As a freelancer, you certainly want to attract new clients. How do you let them know you exist? With advertising, of course:
– You can place an ad in the local newspaper and attract clients in your hometown.
– You can unobtrusively ask your friends to tell their acquaintances about your business.
– You can try to raise your rating on specialized sites, because the higher your rating there, the easier it will be for search engines such as Google, Yandex, etc. to find your data.
This is all very good, and it should be used. However, now it has become quite popular to use social networks as a marketing tool. If you do not want to limit yourself to orders only through freelance exchanges or receive work only from customers in your city, advertising in social networks will be very useful to you.
There are many social networks and services. I use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. In my opinion, they are the best for business. Vkontakte is also good to use, but I never get around to it. And Pinterest, of course, Pinterest! I don’t use it yet either, but I know several colleagues who are quite successful in mastering this social network. Naturally, this is not an exhaustive list. You can choose a couple of services in which you feel more comfortable, or which most of your clients use.
How can you make a name for yourself on social networks? In principle, it is not difficult. You need to register, fill out your page correctly ( so that nothing will harm your business in the future ), and then search for and publish relevant information on your specialization. It is important to determine your audience for whom you will publish information. You can post information there for clients, or you can attract colleagues who may want to share orders with you in the future.
For example, you can look at my Twitter page. Initially, I wanted to establish myself among English-speaking colleagues. And my colleagues are translators and teachers of foreign languages. For me, Twitter is an ideal networking tool. I met more famous translators and linguists here, learned a lot from them, and continue to learn. After a few months, I started receiving orders thanks to these connections.
It is worth noting that this does not mean that Twitter will suit you as well as it suited me. Explore several social networks, compare them, see which ones are popular among your target audience, and start using them! Learning by doing is always more fun.
Thus, the main thing in social media marketing (as in any advertising, in principle) is to try to create a reputation for yourself as a specialist and live up to it.
