Table of Contents
● Defining the Freelance Social Media Manager
● 9 Skills Every Freelance Social Media Specialist Must Have
● 20 Reasons to Hire a Freelance Social Media Manager
E-commerce today is super-specialized and extremely competitive, with businesses looking to take every dollar further.
As a result, online marketing now focuses more on social media than ever. But with multiple marketing channels and multipronged business efforts, businesses can’t devote time and resources to social media
As the clock ticks, social media is gaining importance in digital marketing. A new kind of professional has emerged to enable businesses to excel on social media while focusing on their strengths.
Enter the freelance social media manager.
Defining the Freelance Social Media Manager
A freelance social media manager is a freelancer. And they are social media managers.
As freelancers,
● They aren’t attached to one firm.
● They may have a handful of clients.
● Freelancers earn money on a per-job or per-hour basis.
● They aren’t full-time employees.
● Freelancers are called self-employed professionals.
● They usually work as independent contractors.
As social media managers, professionals manage the firm’s online social presence. They wear many hats, including content production, strategy creation, and data analysis (freelance social media analysts).
If you want to hire a freelance social media manager, check for these skills.
9 Skills Every Freelance Social Media Specialist Must Have
A freelance social media manager is also a freelance social media specialist. They have special knowledge and aptitude for social media. Here’s a checklist to tick off before you hire a freelance social media manager.
1. Writing
A freelance social media manager’s most important skill is writing. Communication through the written word is the most powerful medium. Video is catching up fast, though. A great freelance social media manager can speak in alignment with the brand’s voice. Their copy grabs attention, and their captions go viral. If you want to hire a freelance social media manager, writing is the first skill to look for.
2. Communication
Communication is the next skill. Social media, at its heart, is a means of two-way communication. As communication specialists, freelance social media managers should be able to attune their dialogue to every social media. They need to communicate to stakeholders in their voice and the brand voice.
3. Organizational skills
Organizational skills are the next valuable skill in a freelance social media specialist’s arsenal. These specialists conceptualize and execute campaigns from start to finish. They need to evolve policies and processes to do the job on time. A social media calendar is a great way to organize. If you are looking to hire a freelance social media manager, the third skill to check is organizational skills.
4. Creativity
Creativity is an important weapon in a freelance social media specialist’s arsenal. How do you stand out in a world drowning in social media content? Creativity is the USP of a brand. A freelance social media manager needs to create buzz-worthy content. If you want to hire a social media manager, the next skill to consider is creativity.
5. Customer care
The ability to be a customer care specialist is another attribute required in a freelance social media specialist. The latest Sprout Social Index says that 33% of consumers are likely to reach out on social media when they have a customer service issue. The idea here is not just to serve but to delight. If you want to hire a freelance social media manager, customer service aptitude is an ability to watch out for.
6. Marketing
Digital and traditional marketing skills are essential in a freelance social media specialist. The social strategy needs to be connected to larger business goals. This requires an understanding of traditional and digital marketing approaches. It also requires a seamless application of these. If you are looking to hire a freelance social media manager, marketing skills are a prerequisite.
7. Agility
Agility — a lean, mean mindset is the following prerequisite of a freelance social media specialist. Does the professional react fast? Do they adapt to a changing marketing landscape with skill and speed? Are they effectively tactical within the overall strategy?
8. Connections
The ability to make connections is one of the most important skills of a freelance social media specialist. Making social connections is essential. This is because customers are more likely to pay for brands they feel connected to. If you are looking to hire a freelance social media manager, look for their ability to make connections.
9. Data analysis
Data analysis is another vital skill in a freelance social media specialist’s arsenal. Looking at data and converting it into an actionable resource is an essential skill for them to have. Social listening is growing in importance. Mining qualitative and quantitative data for insights is important for social marketing success. If you are looking to hire a freelance social media manager, check their data analysis skills.
Once you know the skills required in a freelance social media manager, you know who you are looking for. But the question that begs to be asked is, “Why are you looking for them?”
20 Reasons to Hire a Freelance Social Media Manager
Hiring a freelance social media manager can have an extremely positive impact on your business. Here’s how.
1. Prioritizing social media
For some business owners, it is challenging to prioritize social media marketing. When you hire a great freelance social media manager, you can be sure that they put your social media marketing first. It’s their job, after all. They carefully plan your content and align this with your business goals.
2. Strategy formulation
An excellent freelance social media manager is adept at strategy formulation. They answer extremely important questions. What kind of posts attracts the most customers? Which platforms should you use? Which data insights should one look at? They then collate the answers to these questions into a powerful social media strategy.
3. A fresh mindset
Freelance social media specialists are at the top of the social media game. They are in touch with the best social media management tools. The captions they produce drive higher engagement than the average Joe can do. They attract more followers and output actionable content.
4. Raising brand awareness
Great freelance social media managers grow your brand awareness. But they go beyond just that. They attract new followers and create a loyal “tribe” of engaged customers.
5. Quick responses
Customers want quick responses to their queries. If they don’t get timely answers, they may get frustrated and look to buy from your competitors. A freelance social media manager responds to questions quickly and stops customers from shopping elsewhere.
6. Defeat the competition
Freelance social media specialists use tools like SpyFu to keep an eye on the competition. They use these insights to create remarkably effective social media tactics that keep you on top of the game. By keeping eyes on the top minds in the industry, they grow your business strategically and tactically.
7. Engaging with followers
Your business needs to be known, liked, and trusted. This is done by building social engagement. How many likes, shares, and comments does your post have? Have any of your posts gone viral in the last few months? It is the job of a freelance social media manager to grow engagement and keep your brand voice at instant recall in the customer’s mind.
8. Delivering a great customer experience
Customers can tell all their friends about your business. Or they can leave a negative review. Delivering a superb customer experience is a necessity today. And you don’t want to leave this to an inexperienced junior. A great freelance social media manager can talk to customers in real-time, resolve their queries, and leave them delighted.
9. Amplifying influencers
Great freelance social media specialists can identify and connect with key influencers. They then work with these influencers to grow the brand’s trust and recall. Freelance social media managers amplify the power of influencers for their brand by working with them strategically.
10. Growing PR
A freelance social media manager can increase your PR exponentially. Social media is full of PR opportunities. An excellent freelance social media specialist can identify and work on those opportunities. In this way, they expand the reach of your business and deliver a very high ROI.
11. Release time for key business processes
Since you have hired a specialist for social media marketing, your time is freed up for key business processes. With your freelance social media manager at work on your social media marketing, you can relax and focus on the business areas you do best.
12. Stay a step ahead
Since freelance social media managers are specialists in their field, they are a step ahead of the competition. They put in time for research and creativity and work with the best tools in the market to keep you ahead of the game.
13. The power of rationality
Freelance social media managers are more likely to look at your social media marketing with a rational eye. They can make sound decisions that will ultimately benefit your brand. For example, they may respond better to snide comments and trolls than the business owner.
14. Let you do what you love.
Often, businesspersons don’t love social media. They might prefer to spend their time working on advertisements for their businesses. This is where freelance social media specialists work great. They give you the time to focus on business processes that you love and excel at.
15. Money
Often, social media managers can save you money. They know the best, most effective tools for various processes. They can harness various areas of social media marketing in synchronicity to deliver you a high ROI. In simple words, they can save you a lot of money!
16. Lean and mean
Freelance social media managers aren’t big agencies. They don’t work traditional hours. They are very invested in your success. You aren’t lost in a sea of clients. As a client, you are critical to the professional. This counts for a lot.
17. Expertise
We go to the barber for a haircut. We send a car to the mechanics for servicing. Why? The answer is expertise. Social media is no different. We need to outsource our social media management to the experts.
18. Work great in crises.
Sometimes having a freelance social media manager is a boon in a crisis. They can turn social media disasters into victory.
19. It’s good for the planet, really.
Hiring a freelance social media manager works great for the planet. The absence of a commute saves cumulatively a lot of gas every day. It adds up.
20. Multiplicative effect
When you hire a freelance social media manager, you often tap into the power of their communities. It’s like you are hiring more than one person.
Here, a subset of the freelance social media manager work profile is worth mentioning: the freelance social media analyst. Freelance social media analysts specialize in analyzing social media data. Due to the proliferation of social media, there are endless reams of social data to use. Not all businesses use it to gain market insights. You could set yourself apart from the pack by hiring a freelance social media analyst. These individuals harness and apply social data to marketing strategies.
The Final Word
Being a freelance social media manager requires individuals to be copywriters, customer service reps, analysts, strategists, and designers. Not everyone can be so varied in their profession.
Freelance social media specialists have a variety of hard and soft skills. When you hire a freelance social media manager, you hire a set of skills specific to social media management.
Such specialized skills at very reasonable costs lead to a high ROI. This is something all businesses seek. In three words, you should hire a freelance social media manager because it makes sense.
Key Takeaways
● Some business processes like social media management should be outsourced to achieve higher ROI.
● Hiring a freelancer to manage social media comes with intrinsic benefits. These include specialist knowledge and pay per hour/project.
● When you hire a freelance social media manager, it takes away much of the stress of social media management. In addition, it also frees up your time to perform the business processes you excel at.
● The digital marketing world is entering an era of super-specialization. The freelance social media manager job profile is an outcome of that.
● Being a freelance social media manager requires a set of specialist skills. Hiring a freelance social media manager lets the specialist do social media management. This leads to better business outcomes.
● Another byproduct of hiring a freelance social media manager is flexibility.
FAQs
If you are social media savvy and have some experience managing social media accounts, you can be a successful social media manager. But you also need to be innovative and adaptable. You need collaborative and communication skills. Confidence, persistence, and self-motivation are also required.
Generally, freelance social media managers are independent contractors. They are not full-time employees.
They are paid per hour or per job as decided at the outset.
You can learn freelance social media management on platforms such as Udemy, Udacity, and Coursera.
This makes excellent sense sometimes. Students are fresh, with unique, bright, and creative ideas. They are also cheaper than regular freelance social media specialists. They are eager to learn and out to prove a point.
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