Freelancing involves marketing yourself a bit here and there. Some take to it quite well, and some run completely in the other direction! If you’d like to start generating a bit of interest through social media, there are a few ways to tackle it.
You don’t have to transform your online image into someone who’d be a shoo-in on The Apprentice. Here’s our guide to using social media professionally without becoming dull.
Write like a human
It’s tough to mix professional and personal seamlessly. You don’t have to alternate, or find some kind of weird, hard-to-maintain hybrid. It’s much easier to just be yourself.
Even the biggest corporations are making a big effort to sound like just one person is writing their tweets, instead of it all being mapped out and focus grouped. People respond much better to a personal interaction. They’re following you after all, so they want to hear from you.
Keep the content varied
A professional social media profile might seem like the perfect place to show off what you can do, but too much of it can push people to unfollow. Retweeting praise once or twice is fine, and updating people about what conferences you’re at is cool too, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you talk about.
It’s important to balance it with other stuff too - things you’re reading, great stuff your freelance friends are up to, and even when you’re off on holiday.
Don’t air your dirty laundry
Social media can be a place to vent, rant, and complain. Before you start laying into Hermes for throwing your delivery over a wall, think about who follows you. They probably don’t want to hear it.
Even worse is commenting on or criticising client behaviour, because it makes you look indiscreet and untrustworthy. It’s easy to type your thoughts out, post them, and not think about it, but you never know who’s going to find it...
Spread your updates out
There’s no ideal time to post, and there’s no perfect frequency. Do what feels right. Posting something really valuable once a week is better than forcing yourself to post every day but running out of ideas on Wednesday.
Remember though - posting every half an hour makes it look like you haven’t got any work to do…
Focus on what’s important to YOU
You can’t please everyone all the time. It’s exhausting to even try! This is your social media profile, so ultimately you need to be happy with what you’re posting. It needs to represent you well and fit with your personality.
If you’re interested in a topic, or you really care about something big going on in your industry, post about it! It’s okay to be honest or state your opinion. Being authentically you is the most important thing.
Your invoices can be just as slick and professional as your social media profiles. Create and send branded invoices in a flash, and send automatic reminders to get paid faster.
Do more of what you love and less of what you don’t. Get started now.
in LND