Are you on Twitter? Do you use the “Favorites” function? If not, then you’re missing out on a powerful tool which can be used creatively to help your illustration business, your creativity and your marketing. Here’s how…
Bookmark resources
One of the simplest ways to use “favorites” is to use it to bookmark tweets which contain useful resources, articles, illustrations, portfolios and content you like. It’s like a swipe file that you can refer back to whenever you need.
Bonus tip: Use a service like Backupify to back up your Twitter account so you’ll be backing these up too or if you really want a handy resource, you can use Tweetbook to create a PDF ebook of your favorites.
Showcase testimonials & client feedback
Favoriting tweets in which others say nice things about you or your work is a great way to reference feedback, testimonials and praise - to which you can then refer others to as social proof.
Bonus tip: If you use a service like ifttt.com (If this, then that), you can set up a process whereby any tweets you favorite are displayed on your Facebook page/profile or other social media profiles. That’s quite a powerful tool combination.
Save for later reference
If you use Twitter on a mobile app, you’ll know it’s sometimes more tricky to reply, have a conversation, check out resources or useful-looking things while on the go. You can simply favorite tweets you want to reference later and then review them when you’re back on your usual computer. If they’re keepers, keep them favorited; if not, don’t forget to “un” favorite them to keep your favorites stream clutter-free.
As content
You can create an RSS feed from your favorites, which means you and others can subscribe to them and/or you can publish them on your site as a widget.
To get your feed, just type http://twitter.com/favorites/[insert_TwitterUsername_here].rss, and insert your username (e.g. leawoodward) into the bold section. You can then use a feed reader (e.g. Google Reader) to subscribe to your favorites or let others do it too.
For research
As you know by now, you can obviously see what other people are favoriting…and what they favorite can tell you a lot about what they’re up to and what they find interesting! Browse through other peoples’ favorites to see the resources they’ve bookmarked (a great way to research a specific topic if the person you choose is an expert in a particular niche).
And, turn the tables and browse through the favorites of someone you’re thinking of hiring, working with or partnering with to see if it tells you anything about the feedback they get or the kind of stuff they’re into. Sneaky but smart 
How do you use your Twitter favorites? Let us know in the comments…