by Kimberly Schiller

Created on: November 17, 2009   Last Updated: November 18, 2009

As a freelance writer, marketing yourself is one of your primary responsibilities. Every person who sees your work opens up the opportunity for another assignment. And if you post your work on a profit-sharing website, everyone who sees your work is another penny in the piggy bank! The latest hot social networking platform is Twitter, but many new members have a tough time getting started. How should a freelance writer market themselves using Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking site based on "micro-blogging". All of your posts must be 140 characters or less. You follow the people whose tweets you wish to see on your home page. Hopefully, other people will follow you, so that your tweets will appear on their homepage. Your home page will basically be a list of all the tweets of those you are following, in chronological order, with the most recent tweets at the top. Most tweets are links to articles and blogs, quotes, and comments.

The first thing to do after signing up for Twitter is set up your profile. Choose a user name that matches your professional name, blog, or website to strengthen your brand. Your bio must be under 140 characters, so you need to be creative. Remember this is an advertisement for your writing, so let your personality shine without being too cute. Include a link to your blog or article homepage. Upload a picture, either of yourself or your logo. Leaving the Twitter bird image is like hanging a sign that says, "I'm a newbie. Nothing important to see here!" Choose a wallpaper that reflects your personality or the colors of your website.

Next, you need to start building your community. If someone recommended Twitter, ask them for their Twitter name and follow them. Then check out the people they follow to find other people to follow. If you read someone's blog or column, follow them and check out who they follow as well. Some of these people will automatically follow you as a courtesy. Others will wait to see what kind of tweets you send out.

Now for the important question - what to tweet? Logging in and quickly tweeting 20 of your articles won't win you any friends. Instead, start out posting links to interesting articles or pictures you find on the web that reflect your subject matter. Reply to tweets that interest you and "retweet" posts you think others would want to see. The more you participate in the community, the more people will pay attention to you. Once you've gained some followers, start tweeting a few of your articles every

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>