My Twitter Story: How Tweeting Landed Me a Gig

Twitter is a lot of nonsense, right? A few years ago I would have said yes. I’ve since learned that Twitter has a reason for being, one that has landed me at least one gig and has helped me to connect with people I might otherwise never had met.

I think there are a lot of Twitter users who have had similar experiences to mine.

I wrote the title to this article last March, just days after landing the gig. I put off writing it until now as I’ve been super busy with various projects including the one that brought in new business for me. My last article posted here was two months ago — never before have I gone so long between posts ever since launching this site nearly six years ago.

Twitter Gig

The gig that I got lasted just over four months, shorter than what I had expected. Yet, it was a job that came my way because the woman who hired me saw my automotive tweets via @theautowriter, one of several Twitter handles I manage. This account is linked to my main website at autotrends.org, my flagship car site that showcases my work.

Following being contacted for the gig, I submitted the required paperwork and began to write. I averaged two articles per week at $50 per article. The rate seems low, but the articles took me about one hour to write. When all was said and done, I pulled in $1,700 all because of someone who found my tweets.

More Contacts

I’ve also been found by other people in the automotive industry who were also tracking my tweets. Although those connections haven’t yielded new work, each one has raised my visibility. Importantly, at client expense, I’ve been flown to Detroit, San Francisco and to Ohio for automotive related events.

Those events have allowed me to test drive vehicles or see new products before these hit the market. Moreover, I made additional connections with other journalists including one that I believe will eventually yield fresh work. Again, this is all because of Twitter.

Social Media

These days, I’ve largely abandoned all of my other social media platforms including my long-term favorite, StumbleUpon. SU is still decent, but I need to keep my irons in fires that yield solid results. Sure, a surge of traffic to my websites is always welcome, but more important is the work that I get from my contacts, particularly through tweeting.

LinkedIn is beneficial to me for business, Facebook is ideal for family contacts, but nothing else out there seems to be worth my while.

That’s okay, because when it comes to tweeting, the proof is in the work I’ve gotten, the trips I’ve taken and the new contacts I’ve made.

Does Twitter rock? It certainly does in my world!

Related Articles

• How Paper.li Can Help Increase Your Tweet’s CTR (paper.li)
• How do I set up a Twitter account for my business? (marketing.yell.com)
• Show me the money: StumbleUpon hires a VP of sales for revenue growth (venturebeat.com)

The Great Apology Tour

I am sorry.

I am sorry that I never followed you back on Twitter. I am sorry that I’ve neglected retweeting your tweets.

I am sorry that I am just an occasional participant on Google + and I am certainly sorry that your last message to me was buried in my Gmail inbox.

How is that for a start?

I am sorry. No, really.

Call me social media engaged, but also call me social media overloaded. I cannot think of the last time I used Digg. Or Reddit. Or Technorati. I am still using StumbleUpon, although my lack of consistency should be evident to all.

Family members beckon me on Facebook, but other than offering up the requisite birthday good wishes, most of my participation involves the automatic postings from Auto Trends and Word Journey. Too much “TMI” has left me wanting less…far less.

I am sorry for forgetting to get back to you about your guest article. Quite frankly, I am working with solicited contributors and don’t have the time to review each of the unsolicited requests. I get tons of them scattered across the blog network that I manage. Most are off topic…many are poorly written.

Still, the invites to this network or that group come in. Everyone on LinkedIn seems to want me to join their group. I prefer to use LinkedIn as my online resume and offer up an occasional question when an article idea requires additonal input.

I have a lot of friends in India – people who want to do business with me, offering to write articles for as low as $1 a piece. Trouble is, the grammatical mistakes, spelling errors and syntax are often so very wrong that I would have to spend as much time editing each article as it would take me to write them. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

I am sorry that your business venture has not worked out or that your webinar cannot seem to find sponsors. The few webinars I’ve participated in have been too long or offered a poor connection. I would rather have read your notes and, if there is something of benefit, share that information with my readers. Most webinars seem to be long on fluff and short on substance. Lots of marketing too. Enough.

To my clients I offer up a sincere apology if Google PageRank still gets you up in arms. In 2006, PR mattered much and I told you so. In 2011, PR is a secondary ranking factor – your placement in the SERPs carries greater weight. Let’s continue to naturally build backlinks and link out to reputable sites again and again and again….

Have I missed someone in my great apology tour? If so, I am sorry. And let’s just leave it at that.

Photo: MorgueFile