There are so many articles about how to become a freelancer or how to start. It’s crazy. We read stories from people like Ryan Robinson who kept his day job until his freelancing earned six figures. SIX. FIGURES. Swoon. I’m not even close to six figures.
âI grew my freelance business to over six figures in revenue on the side before quitting my day job in 2016.â Ryan Robinson
So that goal may be daunting. For me, I didnât have a choice. I had to start freelancing. I also didnât have a partner. I started freelancing full-time when I lost my dream job — as a widow.
I have mentored so many people in my 34+ years of working. I wish I had the courage to listen to myself as a thirty-something instead of doing it at 43 years old. With that said, you will be fulfilling every role of a business when you freelance.
“The buck stops with you. Always. There is no one to dump on. You can only blame yourself. Barry from Sales doesnât exist anymore. YOU are Barry from Sales. And youâre Karen from Client Services too.”
Stop procrastinating by taking a dozen courses and buying every book there is. You don’t need it to start. The way you start is to start.
I mean, you may need to educate yourself on marketing, best practices in business, hire an accountant, and all of that. If you do all that first, you’re never going to get going. You have to start.
How Do You Just Start?
The key to just starting is believing that you have marketable skills. What does this mean? It means you have a professional service that people will give you money for. I know what youâre thinking, âWait, how do they give you money?â We will get to that. There are so many ways to collect money. Don’t worry about all of those details yet. Find the need. Fill it.
Iâll tell you how. Do you really want to know? Itâs not glamorous. Here is the no–holds–barred, no-bullshit way I started freelancing. You ready?
How Did I Start Freelancing?
I started freelancing in the early 2000âs because I had some dental work (surprise to those who know me) and needed extra cash.
Someone needed a website. Great. I built it. After two of those, I quit. Who wants to argue about orange when thatâs the hex code they gave me? Whoosh.
Someone needed me to tutor their kid in algebra. Great. How does $20/hour sound? Perfect, Iâll be there. Does Tuesday work? Bring cash. Drop off your kid. Done. I did that for ten years.
Someone needed help with their social media. Great. Iâll set it up and teach you how to do it. Three years later, I was still managing their accounts for free. Oh sorry, one person gave me a gift card to a restaurant. Lesson learned.
Those werenât all ideal situations. But, they gave me experience and taught me lessons. When I started charging for social media (I needed more dental work), I charged $250 a month. I later figured out that was way too low. No worries. Adjust. Change.
Why Continue Freelancing?
Usually, the reason to have a side hustle is financial need. Freelancing is a great way to make up those literal deficits. Thatâs reality. Itâs not always a sexy story of an epiphany you have while picnicking on a hill overlooking the ocean with the love of your life.
I had a full-time job as the Office Manager for a general contractor. Why freelance? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I needed money for (wait for it) dental work. Secondly, I realized (read: finally believed my peers) that I am intuitively good at marketing and should try to get a job in that field.
Great. I worked 16 hours a day — for six months — until I got hired full-time for a dream job at an advertising agency. Working those hours did not give me work-life balance. (Which is a privilege, by the way). It was hard. It weighed on my marriage. It kept me distant from friends. I was exhausted. But I knew my husband was getting older and I needed to work from home. Getting that job gave me time to be at home for the last six months of his life. Thatâs reality. Not sexy.
A little more than two years later, I began freelancing again? Why? Thatâs too long and sordid to detail. (I know I said there were no-holds-barred. But yeah. I got fired.) The point is that I found myself in a place where I a) needed to make money; b) wanted to control my destiny; c) continue being a remote worker.
Freelancing isnât all about sitting on the beach and working for four hours a week. Itâs as serious as you want to take it.
Okay. So, we covered, âjust start.â Letâs go deeper.
Freelancer Step One — Whatâs Your Service?
Take out a pen and paper and write down services that you are good at. Freelancers are typically service providers. This can be anything from cleaning houses to dog walking, to building websites, to bookkeeping.
What are your marketable skills? Write them down. No, seriously. Write them down.
Freelancer Step Two — What Service Do People Want?
Okay. This may require a bit of a think. Almost a come to Jesus kind of think. Maybe you need to do this with a best friend. What are your marketable skills right now?Who do you know — right now — that would hire you for one of those services? Reach out to them saying, âI was thinking of offering this service. What do you think? Would you pay $1,500 for a website?â Get their opinions. Write down what they say.
Iâm a big believer in taking notes in notebooks. Your brain works differently when you write notes than when you type. And for the love of God, donât send the GenPop a Google Form. That looks like work to them. They won’t fill it out and if they do, theyâll be annoyed. You donât want to annoy your potential customer base.
Freelancer Step Three — What Will People Pay? What Should I Charge as a Freelancer?
What should you charge as a freelancer? The answer is more than you think. When you first start, you’ll have to throw out pricing and see what sticks. Then you can go back and do some work. This includes covering your own sick days, vacation, and retirement. If you want the freedom of freelancing, then you have to be responsible like a business owner. Get out of the employee mindset.
Each customer will teach you something about yourself, your services, and how you want to do business. This is the process. You canât really skip it too much.
Create a pricing sheet, even if itâs just a Google Sheet. A landing page on your website is better. Donât worry about getting the price just right. Itâs okay to change your prices. This is the beauty of a web page versus print. Print is forever. Websites are not.
This one is easy nowadays. Freelancers can get paid with Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, checks, and yes, paper money still works.
You can create an invoice in Google Docs with a template, keep your records in a Google Sheet, and boom. Youâre in business with no money down.
When youâre ready, Freshbooks is a great option since they price by the number of clients you have. I started with Google Sheets and have used Freshbooks since October of 2017. Since I started my LLC this year, I will be transitioning to Xero which, ironically, will cost me less. But hey. This is how you learn.
Freelancer Step Five — Market Your Freelancing Services
This could mean direct calls or texts telling your friends you now offer dog walking on the side. It also means creating a website, Twitter, and other social accounts, and then using them. You have to tell people youâre taking clients and keep telling them.
If you already have a website, set up a landing page for your services and fees. Be upfront. This establishes boundaries with clients. Donât worry about making mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the better you write your estimates. In construction, we write âgood for 30 daysâ on our estimates for a reason. I adopted that quickly when I began freelancing.
Freelancer Step Six — Start a Budget
Why is starting a freelancing budget step six? Because you wonât know all of the SaaS tools youâll use to market your writing, web development, or marketing skills. You may even be using these tools for marketing your dog walking, house cleaning, or lawn care. It costs money to be in business for yourself; even for a freelancer.
Freelancer Step Seven — Block Your Time
This is especially important if you have a full-time job. You will need to figure out times when you will work. This is best done with time blocking. If you have a partner, youâll need to have that conversation with them, too. Set boundaries early. Your freelancing time will come out of your leisure time and maybe even family time — at first — until you can make freelancing your full-time job.
Freelancer Step Eight — Tax Paperwork
For a while, my âfreelancingâ was a âhobbyâ according to my tax accountant. Youâll have to chat with yours. If youâre not a corporation or LLC, you may need to have a W-9 ready to give to clients. The IRS has the W-9 form online. Easy peasy. Save it as a pdf in a place you can have on-hand for when youâre asked to send it.
As of the time of this post, any company that pays you over $600 in a year is required to send you a 1099. Those are due to you by January 31 each year. Some will be late. It happens. Youâll need these for tax prep. Again, itâs important to chat with your tax accountant. And don’t opt-out of the self-employment tax; you need it for Social Security and Medicare.
I use H&R Block Small Business Tax Filing which starts at $85. A professional tax preparer reviews my forms before theyâre sent to federal and state. Iâm fine with that. You can always hire a CPA or do it yourself. Itâs up to you.
Iâm a huge believer in outsourcing. The things that distract you from your billable time are things that should be hired out. Yes, I can do my own taxes. I did before. This is worth spending money on.
Freelancer Step Nine — Evaluate Your Client Work Each Quarter
Itâs good to look back and reflect on the last three months. What worked? What didnât work? This is when I realized I way under-charged for my social media services. Iâm not going to lie; the first year was hard. I donât write blog posts every year like some companies do, because nobody really cares and theyâre super braggadocious like Christmas letters from people whose families are perfect. However, I did write about the first year. It will be hard. Very hard. If that intimidates you, youâre not ready to be a freelancer.
Freelancer Step Ten — Are YOU Really Ready To Be a Freelancer?
I mean it. Are you ready? Can you take the criticism? It will come. Can you step into the spotlight? Can you be yelled at by people for no legitimate reason? When you freelance you are the boss. And, more importantly, can you commit to doing the work on time every time. Itâs not a job where no one cares if you miss deadlines. There is no probation. If your work is late or sloppy you will lose clients and — even worse — brand legitimacy.
âWhen it comes down to it, you have to believe in yourself, believe in your business, understand it might not pan out, and know youâre willing to stay the course to successfully start a freelance business.â
You have to want to be in business for yourself more than you want money. It will be a sacrifice. Your spouse will call it a âhobby.â Your friends will be mad that you donât want to go out to the bars every night.
Being a freelancer is ultimately about being who you are — who you really are — and who you want to become.
If you can endure those very real obstacles, you can start being a freelancer today. Well, maybe tomorrow because, honestly, this article is super long and now your kid is asking you for help on their school project. Okay. Tomorrow then. Start tomorrow.
What’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress? Like all complex questions the answer is: “it depends.” And as always, the best tool is the one you use. In this post Iâll let you know the WordPress SEO plugin I use. Itâs RankMath. I pay for the Pro Version which is $59 per year.
Does Your WordPress Website Need a SEO Plugin?
You need water, air, shelter, and food. Do you need a SEO plugin? No, you donât need a SEO plugin for WordPress. WordPress has technical architecture (sitemaps, permalink structure, excerpt) that helps with SEO from the technical side.
Will a SEO plugin replace old-fashioned intuition or a SEO consultant? No. A plugin never replaces a human. But Both Yoast and RankMath help guide you as you write, especially if you write in the WordPress editor. And you’ll want to make the best use of your meta descritpion/summary/snippet.
“For best results, we recommend communicating the pageâs main takeaway and including a clear Call To Action (CTA).”
If you want to ensure that Open Graph data is available for social sharing, you can use an Open Graph plugin and skip SEO plugins for your WordPress site all together. âOpen Graph and Twitter Card Tagsâ looks like a good choice in the WordPress plugin directory. And, itâs free. So what do you have to lose?
(Donât go crazy and install a plugin without backing up your site, though.)
Whatâs the Best SEO Plugin for WordPress?
In the exercise of defining the best, letâs look at the worst SEO plugin for WordPress. The worst SEO plugin is not having one. I mean, weâve established the fact that you donât need one, but why wouldnât you have one? Itâs a lot better for your website than a slider. (The best slider for your website is no slider. Yep. Ever. No. Donât do it. Please. Okay. Read this.)
Decision fatigue is a real problem. Meanwhile, you keep writing and writing and writing and your content meanders and there are so many run-on sentences and wait that bird just hit my window I wonder if I should go walk by the river today? I mean. Stop. Just slow down.
This is what the SEO plugin does.
RankMath — The WordPress SEO Plugin I Use
The WordPress form plugin I use is Itâs RankMath. I pay for the Pro Version which is $59 per year. Why? I used Yoast originally and I liked it fine. I have even produced a tutorial on how to set it up for your social sharing. Iâm not a huge fan of their constant notifications on the WordPress admin, but free is free. Right?
I was introduced to RankMath from Jason Tucker. While writing the show notes for The Smart Marketing Show, I get to see the tools that he uses on WPwatercooler.com.
The downside of RankMath, however, is that it doesnât auto update in the WordPress dashboard/admin. Itâs not the end of the world but it should be noted.
It sort of annoys me, to be honest, that I can’t auto update this plugin in my Admin. It’s not that big of a deal to download and upload, but yeah. Be aware of this.
Hereâs what I like about RankMath.
It has a clean interface.
I like the numerical scoring.
It has content suggestions in the post.
It works with the new WordPress editor and Classic Editor Plugin.
It reminds you to use the keyword in your slug (link), alt text, and headings.
As you accomplish the tasks, your numbers go up. Itâs super helpful.
I love RankMath’s color and score combo available right in the posts dashboard.
Hereâs what I donât like about RankMath.
It wants me to use a table of contents. I literally donât know how to do that.
It wants my title to have a number. So clickbait.
Which SEO Plugin Should You Use?
Honestly, it doesnât matter which SEO plugin you use for your WordPress website. To keep your writing focused and clear, you should use a SEO plugin. Yoast and RankMath are both excellent choices and Iâve used them both.
What’s the best form plugin for WordPress? Like all complex questions the answer is: “it depends.” How about if I tell you what WordPress form I use and why instead?
Whatâs the Best Form Plugin for WordPress?
The best form plugin for WordPress is the one you use. Yes. I have a saying, âthe best tool is the one you use.â
People get so hung up over what the best thing is that they end up using no thing. No, thatâs not a typo. I literally mean they use no thing.
If youâre not going to use a form, then the question about what the best WordPress form plugin is moot.
Also, it does depend. What are you going to use the form to do? Do you need a lot of advanced features? Most of the WordPress plugins have similar features. If you go by most popular, youâll get results that show you the ones who have been around the longest; that doesnât mean theyâre the best.
Like most consumers, I made my buying decision because of loyalty.
I always say affinity leads to loyalty. Loyalty leads to sales.
Caldera Forms — The WordPress Form Plugin I Use
The WordPress form plugin I use is Caldera Forms. Why? Because Josh Pollock is my friend. Yes. Itâs that simple. I first came across him from The WP Crowd in 2015.
When I started creating landing pages in 2017, suddenly I needed a contact form that did more than send me an email. Back in 2016, when that video was made, I didnât have a contact form.
âI have a job, I donât need a contact form. They can find me on social media.â Bridget Willard
But then, I went all-in on my freelance business. So, all of a sudden, a contact form became important.
As a fun aside, Caldera Forms is now part of the Saturday Drive family including Ninja Forms, who is one of my favorite clients.
Do You Need a Contact Form?
If you have a landing page, you need a contact form. If you have a mailing list, you need a contact form. If you have a sales page, you need a contact form.
I have a different contact form for every single landing page that I have. Why? This is important so that you can control what goes where.
For example, I have a contact form on my pricing page that has checkboxes for the services. The email that goes to the visitor is specific to that page. After form submission theyâre directed to a specific thank you page. On that page, thereâs a video about Twitter.
One of my recent clients said that the specific landing page with the video sealed the deal for him. Every point of contact matters.
I currently have three automated drip campaigns that Amy Hall has set up for me in Mailchimp. So, I purchased the Mailchimp add-on for Caldera. Itâs only $29 for some reason. It could be $79 and I still would have purchased it.
The contact form you should use is the one you want to use. The best WordPress contact form is the one that is easiest for you. With that said, I hear a lot of heartache with Contact Form 7. People love Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Caldera Forms (of course), and WPForms.
Pick one. Make your landing pages, specific thank you pages, and drips. Get your marketing into gear.
Email copy has been one of the most effective digital marketing strategies and is proven to generate results. Hereâs how to write a converting email copy.
Months ago, a friend reached out to me complaining about how her sales email had zero conversion. (She’s a health and fitness coach).
She lamented saying, “email copies don’t generate results.” I asked for the email copy she sent, and I grimaced while reading the entire email. At some point, I had to stop reading and shook my head in disappointment.
Mind you, she had spent quite some bucks to create her email list.
The marketing email she wrote was entirely salesy and offered no value to her audience. She only talked about her certificates and her fitness program. There was no place where she tried to address her audienceâs challenges. She didn’t even explain how her program can help them.
Many individuals do the same thing. Just write about yourself and your product/service, and don’t give a hell about the challenges your audience face, and expect results.
Writing Great Email Copy
A vital thing to do when writing a marketing copy is to relate to your audienceâs challenges. Get yourself into their shoes and show empathy. Below is a paragraph from the email she wrote and an improved version I wrote.
Original:
âMy fitness program is one of the best you can enroll for. When you buy my fitness program, you can get a lot from it. You can get into shape and have the type of body you desire when you go through my fitness program.â
Improved:
âYou want to have a great shape and stay fit, but factors such as procrastination and late-night meals keep holding you back. I have been there before but overcame the process. This fitness program helps you to easily overcome those factors holding you back and help you stay fit.â
In the improved version, you notice how I was able to relate with the audience. I clearly stated the major challenges people face when trying to stay fit and made the reader understand that I have been there before as well. The original paragraph only bores the reader because it just talks about her and her program and little about the audience. No one likes âme, me, me.â Marketing copy is about âyou, you, you.â
The improved email gets the audience interested and makes them want to know whatâs next. While the original one makes it obvious that she just wanted to close a sale, so most readers wonât bother to read further.
Personalize and Get Personal in Email Marketing
A lot of brands fail to personalize their email copy. They just write and fill the email with boring details about their product/service. According to Campaign Monitor, personalized email subject lines generate an average of 50% higher open rates while marketers experience a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns.
Using the right words such as âyouâ instead of âourâ and âI,â is a simple way to get personal in your email. The idea is to not bore your recipient and make the email to be all about you and your service.
People love brands that know exactly what they’re going through and relate to their challenges. DĐŸ you have a salesy copy that isn’t getting you results? Delete it right away!
Email marketing still generates tons of results. Just do it right.
About The Author: Hillary Nwoye
A prolific Copywriter and Content strategist with over 5 years of experience. Helping SMEs and brands engage with their audience and yield results is all I dĐŸ.
Note: This original (updated 1-10-2025) post is over 7,000 words and will take about 25 minutes to read. You can purchase it on Amazon in Kindle or Paperback if that is more convenient.
X marketing is too valuable to ignore for any type of business even in 2025. Yet so many businesses undervalue X in their overall marketing strategy. Don’t make an emotional decision about using a marketing platform because of who owns it. That’s a big mistake.
Let’s fix that. I know you can improve with a few tweaks.
After implementing all of this advice and about six months of practice, youâll be as good as I am. Awesome. You can rock your companyâs marketing world or go start a social media management agency. Why not?
And, if youâre ever curious, go look at my account. Unlike most âmarketing experts on Twitter,â I model the behavior I preach. Also, since Iâve written about Twitter extensively since 2011, Iâll be quoting myself — a lot.
If youâre looking for a , I suggest that you start with my 10-series . Each video is less than 10 minutes long. Please donât skip a video because you think you know it. I give in each video that builds throughout the course and shorter than a movie.
Here is the Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing in 2021
Twitter Marketing: Optimize Your Bio.
The first thing youâll want to do when you start your Twitter account, or get serious about marketing with Twitter, is optimize your bio. Your bio is your elevator pitch and your first opportunity to get people interested.
Think about flirting in dating. You want people to be interested but still understand what youâre all about. If you âprovide solutions for your clientsâ that is too vague. Every business provides solutions. Do you build websites? Say that. Are you a gift shop owner? Say that. Do you write novels? Say that.
Pin a tweet to your profile that leads to your website! This is super important.
Twitter shows your bio in the sidebar on related tweets, when people hover over your username, and in emails from Twitter. This is important real estate. Donât clog it up with hashtags or emoji (that goes for your name, too). Make this easy to scan.
Using generic keywords in your bio, meaning writing for your customer, is how Twitter will suggest your profile to other people. I literally got a new client in December of 2020 because my account was suggested to them. So, yes, you can get work from Twitter.
âYour account should have a header, a clear photo, a website, and a bio. Your bio should be clear to people outside of your niche and be optimized for keywords.â Bridget Willard (Yep, thatâs me.)
Make sure your logo fits in the circle of a 500 x 500-pixel square. It should be clear on a mobile phone. Test it. Donât trust your 42â monitor. Thatâs not how most people see your brand. Your Twitter header should also be clear.
If you use a photo, make sure itâs of your face and that youâre not shaded by a hat or wearing a mask. The point of a photo is to create a connection and to stand out while people are scrolling.
Remember, people go to your bio once. They go to see who you are and whether or not youâre interesting enough to follow. Or they may have been referred to your business and they are now validating your online presence to decide if they want to work with you.
âPeople arenât going to your Instagram bio, your Facebook page, your Twitter profile if they already know you.â Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing: Be Present.
One of the best tips to marketing yourself or your brand on Twitter is to be present. Make it a point to sign in with purpose or intent. No one likes talking to a distracted person at a party. Itâs the same on Twitter.
Pay attention to your notifications and be in that conversation. Yes, it could take hours for a reply, and it is totally fine to respond later. With that said, how would you like to be treated online?
If you say hello to someone in person and they donât respond or acknowledge you, how do you feel? Would you like to feel ignored? Most people donât.
Being present also means being self-aware. Be at your best online. Remember when youâd go to someone elseâs house when you were a kid and your mom told you to be on your best behavior? Do that online.
It is way too easy to tweet off a quick response or a flippant answer or a stream of consciousness that isnât edited and lacks sensitivity. How do I know? Iâve done it. Iâm not proud of those moments, but we all have them. A few of my friends have texted me after those moments saying, âAre you okay?â
As much as you can, be present on Twitter. Are you angry, annoyed, upset? Get off the internet. Go for a walk. Calm down. Itâs not that you shouldnât be upset, but you should never react online; always respond. Thatâs how to be present on Twitter.
âItâs tempting to react to political news from your brand on Twitter. Unless your brand is Saturday Night Live, donât do it. Youâll be fueling trolls and undermining your brand. Itâs your brand. Protect it.â Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing: Follow Everyone.
Itâs funny how many people use social media in a backward way. They use media for their own opinions, marketing, and entourage building. Thatâs just an RSS feed or Press Releases. If thatâs what you want to do, so be it. Donât expect Twitter marketing to âworkâ for you.
Marketing is a social science. Twitter Marketing is about people and what they do and what they like and how they respond. The only way you can understand the gorillas is to go be with them. Watch. Listen. Observe. Then youâll know how to get closer to the silverback as Dian Fossey did.
The first thing your brand communicates on Twitter when your following to followers ratio is lopsided is that you donât care about anyone else. So, why should they follow you? The person who stumbles upon your account with 50,000 followers who only has 96 knows you donât care.
They may follow you because now you look like a celebrity and, for some reason, we give celebrities a pass. Or you may only be listed. Either way, it is a great way to be off-putting to your audience, show that you are tone-deaf, and more.
Okay, if youâre Nike or Chevrolet or Apple, you can do that. However, most of my readers are small business owners. Youâre excited to get your first 1,000 followers on Twitter. By the way, the first thousand is the hardest. The only way you will get those is by following people back.
âTo get customers on Twitter it is important that you are â are you ready for this? â social. People always think of the media part of âsocial mediaâ and conveniently forget the work part. Yes. The work is to interact with others.â Bridget Willard
As an aside, Twitter has following to follower glass ceilings at 1:1. If youâre following 2,000
people but only 200 people are following you, then you wonât be able to follow any more people until that ratio is closer to 2,000:2,000. This is a quirk of Twitter as no other social media platform does this.
Iâve experienced these limits at 2,000, 5,000, 9,000, 14,000, and 19,000 followers. The largest account I ever grew was Riggins Construction at 20,000 which took six years from 2009-2015 before I left to start my marketing career.
This is why I unfollow people who donât follow me back. I use who.unfollowed.me for this.
Twitter Marketing: Make Lists.
Creating lists on Twitter is vital to your Twitter marketing. This allows you to segregate your followers by demographic giving you the power of a focus group at the click of your mouse.
Twitter lists enable me, as a one-person shop, to personally and successfully manage so many Twitter clients. Iâm not outsourcing my Twitter work. No, I do as much manually as possible. Why? Because a good suit is tailored to the person. You can get a cheaper suit at Menâs Warehouse, but it wonât fit as well.
Effective Twitter Marketing means that you are spending as much time interacting with humans as possible. Understand them. How are their views shifting? What do they like? What donât they like?
WordPress products and agencies often purchase swag for conferences that they think is cool. But if they spent time reading tweets from their audience, they would know what the people would think is cool — and useful.
Donât just order a fidget spinner because itâs a fad. Why? Because your product isnât a fad. It isnât a distraction. Itâs serious.
The best way to approach Twitter Marketing is with an ear to listen.
X (Twitter) Marketing: Donât Use Too Many Hashtags.
The goal of Twitter marketing is to entice people to read your tweet and click on your link or profile. Hashtags can distract from that goal. So many people see hashtags written everywhere that they have the impression that adding a hashtag is magic. Boom. Youâre going viral now, baby.
Even the Noom app uses hashtags in their copy. In their app! Itâs painful to read. I know why they are doing it. Theyâre trying to be friendly. But man, I wish I could get them to stop doing it.
We scan; we donât read.
People on Twitter are scrolling on mobile devices. They may be using TweetDeck or Hootsuite to browse Twitter on their desktop or second monitor. Either way, the hashtag creates a link (because it is a link) and it is a distraction to your call to action.
Iâve been using fewer and fewer hashtags lately. It isnât affecting my impressions at all. My top tweets get quite a bit of engagement even without hashtags.
Twitter Marketing: Format Your Tweets.
Knowing that your audience scans, and doesnât read, shapes how you write your Tweets.
Making your tweet scannable is a great way to be noticed. Once your tweet is noticed, people are more apt to engage with the tweet, either by replying or clicking on the link.
When it comes to emoji versus GIFs, my preference is for GIFs. First of all, theyâre native to Twitter. Secondly, they donât take up space or break up your body copy (which makes it hard to read).
âGIFs go where Emoji cannot. Emoji are fantastic for decorating text messages. Emoji can be awkward when it comes to screen readers or the average user who scans messages.â Bridget Willard
Insider Tips
Donât start a post with a username. This is considered a reply. Instead, use a period first â.@bridgetmwillard thanks for the useful advice.â You can also rewrite the Tweet so the username isnât first. âWow! Thanks for the advice, @bridgetmwillard. Itâs very useful.â
Using GIFs in your posts is way more effective than emoji.
A/B Test your tweets if you donât believe me. Hashtags arenât magic.
Mix up how you share your blog post. Extract quotes. Donât just share the headline over and over again.
Iâm a huge fan of short links. Long links get cut off and are ugly. As a user, I notice that I will pass over tweets that have ugly links. Theyâre too hard to copy/paste RT (Old School RT) and I just figure the person isnât social. Theyâre probably automating their tweets which means they probably wonât reply.
With that said, I used to use Revive Old Post on my site (but the API got $$ so the service got $$). I loved it when my blog posts were cycled every x amount of hours and I used a shortened link. I am back to using Buffer now. But use your judgment. It’s 2025.
When Iâm curating Tweets, I like to use Googleâs Campaign URL Builder to add my name as the referral source. Iâm sneaky like that. I am, after all, the campaign. I found the tweet. Handpicked, baby. Handpicked!
Twitter Marketing: Share Other Peopleâs Content.
Sharing other peopleâs content is one of the best Twitter Marketing tactics. You came across an article in your Internet search and it gave you a wow. You learned something. You smiled. You cried. Share it.
Share it with intention. Do the work to find their Twitter handle. Donât just mindlessly press buttons. Thatâs not hand-curation. Thatâs random. Thatâs pedestrian. Anyone can do that.
And while Iâm at it, mindlessly using an RSS feed to automate tweets is also not the best way to do it. What if that person or business tweets about something that goes against your brand standards?
What if they love React and you have tweeted that itâs garbage? What if youâre curating content for Ninja Forms and theyâre using Gravity Forms? Itâs not good versus bad. Itâs about alignment.
Twitter Marketing: Read Articles Before You Share Them.
Reading articles before you share them goes hand in hand with not automating your Twitter feed. This isnât always a good versus evil issue. Itâs about whether or not the article aligns with your brand.
Does the article require a subscription to read? This is primarily why I donât share the Financial Times anymore. I get their articles through Curio, but they donât even have four free articles a month as Harvard Business Review does. If you always share content that requires a subscription, people who follow you will start ignoring your shares.
Is the article well written? No offense to outsourcing, but it becomes obvious when a non-native speaker writes copy on a website. Even if the reader isnât fully aware of why it feels wrong, theyâll bounce. That wonât align with your brand.
Does the article bombard the reader with ads? This is a huge issue for me. On my phone, I can choose âreader viewâ in Safari. I canât choose that on my laptop. (Or maybe I just donât know how.) Either way, you get the point. Itâs a bad user experience.
What you share is an extension of your brand. Do you want people to associate you with that experience? Iâm guessing the answer is no.
Worse, the article could advocate for something youâre against. You may hate the WordPress editor but the article shows people how to use blocks in Gutenberg. You may preach about accessibility but this article doesnât even use the ARIA button role. You drive a Ford, the article is about the new Chevy truck. You get it. We call this cognitive dissonance. The audience sees it as tone-deaf and out of touch.
Twitter Marketing: The Reply Button is Powerful.
Every time I teach Twitter Marketing, I encourage my students to use the reply button. This is the most under-utilized Twitter tool for impressions, followers, and click-throughs.
Social media is about building relationships. Twitter excels in this area. The only way to build a relationship with a person is through small talk. The chit chat that so many people dread is the back and forth on Twitter with replies.
Guess what? It works. This is how I have built every account I have. The vendors I use today, I built relationships with on Twitter. More than that 85% of my client base comes from Twitter.
Both Accessibility and SEO đ
And if you ask me, readability too. I prefer 1000 times reading HTML that is comprehensive and the structure tells me what each thing is, rather than: <div> <div> <div></div> </div> </div>
When big brands like Noom reply to my Tweets, Iâm more likely to mention them again. As I have several times in this article. This is the subconscious drive to reciprocate. Itâs powerful. Be kind. Reply. Engage.
Twitter Marketing: Participate in Twitter Chats.
Twitter chats are my favorite part of Twitter. This is a live chat that is threaded with a specific hashtag. They usually take place once a week at the same time and last an hour.
Sadly, this last year, I havenât made the time I should to participate in my favorite one which is #DigiBlogChat.
This chat is hosted by my BFF Carol Stephen and by Larry Mount. Itâs been going on for quite a few years and is always fun and inspiring.
âSince we crowdsource the topics for our chats, we have an extremely engaged audience. Thereâs Tripp Braden, Randy Clark, and the enthusiastic Beth Staub. John Lewis, who also runs #Innochat is a regular. Finola, Maricar, and Mitch Mitchell regularly weigh in. My friend @MistressPrime occasionally visits. @CharlesMcCool and @jpretorious are there, too. Then there are @nina_wag and @htindesigner. We couldnât forget our friends at @interprosepr! Sandy of @CreativeWoodVT has been a friend for a long time. Loni of @JorgensonLocker is also a regular on the chat! And @JKatzaman is always making us laugh!â Carol Stephen
Hands down, Twitter chats are the best place to find like-minded and active people on Twitter.
There are so many great chats, itâs hard to keep track of them all.
— ATC Digital Academy (@AfricaTweetChat) June 10, 2020
Tweet Chat Formatting
Most of the time a Twitter Chat has a specific format. The host will tweet the question with Q1, Q2, Q3, and the hashtag. Everyone else tweets with A1, A2, A3, etc with the hashtag.
Lots of people reply but that isnât necessary. Neither is quote tweeting. But if you do quote tweet, then be sure to use the hashtag in your part of the quote tweet. See why I donât like quote tweeting for Twitter chats? (Say that five times fast.)
— Jim Katzaman – Get Debt-Free One Family at a Time (@JKatzaman) December 29, 2020
Hosting a Twitter Chat
Iâve hosted Twitter chats in the past. Theyâre a lot of work but great for the brand. This was primarily how I built up the Riggins Construction Twitter Account with #ConstChat.
Itâs a big-time commitment but also gives you quite a lot of content to post on your blog for your brand. I did it for a while for GiveWP but they decided not to keep it going. I posted the recap on my own blog for an example. Hereâs one of my recaps for SEO for Nonprofits. Embedding tweets in your blog is a great way to give them a longer lifespan.
Twitter Marketing: Share Your Blog Posts.
Sharing your blog posts should be a pillar of any Twitter Marketing plan. I mean, weâre all for relationships and learning but we all have to earn a living. Yes. I said it. Marketing always has a goal. You want to share your expertise online. Why not share it on Twitter?
âPeople use Twitter to read and to discover information. Customers will use it to validate you the same way people use Yelp or TripAdvisor.â Bridget Willard
The great thing about Twitter is that its culture tolerates volume and repetition. You can share your content on Twitter as much as every third tweet. This is unheard of on any other social media platform. For clients, this is how I share their content. For myself
Of course, Twitter doesnât replace email marketing. Thatâs the best way to get an engaged audience reading your posts. Your campaign links will tell you the story. What does Google Analytics say?
Now, this screenshot from Google Analytics shows that my average session duration (time on site) is just over a minute. Thatâs probably because Iâve not been blogging as regularly as I should. Aim for two minutes.
Twitter Marketing: Let People Know Youâre Accepting Clients.
Twitter is a great opportunity to let others know that youâre accepting work or new clients. Of course, if youâre a retail establishment, Twitter is great for nurturing. For business-to-business (B2B), your business model is a bit different. Youâre likely not selling widgets.
People ask me all the time,
âHey, Bridget! How do you get clients?â
Me:
âTwitter.â
Them:
âWell, what do you mean?â
Me:
âIâll tweet out that Iâm accepting clients and then I get DMs. I schedule a meeting and then send them an invoice and go for it.â
You have to tell people that youâre accepting clients. Your tribe and peers on Twitter need to know. People who refer work to you need to know. Itâs okay to tell people you have availability. You wonât look desperate.
If youâre worried about how to phrase that, DM me and Iâll help you craft a tweet.
Twitter Marketing: Be a Polite Human.
Having good manners is Twitter Marketing 101. This is the edge that the Boomers and GenXers (like me) have over Millenials and Zoomers. We make eye contact. We wait for someone to respond. We say âplease,â and âthank you.â It matters.
âIf youâre a baby boomer, you already know a lot about how to be social. For instance, would I have to ask you twice what the âmagic wordsâ are? Would you know what elements make a good letter? Could you go on a picnic and just be at the picnic, without having to whip out an electronic device? There you go! Each one of these instances is a good reason why you, as a Boomer, is a perfect candidate for social media.â Carol Stephen
Iâm not really sure where my generation went wrong with raising their kids but it is what it is. We didnât train them to have good manners. (Oh my gosh, if youâre offended, Iâm sorry. But seriously. Am I not wrong?)
You use Twitter for sales and marketing. All good salespeople value people — as a person — even if they arenât the decision-maker. This is the key to relationship marketing.
“You have these opportunities because people know you. And because they know that you actually care about them. And the only way it works is if you actually care about them.” Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing: Reply to Every Tweet!
Everyone matters when it comes to your Twitter Marketing. When someone replies to your tweet, then answer them. If they send you a tweet, reply. If they share your definitive guide to Twitter Marketing that actually works, then thank them.
Whatever you would do if the person were standing right in front of you (socially distanced, of course) then do that.
Twitter Marketing: Donât Forget Where You Came From.
Do you remember how hard it was to get those first 500 followers? The first 1,000? One way to lose touch with your audience is the lack of empathy. You were once âthe little guy.â You were the egg on Twitter.
âGreat leaders would never sacrifice the people to save the numbers. They would sooner sacrifice the numbers to save the people.â Simon Sinek
When you come to Twitter with the intent to be generous, youâll demonstrate the kind of leadership that lasts. And you know how to get followers on Twitter? Itâs easy. Be a leader.
âGenerosity is a key attribute of leadership. We all respond well to those who give more than they take. And when they ask for favors (retweets, links, store purchases) many of us are happy to oblige. Weâre your biggest fans, so why not follow back?â Bridget Willard
A person with an open mind realizes that they have something to learn from everyone. Remember how hard it was. Donât tweet out that youâll retweet someone. Thatâs just asking for accolades. Just do it. DM people with tips. Share someoneâs blog post that tickled your intellect and aroused your joy. Be their hero. Even just for 30 seconds.
Twitter Marketing: Share YouTube Videos.
One of my favorite features of YouTube is the ability to share a video at an exact timestamp. This is a form of social hospitality. Quoting the person (or yourself) and the exact timestamp makes it easy for your followers to click on it and watch it from that exact moment.
If youâve included your Universal Analytics code on your YouTube account, those views will show in Google Analytics, which is really nice.
But you can share videos from other people, too. We love video. But why should we watch this video? When we see tweets with a quote and then a link, weâre more inclined to click on it.
Including YouTube in your Twitter Marketing strategy is just smart. Some people donât like to read articles and others never watch video. Have something for everyone, and youâll be the best host ever!
Yes, social media is hospitality.
Twitter Marketing: Use Twitter for Business Development.
Set some time aside once a week to search for questions that you can answer. Then find the latest tweets that look like a good opportunity to reply. Maybe you donât have the best answer but you cc (carbon copy) others and bring them into the conversation.
Yes.
React because Facebook and WordPress. Angular because "it's better." VUE because it's fast.
People on Twitter have the intent to learn. Providing helpful information will create that spark of interest that can lead to a bigger conversation.
Listening on Twitter is the best way to validate and update your marketing personas. In all likelihood, your Biz Dev efforts will bring this to the surface.
âMarketing personas are legitimized stereotypes. When’s the last time you updated your company’s personas? Instead of relying solely on a marketing persona based upon “Bob,” you can actually see what Bob is tweeting about. Bob from 10 years ago liked IPAs; now he collects wine. Time to update the “Bob” persona.â Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing: Give People Credit.
Part of being a polite human being in your Twitter Marketing is giving people credit. That is to say, if you found a very useful article because Robert Nissenbaum tweeted it, then give him credit. On Twitter this is a hat tip or h/t.
"Gather information, ask for input, and make a decision." @RandyLyleClark
Itâs so annoying when you share something and people donât even acknowledge that you were the one who shared it. Itâs a good way to get unfollowed.
Yes. Thatâs the end of the section. Go and think about this. Iâll wait.
Twitter Marketing: Use the Native App.
I love Hootsuite for Twitter Marketing so much. Firstly, because itâs free for up to three accounts. Now, I only use it for Twitter because of the column and search features. They allow me to track hashtags, use my lists, and have a search for people tweeting out my website. This is super important if you want to listen to what your customers may be saying or what is resonating. They may have typed your handle wrong or something. You know? Another great thing about Hootsuite is that its mobile app is very similar to the web app.
With that as my only caveat, to be as agile as possible with your Twitter Marketing strategy, itâs important to use the native app or web app/page. When Fleets came out (Twitterâs version of stories) a lot of people were confused. Why? It was only available on Twitterâs mobile app. Any other app didnât show Fleets. It wasnât an option on desktop and certainly wasnât shown in TweetDeck or Hootsuite.
Small UI changes matter. UI changes can affect your metrics and cause you to shift tactics. Hootsuite, for example, doesnât show Twitter Retweet Button retweets. Itâs so lame. And frustrating to a social media manager. But, Hootsuite is limited by Twitterâs API. So, go where the rules are made. Itâs Twitterâs playground.
The one thing you can expect with online marketing is change. Change comes. It comes at the most inconvenient times and the user interface can change dramatically. I mean, remember when Instagram moved the heart (notifications) to the top and swapped that with the shopping bag? We were all pressing the shopping bag for weeks. Muscle memory and UI matters when youâre creating a marketing strategy.
âTwitter management isnât for the faint of heart. Itâs important to be a practitioner; stay in Twitter as much as possible. This allows you to see any UI/UX and feature changes that Twitter implements. That affects your tactics.â Bridget Willard
As professionals who market on platforms we cannot control, it is even more important that we use the native platforms as much as possible. In a world full of lazy marketers, being first matters. (Yeah, I said it.)
Twitter Marketing: Be Consistent.
For Twitter Marketing to be effective, you need to be consistent. This is why I recommend spending time on Twitter every day. Plenty of people follow trends and jump on this bandwagon or that new tech. Thatâs fine. Let people jump over to Hey.com or Parler. The rest of us will stay on Twitter and keep winning for ourselves and our clients.
Consistency is the key in marketing. Itâs the key in athletics. Itâs the key in weight loss. Itâs the key in language learning. Consistency is marketing gold.
People are distracted. You can be the reliable lighthouse they turn to.
With that said, itâs better to go dark if youâre going on vacation and donât plan to respond. Scheduling tweets just to schedule tweets is lame. Be present. Social media managers often help one another out for covering vacation times.
Now, a word about automation. I know, I talk about automation a lot.
In 2011, one of our Twitter friends passed away. He was a big deal. It was the first time I cried and cried over someone I had never met in person. He was consistent. Reliable.
Imad unexpectedly passed away on Sept 6, 2011, of a heart attack. He was 49 years old. This is @LorettaN, his wife. (In case u didn't know.)
Though he used automation, he always replied. Unfortunately, because he used automation to tweet out articles with certain keywords, his account kept tweeting after his death. It was very frustrating for his wife.
I schedule out tweets for my clients but only two weeks out. Things happen. Tragedies happen. National emergencies. School shootings. You need to be able to quickly pause your scheduling at any given moment.
Twitter Marketing: Follow People in Your Industry.
Following others in your industry is an important way to be seen. Twitter is a perfect way to connect with others in your industry. You can find them through search, other peopleâs lists, and/or industry hashtags.
An easy way to find the big names in your industry is to look for event hashtags. (Remember when we had in-person events before COVID?) Those events will list speakers, attendees, and volunteers. People who attend conferences tend to be the industryâs movers and shakers. There could be an argument that there are people at home with plenty of expertise, but if theyâre not tweeting, weâll never really know them. Will we?
Find the hashtag, look at the people using it, follow them, and put them on your list. Follow and list. Follow and list. Pretty soon this behavior will be natural to you. And then people will turn to you for when theyâre looking for someone to teach their class on Angular or lead the kayaking expedition in the Pacific Northwest.
Twitter Marketing: Follow People in Your City.
Following people in your city and creating a list is a great way to understand the local culture. This can be a county or a metropolitan area. When I lived in California, my city only had a population of 28,000. So I also followed people in Orange County and put them on that list.
Spending time on your Twitter list for your city allows you to interact with your local community. You may be invited to speak or meet others who would be great businesses to know. We do business with people we know, like, and trust. This is an aspect of human behavior that is timeless. It wonât change when the next big thing comes along.
Even on TikTok, the Texas people follow the Texas people. We like to be around people who choose to live near us.
Following people in your geographic location is even more important if you intend on marketing your business services or products to them. Or if you move like I did. Youâll want to assimilate and use the language they do. In California, I would say âGuys!â In Texas, we say âYâall!â Youâll learn about the nuances and about what matters here.
In Texas breakfast tacos are made with bacon. Sausage at the last resort is fine. But theyâre made with bacon and you get them at the gas station. This isnât like gas station sushi either. Itâs legit. No joke. Laredo Taco is inside Stripes (the gas station). Youâll want to learn about your new culture before you start making a faux pas.
Twitter Marketing: Spend 5 Minutes a Day in your Home Feed.
Twitter Marketing is a lifestyle, not a quick fix. Youâll want to work it into your daily schedule. I always recommend people spend five minutes in the morning and five after lunch. It really depends on how fast you want to grow. Twitter is a numbers and volume game. If youâre not treating Twitter seriously, you probably donât have any notifications anyway. Oh yeah, when you get serious, donât get push notifications. That will drive you crazy.
One of the good things about spending time in your home feed is that you see opportunities. I started to notice, for example, that people were really struggling with writing their own speaker bios. This was during the heavy conference season for WordCamps, so I offered to write their bio for them.
So, yes. I wrote six speaker bios yesterday and today.
I am keeping this deal alive.
$25 fast fast PayPal cash.
DM me your website, email address, and any other links and I'll send you the GDrive.
This gave birth to six bios, so I tweeted again. So then I expanded my secret menu. I mean, if In-N-Out can have one, why canât I? I began writing page content, editing WordCamp talk pitches, and more! That cash always came in handy. Especially during the building of my business and inevitable client loss.
By now, Iâve written over 40 speaker bios for many of the people in WordPress youâd recognize. Because of that, I was asked to give a workshop at WordCamp US to teach people how to write a friendly bio of themselves.
Even if your intention on spending time in the home feed isnât business development, youâll pass by people in the halls of the Internet you never would have noticed otherwise. This world is a lovely, full place. There are so many amazing people to get to know.
Twitter Marketing: Log in with Intent.
When you begin anything intent drives the results. This is because we do what we practice. If your intent is to become a better writer, then text your friends in complete sentences. If your intent is to practice mindfulness, then set an alarm for meditation. If your intent is to hit a home run, then look at where you want the ball to end up. Intent matters.
Twitter marketing without intent is aimless and purposeless. Youâll feel drained and bored. Youâll get sucked into mini debates about politics or how to pronounce âGIF.â Chunks of time will pass by without any real results. You havenât helped your brand. You havenât given back to the world. You havenât encouraged someone.
Level up your Twitter Marketing by logging in with the intent to be helpful. Find two or three tweets that you can reply to every day. Yes, every day. Twitter works if you work it.
Twitter Marketing: Look at Your Analytics.
Data is important but it needs context. Google analytics or Twitter analytics — neither are the be-all, end-all. However, youâll want to look at your data sets and compare and contrast them.
The caveat to data is that data only comes from what is measured. Some people browse in private mode. They search the Internet on duckduckgo.com or yahoo.com instead of Google. They donât use Gmail. They may take out their SIM cards all the time or swap them out. Maybe they turn off their WiFi at night or have masking routers.
Data is a picture of the past. This is why spending time online interacting with your audience is so important. This is how you get data in real-time. This is data as it happens. People grow and evolve. Data is an autopsy. What are people doing now?
Another problem with data is that it only shows what youâve done. If you have only tweeted on Tuesdays, then Tuesday is your best day. Beyond what you measure, and what will inevitably be excluded, you canât measure affinity. You canât measure brand awareness. You donât know what people are thinking.
What I do like is the tweets to profile visit ratio. This tells me that people have seen a tweet and gone to the profile.
âI like the tweets to profile visit ratio to be above .20. The profile visits [metric] is important because it means that a user saw your tweet, clicked on your username/handle, and then looked at your profile.â Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing: Cycle Your Content.
The best way to cycle your content is to share it with different copy and hashtags. It may hit someone at a different phase in their life or business cycle.
The most important part of Twitter Marketing is staying top of mind. Meaning, you want them to see your tweet when theyâre trying to remember who bakes those crazy cakes. Wait, I forgot to ask her about copywriting. Oh yeah, I was thinking about buying lockers. Oh cool, Iâll refer my client to that person for their website build.
Time and time again, I am asked how to be more efficient in oneâs use of Twitter. The answer is simple. Use lists.https://t.co/ljZhNu6Xa4#Twitter
Resist the temptation to retweet yourself. First of all, it looks really self-centered. Also, if it didnât hit your audience the first time, maybe rewrite the tweet. This seems obvious but Iâve been in some very, um, tense conversations on Twitter about this. I mean, do you, Boo. But then again youâre reading my tips. So. Whatâs the worst-case scenario? Try it my way for a month and if you donât like it, Iâll give you your money back. Also, did you know that any user can turn your retweets off? Itâs true.
When it comes to cycling your content and a plugin like Revive Old Posts, be sure to make the time interval an odd number. If you start sharing tweets at 8:00 AM and set it up with an eight-hour interval, then your tweets will go out every eight hours. Meaning, your blog post will be put out on Twitter at 8:00 AM, 4:00 PM, and midnight every single day. That limits who has an opportunity to see your tweets.
I always use an odd number with a half for my interval settings on Revive Old Posts. I am always changing my frequency between 7.5 hours, 13.5 hours, 17.5 hours, and 23.5 hours. Sometimes, I just want to test the waters or adjust for the volume of tweets Iâm adding in real-time. Test it out for yourself.
Twitter Marketing: Donât Use the Retweet Button.
Your Twitter Marketing is stunted with the Retweet Button (not the comment retweet, but a plain retweet). Hereâs why. The retweet button ends a conversation. There is no way to reply. You get a notification that someone retweeted you. But you canât reply. At least, you canât easily reply.
To reply to a retweet, you have to click on the person, start a tweet, and then thank them. I used to do it all of the time. Sometimes I still do. Itâs so much better to make your own tweet. You want people to see your face in their Twitter feed. You want your logo to be recognized in the Twitter feed. Thatâs Branding 101. So, why would you share someone elseâs flyer at your event?
Twitter Marketing: Be Patient!
Seriously. Trying Twitter for one month isnât long enough, my friend. It is a big part of your whole marketing. You probably wonât see a rise in clicks until about month three. Business comes later. This is for the longevity of your business. Not just for today.
There is no such thing as a first-click lead. No one is going to see your tweet for the first time, click on it, see your thing, and buy it immediately. It takes 7-10 touches to make a sale at the very minimum. It always has and it always will. Why? Because the humans behind the screen are still, well, human.
“Youâll never get first-click leads from Twitter. I say never, but itâs probably an exaggeration. Asking social media to solve your lead-generation problem is short-sighted at best. First of all, it will fail â miserably. Secondly, your focus on leads will cause you to consciously or even subconsciously make decisions out of fear and desperation. Those are almost never good decisions.” Bridget Willard
Twitter Marketing is a Long Game!
Twitter brings a brand awareness component that raises the effectiveness of all of your marketing efforts.
Our marketing efforts are only a failure when we quit.
