Having recently joined the Twitter community a few months ago, I have quickly found out the benefits I get from the Twitterverse: Graphic design tips and advice, questions answered, information about new websites and blogs, free publicity, great conversations — the list goes on.
If you just joined Twitter or still thinking about it (sign up here), one of the first questions I remember asking myself was “how do I meet friends that share my interest in graphic design, website development and blogging?”
Below are four steps to befriend other graphic artists, developers and bloggers and grow your social community on Twitter. And don’t forget to follow me, I always try to be helpful.
Follow Lists
- JustTweetIt: A Graphic Designers Directory
- One Uber Twitter Follow List for Creatives & Geeks
- Designers to Follow on Twitter
- 50+ Designers to Follow on Twitter
- Top 8 Friendly Designers to Follow on Twitter
- 100 Web Designers to Follow on Twitter
- 10 Designers you Gotta Follow — also from JustTweetIt
- Social Media Directory for Designers
You can also check out 26 Twitter Graphic Designer’s business cards. See if their skills are worthy enough before following them.
Web Apps
- Twubble: searches your friends graph and picks out people who you may like to follow
- Twits Like Me: finds others that share your same interests through your tweets
- TwitDir(ectory): It’s like Google for finding Twitterers with similar interests
Blogging
While recently asking to my fellow Twitterer’s if they would be interested in submitting their business cards for an upcoming post and after publishing the article (with links to mine and their accounts) my followers increased over 100 people overnight. Here’s why:
Through the power of the almighty Retweet making it possible for their followers to find me, submit their business cards and befriend me, and through the popularity the article received once published, I was able to reach out to new great friends and help them discover me.
It also helps to have a Twitter icon somewhere on your blog as well. Don’t miss out on my upcoming Twitter submission post to submit your BEST Printed Design Projects. If interested, please email me at brihoff@mac.com with an image of the project and a few sentences regarding the creative process or inspiration for the piece.
When all else fails… Steal friends
Worse comes to worst you can always steal The Top 10′s friends. Pick through their thousands of followers and start following them — pretty sure they have plenty of great people to follow and hopefully they will follow you back.
Great roundup of lists Thanks for including mine!
styletime´s latest post..Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now!
I am friendly why can’t I get followed? Hahaha nice post Behoff.
http://www.twitter.com/chadengle
Lot of people there to follow. I’m going to blow out my Twitter account using your advice. Thanks for putting it all together though!
Josh McGlinn | MCG Studio´s latest post..Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now!
I have to say, I joined the Twitter community though people constantly going on about it, none of my friends at home in the UK I know use it – I think it was mainly down to Bittbox’s Jay Hilgert promoting it that made me have a go…
Its lots of fun I must admit :)
Rob´s latest post..Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now!
If only I could have as many friends in real life, in the physical going out for beer sense!
There is a very strong community vibe within the design community which in most cases is just awesome. It’s great to be a part of, to get involved and participate in.
There will ALWAYS be new Twitter folk looking for people to follow, so these lists will be around for a long time im sure, and will just get bigger and bigger.
Im astonished at how so many ‘designers’ don’t have a clue about the online world of design, and Twitter is a word they have heard of but never really thought much to look into. Which is fine, it’s not for everyone, but I feel that at some point, if you are not part of it, you will be left behind.
Thanks for including my Uber lists… :)
Graham
ImJustCreative´s latest post..Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now!
I think Twitter is like the first time I tried beer (somewhere around jr.high): I didn’t get it, didn’t taste good, and thought other people were weird for doing it.
After a few tries, I’m hooked. Good stuff on there to find. Amazing how people can be so open to complete strangers ;)
Alma Gray´s latest post..Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now!
Graham,
I couldn’t agree with you anymore. Being a newer Twitterer myself, I couldn’t believe how fast I found the Design Twitter Community to be of outstanding benefit in more ways that I could have imagined.
Alma,
Love the analogy…and love beer too! :)
Hey Brian: was trying to sleep on this hot humid San Francisco nite and wondering what the real quality of time I spend online was about..really. Could not sleep and reached for my laptop and my browser settings open to three pages including twitter. [i twhirl too]. Someone posted several links about twittering and here I am with my community contribution as a amateur image and graphics designer marketing my zazzle creations. I have used effectively http://search.twitter.com for weeks now to grow my connections to zazzlers. Now if I could only find shoppers, too. :) thanks for a great read. twitter: tikitoons
Wesley,
Glad to have have you aboard on the “follower” train :)
Twitter is a good customer service and network building community.
I’ve found the support and banter great on twitter and thats not just UK based I’m talking worldwide!!! I’ve always found the thought of a virtual community strange in the past, but when they help you out you realise they’re not virtual at all, they’re bloody helpful and on your side.
http://twitter.com/r27
[...] Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now! | The Design Cubicle Some good people to follow on twitter (tags: design blog twitter lists tweetmarks friends social-networking) [...]
Thanks so much for adding the Social Media Directory for Designers. I have lots of plans for the site that will be coming soon!
Twitter was an essential tool in the growth of my our blog and freelance business.
Thank you for adding Just Tweet It to your list!! :)
These lists are really great to help get the creative community talking to each other :)
http://twitter.com/creativeworld
[...] brought to my attention by Jeff Fisher via a tweet, the Design Cubicle and I were lucky enough to be included among the winter 2008 UCDA Designer [...]
[...] After discovering other designer’s to follow on Twitter, I was not only able to find other talented designers to chat with, share information, and help out, but by making friends and the power of the retweet, TDC was able to gain exposure, readers and participants. [...]
[...] Good (Twitter) Friends are hard to find…Until now! (tags: twitter socialnetworking) [...]
Follow Maggie on Twitter? It really is pretty funny…
I’m an almost new twitter user.. Always glad to find posts like this :)
Just one thing was hard for me as I started Twittering: can’t find the time to read all the amazing links I find :D
This is a great list!
I think you pretty much covered everything.
http://www.twitter.com/jianart
Add me: http://ww.twitter.com/razviti
[...] Find more Tweetin’ designers to follow here. [...]
[...] Find more Tweetin’ designers to follow here. [...]
Nice post.
btw follow me: http://twitter.com/xyxjasilixyx
Thanks so much for adding the Social Media Directory for Designers. I have lots of plans for the site that will be coming soon!
Twitter was an essential tool in the growth of my our blog and freelance business.
Twitter took off like a rocket, but slowed down quite a bit – for me anyway. with one account been closed and another been unaccessible, but still active… i have kind of lost faith in twitter all together.