I met Rebecca, or “Becca”, only once for 6 mins at a networking event.
But I remember her – and that’s because of Twitter.
I have since recommeded her to clients as a copywriter.
Why? Because I noticed Rebecca is extemely witty, active and interactive on Twitter. She talks about copywriting, her day at work, and funny things. Just the style I like!  I decided to reach out to her and see how Twitter is helping her:

What is your name and profession, how long have you been working there?

Becca Magnus, freelance copywriter for branding and design, working freelance for 3.5 years

How long have you been using Twitter?

I’ve used Twitter on and off for about six years

What do you use it for mainly?

I like to connect with other creative entrepeneurs, writers, designers, and agencies to discuss creative work, strategy and ideas. I share my own work, and work from other creatives I respect. Plus, when words fail me, there are always cat GIFs.

What other social media do you use?

I’m a fan of Instagram, although I think you have to take most “selfie” posts with a big pinch of salt. I love following designers, artists and photographers, as well as fellow copywriters and entrepreneurs I admire. It’s a personal platform for digging around behind the scenes, and getting a sense of personality personal images. It’s fascinating how people communicate their identity and values through visuals, which is why I love it. I don’t use Facebook at all, I don’t find it useful for what I do. The platform has changed, meaning that in order to get traction as a writer you either have to have a large following anyway, spend a *lot* of time developing it and constantly advertise. It’s harder to have the quick, organic conversations in the way you can on Twitter, which is why I put energy into that instead. I absolutely hate LinkedIn, I think it’s such a useless platform for creatives and original thinkers. I don’t use Snapchat either, I feel absolutely no compunction to broadcast the minutiae of my life, or watch anyone else’s. Privacy is a valuable commodity now, and I love my privacy!

Who have you met via Twitter in real life?

I’ve met tons of writers from Twitter that are now friends “in real life”. Us writers tend to be slightly hermit-like, so I see Twitter has an introvert-friendly way of socialising before and after you meet in person. In fact, I discovered a whole copywriting community through the #copywritersunite hashtag, which is only available to find through Twitter! For creatives, it’s a really invaluable source of friendly contacts who you can DM for advice and laughs. Plus, you can get a feel for people through their tweets in a way that you can’t on other social media platforms, which again is why I enjoy it so much. You can get a sense of who you’ll vibe with, and generally, it’s spot on.

I like the way you just say what youre thinking and feeling on a day to day basis, I think it shows personality and makes you approachable. What do you think your Twitter tone of voice shows about you, and what have you noticed as a result/response rate?

I think that to a point, everyone crafts an online persona for themselves, an idealised projection of their personality to show the world, much like we put on a “face” for networking events. From my perspective, I try to be entertaining, open, expert when appropriate, and above all, keep things light. The right tone for the people you really want to engage with is crucial – I use Twitter to connect with people in my industry, so swearing, joking and some occasional artsy language is fine. I’m a very down-to-earth person and I want that to come across so that people feel they can approach me. I think the human aspect of a chatty platform like Twitter is really important. It’s built for engagement – if you just blast out blog posts and never contribute to a conversation, or start one of your own, then you just come across as a bore. The more real I’ve been about myself, the better responses I get from the people I actually want to connect with. Saying that, I’m careful not to overshare, it’s still a professional platform!

Have you ever had anyone be rude to you, or cause you to block them?

Some random dude once had a go at me for using exclamation marks a lot. He told me I wasn’t a real copywriter because I punctuate excessively. I had no idea my grammar was so offensive, I apologise profusely to my followers. I don’t respond to trolls, it’s an exercise in futility. I don’t bother to mute people either, I just unfollow them if I’m not interested in what they have to say. I regularly purge my timelines of anyone whose opinion I’m no longer interested in, it’s very cathartic, I recommend it.

What are your favourite things about Twitter?

Having in-depth conversations on creative work, silly conversations with other writers, discovering new creative work or interesting twitter feeds that bring forth little nuggets of joy (Atlas Obscura, Haggard Hawks and the #folklorethursday hashtag are my current favourites)

How do you feel it’s changed/your use of it has changed over the years?

I used to use it in a much more “standard” way, ignoring peers, trying to connect with clients, blast out blog posts and look “professional”, which came across as dull as dishwater. I didn’t enjoy using it that way either, it was pointless. Ever since I started freelancing, I’ve made an effort to be more “real” and just generally chat like I do in real life. And you know what, I’ve had so much more fun, and struck up great relationships with some great people. It’s definitely worked for me.

Do you find it useful in any way for business? If so, how (any clients/new partners/etc)

I find it immensely useful for business, I get a lot of clients through Twitter, even though they’re not my “target audience”. I think that because I come across as approachable, people feel that they can send me a quick DM, ask a question about copywriting and there’s really no pressure. If I’m not the right copywriter or they don’t need it, I’ll tell them. I genuinely love hearing about what entrepreneurs are doing with their businesses and giving out advice on how words and brand can help, and clearly that comes across because I get 5-10 DMs a week about it. An approachable persona does wonders for your business, people want to feel like they’re chatting with an actual person, not a stuffy business or increasingly online, a bot. My number one piece of advice for brand social media is simple: be human!