Guest Post by Suzanne Boles: How to Use Social Media to Find Clients
Note from Jennifer: Many writers have told me that they don’t see the payoff of social media and have never found clients through it. I personally think that being active on social media is pretty much a necessity and that it can also be a great way to find new clients, if you know where to look. As soon as Suzanne told me her story, I wanted to share it with my readers to give you some ideas on how you can use social media to find clients.
If you’re a fan of Jennifer’s blog I’m sure she’s already convinced you of the merits of social media. But if you’re still on the fence I’m here to support her with my own story and nudge you with some gentle ways to slide into the world of potentially lucrative and easy – yes I did say easy – online marketing tools for your business.
My story
I recently landed an A-list client through LinkedIn by reaching out when I saw his profile at a prominent Canadian business school here in Canada, which just happened to be in the same city where I live. I sent him a message saying I was interested in learning about any freelance projects he might have, and included a link to my website and direct links to pages with my writing samples and bio.
He replied that he’d look at my links and was interested. We set up a meeting and a week later my first assignment landed in my inbox.
To Tweet or Not to Tweet
I’m also on Twitter. I can already hear some groans. But when I see a content marketing agency or publication I send them a message asking if they’re looking for writers. I’ve landed a few assignments and I’m hoping for more long-term work.
I believe the thing that deters people from getting involved with social media is the apprehension about the learning curve and preconceived notions about the extra time it would take to stay involved. To be honest I was extremely reluctant about Twitter, I mean why would I parse my eloquent writing to 140 characters? But I soon learned that’s not what it’s about.
Social media is about connections.
When I first started freelancing, over 20 years ago, we had dial-up Internet. Before that people faxed or snail-mailed work to clients and publications. Marketing was a slow process too. You could rarely find someone’s email address and many publications required queries via snail mail with SASEs (remember those?).
Today, you literally have the world at your fingertips. Look up companies on LinkedIn and connect with CEOs. You can find the editor of a publication, get their writer’s guidelines online and Tweet to ask if they’re looking for story ideas.
If you’re still skeptical here are a couple of tips to help.
1. Start with LinkedIn
This is your professional portfolio and companies throughout the world seek employees and remote writers here too. Fill out all the details on your profile. Ask clients for endorsements and post some work samples. Along with your website (you have one right?), this will ramp you up in a Google search.
LinkedIn also offers you the ability to do job searches, e.g. freelance writer, content writer, etc., and have alerts sent to your email once a week or every day. And, of course, you can reach out and contact potential clients through your connections, like I did.
2. Be Strategic
Photos of your kids and pets, or what you ate for breakfast are for Facebook friends. Posting to your professional online profile means being strategic and asking: What information will be of value to my followers? Give them value and you shine as an expert in your field.
3. Consider using a third-part app to handle social media posts
There are many out there but I use Hootsuite. The free version allows you to post across three different social media platforms simultaneously, e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn and your Facebook Business page. There’s also the Hootlet extension for Google Chrome. When you find an interesting article online, you click on the little Hootlet Owl (top right-hand corner of Chrome once you’ve installed it) and it words the entire post. You can edit and include Hastags (#) then post immediately, or let Hootlet schedule it so you get a steady stream of posts lined up for several days. The Hootsuite program offers you the ability to follow people and topics in all your social media streams. HINT: Check out YouTube videos on How to Use Hootsuite or any social media platform.
Once you land your first client using social media you’ll never look back.
Have you had some good experiences with social media or easy tips and tricks to share?
Wonderful piece, Suzanne! I’m on both LinkedIn and Twitter, and I feel like they help to increase my credibility, but I’m not sure how much business I’ve gleaned from either. Your post is the nudge I needed to take another look.
Also appreciate the mention of Hootsuite. I used to use that platform for a project I was involved in, but stepped away after the project ended. The little app that pairs with Google Chrome sounds very handy and would help to automate the process for me in such a way that I might be more prone to use it. Going to have another look at that as well.
All grist for the mill…so thank you!
I highly recommend Hootsuite as well. I resisted Twitter for YEARS and scheduling ahead of time was the trick for me getting active on it.
I agree! I joined Twitter for fun, but last year I found a client there (she tweeted that she was looking for a writer, and our interests meshed perfectly). Since then she has become a source of recurring projects, and I love working with her! Also–I have been using Buffer to handle my social media posts and so far I’m a big fan.
That’s awesome you found a client. If you would be interested in writing a guest post about it, email me at JenniferGregory@nc.rr.com. I pay $50 honorarium for guest posts.
When you say “sent a message” to potential clients on LinkedIn and Twitter, do you mean InMail and private messages? Or, how do you get around the LI requirement that you know someone in order to connect with them?
I am on both Twitter (started out for fun) and LinkedIn and although my stream of followers are increasing, I haven’t been getting any offers to write. At present, I am trying to figure out ways to get noticed.
It starts with building relationships and interacting with people. Other than LinkedIn, I think that it is rare for people to simply approach you because you are on Twitter. I got a 3K gig last year because I followed a local agency. And I had a local agency recently reach out to me because I followed them as well. I think that following and interacting with tweets from people with your target audience is the best way to get noticed. Twitter is a way to interact with people you would otherwise not have access to and build a relationship.
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