When it comes to finding good remote projects, UpWork, Freelancer, Fiverr, and other similar man-in-the-middle marketplaces are not the only players on the block. The truth is that good remote freelance projects are posted all over the internet in places like Slack Groups, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Groups, community sites like Hacker News, multiple job boards, Reddit, and forums.
In this post, I’m going to show you the tips and tricks that I used to find and land remote freelance projects on Twitter.
There are dozens of tweets every single day on Twitter looking for freelancers to work on a project. Twitter is a goldmine for finding freelance projects. You just have to know what to search for and how to reach out to clients.
1) Search the right keywords to avoid the noise.
Twitter is a free-for-all platform that is used both by people and bots so there can be a lot of noise. But, if you use the right keywords you can avoid most of it.
First, go to Twitter Search and search for Looking for freelance.
A good search term that avoids bots
This keyword works because it has “Looking for” in it which is very conversational. You won’t see many bots using that in their tweets so you mostly get tweets posted by people looking for freelancers instead of bots reposting jobs from UpWork.
Here are some variations on that search term that you can try out if the first doesn’t have anything:
Looking for JavaScriptNeed Web DesignLooking for ReactNeed FreelanceLooking for remote
2) Respect the client’s time. Do your research before tweeting back.
One of the biggest reasons a client might be posting on Twitter is because they need someone right away. Tweets don’t usually have a lot of context so do your research when you can. Clients really appreciate when you reach out and you already know a bit about them and their project.
Click through to their profile and check if there’s a website out they link out to. The goal here is to find a bit more context for why you’re applying and also to look for an email address.
3) Find the client’s email address if it’s available and send an email.
Finding clients and landing projects through Twitter works best when you can click through to the client’s website and find an email address. That’s because an email cover letter comes across as more professional and it allows you to present your work in more than 140 characters.
Click here to learn more about how to write email cover letters that win you remote freelance clients.
An article up on the RemoteLeads Blog
4) Send a DM instead if the email isn’t available. Leave your DMs open too.
A direct message works second best if the client’s email isn’t easily found. Keep the DM shorter than an email, but write it with the same professional style as you would an email cover letter instead of the conversational style of a normal tweet.
Also, make sure you leave your DMs open because many clients will reach out to you through there as well.
5) Leave a value-packed reply with a way for the client to reach back out.
If you’re able to send an email or a DM that’s the best. Either way, I find that it’s always best to leave a short reply to the original tweet.
Here’s how NOT to respond
These types of casual responses show the client that you didn’t do any research at all. You just replied back hoping the client would do the work for you. It’s your job to do the research on the client, not the other way around.
In the case where you can’t send an email or a DM then leave a short reply explaining why you’re a good fit.
How to reply
Asking 1–2 questions about the client’s needs and project right in the tweet works really well.
If you keep it short and sweet adding your portfolio right in the tweet can work as well.
6) Make sure your bio clearly describes what you do.
You see a lot of bios on Twitter like Dad first, Coffee Drinker, and Music Enthusiast. That’s all good, but the client doesn’t care that you drink coffee unless you’re drinking it to focus on their project.
When you’re looking for a freelance project try temporarily switching your biography over to something that the client can read in 3 seconds to understand what you do.
Here’s the line that I used that worked really well for me:
Remote Front-End Web Developer. Active collaboration with the rest of your team to implement battle-tested UIs that meet your project’s specific needs.
You have to switch contexts from seeing Twitter as just a place to connect with people casually to seeing it as a professional platform to connect with potential clients.
7) Post a link to your portfolio in your bio.
When the client clicks over to your Twitter profile the first available link for them to see the bio link. Make sure that link is a link to your portfolio, GitHub, CodePen, or somewhere they can see your work.
8) Make sure your pinned tweet is a link to your best case study.
The very next thing that the client sees when they first go to your profile is your pinned tweet.
This is the perfect place to showcase something that you want the client to see specifically about your work. I would put a case study, a blog post that you wrote, a link to a specific GitHub repository that you wrote, or a CodePen project that you made.
Write a sentence or two with what you accomplished along with a link to the project. It looks professional when the link has proper meta tags so that the website’s description and images show up.
9) It’s a numbers game
You won’t get every client that you contact. Many people won’t even respond to you. That’s a part of the process. Ultimately, it’s all about how many people you reach out to on a consistent basis.
Twitter is an open platform so you’ll also get a lot of people responding to the same lead you respond to, but if you follow the tips laid out above you can stand out from 95% of the people who reply with your professionalism.
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Twitter can be a goldmine for finding remote freelance projects.
All it takes is searching for them and then reaching out to clients in the right way.
It really helps to see Twitter like it’s LinkedIn while you’re searching for projects. All of the advice of presenting yourself professionally doesn’t get thrown out the window just because it’s Twitter. Having a good bio, your portfolio link in the bio, a good pinned tweet, and sending good emails go a long way to helping you land more projects.
Thank you for reading and good luck on landing your next project!