15 Ways New Freelancers Can Use Social Media to Boost Business
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.
If you think it’s all a waste of time, let me report that I’ve gotten several high-caliber clients off LinkedIn and Twitter that booked tens of thousands of dollars of work with me in the past couple of years. Full disclosure: The collection of tips below represent my personal take on what I’m seeing out there that’s really working for freelancers in social media.
Besides having social buttons on your own blog and hoping to heck someone retweets your stuff and a prospect sees it, how can social media help you find clients?
If you’ve only got a sec, the short version is: Connect with and then help others, and they will help you.
Want more? Here are 15 specific social-media marketing techniques new freelancers can use:
Blogging
1. Guest post on big blogs. This is the mother of all social-media promotion strategies. You want to appear on the most prominent, highly trafficked blogs you can.This puts you in front of millions of viewers and can get you exposure across many social-media platforms…which greatly ups your odds that a prospect might notice you.
If you follow the guidelines, you’d be surprised at the popular blogs you could guest for, even if your own blog is brand new.
If you follow the guidelines, you’d be surprised at the popular blogs you could guest for, even if your own blog is brand new. Any site that posts its guidelines is wide open.
Also, just the fact that you’ve got it together to write for a big blog — even if it was a free guest post — impresses many prospects. I know quite a few writers who get all their clients from their guest-post exposure, and for a while I got a steady stream of small-business clients from one major blog I contributed to regularly.
LinkedIn is like no other social-media channel in that it is focused on business, rather than chatting about what happened on The Walking Dead this week or whatever. You can do more proactive marketing of your freelance business here, without pissing people off, than on any other platform.
If you only get into one form of social media, make it this one. My LinkedIn tips:
2. Set it up to get found. Many quality companies use LinkedIn like the freelancer phone book, meaning they do searches within LinkedIn for services they need. That’s why Job One on here is to completely fill out your bio and stuff it with keywords.
For instance, where most people’s top bio line has one or two identifying words, my LinkedIn profile says, “Freelance writer, copywriter, journalist, blogger, and writing mentor” — all key search terms prospects can now use to find me on LI. You can also up your search juice on here by listing your skills and getting recommendations from your clients.
3. Status updates. Another thrill of LinkedIn is nobody expects you to spend hours a week on here. If you come on once a week and update your status and maybe comment in a couple groups (more on that later), you’re good.
One way I use my status to remind people I’m a freelance writer — without overtly begging for work — is to post about needs I have for sources. “Looking for a company that recently got business interruption insurance to interview for an upcoming article,” was one recent update, for instance.
You can also post about collaboration partners you’re looking for, or about finishing a recent project, or ask for help connecting with a prospect you’d like to meet. People love to help out with that last one.
4. Who’s Viewed My Profile. A cool feature of LinkedIn is that one sidebar widget shows who has been looking at your profile. If you’re on the free level some of this information is hidden, but not all. I’ve used Who’s Viewed My Profile to identify prospects I then reached out to on LinkedIn’s internal email system known as InMail, with a quick message like this:
Subject line: Were you looking for a freelance writer?
Hi — I saw you were checking out my profile. If you’re looking for a writer, I have experience in [your industry]. Happy to send you some samples or hear more about your needs.
Let me know if I can help!
[Signature]
By the way, that ‘experience’ might be that you once worked in a bank and it’s a financial-services company. You’ll be surprised how little knowledge will set you apart and make you seem like an expert to a client.
Besides InMailing people who’ve been viewing your profile, you can take InMail further:
5. Direct prospecting via InMail. If you pay for premium membership, you can send all the InMails you want monthly, even to people you aren’t connected to and who haven’t viewed your profile. This allows you to simply research companies you wish to freelance for, find likely decision-makers, and pitch them right inside LinkedIn.
LinkedIn reports InMail gets a 30 percent response rate — which in the world of direct mail is ah-mazing. There’s a novelty factor with this form of communication right now, so take advantage of it. (Even at the free level, you can send three InMails a month.)
6. Check the full-time job ads. LinkedIn’s job ads are a gold mine, because the companies have to pay to place them on the platform. That immediately qualifies this as a quality prospect group.
It often takes companies many months to replace a full-time designer, writer, or photographer. Meanwhile, they need to freelance out the work left by the departing creative person. They may well also have ongoing freelance needs — and if they like you, they’ll keep using you after that staff hire is made.
7. Job leads within groups. LinkedIn has scads of interest groups for freelancers that you can join. Some groups have job boards, and sometimes referrals will also come up in the course of a discussion. Some groups such as Writeful Share for freelance writers are entirely dedicated to sharing job leads.
I know what you’re thinking: “It’s only 140 characters! How can I possibly pitch a prospect on here?”
While it’s hard to make an elaborate pitch on Twitter, you can discover and get to know editors and marketing managers on here through keyword searches, following relevant industry hashtags, and by starting to build relationships. (If you’re looking for editors or journalists you might know who could refer you, try MuckRack.) If something develops, you can always take it further on email or the phone later to land the actual gig.
Here’s how I’ve used Twitter to connect with editors:
8. Find and follow prospects. Once you’ve found a possible client, follow them. Retweet and respond to their stuff (but not contantly or in a stalker-ish way).
Go comment on their blog, if they have one. This is step one in preparing to ask them a work-related question.
9. Ask easy questions. Once you think they may have a dim sense who you are, ask a question that is easy for them to answer, such as “Are you the right editor to pitch an X topic story for X magazine?” or “Are you the marketing manager who works with freelancers at X company?”
Twitter has a freewheeling, open-minded culture where people from all strata of success mix and mingle easily.
Twitter has a freewheeling, open-minded culture where people from all strata of success mix and mingle easily. You might get a response on here where a formal query letter or emailed letter of introduction might be ignored.
10. Find collaborators. Even better than trolling for prospects, Twitter is a great place to find partners for projects. Follow others in related niches and you might find a graphic designer for your novel, or a writer for your photographer’s website. Agree to recommend and refer each other clients, and you’ve just grown your marketing team.
Facebook is notoriously social and tough to do business on if you’re not a major corporation with a big ad budget…but there are a couple of useful ways to find clients through this platform:
11. Do prospect research. If you have a particular type of business you frequently target as a client, you can use Facebook to search for businesses of that type. Check out their Facebook presence and see if it’s looking pro. From there, take a look at their website. Spotting substandard online marketing gives you an easy angle for pitching companies that they need your services.
12. Have your own business page. Most freelancers don’t have a Facebook business page — which means you can stand out by being the only freelancer in town that has one. (For extra marketing boost, offer some authority-building free product full of links to your website to visitors who ‘like’ your page.)
For instance, I did a quick search for “Freelance graphic designer” on Facebook recently, and discovered the most popular site — the top result — has only 3,500 fans. Four of the top sites are based in Third World countries.
Put up a page in this niche and it’s going to be pretty easy to start ranking well and getting found on searches inside Facebook. And if you’re a freelancer who’d like to manage social media or create Facebook pages for clients, creating your own page is mandatory.
YouTube
YouTube is a great place to put up a visual portfolio or some short how-to videos that might help your prospects.
13. Build authority with videos. This one’s tough for writers, but if you’re a visual artist of any kind, YouTube is a great place to put up a visual portfolio or some short how-to videos that might help your prospects. Offer a few business writing or newsletter design tips, with an offer of help if they need it.
Remember, this is the third most-popular site on the Internet. It can pay to have a presence here.
Google+
14. Go friend-surfing. Giving full credit, I learned this technique for identifying prospects on Google+ from Chris Brogan. As you start adding people to your circles, you should then go check out who is in their circles.
If you find interesting prospects, start commenting on and sharing their stuff. Then if they check you out, they’ll see you have a friend in common and you’ll seem like less of a stalker. You can also identify people by topics of interest through the site Find People on Plus.
Your local social-media platform
15. Market to local prospects. All the action isn’t on the giant, brand-name social media platforms. In many cities and towns, there are exclusively local social-media platforms that are the go-to grapevine for what’s happening — and for where to shop for products and services. Since most new freelancers start with local clients, this can be a great place to get started in social media.
Maybe it’s a Yahoo! or BigTent group, or even a simple email listserv. But whatever form it takes, local chat boards are worth checking out.
On the local community chat board I belong to in my small town, it is forbidden to say anything negative about a local company on the board. No one can trash you! It’s a dream environment for freelance marketing, and there’s even a channel expressly for promoting your business — and one for patrons to rave about you.
I see freelancers of all stripes on my local list make special offers, donate their services to charities, and generally put their name around town. Winning strategies here also include offering a referral bonus. Leverage your local friends and neighbors who like you personally. They’ll probably be happy to help you out.
It takes a little sleuthing to discover your local social-media hub, but it can be well worth the time. Hint: Call your local Chamber of Commerce or ask other local solopreneurs.
Have you gotten clients on social media? Leave a comment and tell us where you’re getting results.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Bloomua.
Leave a Comment
I love using LinkedIn to connect with people. Especially as a way to find clients. There are so many great uses for it and you can really find yourself going down the rabbit hole, now by following companies and all sorts of different people. I think you have to have a strategy going in to keep it from becoming a timesuck.
Well, that’s for sure!
I do use Hoosuite sometimes, if I know I have a message I want to put out at a particular time, which helps keep me from just doodling around.
But I generally don’t spend a lot of time on — I do maybe 1 LI update a week or maybe 2, and maybe a couple FB updates on my page a day. Twitter is where I spend more time, mostly because I’m learning from thought leaders in Internet marketing and checking out useful stuff for writers there, and at this point have a lot of friends who hang out there, too. It’s my favorite place to stumble across interesting things to uplife or inform what I’m doing.
Social media is good only.
1) If you already made personal connection with people face to face.
2) If people are familiar,aware and use your product or service.
3) If your brand is popular. ex. Sony, Coke, etc…
Otherwise as stated above it will be a big time waster.
I disagree. I rarely meet new clients face to face. I connect through email, Skype and social media. It all depends on your marketing strategy and what you’re comfortable with.
I have to disagree as well — most of the connections I’ve made in social media that resulted in client work were NOT people I had previously met in person.
HOWEVER…I did later follow up and meet quite a few of those new connections at in-person events, which really helped cement those relationships.
Great article, Carol. I especially liked your tip to find and follow prospects on Twitter. If nothing else, it gets them familiar with your name, and familiarity breeds trust.
Right on, David — I can tell you I’ve ended up hiring people to guest post on my blog after seeing them retweeting my stuff a lot…just got me familiar with their name and checking out their blogs.
I really like this article..
I was an asian guy who work as freelance wordpress theme developer since two years ago. And i do social bookmaking since i start work as freelancer, it was helpfull enough for getting clients… But i also do the forum activity and blog walking with the good way..
A very informative and helpful article. Great tips on all the ways to connect with potential clients. As a freelance designer I find this very useful. Thanks!
I’ve learned that if gear your posts towards your clients and to highlight your industry you will get prospects. People want to know that you know what your doing. That you are growing. They want to see your work. They want to know that you are capable of helping them. Also, be consistent. I tend to share blog posts “Sharing Mondays”. I post articles through the week. At least 5 a day. I will through in a quote at least once a day for inspiration. My next tackle is to use You Tube and do video blogging.
Five a day – yow! Does that get you a lot of engagement and traffic? I’m hoping you’re earning a bazillion dollars if you’re posting that much. That’s a lot of work!
If it were me I’d put some of those on other people’s popular blogs to drive traffic back to my own site rather than putting them all on my own.
At one point I was doing five posts a week, and got feedback that really, it was too much. My people didn’t want to get so much email from me, every time a post went out. I’m only posting 3 times a week on my own blog…and spend the rest of the time posting other places, like, say, here.
And it works out a lot better, as new readers discover you.
Great message! I have not used LinkedIn at all really. More so with Twitter, but it looks like I need to get on track with trying it out.
I’m always sort of staggered at the many freelancers I meet who aren’t on LinkedIn. It’s been a real gold mine for me, and being on a site like that helps your own site’s search rankings, too, if you link over to it.
I know it hasn’t worked for everyone…I had Chris Brogan on my podcast a while back and he said it didn’t do a thing for him, but Google+ is working great.
If there’s one more tip, it’s this: you’ve got to experiment and find where you get clients — and where you enjoy hanging out. Everyone is unique.
Not an article with brand new knowledge. But a nice summary. In Germany we prefer Xing as business network.
I think that would be the equivalent of my local board…a country-specific board, if you’re in a smaller country than China or the USA or something. Sounds like a great place to hang out for freelancers!
Carol,
This is a wonderful list for those times when I’m ready to get out of my rut and try something new or something I haven’t done for awhile.
You say that LinkedIn claims a 30% response rate to InMail.
I tested InMail using a well-honed email to marketing communications executives in the insurance industry (a target market for me). My response rate was more like 10%, and those responses were either “no” or “maybe later.”
That’s just my experience…
-Diana
I’ve read up on most of what you’ve covered and understand why you should do the above but it does require a lot of effort. I guess it plays a big role if you aren’t very busy and you have the extra time.
Aadil
Important thing to be possessed of a freelancer is to have an open mind, and are willing to absorb a lot of information on the Internet and always learn to new things.
I think you should focus on one thing at a time. Try out one platform and see if that works for you. Remember that all this social media is a time sucker that keeps you away from your work. Also keep in mind that you have no control over Linkedin, Facebook and the like, so I’d suggest focusing on Marketing activities you have control over . Blogging and youtube are both excellent ways to promote your business whilst having control over what you display to prospective clients and what not. I would also recommend using the opportunity of publishing your own e-book or white paper. You set yourself up as an expert in your niche and you know exactly what content gets published about you.
I see where you’re coming from, but I think you’re being overly cautious.
Sure, Facebook or LinkedIn could close down your account. But they’re only likely to if you break their terms of service.
Likewise, your web host for your blog, or YouTube could close down your account. I don’t see how you have much more control over these compared to LinkedIn or Facebook.
You control what you share on Facebook and LinkedIn just as much as you control what you share on your blog or YouTube account.
Being realistic, social media isn’t a catch-all solution for finding clients. But it does help.
Writing an ebook is great advice! Facebook and LinkedIn can help you promote it
I agree with David. I don’t know anyone whose problem is getting shut off a platform — the problem is time wastage.
I’d love to know if anyone on here is getting clients through Facebook — you may notice I didn’t include any tips on them in here. That’s because I don’t know anyone who uses it as a major means of getting freelance clients. Short of doing a paid-ad strategy, I don’t see it working.
I do have a Facebook page for my blog and I think that gets it a bit of extra attention, but as far as getting freelance clients, I don’t see it as a major channel.
If you’re only going to do one platform — and I agree with starting small — my take is to make it LinkedIn. It demands little of your time and my experience is that many major companies troll LinkedIn and do searches on there for freelancers. I’ve gotten found by several Fortune 500 companies and gotten assignments through my LinkedIn profile, so to me that one is clearly well worth it!
Nathalie, I agree with you!
Facebook and LinkedIn can restrict your participation or even close your account, but they have no appeals process. You have to remember that everyone has his own criteria for what is spam and what he reports as objectionable so you can get in hot water despite the best of intentions.
-Diana
Great tips here.
For a part-time freelancer it’s difficult to keep all of these things constantly under your belt.
If I were freelancing full-time I’d jump right on this!
Thanks for the tips, a lot of people I speak to don’t really see the potential of LinkedIn. Shared!
I think LI is actually perfect for part-timers, as it doesn’t require the amount of activity most other social platforms do. And it’s also the phone book many big companies use to find freelancers. You could update your status once a week in there and seem active and engaged!
I have been doing part time freelance work for hardly over a year now, I mostly use job bidding sites, but I want to start using social media as well, and that’s how I got into this site.
I have to say, great tips! I do have a LI profile but I only update it when I get a new full time job, I sure will take your advise and do at least one update a week – also liked the top bio line tip you suggested to use keywords, I just updated my LI profile using that tip
Keep it up!