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The Pros and Cons of Twitter Newspapers
Are Twitter newspapers effective for freelancers?
For the past few months, I’ve been seeing links to online “newspapers” pop up in the Twitter stream. In fact, we first discussed Twitter Newspapers on Freelance Folder in an Open Thread a few months ago. Since online social media newspapers seem to be becoming more popular, I decided to take a closer look at this trend.
In this post, I’ll explain what a social media newspaper is and examine the pros and cons of having a Twitter newspaper. I’ll also share the results of an informal Twitter poll that I conducted.
What Is a Twitter Newspaper?
If you’re not familiar with social media newspapers, it’s important to understand what they are. Simply put, a social media newspaper automatically summarizes the content of user-selected tweets (and Facebook content) based on user-defined criteria (such as a Twitter list or hash tag). Typically, the newspaper is then tweeted out into the user’s Twitter stream. In some cases, it may also be shared on the user’s website.
Technically, tools that create such newspapers are aggregators–meaning that they gather a specified type of information from designated sources. In this case, however, the aggregator has been specifically designed to work with social media. Those who aggregate content are often referred to as “curators.”
Creating a Social Media Newspaper
Here are several online tools that you can use to create a Twitter or Facebook newspaper:
- Paper.li–This newspaper tool seems allows you to create custom newspapers from both Twitter and Facebook.
- Twitter Tim.es–This newspaper tool allows you to extract information from either media sources and from Twitter lists.
- PostPost–This newspaper tool is currently limited to Facebook only.
However, expect new tools to crop up in the coming months. I would also expect to see existing tools expand to include other social media platforms.
Social Media Newspaper Pros and Cons
There are some advantages and disadvantages to having a Twitter newspaper.
I’ll tackle the advantages first:
- An organizational tool–Most Twitter users have more than one interest, so their Twitter streams can be chaotic, to say the least. A Twitter newspaper can help a freelancer gather related material.
- A way to find new information/contacts–Different social media users have access to different tweets and contacts. Reading someone else’s Twitter newspaper on a topic that you are interested in can help you find new information or contacts.
- Another “touch”–If you do a good job of creating your social media newspaper and it adds value for those you share it with, it could be a positive addition to your online freelancing brand.
- Possible SEO benefits–Because some social media newspapers are archived there may be some SEO benefits for either the creator of the newspaper or for those whose information is included.
- No cost (and easy to set up)–Most social media newspapers are free for the user and they are relatively simple to set up. Once one is set up, the newspaper creation process is automatic.
Now, for the disadvantages:
- Can’t be monetized–As far as I can tell, there is no way for a social media user to place advertisements on his or her social media newspaper.
- Only as good as your criteria–The contents of your social media newspaper will only be as good as your criteria (and your followers). If your criteria is poorly chosen or you do not follow interesting Tweeters, your newsletter may not add value.
- Some find it annoying–The annoyance factor should not be totally discounted. In my informal poll (see below) a significant number of freelancers indicated that they were annoyed with those who promote their Twitter newspapers.
- May be ignored by others–If your social media newspaper doesn’t deliver value, you may find that others ignore it entirely–making the value of having it as part of your brand questionable.
What Freelancers Think About Twitter Newspapers
I reached out on Twitter to discover how some freelancers felt about Twitter newspapers. I also asked a few of my contacts who already have social media newspapers already to comment on the experience.
Although my little Twitter poll was very informal and not necessarily scientific, I was surprised to discover that many freelancers don’t know what a Twitter newspaper is. There was also a significant number of comments that described Twitter newspapers as being “annoying.” Surprisingly, I didn’t get any positive comments.
I then decided to go ahead and ask a few freelancers who are using Twitter newspapers what they thought about the experience. These comments were positive. Here are two different opinions:
- Shakirah Dawud (@shakirah_dawud), who blogs at Deliberate Ink, shared her experience: ” I think the best thing about it is how it helps bind me by association to some of my most respected and informative tweeps on my topic.”
- George Passwater (@GRPasswater) provided similar feedback: “The feedback I’ve received on my Twitter daily papers is always positive. Many tell me how the news in each paper has helped them in one way or another. For me, it’s a win-win situation. I get to connect with all kinds of great people who read the papers and they get great content they can use for their own use.”
Other Resources
Here are a few other resources discussing social media newspapers.
- From Kommein, How Paper.li Can Become an Attractive Option for Bloggers
- From Mashable, PostPost: A Facebook Newspaper With a Flipboard Feel
- From Social Media Today, Online News Curation, The rise of the Echo-Chamber and the end of Debate?
Your Turn
What do you think about Twitter newspapers? Do you use a Twitter (or other social media) newspaper? Can you think of any pros or cons that I forgot?
Share your experience or opinion in the comments.
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6 Reasons Why Freelancers Need to Exercise Self-Discipline
There’s no doubt that freelancers need many skills that non-freelancers don’t think about. It’s not enough to simply be a good writer, a good designer, a good web developer (or whatever your specialty is). The need to have these other skills is one of the things that makes freelancing so difficult.
Many blog posts have been written about a freelancer’s need to market one’s self, the need to manage one’s financial affairs, and the need to manage your time well. But, a crucial freelancing skill, self-discipline is rarely mentioned.
In this post, I’ll explain why self-discipline is important to freelancers and provide some examples of instances when self-discipline should be used.
The Hidden Part of the Success Puzzle
In many ways, I think that self-discipline is the hidden part of the success puzzle. We freelancers don’t talk about it much and sometimes I think that we forget about it.
But, the truth is that learning self-discipline is every bit as important to being a successful freelancer as learning to code, design, or write well.
Another reason that we freelancers might not discuss self-discipline is because we’re not quite sure how it fits into the freelancing picture. We don’t know when to exercise self-discipline.
6 Ways to Exercise Freelancing Self-Discipline
If you’re in freelancing for the long haul, then you’ll need some self-discipline. Here are some crucial areas where self-discipline is needed:
- Save Money During the Good Times. As I write this post, I’ve just finished reading blog posts from several other freelancers describing their financial woes. The best way to mitigate the times when your income is lower than normal is to set aside part of your income during your better months.
- Work When No One Is Looking. One thing that freelancers do not have is a boss looking over their shoulder all of the time to check on them and make sure that they are doing their job. A freelancer has to learn to get the work done even if no one is holding him or her accountable.
- Market Yourself. Many freelancers have trouble promoting themselves. (I count myself as part of this group.) However unpleasant marketing may seem to you, if you want to keep your freelancing business afloat, you’ve got to keep on marketing yourself–whether you like it or not.
- Work on Nonpaying Tasks. Not every task that a freelancer does can be directly billed to a client. However, it’s still important to keep up with those parts of your business that don’t generate income, such as bookkeeping, collections, and marketing. Not doing so can cost you a lot of money.
- Keep Your Skills Up to Date. Many corporations require periodic re-training for their employees. As a freelancer, however, it’s up to you to make sure that your marketable skills are up to date. When you’re busy it’s easy to put training off (especially since it doesn’t pay the bills), but don’t do it.
- Control Your Temper. As a freelancer, you may have to deal directly with more people than you ever would have had to face as an employee. What this means is that sometimes you are going to run across clients and others who are less than pleasant. Keep your temper in check no matter what.
What to Do If Your Self-Discipline Fails
This is probably the most important tip of the day. I’ll be first person to say that I don’t follow all of the above advice all of the time perfectly. No one can. Everyone fails from time-to-time.
So what should you do when you’ve had a lapse in self-discipline? What about when you’ve spent your savings? Or, maybe you’ve slacked off on your marketing efforts? What’s a freelancer to do then?
Simple. First of all, don’t panic. Instead, reboot. If you’ve spent your savings, start again to save. If you’ve slacked off on marketing your business, start marketing it again.
Remember, a lapse in self-discipline doesn’t have to be a permanent setback.
What About You?
Do you ever struggle with self-discipline? What additional self-discipline tips would you add?
Share your answers in the comments.
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Freelancing from the Client’s Perspective
I will not claim to be an expert on freelancing itself because I have never done it, but what I do know about is hiring freelancers to do work for me.
I have hired people to do many tasks for me that I can’t do, won’t do or simply don’t have time for. It is really helpful to get your business up and running faster than you ever could on your own by using freelancers.
I have found some things freelancers tend to cut corners on or simply do badly. From a client’s perspective, these things will not put you in good stead when you are looking to get follow up work.
Bad Freelancing Practices
Here are some things that freelancers do that really create a bad impression:
- Ignoring the job description–The first and by far the most irritating is when a freelancer doesn’t read the description of the job before accepting it. Now I am aware that there are a lot of time constraints on people’s time and that you shouldn’t be expected to do everything, but this is one thing that is a must. When I ask someone to do work for me I always have very specific requests and I do this because the basic and broad things I know how to do myself and I hire freelancers to handle the specifics. That’s what I pay for. What I don’t expect is people sending me a report half way through the project and seeing that they haven’t done precisely what I’ve asked for because it was all in the description. If you don’t understand what the client wants, then ask the client before the start of the project.
- Bad communication–Which brings me on to my next point, communication is key. It is vital for clients to know what is going on with the task that has been set. If regular reports aren’t received I get nervous that they aren’t doing what I have asked or are simply not doing anything. When a job is handed over to help a business it is natural for the client to want to know what is going on because it is their business. Always keep that in mind. Don’t be afraid as the freelancer to ask questions or just send a friendly message saying a target will be met by tomorrow. This gives the impression that you are on top of the situation and it will make the relationship run far more smoothly.
- Asking for rating changes–This one is simply a personal pet peeve, but if it puts me off hiring freelancers again then I am sure it will put others off also. Do not ask the employer to change their rating of you. This is in relation to online freelance websites where you have to leave feedback on how the freelancer performed during the project. I have had a few people mail me after I have given my honest rating of how they performed and ask me to up their rating. That gets my blood boiling. The whole point of a rating system is so that people can get an honest opinion of how the project went not to see what the freelancer believes they should have got. I’m afraid that a good rating must be earned not asked for.
- Not being courteous–The final thing I would like to mention is that you must always, always be polite. In my experience, 99.9% of freelancers understand this seemingly basic principle (which is good), but there is always the odd one who can’t resist sliding in a scornful remark or a snide comment. For example, I had one person call my project a joke in their bid. How do they expect to get hired with that kind of attitude towards a client? Anyway, my point is that good manners cost nothing and in fact could pay you a lot of money, so keep that in mind throughout all of your communiques and you will get on fine.
One Good Freelancing Practice
One thing that is worth mentioning is that I have been more inclined to accept bids for projects from people who send more than one message. The common thing that I receive is ‘I can do this. Please check PM’. I realize that you are busy trying to get as many jobs as possible, but this is not attractive to the employer in any way. While looking down the list of offers I am looking for someone who stands out and that I can tell something about straight away–not for a worker drone who does the same thing as everyone else.
If someone is willing to put more effort in to get work from me, then they are probably more willing to do a little bit of extra work to make sure that the project meets my exacting standards (which is what I am after). Employers are just as busy as you are if not more so and don’t always have time to check PMs, so take the time to write an interesting bid or two.
Your Turn
What do you think of these bad freelancing practices? Can you think of any that you would add?
Share your suggestions in the comments.
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Thank-You to Our January Advertisers
It’s a new year and for many freelancers, this signifies a fresh new start for their freelancing business. It’s a time to get things in order and get geared up.
A great way to start the new year is to explore some of the products and services offered by the high-quality companies supporting the Freelance Folder blog. It’s the support of these companies that allows us to provide you with great information year-round. Our advertisers provide excellent services and products that are vital to freelancing success. Trust us, these companies know and understand freelancing. We would definitely recommend checking them out.
Thank-You to Our Advertisers
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