How AWAI Member Jim Turner
Made 10,000 Friends With a
Few Clicks of the Mouse
AWAI Wall of Famer Jim Turner is a popular guy.
As of today, he’s got 4,944 people following him on Twitter.com, wanting to see what he’ll say next … and about another 5,000 friends on Facebook.com.
This popularity has had a huge impact on Jim’s success as a professional copywriter. Because the majority of his clients have come as a result of his social media marketing efforts. [To learn more about social media, read yesterday’s article]
Like Jim, you too can use social media to your advantage and gain copywriting clients.
It takes time … both to land paying assignments and to stay on top of today’s hottest online marketing trends. But the effort is worth it.
Here’s Jim’s advice on exactly how to do it:
- Join social media websites. Sign up for an account on social media sites like Twitter.com, Facebook.com, MySpace.com, LinkedIn.com, and Ning.com. It doesn’t cost anything. When you go to these websites, the actual sign-up process is self-explanatory. Once you’ve set up your account, fill out your profile.
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Start following others and what they’re saying. Social media is born out of the human need to communicate with each other. It’s good to follow people who have a very large audience. And as a copywriter, you’ll want to follow people whose audience consists mainly of entrepreneurs who may at some point need your services. Here are some people Jim recommends you follow, that fit this very criteria:
- Barack Obama
- Guy Kawasaki
- Leo Laporte
- Chris Brogan
- Amber MacArthur
- Mari Smith
- Sherman Hu
“Following someone” means requesting to be their friends on Facebook, signing up for any e-letters they may have, reading their blog posts, and following them on Twitter. Simply put, it’s using every avenue available to stay on top of what they’re saying, the ideas they’re espousing, etc.
- Make yourself known. You can do this by leaving comments on the person’s blog. Also invite others to join your social network and follow what you’re saying on a day-to-day basis. For instance, Jim will regularly post comments that demonstrate his knowledge of marketing and copywriting. He’ll also let others know about valuable resources that may help them out.
- Build relationships. Once you’ve got some friends and followers, certain people will start dialogues with you. Because of the nature of the social networks you’ll be joining, many of these people will be entrepreneurs with businesses that can greatly benefit from your copywriting services. After about a month of communicating with these people, you’ll start to build trust. It’s at that point that you suggest you talk on the phone. Usually by that point, it’s to discuss a potential copywriting/marketing project.
- Wash rinse and repeat. Keep doing this on a consistent basis, and you’ll start forming many relationships with business owners who need your services. In fact, according to Jim, many of these solo-entrepreneurs don’t even have time to get on the phone, but they will take the time to see what people are saying on social sites like Twitter and Facebook, and post comments on blogs.
To make social networking an effective way to get clients, you’re going to have to get big numbers of people on your social networks. So follow the steps above, and with time and consistent effort, you’ll get to that point.
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It's always an upbeat feeling to read what others say about how great it is to be daily connected to others thru one of the social networks out there. My own experience has been that it takes the greater part of a day to read, answer and chat. I end up not doing any productive work for my own copywriting business when I'm bouncing around these websites. It's frustrating and I end up being really ticked at myself for wasting so much time. Isn't time money or is that an old cliche?
Liz – June 26, 2010 at 9:01 pm
With all due respect, as an avid social media participant and pro (I get paid to GhostTweet and GhostBlog for instance, as well as write content for my clients' Facebook pages) I find this post so generic ... with the exception of certain peeps to follow . . . makes one wonder why. Liz is corect - and that's just part of the story for social media success.
Tia Dobi – November 11, 2010 at 1:22 pm