Find your first 3 clients on Twitter in 7 steps
Most people do not like to use twitter because when they start out they do not have any followers and if they tweet something they get no engagement or responses.
This is because unlike Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin, where people who know you in real life usually add you and interact with your content, people rarely follow people they know in real life on Twitter. In fact, most active people on Twitter are there to connect with people who they do not know in real life and have a platform where they can share their ideas and opinions away from the judgement of their familiar circle.
This is what makes Twitter one of the best places to build your thought leadership audience and score clients. Nobody bats an eye if you follow an unknown person on Twitter and start an interaction. You can reach out to almost anyone in the world, and even send them a direct private message which even if not opened by them will land in their email inbox.
Why am I the right person to tell you this?
I am pretty active on Twitter. You can see my profile here. I am connected with CEOs, investors, journalists, policy experts & opinion makers around the world through Twitter. This is a profile and network I started cultivating since May of 2020, after being cancelled hard on Twitter. I realised the potential of the medium, and started building an audience there.
While I am not on Twitter to find clients, I have helped many of my students do exactly that.
I could make you sit next to me and help you to take the steps described below, and you would get the results you want.
Only if I had time to sit and guide you to do all that. I don’t have that, so I will share with you my experience hoping that you will take your time to do all these, execute well and get fabulous results.
Definitely don’t forget to let me know when you get that success.
Here is your guide to finding clients internationally from Twitter.
Why is Twitter important for professionals
- Credibility and clout
- Outreach
- Tracking trends
What is your purpose?
- Getting more clients
- Interacting and impressing future clients with your insights
- Interact with influential journalists in your niche
- Get noticed
- Network with peers and other influential personalities outside your immediate circle
What kind of client acquisition is possible in Twitter?
- People discuss their problems on Twitter. If you respond to them and guide them, some of them become your clients.
- You can get clients outside your local networks.
- Especially great for getting in touch with potential international, overseas clients
- You start by following them, interact with their tweets by commenting on them
- If quality of comments and engagement is high, this soon leads to the other person following you back, and even their followers beginning to follow you
- You can demonstrate a track record and understanding of your area of expertise that invokes confidence. This is critical.
- As you gain initial followers by commenting on and interacting with other people with good following, you can start Tweeting frequently. Then your Tweets will have the impact you desire and bring you new followers too.
You can grow your circle of influence on Twitter
- By starting important/ relevant conversations
- By participating in important/ relevant conversations started by others
When you have got some traction, you reach out to another person who you do not know, that person can trust you based on the strength of your profile
How not to use twitter
- Don’t follow world leaders and politicians
- Don’t follow famous journalists
- Don’t follow random acquaintances and people who don’t really fit into the tribe you are trying to build
Twitter is a place to find your tribe, to find people who truly resonate with you, people who are pursuing similar goals, or people across the world who may be doing the same thing. These are people that you should know but have not met yet.
Do not think of Twitter as a version of your facebook, instagram or even linkedin where you automatically add a bunch of your relatives, classmates or ex-colleagues. If you do that, you will not enjoy your twitter experience.
Find a tribe.
There are tribes you will love to be part of. I personally like people who are focused on self development, startups, centrist politics, philosophy, India’s rise in the world and so on. Every day I get to be part of fascinating conversations or come across mind blowing insights.
If you want US startups and lawyers as your clients, you can start following them and interact with 10 of them daily at least on comments.
Very soon, you begin to know them better, and they will know you too.
Over time, you start liking certain people. You follow them. Some of them like what you have to say so they follow you back as well. Over time, you may develop a deep understanding and appreciation for some of the people you follow as you interact with their thoughts often. And this is how you create very real relationships in the Twitterverse.
How to set up your profile
- Make sure you have a professional photo there since your intention is to use this profile professionally
- Design a cover photo on Canva that explains your value proposition – i.e. top-notch USPTO focused paralegal services at $10 per hour
Or maybe: I can draft your tech contracts @ $10/hr no matter where you are
Or Indian lawyer catering to international tech startups
- The cover image is the headline, and the bio under your name is subtitle. Write impressive things related to your work there. Things that would make people want to follow you or DM you for advice.
- At least 90% of the tweets in your profile should be about what you do and how you help your clients or content that is useful for them. Demonstrate your value through stories you tell.
How to Tweet right
In the beginning, replies are more important than tweets. Engage with people who can give you work or connect with people who may give you work 6 months down the line.
Tweet what is valuable, or relatable. Describe the unsaid. Provide insights, information and guidance that would be valuable to others in your tribe or target market.
Do not obsess about growing following – even without thousands of followers your Twitter profile is a potent weapon.
Use it for outreach and engagement with people who are useful to you but otherwise inaccessible to you.
How to find your first 3 clients on Twitter in 7 steps
- Once your profile is properly set up, and you began engaging with tweets of your potential clients, after some time you can DM those people suggesting doing some pro bono work for them or helping them out with something
- One great way to reach out to startup founders is to offer to interview them for a podcast or youtube channel or some blog
- If any of you want to interview a startup founder and publish it on iPleaders blog, feel free. It’s a good offer because the blog has over 5 million pageviews a month. They will likely say yes. If it is a good quality written interview we can publish it.
- Once you get to speak with them, interact and do an interview, you will find an opening to pitch for some work. Never fails. Focus on learning more about their business model, vision for their startup, fears and worries. If you know more about them, you will know how you can help them and craft the right pitch.
- For you to get work though, you need to know how to do the work. If you don’t know how to do the work they will see through it and you will lose a valuable opportunity. So, please, only pitch the kind of work which you actually can do so you do not lose face with a valuable connection.
- Remember, even if you can’t do legal work yet or don’t know US law, you can still pitch virtual assistant services, article writing, helping with their youtube channel etc.
- If you do this with 10-20 founders, you are very likely to land at least 3 clients for small gigs. Then you got to impress them and take things from there.
Why DM (private direct message) is super important
- You can reach out to people – almost anyone unless their DM is closed to public
- Even if they don’t see your DM or it goes to message requests, it still lands in their email box where they may see it
- If they reply, Twitter thinks you have a deeper connection than the rest who are not having private DM with them so your tweet is shown in priority to them and vice versa
Remember these important things in your Twitter journey:
- Going viral is a chimaera, you don’t need it
- You can succeed on Twitter without going viral or getting ten thousand followers.
- You can get a client, you can find your tribe, you can learn new things, you can be exposed to incredible insights that are otherwise not accessible to you, you can even find some friends.
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