Technical Writing – How to Use Twitter to Market Yourself As a Technical Writer

If you’re to make a single change in the way you market your services as a freelance technical writer, it should be to get on the Twitter – in case you still haven’t. It’s addictive, informative, and fun too.
Twitter is a free social networking service through which you can exchange 140-character messages with the whole world at a lightning speed.
Let’s say you have 1,000 friends on Twitter. You write a short message. Click SEND and boom! It’s sent to all 1,000 people on your list. For free.
I knew there was something to Twitter when, during the 2008 STC (Society for Technical Communication) Annual Conference in Philadelphia, I saw a sign on a billboard at the hotel lobby that asked people to post their Twitter account names so that the conference participants could communicate faster and coordinate group activities.
You’d be amazed how people use Twitter not only for personal use but heavy-duty business purposes as well since you can publish LINKS in your Twitter messages.
Not only that, you can reply other people’s messages either in public (so that everyone on your list can read it) or in private, by sending them a “direct message” intended for only the recipient.

You can search with any keyword you like to sign up new “followers.”
For example, let’s say you are a freelancing technical writer and you’re looking for a job with a software company.
1) You can search with key words “software company” and then follow the search results by simply clicking on the “Follow” button underneath the names and icons.
2) Once they accept your invitation and also start to follow you, you can send a message to your list expressing your desire to find a job as a tech writer. You can even send them the URL of your resume. That really speeds up things considerably.
Be a “twitter” on “Twitter” this year. That’s the newest and fastest way to stay in touch both with your friends, fellow technical writers, prospective clients and employers.