15 Ways New Freelancers Can Use Social Media to Boost Business

via freelanceswitch.com

Social media is a great way to connect with new people, including potential freelance clients. Having a presence on one of the hugely trafficked social-media platforms can also help your own freelancer website rank better in search and help you get found by prospects.

But here’s the problem: You’re not supposed to be salesy on social media. It’s supposed to be mostly a place to hang out and socialize.

As a result, it takes a little finesse to use social media for prospecting, since messages like “Got any design work for me?” tend to get you unfollowed, disconnected and/or blocked, depending on the platform.

Also, each social-media platform has its own flavor and etiquette. It’s hard to make time to figure them all out and use your time on them productively…without becoming distracted and ending up playing Mafia Wars or forwarding funny YouTube video links. But if you focus on specific marketing and network-building activities, social media can be well worth your time investment.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

How to Boost Your Facebook Traffic

via allthingsd.com

Facebook has a billion users, and there’s a million people who say they can help you reach them.

What makes Wetpaint’s pitch stand out is that the company has a public lab experiment it has built out to prove its point: It built Wetpaint.com, an entertainment news site, solely so it could show off the Facebook traffic techniques it has figured out.

Now that site — which looks a whole lot like any other site that covers pop-culture candy like “Twilight” and “Real Housewives” — has 12 million uniques, many of which CEO Ben Elowitz acquired via Facebook. And Elowitz has been able to use it to start wooing clients who want his insight.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Five Free Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal

via gizmodo.com

Your home wi-fi network can be a fickle mistress, with connectivity coming and going seemingly on a whim. But there's no need to shell out hard-earned cash for a brand new router just because you can't get online. (Besides, how would you order one?) Instead, try these five free steps to whip your wireless network into shape.

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Vintage/Retro Web Design Examples - Boost Your Inspiration

via neatdesigns.net

Compared to the rest, vintage or retro web design examples are rare these days. Minimalism seems to dictate everything in areas such as architecture, furniture, clothes and so forth...

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Tips to Improve & Boost Your Creative Process

via justcreative.com

The importance of the creative process dawned on me the other day when I was making a cup of tea. It’s been a long road on the way towards tea snobbery, but the experience has taught me that like with producing great art, producing great tea must be done with care.

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How to Boost Creativity & Innovation in 10 Minutes

via inc.com

Trying to be innovative feels, at least for most people, nearly impossible.

Don't believe me? Try it. Go ahead. Be innovative. Think of something amazingly new and different. I'll wait.

Give up? (Don't feel bad. I gave up before you did.) Most of us don't have a "creativity switch" we can turn on and off at will.

Our employees don't either. Gathering your team in a room and saying, "Okay, we really need some innovative ideas... what do you have?" never works--unless you play "Kill a Stupid Rule."

Kill a Stupid Rule is one of the tools described by Lisa Bodell, the founder and CEO of futurethink and the author of Kill the Company.

Playing Kill a Stupid Rule is not only easy, your employees will think it's a hoot. Here's how it works...

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