This article is contributed by Fahad Raza.
When you’re in need of a designer, there are more than one way of looking for one online. You could simply Google appropriate keywords to find a very long list of designers, on which you could easily lose a few hours. You’d have to browse through the web results one after the other, most of which will be portfolio websites of professional designers or designing agencies. You’d go through the portfolios and may or may not find the kind of designs you would like to have for yourself. In any case, the feat is both tedious and tormenting.
Sounds too hectic? Whenever a friend asks me this question I waste no time in pointing out to them how Twitter can help them find a designer very suitable to their needs.
Why Twitter?
Invariably they ask me this very question as their first retort, which makes me smile and ask them in turn, “Why not Twitter?” This often results in no real response from them and often a few moments of silence, which is enough for me to push on with my point of view.
So, why not Twitter? Especially, when it has not only every opportunity for you to observe the portfolio of the designer but also a number of other insights you can get to help decide. If the designer is reliably professional and good at communication, then this is a good sign not to mention you can see feedback from their clients.
Let me break it down for you. Here’s how the unique features of a social media such as Twitter can help you get more information conveniently and swiftly about a designer than any other manner of searching you may have come up with.
Followers
There are a lot of things you can learn after having a look at a designer’s followers on Twitter, some of which are important to note, such as:
a. Their popularity: The greater the number of followers they have the more popular they are. Designers with good exposure and a significant history of work experience should also have several thousand followers. If you find somebody whose resume says they’ve worked for a lot of clients, or for a long time, and they have just a few hundred followers, I suggest you move to the next candidate.
b. Peer recognition: If a designer is worth their mettle, a whole lot of their peers are bound to be found on their Twitter timeline. Stay away from “professionals” whose peers avoid them. It would probably mean they are not very good at fostering relationships either with other designers or at their work, both of which are hazardous for you.
Content of the Tweets
What they tweet about is something that can tell you a lot about whether you’ll like the work they produce for you or not. This is what I mean:
a. Portfolio: Of course, a major part of their tweets would be about their own portfolio. You should look out for tweets that tell you something about who they have worked with and what they did for the client. Any such tweet would hopefully have a web link for the work they want to share with their followers.
One of the unique features of Twitter is its Retweet possibility, where a user can post the tweet of another user on their own timeline for their followers to see. Most professionals are using this feature to RT – as it has come to be known – what their peers and clients say about their work. You can read these testimonials, and gain information on who the client is. You may even get in touch with them for a word, if you like the kind of work they were served with.
c. Person: The content of the timeline will tell you a lot about the person the designer is; their communication skills, the way they treat their followers, and a whole lot more.
Social media is truly an amazing way to understand whether you’d like working with someone or not. With Twitter, the task becomes easier due to the compact nature of the service and the way you can view and pick content.
Happy hunting!
Author Bio: Fahad Raza is a web enthusiast and ingenious content strategist, who loves all things design and technology. He is the editor-in-chief at a custom logo design agency. Do keep in touch with him on Facebook.
