The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #9 (Part 1)

This week we’ll be looking at the important role social media tools can play in running a successful creative business - there’s a lot to cover on this subject so I’m going to split it over posts (the second one will be published on Thursday).

This Week’s Task: Part 1 - Twitter

Set up your Twitter profile and get to grips with how you can use it to help your illustration business succeed.

Some of you may already be tweeting, some of you may be completely new to it, some of you may have deliberately avoided it but one thing is for certain, all of our other businesses have thrived because of it. It’s a tool you can’t afford not to get to grips with (even if you ultimately decide it’s not for you).

This Week’s Advice

Wow, what can I say about Twitter that’s not already been said?! Let’s start with just a few of the ways that it has helped & continues to help our businesses:

• I’ve discovered so many great resources for this blog on Twitter
• I’ve met tons of new illustrator friends who I would count as friends (and not just acquaintances) on Twitter (don’t know any illustrators in my everyday offline life)
• It’s a great place to hang out when you’re feeling stuck on an illustration, feeling isolated or uninspired – think of it as your favourite coffee joint where all your illustrator friends hang out
• We’ve made sales of products/guides on Twitter
• We’ve found graphic design, web design & branding clients on Twitter

Sounds pretty useful, right? It is but only if you do it right. Here are a few key actions to take to ensure you’re doing it right….

1) Set up & customise your profile

Think of your profile page as an advert for you…it’s the first thing people see when they see your tweets and it’s the main thing they’ll use to decide whether you’re worth following and whether what you have to say is worth paying attention to. Make sure you at least do the following:

Add a custom avatar - As an illustrator, you are your business, so a friendly face is generally what people will want to see rather than your logo or an illustration (followers can head over to your site that will be linked in your profile to see your work). Whatever you do, don’t leave the default bird up there – it’s a surefire turn-off for potential followers & a sign of SPAM accounts.

Create a decent background – As artistic, creative people you should have the skills to create your own custom Twitter background so make the most of it. Keep in mind the visible area of your Twitter background and ensure your important information doesn’t become hidden by the content window. Have a little fun with it and show a bit of your personality if possible, but remember to keep it on brand.

Craft your bio – You don’t get much space for this so be specific as to what type of illustration you do and most importantly make sure you include a link to your website

2) Start Tweeting

Twitter can be slightly overwhelming at first, or underwhelming may be more accurate! You’ve set up your profile, sit back and think, “Now what?”. Here’s how to get started…

Follow a few people – to get the hang of Twitter, it’ll help if you follow some people you already know. Your fellow 12 week challengers would be a good start *wink wink*. Leave your Twitter handle in the comments so your fellow challengers can follow you.

Read this Twitter cheat sheet before you tweet – it’s a fantastic intro guide on how to tweet.

Find more people of interest to follow – there are plenty of places to find interesting tweeps to follow. There are directories like WeFollow (do a search on Google for Twitter directories and you’ll find lots), other peoples’ lists of people they follow and of course, the people your existing Twitter friends follow.

3) Follow these rules

Despite the “there are no rules” law of social media, I’m going to give you a few which I personally follow that have helped me grow my Twitter presence and leverage Twitter from both a personal & business perspective:

Remember everything you tweet is public – tweets are now even indexed on Google so everything you tweet is searchable. That’s important to remember for a communication tool which lends itself to more informal content.

Always try & be valuable & positive – While it’s ok to share stuff that’s going on with you, what you’re eating for dinner etc., be sure to add some value to your followers.

Some things are better done in private – for some people, Twitter has become almost a replacement for email and they use it to communicate with people in circumstances where it might be better dealt with on a private channel, like email.

Manage your time effectively – when you first start on Twitter, you wonder what the fuss is about. As soon as you “get it”, you’ll find you spend hours on there. At some point, you’ll get to a stage where you realise that the return on investment of doing this is minimal, despite trying to convince yourself that you’re brand building or “marketing”. Twitter can be a HUGE time suck and massively lower your productivity if you let it. You’ve been warned!

Suggested Resources

The Twitter Guidebook: a great free, comprehensive guide by Mashable, covering the basics and more advanced uses of Twitter.

Twitip: A blog founded by Darren Rowse (of Problogger) for getting more out of Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Whose test are you taking for the 12 Week Challenge?
2. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #5
3. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #1
4. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week 1 Summary
5. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #7