I’ve been thinking about talking about this for a while. It’s not a big deal as such but I think its one of the factors why there is at times a few bad things said about people.
Communication.
Is it me or are people just really bad at it? Twitter, emails, you name it. People seem to not bother anymore.
I follow a fair few people on twitter and a fair few follow me. One thing I’ve always tried to do is reply to anybody who gets in touch. I genuinely feel bad if I miss someone. I don’t ignore people intentionally, my door is always open as they say.
I’ve contacted a load of people in the past and got nothing back. Some were about work, some were answers to questions, some were questions themselves. Maybe they didn’t get my email? Maybe they were not online and missed the tweet?
Who knows.
I sent a load of emails out earlier this month to agencies in my local area. In all about 15 emails went out introducing myself, what I do and seeing if they worked with freelancers. 1 got back to me.
I’ve read over and over what I put and what I wrote was polite, straight to the point and they had enough evidence of what I could do so I know I wasn’t offensive or cocky or didn’t give them enough detail.
I found the same last year too when I was looking for a job. Hardly anyone got back to me. Not even a thanks for your email, we dont have anything / we will keep your files on record.
It wasn’t just email. Twitter users are just as bad. For some companies, they are selling Social media as a service yet their own social media awareness is shocking. Some asking if freelancers are available and not even responding to your tweet. Even down to tweets congratulating someone or asking a question about something that person is doing.
I hate moaning would you believe. I’d rather we all got on with our lives and did what we are paid for, but at times things happen that shouldn’t. Twitter is a great platform for keeping in touch, engaging with people, and the majority of people I engage with are fantastic people yet I see some that clearly want to self promote and not engage, many only engaging with their innercircle.
Maybe if we eradicate some of the above, there will be less bitterness in the industry.