.

Tip # 3: Consistency is the key

In Twitter, consistency is the key. You need to provide a constant stream of tweets every day, typically one to three per day, to interest your followers.  However, this may not always be practical as the workload and family time may vary. One good way to maintain consistency is to use applications like HootSuite that help you to schedule tweets ahead of time. This will keep your Twitter followers interested in your progress and can make it easier for you to find new clients.

Tip # 4: Combine personal and business accounts

For ease of use, combine your personal and business account into one account. Though this is against all established rules of personal-professional life separation, it is nevertheless important for Twitter. This is because when you have two accounts, the line between personal and professional accounts gets blurred beyond a point and you are unsure of what to post where. Also, your work is double when you have to maintain two separate accounts and for these reasons, you are better off marketing yourself with one account instead of two.

Tip # 5: Understand @mention

Mention is fairly confusing to many novice Twitter users. It is a public message that can be sent to anyone irrespective of whether they are following you or you are following them. You can have as many @mentions as you want in your tweets. However, they are not private messages and it is available for everyone to see. So, do not include anything private in these mentions. If you want to send a private message, then use the direct message feature. This can help you to maintain a more professional profile that is likely to impress your current and future clients.

Tip # 6: Feedback is important too

Twitter does not only help you to promote yourself, but also helps you to get valuable feedback from your followers. In fact, engaging your followers is an important way to keep them interested. Throw up questions about your design or anything related to your work from time to time and see what the response is. You can even effectively use this as a forum to clear your doubts or nagging questions. This kind of interaction is likely to boost your list of followers as they have something interesting to contribute to your tweets. You may like to check these 22 must-have iPhone apps for designers for useful Twitter tools for your mobile.

Tip # 7: Promote other content related to your line of work

Twitter is a great way to share information, content, blogs and webinars related to your line of work. This will make your tweets more useful to your followers and at the same time, it will tell your current and prospective clients that you are staying abreast of the changes happening in the designing world. This creates a positive impression about you in the eyes of your followers and clients.

Tip # 8: Use tinyurl.com for long URLs

A tweet is typically only about 140 characters long and if you want to use a long URL, it can get tricky. Either the entire URL will take up the tweet leaving you no room for explaining what it is or a really long URL may be more than 140 characters long and this makes you tweet useless for your followers. To avoid this problem, use tinyurl.com when you have to post a long URL in your tweet. This will save a good amount of space for you.

Tip # 9: Follow other design professionals

One way to increase your follower base and your clientele is to follow other people who are involved in design. When you follow someone’s profile, they are more than likely to follow you as well. This is one way to connect with different people on Twitter. You can follow other design professionals or even potential clients as a part of your Twitter marketing strategy.

Tip # 10: Have a dedicated Twitter landing page

Other than your bio, a landing page is important to market yourself better. Many people simply paste the link of their blog or website in Twitter for followers and visitors to know more about their work. Though this may be effective to some extent, a dedicated landing page is a sure way to generate the valuable leads you need for your business. Your landing page can talk about a lot of things ranging from your company to what you do to just about anything that is relevant to design. This is one way to tell your prospective clients that you are serious about what you do and that they can expect a professional work from you!

In short, Twitter is a unique social media tool that helps you to promote your talents and to increase your prospect of finding new clients. With the right kind of tweets and information, you have a good chance of increasing your follower base that is sure to lead to more design projects in the future. Also, you can check How to Promote Your Business With a Facebook Page for more tips to get exposure for your business.