How to Become a Freelance Social Media Manager?

3 years ago • 8 min read

By Zekeriya Mulbay

As a newbie, freelance social media marketing may seem overwhelming.

But once you learn the ropes, there’s no limit as to how much you can earn, who you can work for or where in the world you can go.

Here, we’ll answer all of your questions on how to be a freelance social media manager and whether this is the right career path for you.

What if you know that by using your social media accounts daily and posting regularly, you can make a way to earn a handsome income? If you have a great response from your followers, it's a plus for you to start a social media manager career.

Nowadays, most businesses are growing online through social media platforms. If you also want to set up a bright career in freelance social media marketing/management, then you will have everything here to know. Through this article, you will be satisfied with the questions:

How should I start my career as a freelance social media manager?
What type of opportunities may I have to be a freelance social media manager?
Why is freelance social media marketing important nowadays?

Social media managers are the ones in freelance social media marketing who give their services to their clients and business according to their demands. As a freelance social media manager, you will have complete freedom of your work according to your diary. You need a PC/mobile with a stable internet connection, and you are good to go to start your career.

Examples of the services provided by a freelance social media manager are:

Content Creation
Copywriting
Some social media strategy
Administration (Community handling)

What skills do you need?

Social media management skills are vast in range, and these skills are not that challenging. You can earn through these skills as much as you want. We are here to show you some of the essentials and easy skills that you can learn quickly within a short time. You will become one of the best freelance social media managers by learning these.

Copywriting

A social media manager's copywriting skill is one of the most beneficial and easy skills to learn. She can create some easy to understand and persuasive captions, blog posts, Instagram posts, etc.

Tips:

Make captions short, Crisp, and informative.
Different social media platforms have various styles of posts.

Research and Exploration

Staying up to date is necessary to be a Social media manager as the world of digital media is evolving day to day. To know analytical tools, industry and world trends, tracking competitors, research hashtags etc., will be helpful for you.

SEO Knowledge

Today, SEO (Search engine optimization) is necessary for most digital services. As it has become an integral part of social media and content marketing. Different SEO Strategies help to reach out to maximum customers.

Customer Care Services

Your social media presence will help your customers to get their queries solved on time. To be a professional freelance social media manager, responding to comments and questions on time in a compelling way is necessary.

Photography and Designing Skills

Last but not least, photography now doesn't need you to have knowledge of editing skills or complicated software like Adobe Photoshop. Instead, social media managers create and post persuasive videos and images for various social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Being creative, you can easily change available online templates to engage your audience.

Business and marketing

Knowing how to sell it will be a plus for you to be a professional freelance social media manager. You should know about effectively dealing with your clients and understanding their requirements. Communication skills are also part of this.

Understanding freelancing platforms and their active use will help you grow fast in the industry.

Your earning depends on various factors like; the time you give to your work and your skill level.

Research shows that a professional freelance social media manager can earn more than $20 per hour, making an estimated yearly salary of $40000.

Freelance social media manager types vary on the preferences and skillset you have.

This section will help you choose a specific category to grow efficiently. Here are some of them described briefly.

Customer Service Representative

As a freelance social media manager, a customer service representative has such duties to perform.

Handling the customers.
Their questions about products or services.
Describing the company's branding.

A social media community manager is a person who is responsible for maintaining the whole community. Her responsibilities include keeping the community on track and its growth. A social media community manager needs to ensure that the community members feel belong and that the group and page give value to its members and followers. She is a communication builder, decision-maker and a strong organizer as well.

Visual producer

Social media posting, creating and posting videos, photos, infographics and other visual content are some of the duties that a visual producer performs. It is the most common category of freelance social media managers as it doesn't need any expertise or networking on social media.

A freelance social media manager falls under this category if she:

Has a creative mind.
Has some Knowledge of photos and videos.

Copywriter

Creating engaging and persuasive textual content is a foremost duty of a copywriter under social media manager freelancer. As a professional copywriter, you should be able to write blog posts, captions, Instagram and Facebook posts, etc.

So here are some pros and cons of being a Freelance social media manager that will help you decide.

The Pros

You can earn through your daily activities on social media.
Your job has the potential to make you go viral. (You can be a part of a brand's story.)
Real-time feedback makes it easy to learn and improve yourself.
You have creative freedom.
Much of earning opportunities to work freely.
Help you to be able to create your brand in future.

The Cons

Sometimes creates stress.
You have to stay updated about the ever-changing platforms.
Can be a thankless job.
You can get stuck into virtual isolation.

You are already a social media manager as you ultimately use social media daily, right?

So now you have to be a freelancer. Then, simply you will be a freelance social media manager.

The steps to becoming a freelance social media manager are:

Step 1: Create your profile

Create your profiles on various freelancing platforms one by one and add your credentials. Then, add services that you are offering, your engaging bio, and details in a way that pursue the viewers to be your customers.

Step 2: Add your portfolio

Create your portfolio and add it to your profile. Remember to include your best works in your portfolio to grow fast and get fantastic outputs.

Step 3: Competitor analysis

Some research seeking other top freelancers' profiles is needed to set competitive prices for your services.

Step 4: Apply for the jobs

Start applying for jobs after completion of your profile. Consistency will automatically help you win your 1st customer.

Tip: Don't forget to link your social media accounts to your freelancing profiles.

Listed here are some of the best websites to start as a freelance social media manager and make your career grow.

There are much more such platforms available. So don’t just stick to these.

Here are some tools that you can use to work more efficiently being a freelance social media manager.

Buffer

Buffer is one of the best tools that help you schedule your content on social media platforms daily. Scheduling posts to share on platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest will be easy for you to engage with your community.

The free plan allows your post to be shared on three social media platforms.

MeetEdgar

What if your content is posted automatically according to your planned schedule?

MeetEdgar is one of the best tools that allows you to organize your posts to be posted automatically on a specific schedule. It will organize the post by categorizing based. This tool will enable you to automate your content to make your work-life easy.

Sendible

Sendible is the tool that allows you to check your post before it goes live. It does not make any changes to your post but helps you improve it by having a last check.

Crowdfire

Crowdfire is one of the best tools to link your social accounts. When you connect your profile, it will automatically post your content on social sites. You don't have to create a post on it; you have to attach its link. In addition, it gives ideas on what categories you should post.

Conclusion

Now, you are ready to go to make your career as a freelance social media manager to earn a handsome amount of money at home. Don't wait for the right time. The right time is always there for you to convert a golden opportunity.

If you want to learn about freelancing or other digital skills, we have a newsletter for you where you can learn something new.

Tip: Being consistent with your career, calm down and don't be panic. You will get your reward at the end.

Questions to Answer

What type of questions will you face in an interview?

Some of the most asked interview questions are given below:

How many online communities have you worked in the past?
How do you deal with nasty comments or negative comments about brands?
Which tool you are familiar with for the freelance social media manager?
How do you know about social media platforms' latest updates and innovations?
What interests do you have in a specific role?
What is your goal in the future if you handle the company's social media accounts?
Have you worked as a social media virtual assistant before?

A freelance social media manager provides her services to her clients, fulfilling their requirements while working freely. She creates and shares posts, captions, videos, images etc., to compel a specific audience for her client's services or products.

It is not a tough job for you to grow your career as a freelancer if you are interested in this field. But, with practice and patience, the ball will be easily in your court.

By profession, you have to make your resume updated and mention your services and what requirements are being mentioned on the offer.
Don't be the one who says yes on every project because the stressful minds of toxic clients are two mainframes of your disturbed mind.
Be the one who interacts and shares the project details with the clients.
Save your time by managing social media management tools.

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How to get your Profile Approved on Upwork?

What is a Freelance Social Media Manager?