How to Use Social Media to Find Freelance Work

How to Use Social Media to Find Freelance Work How to Use Social Media to Find Freelance Work 6 When you work in an office, your workload might gradually get larger and larger. But, most likely, your salary won’t enjoy a similar uptick. On the other hand, when you’re a freelancer and you take on more work, you get paid more money. It’s really as simple as that. And since you set your own rates, so long as you can find clients to agree to them, the sky is really the limit in terms of your earning potential. Finding clients as a freelancer, however, can be quite difficult. If it were easy, logic tells us that even more folks would be trying to make it on their own. To be fair, recent research indicates that by 2020, half of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers. The good news is that there are many ways to find freelance work and meet new clients, and so if you’re willing to try to get new ones- and aren’t afraid of being rejected- there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get more work if you put in the time. You can meet new clients at conferences and trade shows. You can meet them at networking events, or you could even have one of your buddies- or other clients, for that matter- make an introduction. You can also peruse job boards and the like. And you can use social media to find freelance work, too. Here’s how: Build a professional social presence. First things first: which platforms do you think your prospective clients are most likely to be found on? If the folks in the industry you’re targeting are most likely to hang out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, by all means, target those networks first. But your Facebook page that has all those super sweet pictures of you doing keg stands in college? That’s not going to cut it. You need to build a professional page, like a complete LinkedIn profile, that gives readers a clear idea as to what your qualifications and experiences are without them having to spend more than a few minutes figuring out what you’re all about. Be sure to include the right keywords that are conducive to your industry, as well as the easiest ways to get in touch with you. That way, you increase the likelihood someone will contact you with a gig. Wouldn’t that be nice? Find others by using relevant search keywords. An easy way to figure out which organizations are looking for freelancers: do a quick search on social media sites like LinkedIn. For example, you can search phrases like “freelance writer wanted” or “freelance writers needed” to see whether it yields any results. Chances are you’ll see at least one or two businesses that are looking to hire some independent contractors. There’s no guarantee they’ll hire you, but at least you won’t have to reach out to a company in the dark in the hopes they’re looking for a freelancer. In other words, it’ll make your outreach more effective because you’ll only communicate with companies that are looking for folks like you. Promote yourself through blogs, tweets, and comments. In a perfect world, a million clients who want to pay you a billion dollars would email you every day because they stumbled across your LinkedIn profile. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out that way. Once you’ve established your professional social profiles, it’s time to start promoting yourself to find freelance work. Publish blogs on LinkedIn and promote them via your Facebook page by posting excerpts and a link. Use Twitter to tweet promotions (e.g., “Looking for a freelance writer? I’m your guy! #freelance #freelancewriting #freelancers”). Sooner or later, an interested party will find your content and engage with you. The more frequently you post, the higher your chances are for that to happen. Find more tips for freelancers here!   Readers, what have you found effective to find freelance work? Share with us below!