Over the last few weeks, I wrote about 12 myths freelancers believe about social media marketing and why it probably hasn't worked for you yet.
(I also made this FREE and mega-actionable Find More Clients course. Click here to sign up and start today!)
Today, I'm rolling with that theme. But instead of talking about myths or things that have stood in your way of social marketing domination, I want to give you concrete actions you can take to find clients on social media and keep your business ticking.
27 actions to be exact.
It's all fun and nice talking about getting clients through social media, but I want to show you it can be done and I want to share how you can do it.
This article is for the freelancers that think social media marketing is only beneficial for product-sellers.
It's for the people who like the idea of social media marketing but have never actually implemented it.
It's for you-- the freelancer who wants to find clients, get booked out and sleep peacefully, knowing all the bills are safely paid for the next six months.
Don't think that could ever happen to you?
It happened to me! I'm fully booked for six months thanks to social media. I went from having zero clients in November 2015 (thanks to travelling and neglecting all ideas of marketing. Oopsy!), to kicking my butt into gear and getting booked out 'til June.
It's doable if you stop thinking of marketing as a boring, stressful task and start thinking of it as fun.
Just look at where one of my clients found me:
If you want to give social media marketing a try yourself, read on!
27 Ways To Get Clients From Social Media
1. Search for potential clients who are in need of your services by using the search bar.
2. Reach out to three new potential clients every week and start building a relationship with them.
3. Reach out to three of your competitors every week, tell them why you admire something they're doing and start a real friendship.
4. When you've formed real connections with people, drop them an email and ask them if they fancy hopping on Skype for a coffee date with you!
5. Join in Twitter chats like #createlounge, get to know others in the chat and show them your amazing knowledge! Twitter chats aren't just about learning from others, they're about meeting new people with new skills.
6. You can use Twitter to not only get clients, but keep them. When you and your clients have finished working together, tweet about their content every now and then and share it with your followers. A little support goes a long way.
7. Don't ignore people who share your work and ask you questions. Twitter is all about interaction, so interact! Acknowledge people. Show them you appreciate them. You'd be surprised how many of your clients start out as followers and hire you later down the line because they trust you.
8. Join Facebook groups filled with your potential clients. And here's the trick: don't join dozens of groups. Join a maximum of three. It is faaaar more beneficial to participate daily in fewer groups than to participate every now and then in lots of groups. You want group members to remember you as the go-to expert of your niche, and they're not going to if you rarely show up.
9. Join Facebook groups filled with your competitors. It's all about community over competition! Your competitors need to refer work to others sometimes, and they're not going to refer it to you if they don't know you. (Plus: it's nice to talk to others who understand the business you run and go through the same trials.)
10. Provide plenty of free advice. Don't horde your expertise, it's unkind. Sharing what you know in Facebook groups will position you as an expert and make you to no.1 freelancer the other members think of when they need to hire someone with your skills. Plus: sharing your knowledge helps ones in the group who can't afford to hire you!
11. Go above and beyond to help people. Don't just answer someone's question in a Facebook group. Direct message them, Skype them and start a deeper conversation.
12. Start your own Facebook group. Facebook groups are often filled with potential clients and customers who can't wait to buy from you or work with you.
13. Start a Facebook ad campaign. Think Facebook ads are just for product-sellers? Think again my friend. You can advertise your services and, more importantly, the benefits of your services! And here's the beautiful thing: most freelancers don't use Facebook ads to promote their services. If you can crack this method of marketing, you'll be able to tap into a goldmine of clients that your competitors have not.
14. Host a Facebook group party. Collaborate with some friends who have a similar size audience to you. Create a Facebook group, make sure you all promote it to your audiences, and post videos every day for a week about your expert topics. This is a super fun (and free!) way of growing your audience, showing your knowledge and getting in front of new potential clients.
15. Join group boards and pin your blog graphics. Make sure all your pins lead to a blog post that shows you know your stuff and links to your services page.
16. Grow your following. Obviously, the bigger your following gets the more potential clients are in there!
17. Be laser-clear in your Pinterest bio about what you do and who you work with. Don't link to your standard URL (www.yourdomain.com), link to your services page.
18. Try promoted pins. They're only available to US businesses right now but they're a great way to get your pins in front of more people, and therefore get more people to your website.
19. Brand your pins and make them look gorgeous, especially if you're a designer. The design of your pin may be the thing that pushes a potential client to click through to your site.
• Live Video Streaming
20. Live stream with your clients. Live case studies show potential clients how much your clients adore you, and how awesome you'd be to work with!
21. Do Q&A live streams with your audience so they can get their personal questions answered before hiring you.
22. Share trackable URL's in your live broadcasts. (You can do this by using a Bit.ly link and using the bitly dashboard to track how many people are coming to your site from your live broadcasts.)
23. Stream every day or every week about the thing you want to be known for. If you stream about it often enough, you'll start getting a reputation for being the go-to person in your niche!
24. Scope about questions your clients usually ask.
25. Scope about struggles your clients go through before working with you.
26. If you've really pleased your clients, ask them if they wouldn't mind recording a video testimonial. Then play it in one of your live streams and walk people through the work you did for them.
27. Add a link to your service/product in your bio and tell people that if they purchase/book your service during your stream they will receive a discount or special bonus.
OK, that was intense...
I know that was a lot of information to handle, but these are just a FEW ways you can promote your services on social media.
If you want me to go a lot deeper into these strategies (and more) then read on because I have something special for you. (Exciting!!)
When I got booked out back in November, it was thanks to social media marketing. I tried quite a few of these strategies and realized they were no fluke. I had put real effort into social media marketing, half expecting it to fail, but it didn't. It worked!
I booked clients from Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook and I got inquiries from Periscope even though I'd done less than ten live streams.
I looked back over the four years I've been in business and realized that even my first few clients were from social media!
I don't want to keep my strategies and wins to myself. I want other freelancers to benefit from them too.
I want new freelancers to start their business feeling fully equipped to find and book clients.
I want freelancers going through a slow stage to come out of it and experience the delight of getting booked out.
I want freelancers to stop 'winging it' and actually put some effort into marketing because it really, truly works!
You can't build something and expect clients to come. You have to go out there and find them. {click to tweet}
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