If you have taken the step to become an entrepreneur, then you have definitely begun a journey with the potential of opportunities for fulfillment and financial freedom. You need to advertise yourself to clients so that they know exactly what you can do for them. This can be seem an expensive proposition; however, social media is one of the ways in which you can reduce this cost and increase your ROI.
Why is social media so important for the freelancer?
There are very few services on the Internet in which a person may present themselves as a professional via said service. This may be difficult for you to take in if you are used to the so-called “free” Internet. The Internet may be a wide open space but when people are looking for business services, they do not care about “free.” They care about getting the job done in the best way possible. Therefore, they will hire people from expensive professional websites and those that they trust from social media.
Creating a personality online
Social media gives you an avenue to relay yourself personally to your potential clients. The bottom line is that people hire who they like. Once you have proven your competence in an area, you will also need to relate to the decision-makers in order to get hired. The average customer today has far too many choices for you to rely on technical skill alone.
With social media, you can differentiate your business through your personality. Depending on your industry, you may want to tone this up for tone this down; however, there is always a use for it in the professional arena.
Outreach on social media
Only on social media can a business service go viral. Virality means that you could get millions of eyes on your product and plenty of free public relations without having to pay any maintenance costs. If you can create interesting content through deeply informative or entertaining advertisements on social media, it can be passed along from person to person, giving your business major exposure that usually costs millions of dollars on TV or radio.
Even if you do not have a viral piece of content on social media, you can still gain more exposure by putting your content there rather than in a traditional advertising medium. When you place your content on social media, you basically give yourself an infinite number of chances every day to be seen. If you place the same content on TV, you will only be seen for the length of time that the advertising campaign is paid for. For a small business person, this is definitely an advantage when it comes to being cost-effective.
Social media and search engine optimization
Social media also allows you to create a profile for yourself within the major search engines. If you have ever delved into search engine optimization, then you understand how expensive and frustrating it can be. Many of the major social media websites already have a high level of trust with the major search engines. Placing your profile on a major social media website may be able to get you more views than your website if you are a new business. Through your profile, your clients stay engaged with you and your work. Read this post to see how social media affects all manner of freelancing professions.
Creating a social media profile also gives you the ability to link to your website. If your social media profile gains trust on a search engine, you can pass this so-called “link juice” to your own website through links. This will raise the profile of your website much more quickly than it could by itself.
