So you need to book more clients- fast. You worry about money and how you're going to pay your rent next month. You see all these other freelancers getting booked out for six months but not you- your inbox is quiet and depressing.
You get most of your clients through referrals from past clients or other freelancers, so you focus your efforts on trying to bring in more referrals.
That's a good place to start, but as the saying goes- you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.
A lot of the freelancers I've consulted with have groaned when I suggested they try finding clients on social media and I totally understand- you tried that, it didn't produce results, and now you don't want to waste time trying it again.
Today, I'm going to change your mind about social media marketing my friends.
Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Periscope- they are all treasure troves of potential clients. Clients are waiting there just dying for you to find them but you're either:
Not bothering to use social media to find clients.
Using social media alllll wrong. (I mean totally, completely and utterly wrong. I've seen it. It's not a pretty sight.)
Over the next month I'm going to show you how to find and book clients through social media- and trust me, it's totally doable! I've been using social media to find clients since I first started my business!
I booked my first 5 clients through Twitter.
Back in 2012, I had a boring 9-5 day job and I freelanced on the side. I eventually started earning more money through my freelance jobs than I did from my day job, so I handed in my notice and starting freelancing full-time.
How did I get my freelance income to exceed what I earned from my day job? And how did I find my first clients?
I found them through Twitter.
I decided to play around with the idea of a limited-time discount. I created a simple and affordable blog design package and sent five tweets a day promoting my special offer for a few days.
After the first couple of tweets, a few women got in touch.
Then a few more...
And a few more.
Before I knew it, I had a fully booked schedule for the next month and it was all from Twitter. I didn't even have a sales page! Just my blog to back up my expertise, my email address, a few examples of my work and my Twitter account.
Getting clients through social media is easier than you think. But if you're thinking 'you probably only booked those clients because your services were cheap back then', then think again.
In 2015, I booked 5 clients through Facebook and 3 through Pinterest.
I also had numerous people get in touch with me after watching one of my Periscope broadcasts and I had new subscribers to The Shelancers Club who found it through Instagram.
As you can see in the screenshots above, I know exactly where my clients come from because I ask on my contact form! And if they don't answer the questions on the contact form, I ask them during their free consultation.
Always ask new clients how they found you. It's the best way to find out where to focus your marketing efforts. {Tweet This}
Over the next month I'm going to show you exactly how I found and booked clients through social media, and how you can too. You'll also receive a few awesome freebies, like my free Starter Kit for Booking Clients Consistently! (Just sign up below to get it.)
But first, let's talk about the myths that are standing in your way of social domination.
There are 12 main myths I hear freelancers say all the time, and today we're going to blow them out of the water. Ready?
12 myths freelancers believe
about social media marketing
1. "Social media marketing doesn't work for freelancers."
You're only saying this because its never worked for you before, and that's probably because you aren't doing it quite right.
Here are a few examples of what I mean...
Are you one of those people that only posts in Facebook groups when you have something to sell? If so, no one will bother clicking it because everyone hates members that only ever sell!
Are you one of those freelancers that tweets her services once or twice a week? Or whenever she remembers to do it? If you are, you aren't going to attract clients-- especially if these are the only tweets you ever send.
You need to show your followers you're an expert by tweeting helpful blog posts, tweeting about your free lead magnets and tweeting about other peoples helpful content.
You also need to tweet about your services more than once or twice a week. Tweets don't have a long life before they're gone forever, so you can afford to tweet about your services or lead magnets once a day, if not a couple of times a day! You're not going to annoy your followers; they probably won't see many of your tweets!
2. "Social media marketing is only for building a community."
I've heard a few freelancers say that social media marketing only works for big-time bloggers that are building a community to sell to.
Well, that's just not true.
Even if you're a quiet freelancer that doesn't have a community, doesn't have a blog, and doesn't have any products to sell, you can still use social media to find clients.
You can search key words like 'graphic designer' or 'need a photographer' on Twitter and Facebook to find people who are who looking to hire.
You can join Facebook groups, share lots of free advice and answer questions on your topic so that you become known as an expert in that Facebook group. Then, when members of the group need to hire someone on your topic, they'll immediately think of you.
There are lots of ways that social media marketing can be used, even if you're just a quiet freelancer trying to book more clients.
You don't have to be a huge household name or an infopreneur with 20k email subscribers to utilize the power of social media for your business.
3. "Email marketing is waaaaay more effective than social media marketing."
You guys know I love my email list. They're my most loyal readers- a community of creative freelancers that I love talking to- and I always, always, always recommend other freelancers start an email list too.
But email lists don't just build themselves.
One great way to build it is through social media marketing. Use your social media channels to promote your free lead magnets!
Here's how I like to do it:
If you have multiple freebies that people can receive by opting in to your newsletter, create a landing page for each one. (You can create landing pages by using Leadpages or Convertkit, or by simply creating a page on your website that is only for you lead magnet!)
Here's an example of a landing page I created with Convertkit for my free course:
You can click here to see the live page!
When you've created landing pages for your lead magnets, schedule at least one tweet a day to them. Because tweets don't live long in someone's dash, you won't annoy your followers by doing this. (Make sure you sprinkle in tweets to other people's content too though.)
You could also post photos of your freebies to Instagram every now and then! Don't do it every day, but do it occasionally. People love seeing an image of the book/checklist/worksheet they're going to get. Opt-ins with images of the freebie beside them aaaaaalways convert better.
4. "Social media marketing takes too much time and doesn't even work. "
Social media marketing doesn't take too much time if you use a scheduling system like Cocshedule or Buffer.
I use Coschedule because I can schedule events, tasks and blog posts as well as social media posts. I can also colour code my social media posts so I know which ones are launch posts and which ones are regular posts!
Coschedule is currently $18 per month (at the time of writing this it is December 2015) and Buffer is $10, so they're not super expensive. They will save you a ton of time, so think about investing in one.
5. "My clients aren't on social media."
Most people are on social media these days, even my mom.
There are currently 1550 million Facebook users, 400 million Instagram users and 316 million Twitter users... at least some of them must be your ideal clients and customers.
A great way to find out which social media platforms to invest your time in is to survey your blog readers and ask which social site is their favorite. Even if you only have 30 subscribers, ask them!
If the majority of them hang out on Instagram the most for instance, that will prove to you that there are more potential clients, customers and readers on Instagram. You'll then know that you need to put more effort into that social channel!
6. "Social media marketing is awesome! I need to be on EVERY platform!!"
Wow, slow down my friend.
Social media is very cool, I agree. But you don't need to be on every social media channel.
Have you ever noticed that the online business owners with the biggest audiences and the most profit have one social media channel they rock way more than others?
Maya Elious is on Instagram, Twitter and more... but Periscope is where she hangs out the most, and it's where her audience hangs too.
Heather Crabtree is also on plenty of social platforms, but Facebook is her thing. It's where she grew her community and it's no doubt where most of her clients find her.
Belonging to 3-4 social media platforms is totally fine. But don't spread yourself thin. Find the platform that works best for you and own it.
7. "Pinterest is only for B2C businesses."
Pinterest is definitely great for business-to-consumer businesses, but it can also work wonders for B2B businesses! In fact, I wrote a blog post all about it a few months ago.
Pinterest can help your B2B business by sending a regular, healthy flow of traffic to your website.
How?
You have to pin your most visual content. You can pin your blog post graphics, images of your lead magnets, ebook covers and infographics.
Make sure you include a call-to-action on your pins, like a button directly on the image that says 'click through to read the blog post!'
If your blog post includes a content upgrade, include it on your graphic like the pin below!
See how Rosana has included '+ free worksheet' in her graphic? That call-to-action entices Pinterest users even more and gets them to click through to her website so they can get her worksheet.
8. "Pinterest scheduling takes too much time."
This one is just plain wrong. There are lots of Pinterest schedulers that will help you schedule hundeds of pins per day, and they're only about $10-20 per month. My favorites are Tailwind and Boardbooster.
Boardbooster allows you to loop your pins, which means it will take the oldest pins from your boards and repin them! Then, after a certain amount of time, it will delete the pin with the least repins and keep the one with the most.
How cool is that?!
Boardbooster also allows you to schedule new pins, but the looping feature is a brilliant way to ensure you're pinning 50+ images a day without spending much time on Pinterest at all.
If you want to learn more about how to use Boardbooster and market your business on Pinterest, check out my friend Melyssa's course, Pinfinite Growth!
9. "I shouldn't get personal on social media."
There's nothing wrong with getting personal on social media-- in moderation.
Getting personal humanizes your brand and ensures your audience sees who you really are and forms an emotional connection with you.
Your potential clients don't want to hire a robot, so get a little personal sometimes! Show them you're a mother or a wife. Show them you like to go for walk when you're not shooting weddings. Show them you're a huge Star Trek fan and you don't just work on people's websites all day.
Take a little peek at my Instagram below. I post blog posts and images of what I'm working on behind-the-scenes but I also post the occasional personal photo!
When you show your human side, your potential clients will connect with you. And 99% of the time, clients hire the person they feel is the most human and the most real. Make that you. Just don't go overboard. Posting baby or dog photos all the time will not interest your clients, trust me!
10. "Social media marketing is only for young people."
This myth makes me a little sad because it's SO not true!
I've had many clients over the age of 40 and they thoroughly enjoy social media. My mom is entering her fifties now and she loves Instagram and Pinterest!
If your ideal clients are middle-aged, that doesn't mean they're not hanging out on social media.
65% of internet users over 65 now use Facebook, and 27% of Pinterest users are between the age of 50-64! Doesn't that prove that social media marketing isn't only effective if you're targeting young people?
11. "Live streaming is for coaches and infopreneurs."
Live streaming is definitely effective for coaches and infopreneurs, but it's also effective for freelancers.
After I streamed about 5 essential features your website is probably missing, I had a woman email me and inquire about my services! And where did she say she found me? You guessed it. My live stream.
Live streaming is a great way to show your expertise and give people a chance to get to know you before investing in your services.
You don't have to be a speaker or a coach to use it! Just hop on a live stream and talk about your freelance topic.
If you're a photographer, tell us the best angles to take selfies.
If you're a freelance designer, tell us about the 5 biggest logo mistakes you see online business owners making.
Live streaming humanizes your business. Give it a try! You never know- it could be the platform that becomes your biggest source of clients.
If you want to catch my live streams, head over to my Facebook page and like + follow! You'll then be notified every time I'm live.
12. I can't find clients through social media, I just find blog readers.
A lot of freelancers believe that websites like Pinterest only drive blog readers to their website, not clients.
What you have to remember is that your clients will enter your funnel before actually becoming paying clients. When they enter your funnel through Pinterest, they start with the free content on your blog.
The next stage in your funnel should be getting them to sign up to your email list and buy your most affordable products (like templates, graphics, logo designs or ebooks.) Then some of the people who entered your funnel will hire you and become your client.
Most first-time visitors don't become clients right away, so don't write off social platforms that bring in lots of blog readers. My favorite client of 2015 found my through Pinterest, so I know it works!
There's one thing I want you to take away from this blog post today:
It doesn't matter if other freelancers aren't doing it. Be different. Try different things.
Being the same as everyone else is no fun, and that applies to looking for clients in the exact same places as your competitors. What's the point in that?
Take a look at your industry and see where people find most of their clients, then analyze whether or not there are places you could find clients that other freelancers aren't looking in.
Step out of your comfort zone and look somewhere else. You could end up finding a treasure trove of untapped clients!
I hope you've enjoyed today's blog post and I really hope its shown you that social media marketing can work for freelancers.
Leave me a comment and let me know which social media platform you think your clients hang out on the most and how you're going to interact with them more! Cam't wait to hear from you. :)
