Natalia M. Sylvester

Here’s a great, quick exercise in evaluating your marketing efforts to make sure they’re paying off. At a networking event I recently attended, Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting asked everyone to write down their Top 5 Clients. Then write down how you got those clients.

Was it through a networking event? A simple Google search leading to your website? Maybe it was through social media or a client referral? Chances are, it’s a mixture of all these things, but if there’s a pattern, that’s something to think about.

For me, two of my biggest clients I met at networking events, two I got through word of mouth, and another I got through my Freelance Marketplace listing on Mediabistro.

Which reinforces two things: networking pays off, and so does nurturing the business relationships you’ve already got. Now I know that when it’s time to ramp up my marketing efforts (and when isn’t it?), I can focus on the things that have worked best for me.

It’s not a bad idea to do this exercise every couple of months, to stay on top of what strategy is most effective, and let go of ones that just aren’t working. You might be surprised what you learn.

You knew this was coming. Everyone’s talking about it. Local news stations have an account. Your kids’ PTA has one. Most of the blogs you follow have one. Heck, even your dry cleaner has one.

So what can you really get out of Twitter other than updates on your friends’ lunches and the whereabouts of your coworkers on their off days?

Short, insightful glimpses into the lives of people that matter to you.

Now, let’s not get personal. I’m not talking about a best friend or a grandchild. I’m talking about people that matter to your goals. I was just as hesitant to join Twitter as the next guy until I realized how many literary agents tweet little nuggets of information to whomever is willing to listen in. The result is that I’ve learned more about publishing from Twitter than I would have from any book. Getting the information in such concise spurts (and from so many different perspectives) leaves no room for jargon or overwhelming confusion. The point is…people get to the point.

The hardest thing about joining Twitter is figuring out who to follow (follow me!). Shameless plug aside, if you have a book in the works and you’d like to learn a thing or two about publishing, here are my recommendations for some of the most informative literary agents you’ll find on Twitter (shall we call them Twiterary agents? Sound too creepy? Yeah, I thought so, too). Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll keep this short because it’s Friday and I like to start winding down on Friday. What I mean by this is that I set aside Fridays to do work that doesn’t feel as much like work.

Today, for example, I have a networking lunch, which is nice because I’ve noticed that people are usually a little more relaxed and social with the weekend approaching. Networking has become a huge part of my work, but it doesn’t feel like work at all. I get out of the house, meet some great people and get my name out there so that I’m not working in a vacuum (which, admittedly, I did do for a while when I first started freelancing, when my shyness just got the better  of me).

Other things I set aside for Fridays are small things that just have to be done, like if I need to update my profile on LinkedIn, upload a new picture onto Gravatar (which is the plan for next Friday, since I’m waiting on my pictures) or tweak my resume to reflect my latest work. I brainstorm ideas for new work. I let my curiosity loose and indulge in some aimless web surfing for an hour or so to see where it takes me. And I read. A lot. I read blogs and websites I’ve been meaning to read all week, I read magazines that have arrived in my mailbox and books that are just so well-written they make me want to write. I love that reading is such an important part of my job.

What about you?  Do you wind down on Fridays?