The BIG question of 'How to find work as a Freelancer' is a make or break one for most freelance businesses and an area that many have difficultly with. Most creative freelancers struggle with this aspect of their business as they simply have no experience in sales or marketing and find the art of finding paid work a problem. In a previous article we conducted a study of where freelancers are finding work and now we're looking into how they are landing these freelance jobs.
Social Media was the number one answer as to where freelancers find work when we conducted this survey but how does one navigate the variety of platforms available to find paid jobs? First off, it's important to understand why you're using each platform and to not just sign up to a social media site because somebody told you that you should. In this article we'll be looking at Twitter and the ways to use this powerful platform to generate jobs and build your client list!
How to use Twitter to find freelance jobs and generate sales
Whether your looking for freelance writing jobs, freelance photography gigs or any type of freelance work for that matter, the number one platform for finding freelance jobs from our report was Twitter. Why? Because most freelance work is temporary and employers often want to find the freelancer they're looking for within a matter of minutes.
So how do you get in on the act?
1. Use the right search terms
To understand how to find jobs on twitter, think about what a typical advert in your industry looks like. For example, a standard ad looking for a photographer might read “Photographer wanted for a fashion shoot” or “Freelance Graphic Designer needed for a logo design.” The key search words in each case are ‘photographer wanted’ and ‘graphic designer needed’. Type these key words into the search bar to see what comes up. To get more specific results search for ‘fashion photographer needed’ but remember the more specific you are the fewer results you're likely to unearth.
2. Use Twitter Advanced Search
If you find that your results are too broad and all the Tweets you discover are in other countries for example, use the Twitter Advanced Search feature and include a specific location. The advanced search is also great to get into very specific conversations that can lead to jobs. You can search using Exact search or a Negative search terms to find more focused results and hopefully the jobs that you're looking for. You can also filter by time so you're not seeing job posts from months ago.
3. Use Twitter Lists
Consider this situation. A photographer is needed for a last minute job. The Tweet is posted at 12pm and by 12:15pm, the job is taken. The take away here is that if you’re not on it, you’re going to miss it. Of course, hanging out on Twitter all day is not viable for most of us so we must use tools and techniques to filter these opportunities.
Start with Twitter Lists. You may have heard of lists but very few freelancers use them to their full potential. You can easily create a list by clicking Profile - Lists then go to Create a list to start your first Twitter list.
Set up a few lists that are relevant for you. Examples could be ‘Serial Job Posters’ or 'Brands I Want To Work For’. Every time you come across an account that matches one of your lists, click on their profile and then the settings cog symbol. Now you can add them to the list. Next time you have a few minutes you can log onto Twitter and check your lists to see if there’s any activity without having to search.
Brands often post freelance jobs from their own twitter pages so it's worth adding brands that you'd like to work with to your Twitter lists. There's also lots of Freelancer twitter pages that retweet many brand's job posts so it might be worth following some of these too.
4. Use Filter Tools Like Hootsuite
Another way to filter out the noise and get to the good stuff is to use a third party site such as Hootsuite. Most freelancers use these tools to schedule their Tweets but there is a great filter tool that allows you to create feeds with specific key words. For example you could create a stream that just showed Tweets with the words Freelance Photographer Needed in the conversation so that you can log into platform any time and immediately see all conversations with these keywords.
5. Apply to Job Tweets Wisely
Once you find that job, how you apply via Twitter is all important. If it’s an urgent job, there’s no need to tiptoe about, reply to the Tweet with something as direct as ‘I’m a Photographer with tons of experience, here’s a link to my portfolio’. If the poster follows you, you can Direct Message (DM) them with a similar message and tweet to say that you’ve messaged them. If the job is not so urgent it often pays off to be more subtle. Research the details of the job if there’s more info and put together a more specific reply.
Whether you're looking for freelance writing jobs, freelance photography gigs, freelance illustration work or any kind of freelance job for that matter, be sure to follow the five tips above when job hunting on twitter.
Freelancer Club also has a vibrant jobs board with new freelance jobs appearing everyday.
Liked this article? Now that you know how to find jobs on twitter, you might like to read Top Tips for Freelancers in 2021 and How to Nail a Job Interview on Zoom (10 Tips and Tricks).
