My three-week training within the Liga-T project has come to an end. I am happy that I was able to meet and communicate with nine wonderful colleagues who came to the training. I understand that the topic of social networks and their use for promoting your services is not particularly popular in the Russian-speaking world. I often read the opinion that it is enough to simply do your job well to be recognized.
Perhaps this was once the case, and for those who came to the translation industry earlier, it was enough to simply work well. Before the training, I even read a blog post by a very respected colleague about how all this promotion in social networks is a completely false thing, because it has to do with creating an image of a professional, which does not always correspond to reality.
That’s why I decided to share the conclusions I’ve made over four years of continuous promotion in social networks. The participants of the training have heard all this before, so for them it will be a repetition. I hope these thoughts will be useful for other readers of my blog as well.
1. If you are a bad specialist, no social networks will help you. Yes, you may be able to attract customers and get some individual orders, but you will not be able to achieve long-term cooperation. And how long can you hold out on individual orders? I think not very long.
2. Simply copying the actions of experienced colleagues on social networks will not have an effect if you are not a professional. Why? Non-professionals are already visible by the content they share on social networks and by the articles in their blogs. Remember my post based on one of these blogs? The original article caused such a big stir among translators that the article and the blog itself were forced to be deleted. This alone demonstrates a direct connection between the professionalism of a translator (or in this case, a translation agency) and the content that he creates himself or chooses to share online.
3. The main key to success for freelancers is constant development. The moment we stop developing, we begin to lag behind other freelancers, because they continue to move forward. That is why you need to constantly work on the quality of your services. To be honest, until I read that I allegedly teach other translators to simply create the appearance of professionalism, I did not even think that I needed to clarify this issue. Professional growth for me is something self-evident, something that is not subject to discussion. I think all regular readers of my blog have long understood this.
However, I also believe that working on your professional skills is not everything. I don’t know about you, but I have met at least a few good translators who have very few regular clients and who barely make ends meet. Their example shows that while developing your professional skills, you need to improve your marketing skills as well. Otherwise, even the coolest pros may reach a point where, despite all their super-professionalism, no one needs them.
I would be glad to hear your thoughts on marketing for freelancers. What is your experience in promoting your services, a nd what results did it lead to?
