Earn a Living as a Social Marketing Consultant

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Social marketing is the systematic approach of addressing a wide range of social problems with the help of successful techniques in commercial marketing along with other concepts, to achieve specific goals of attaining popularity.

Though social marketing applies marketing techniques, it is people oriented rather than being product oriented. Thus, social marketing uses the benefits of doing social good to secure and maintain customer engagement.

Social marketing is fast gaining audience because people have realized that gaining audience is an important aspect of business and marketing strategy and not having a social marketing strategy when your competitor has, is not a very good idea.

Who is a Social Marketing Consultant?
Roles of a Social Marketing Consultant:
How Can I be A Social Marketing Consultant?
How To Earn A Living As A Social Marketing Consultant?
How To Excel As A Social Marketing Consultant?
Tips To Improve As A Social Marketing Consultant
What is Digital Social Marketing Consultant?
What Skills Are Required to be a Good Marketing Consultant?
How Much do Social Media Marketing Consultants Make?
How do Social Media Consultants Make Money?
Is Social Marketing a Good Career?
How Much Should I Charge as a Social Media Consultant?
How Much Does a Content Creator Make?
What Should You Charge For Social Media Marketing in 2022?
What Are The Six Steps to Starting a Social Media Consulting Business?
How do You Become a Social Media Content Creator?
What Skills do You Need to be a Social Media Manager?
How do I Become a Social Media Manager With no Experience?
What Does a Social Media Manager do All Day?
How Much Should I Pay a Social Media Manager?

Who is a Social Marketing Consultant?

A social media consultant is a person or a group of people helping an organization such as non-profit organization and government agencies to successfully design; evaluate and implement social marketing campaigns in order to bring meaningful change in the world.

Social marketing consultants specialize in helping you work with your audience to make an impact by creating a change without breaking the bank much.

Roles of a Social Marketing Consultant:

A Social Marketing Consultant works with their customer for marketing research, planning of project, technical issues, evaluation, and research based methods to back their claim i.e. in short, in almost everything related to a social media project.

A social marketer starts by using qualitative and quantitative audience research to answer fundamental questions people often have when you ask them to change. To be successful at social marketing you need to give people a reason to change that has little to do with the right and the wrong, and rather concentrates on how it will benefit the user.

The agenda behind inducing a social change is not just restricted to governmental or non-profit charitable organizations; it may be argued that corporate public relations efforts such as funding for the arts is an example of social marketing.

How Can I be A Social Marketing Consultant?

1. Credibility

The first thing you need as a social media consultant is credibility, as without it no one will hire you. The best way to check your credibility is assuming you were on the other side of the table and honestly deciding whether you could trust a guy with qualities and credentials same as yours, with your business

2. Experience

Along with your credibility, you need to have the experience to deal and survive in the social marketing business. Without any social media experience you can’t expect to get any job. It is advisable to start with some blogs and articles and then you can simply work for free for your first couple of assignments for people in your network, just to improve your portfolio.

3. Online Branding

Social media marketing is all about getting noticed online, so one thing you definitely need to have is proper online branding and network that promotes your own website as well as your social media properties so that it develops a sense of trust in your company. You no doubt have to work hard to also establish credibility and show off your experience here, but it pays off in the longer run.

4. Contribute Your Own Content

Signing Up on twitter and re-tweeting others stuff is no big deal, anybody can do it, but to get noticed you need to share your opinion on social media for business. Your own unique and insightful content is something that is going to force anyone who finds you in social media want to visit your website, wish to know more about you? How would they be confident that you have the expertise to handle any situation?

5. Make Connections, Both Online and Offline

People usually trust those whom they know personally or those who are recommended by trusted friends or family, so your connections are going to determine how much work you get in this business. Though social media is a relatively new phenomenon, the same old rules of business apply to it as well.

Build on your personal contacts on social media and always remember that meeting people in person does more good than meeting them online. There are great chances that your first deal comes from a local customer, so you should first concentrate on local networking before being too ambitious and thinking nationally or even globally.

6. Understand Your Customer

To succeed in social marketing, the first thing you need to do when you get a job is to understand your customer and his needs. Try to solve his problems, answer his queries, talk to him as much as you can, that’s the only way of developing trust between the customer and you.

7. Be Active

Last but not the least, to have long term success in this business; you need to be an active and patient consultant. Jobs might not come in thick, but if you have worked hard, they will gradually come your way.

How To Earn A Living As A Social Marketing Consultant?

Once you develop the trust and credibility among the customers and gain some experience, being a social marketing consultant will earn you a lot of cash, provided you are serious, dedicated and honest towards your job.

Below is a list of how much you can earn at various platforms depending upon the amount of work you are doing. But always remember, social marketing is all about developing trust among the customers, so it is advisable to be flexible with your demands and the same time ensure that you at least get what you deserve.

Blog:

Managing someone’s complete blog starting from design, all its content, customer relationships in the form of comments and emails etc can earn you about $1,000-$12,000 a month. However, having your own blog and writing content for yourself, changes the scenario. Originality is the key in the latter.

Twitter:

Designing a twitter page, post creations and tweets, find new and interesting followers and managing messages and interactions can easily earn you something between $1,000 and $4,000 a month, given that you dedicate enough time to it.

Facebook:

Since, facebook currently has a wider audience as compared to other social networking sites, it gives you about $2,000-9,000 a month, to manage someone’s profile and market their business on this platform.

Social Media Strategy:

Developing the complete social media strategy including the outsourcing of content and design and maintenance at various platforms could fetch anything between $3,000 and 20,000 a month.

Social Media Consulting:

Hourly rates – $50-$500/Hr

The complete social media consulting is something you can have once you develop that credibility and trust in the market. It gives you a lot of monetary assurance and is considered the peak of one’s social marketing career.

The underlying idea:

• Companies no longer pay for brand names and reputation; they pay for the results and knowledge you have in your kitty. They don’t need someone to tell them what they want to hear; instead they want people who can do the job efficiently for them.
• Companies tend to push you to the limit, as far as social marketing is concerned. Remember, the more and the better you work, the more you succeed.
• Always be flexible with what you want as payment. Negotiation is fine, provided you get what you deserve.

How To Excel As A Social Marketing Consultant?

Instead of just focusing on the social media tools available to us, consultants need to use them and their mind to achieve a specific result from them. The method that you employ is important and not the tools.

Having a complete knowledge of social media tools is one thing, but knowing how to manipulate them to create a constant stream of targeted traffic to your site is what makes you to stand out among others in your competition.

Social media consultants need to be:

Knowledgeable: Whatever the field is, there is no substitute for knowledge and skills. You need to know all the positives and negatives of every major social media tool, including but definitely not limited to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, bookmarking sites etc.
Experienced: Knowing your stuff well as a social media consultant and having a client history to prove it will speak volumes about your success story. Remember, nothing promotes better than positive results and feedback. A company with a solid marketing background will already have the basics down on marketing principles and internet marketing strategies.
Creative: All the marketing strategy and tools are to aid you in your work but your creativity and the skill to improvise will decide where you stand among others. Willingness to explore beyond certain avenues and bringing technology to your helm is what separates the good from the best.
Analytical. The ability to constantly assess input against the output and change the strategy wherever necessary to improve results is what is referred to as being analytical. An analytical mind will always improve and thrive for greater success.

Tips To Improve As A Social Marketing Consultant

Be specific about your qualities but remember, claiming to be an expert in social media is similar to claiming to be an expert in life. Being a marketing consultant that helps businesses to develop a long-lasting relationship with their audience through social media is something that will set you apart from the rest of the social media “gurus” in the market, but calling yourself an expert in social media is flirting with danger because of the simple fact that, not all social marketing campaigns are effective everywhere.To take an example, anti-smoking and anti-tobacco campaigns such as World No Tobacco Day have been successful as far as spreading awareness is concerned but they have still failed to curb down the demand for tobacco and the number of deaths due to consumption of tobacco in some parts of the world.

If you want to make money through your social media efforts, you have to give people reasons to believe that they can benefit if they pay you for your products or services. Your tagline, your advertisement, your networks, your contacts will help you to a certain extent in gaining popularity as a social market consultant, but at the end of the day, only your results and achievements will decide how long you are going to last in the business. Give people enough reasons in the form of positive results, to trust on you with their business and never let your customers down.
Be professional and respectful both online and offline: You can be respected for the work you do not because your tagline or your website says so, but only because your work and your behavior are good enough. Respect your customers and their demands and try to communicate with them in a very professional way. Sharing work information with your clients is sometimes a good idea as it keeps them involved and improves the chances that they know, like and trust you and your work. Go beyond the scope of textbooks and work and you will realize how fast word travels on social media about how good you are at what you do.
If you want improvement, you must have a plan. You don’t need a 100 page document about do’s and don’ts, or not even your workplace full of chits of paper telling you what to do next, all you need is the outline of your approach in detail in your mind. Plan in advance and always be prepared for the worst, it is never a bad idea to have a Plan B or a Plan C in place. Planning will be useful for your team, and your future as a social marketing expert.

What is Digital Social Marketing Consultant?

The basic definition of a digital marketing consultant is someone who is a highly skilled professional with specialist training in online marketing, who knows how to target consumers in the right ways to see the results that a business needs.

There’s a common misconception in terms of what a marketing consultant does, a lot of people presume that they deal with every aspect of advertising, but that’s not the case.

If you already have ideas for your marketing, then you would contact an advertising agency to make those ideas a reality.

What a marketing consultant does is work with businesses, from startups to large corporations, to determine how best to engage existing clients and prospective ones. A marketing consultant uses the company’s existing business model to consider what market potential there is, and then creates a marketing strategy that should work successfully for the brand, allowing them to achieve their goals.

In terms of what exactly a marketing consultant focuses on, that depends on the business and its needs.

What Skills Are Required to be a Good Marketing Consultant?

Just like in every role, to be successful, there are certain things that a digital marketing consultant must have to succeed. Being a digital marketing consultant means understanding how the internet is a crucial marketing tool and how to use it effectively to market a brand.

It’s about knowing how each social media platform and digital channel connect with each other and how these connections can be used to effectively market a business. With that in mind, the question remains – what specific skills does a successful marketing consultant need?

An important part of being a marketing consultant is being able to analyze data and use analytics to determine how well a company’s marketing is going and to make actionable recommendations. To make this easier, a hybrid of technical and creative problem-solving skills are invaluable.

It’s also vital that digital marketing consultants are goals focused. This means knowing not only how to set achievable goals but also how to successfully measure success when it comes to meeting them. Businesses are always looking for results, which is why being able to set realistic goals is so important.

If a marketing consultant sets unrealistic goals, they won’t be able to meet them, which will leave their clients dissatisfied with the service that they have received. This is why setting S.M.A.R.T. goals is important.

When it comes to understanding strategy and tactics, the first thing that a marketing consultant needs to understand is that the two are not the same.

How Much do Social Media Marketing Consultants Make?

The average annual pay for a Social Media Consultant in the United States is $42,855 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $20.60 an hour. This is the equivalent of $824/week or $3,571/month.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $88,000 and as low as $16,500, the majority of Social Media Consultant salaries currently range between $28,000 (25th percentile) to $57,500 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $86,500 annually across the United States.

The average pay range for a Social Media Consultant varies greatly (by as much as $29,500), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.

How do Social Media Consultants Make Money?

To make money as a social media consultant you need to be able to perform the typical duties required of the role (increase brand awareness, drive web traffic, and develop relationships with customers), be proficient with social media software tools, and successfully pitch your services to businesses/brands that need your help.

You can work as an employee but if you freelance, or build a social media agency, your income is unlimited!

To get a good idea of what specific duties companies are looking for social media specialists to accomplish, check out some listings on job search sites.

Keep in mind this is a pretty serious workload and you may not be asked to do this much. But this will still give you a good idea of the kinds of things that many social media specialists are expected to do:

Develop and implement social media brand strategies, campaigns, and plans to build brand/company awareness
Plan paid social media advertising strategies and budgets
Oversee day-to-day management of campaigns and ensure brand consistency
Research and understand the needs and tone of various clients and stay up to date on news and trends in their industry
Create, maintain, and grow new and existing social networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, FourSquare, Instagram, Google+, Facebook, and others
Manage company blog and editorial calendar, eBlasts and landing pages that align with social updates
Monitor social media progress using web analytic tools
Incorporate optimization strategies, analyze data, and research the best ways to increase traffic
Review the success of campaigns and develop ways to improve
Drive engagement with social media influencers
Resolve customer issues through social media
Create engaging written and visual content for blogs, newsletters, and landing pages
Research new media platforms, trends, and industry opportunities

Is Social Marketing a Good Career?

Social media marketing jobs are one of the fastest-growing opportunities. And that’s because social media marketing is a growing industry. It is expected that global social media users will cross 3 billion by the end of 2021.

People love using social networks for socializing and other benefits. And the more people use social networks, the more attractive it is for brands to jump in to reach their audience and promote products.

Businesses use social media to connect with their target audience. The investment in global social media marketing will cross $48 billion by the end of 2021. Businesses are all into this area of digital marketing because it delivers big time.

There are tons of social media marketing jobs available out there to choose from. Over 15K social media marketing jobs were posted on Indeed in the last 15 days.

That’s a lot of open vacancies. Not to mention other thousands of positions open on LinkedIn.

How Much Should I Charge as a Social Media Consultant?

A consultant with 0-3 years experience and a limited portfolio will likely want to start charging between $15-$50 per hour, depending on the project scope and type of client.

After three years, you can charge between $50 and $100 per hour.

Once you’re an advanced consultant with an impressive portfolio, you can charge upwards of $120+ per hour.

Social media consultants can charge anywhere from $15-$250+ an hour, so it’s important you keep in mind your prior work experience, the scope of the project, and the type of client when deciding your rate.

How Much Does a Content Creator Make?

The average annual pay for a Content Creator in the United States is $47,416 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $22.80 an hour. This is the equivalent of $912/week or $3,951/month.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $87,500 and as low as $21,500, the majority of Content Creator salaries currently range between $33,500 (25th percentile) to $57,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $73,500 annually across the United States.

The average pay range for a Content Creator varies greatly (by as much as $23,500), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.

What Should You Charge For Social Media Marketing in 2022?

The rates that social media managers charge vary widely based on a number of factors. These factors include the scope of work, experience level, business type, industry, and location.

Additionally, freelance consultants who work in social media management must also pay attention to their competition, the market value for their work, the effort required to complete a project, and the type of results the client can expect.

To help you determine the right pricing for your social media management business, here is a list of questions to ask yourself as a social media consultant, freelancer, or agency. Keep in mind that the factors listed below should be evaluated holistically to inform and define your pricing strategy.

How much experience do you have in social media management?

Prospective social media clients will want to know what relevant work experience you have, what results you have achieved for past clients, and what specialties you can bring to their business, such as content creation, social media strategy, account growth, social platform advertising, etc.).

Your ability to communicate the value that your experience carries to your clients will often mean the difference between winning and losing a new account, so take the time to explain and market your abilities.

While years on the job isn’t the only way of determining experience, it can be helpful to compare your length of work experience to others. As social media managers gain more experience, they are able to charge their clients significantly higher fees.

Even though social media consultants and freelancers don’t earn salaries, it can also be helpful to use the salary data as a starting point when evaluating your fee schedule. According to LinkedIn, the median salary for a social media manager in the United States with 1-5 years of experience is $41,900. For that same role with 6-14 years of experience, the median salary jumps to $80,000!

What do you know about the market you do business in?

Social media management rates will also vary by location. In an area where the cost of living is higher than average, rates will often be higher, too. The competition in your industry also plays an important role here in setting your freelancer rates.

Are there several social media management companies in your city? How much do they charge? While it can be difficult to find out the pricing of your competition, take the time to perform a competitive analysis anyway to make sure you’re setting yourself up to land a new client! Even if you can’t find out your competition’s pricing, you may discover what they offer and how they package their services.

What type of businesses are you working with?

Before you begin to price a social media management project, it is important to learn everything you can about a prospective client. While this information shouldn’t be the only factor in determining pricing, it is helpful to know when writing winning proposals and closing new business.

Business Size. The bigger the business, the more they are able to spend on marketing. However, most businesses will only allocate a certain percentage of their revenue towards their marketing budget. In fact, the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7-8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising for businesses making less than $5 million in annual revenue. Keep this in mind.
Industry. Factors like competition, pricing, and growth plans all vary by industry. For example, the restaurant industry is notoriously competitive, but profit margins are slim. The recipe leaves less budget for marketing expenses. Price yourself accordingly.

Most social media managers adjust their fees for each unique client and project. While that may seem strange to some, keep in mind that no two jobs will ever be exactly the same, and customizing your offering based on your clients needs and specifications is a smart way to gain business. Use your best judgment when presenting your rates – but do the research first.

What is the client’s scope of work?

How much support your social media management client needs is an important factor in determining how much to charge them for your services. Some clients require limited support, while others need 24/7 community management and creative planning not to mention execution of posts.

Before sending a proposal, be sure you are clear on what your prospective clients’ social media goals are, and what they want to see on their social media channels. Below are a few key services and variables to consider that can help establish the scope of work.

Number of platforms. How many social media platforms will the client want you to manage? Is it just their Instagram account, or do they have Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yelp, and YouTube? Obviously, the more social platforms a client has the more you’ll want to charge to manage their social channels. Also, take into consideration whether or not the platforms have already been started or whether you’ll need to create and grow a new social platform from scratch. Creating a brand new social media account with no followers can be significantly more time consuming than taking over an account that is already established
Paid vs. Organic. Paid social is becoming a bigger part of overall marketing budgets. Make sure that you are clear on where your duties will begin and end when it comes to advertising on social media, as social media advertising requires a unique skillset, and if you’re not well-versed in optimizing paid social media campaigns, this may be something you’ll need to learn, or farm out to another freelancer or member of your team.
Content creation. Many social media managers and consultants also offer services like blogging, copywriting, or graphic design. If you’re expected to create the blog posts, the charts and graphics, or the memes, and tweet and post them, you’ll want to charge more. Alternatively, you may be required to do the research to find good content for the brand’s platforms, and social media content strategy adds considerable time to your job. Some companies may already have all of their content created by employees or other freelancers and ready to go – but find out first, estimate your required time accordingly, and outline your content creation and content strategy deliverables clearly when pricing your agreement. PRO TIP: Make some things optional – giving the client flexibility in how they leverage your services is always smart.
Customer Service. Will you be in charge of responding to customer complaints and following up with them, or will you simply direct them to an employee at the company? Fielding customer complaints and inquiries can be quite time-consuming, and time-sensitive, especially as a business grows, so you’ll want to charge a significantly larger fee if you will be doing that kind of work and making that kind of commitment.
Influencer Marketing. Another factor that may go into determining your rates for social media management is whether you’ll be reaching out to influencers who can advertise the business’s name, product, or service. It takes time to research, contact, and engage people who may be able to help the business grow their following, and any influencer marketing services you offer should be considered as a stand-alone service.

What overhead or internal costs do you incur?

What people, tools, and supplies will you need in place in order to provide good service to your social media management clients? All of these expenses should be considered and factored into your pricing structure so ask yourself questions to determine what your true costs will be.

Employees and/or freelancers. Will you need to hire anyone to support you with any part of your contract? Can you increase the rate you charge by bringing on experts in other fields like copywriting, photography and graphic design?
Tools and Software. What tools and software will you need to get the job done? A good rule of thumb is to add up your monthly fees and divide this cost out among your clients.
Overhead. Will you need an office, photo studio, or coworking space? What supplies will you need? How much will you need to spend on your own marketing, and how much time will your administrative duties take every day, week, or month? All of these factors should be considered when pricing your services.

how will you charge for social media management

How will you charge for your services?

How social media managers charge for their services varies widely. Some social media managers charge by a retainer, some charge by the project, while some set an estimate for a predefined statement of work and charge hourly, weekly, or monthly. This decision all depends on how you want to structure your freelancing or consulting business.

Here is some more information on your options for charging a social media client:

Hourly Rate: Since most of the economy is based on hourly wages, it’s no surprise that this is a common way for social media freelancers and consultants to set their fee schedule. The hourly rate is simple and convenient, however, it doesn’t lend itself well to building a team and scaling your operations – and by charging hourly, you might run into tough situations when the scope of work changes. Be sure to set an overall estimate if you decide to charge hourly, and define parameters for how you will track your time and address scope changes and communicate with the client if you think you’ll go over your hourly estimate for a project
Monthly (Fixed-Fee): Many SEO and social media marketing managers prefer to charge a fixed monthly fee for their services. This gives a consistent and predictable income, which is beneficial for both the client and freelancer. Make sure you set parameters here too for what you will provide at a fixed-fee, and define how you’ll measure that – whether it’s by deliverable (e.g. blog post, social profile creation, and etc.), the actual hours it takes to complete your statement of work, or the number of hours you make available to your client.
Retainer: A retainer is a payment made in advance for future services performed by the social media manager and has some advantages. Lawyers are famous for utilizing retainer fees, and many social media management consultants will charge based on a retainer fee to ensure the client is invested in utilizing them in an organized way, while reducing the risk on their end should a client experience delays, or fail to provide you with the information you need to do the job.
You can also charge on a per-project basis that you set ahead of time if it suits you and the client. The per-project basis offers a lot of flexibility in outsourcing some of the work assigned, especially if you decide to scale your business. That said, charging per-project also presents the risk of undercharging if a project takes longer than expected – as always, be sure to define clear parameters regarding scope, and a plan for how to resolve things if things don’t go as planned.

Once you have answered these questions, you will have an idea of what you can charge for social media management and how to price your services competitively, build good client relationships, and grow your business at a reasonable pace. No matter which option you choose, be firm and confident about your fees!

Once you set your social media fees for a particular client or project, the next step is to submit some proposals and keep your mind open to feedback. You will always run into clients who think your fees are too high.

However, if you find that everyone thinks you’re too expensive, you may want to step back and reexamine how much you charge. With time and experience, you will learn when and where to adjust your pricing.

What Are The Six Steps to Starting a Social Media Consulting Business?

Demand for social media specialists has grown tremendously in recent years. CNN has even ranked social media manager as one of the best jobs in America and predicted a 9 percent job growth over the next 10 years.

With thousands of companies hiring for social media related positions, you might be wondering whether it’s time to start a social media consulting business. In this article, we’ll break down how you can start your social media consulting business in 6 steps.

Step 1. Acquire the Necessary Skills

No one will hire you as their social media consultant without the right qualifications. While having an active social media presence can help establish credibility, just having 1,000 Facebook friends or 2,000 Twitter followers doesn’t cut it.

Social media consultants should have the following competencies:

An understanding of the client’s business and target audience
An understanding of branding and the ability to maintain the brand’s voice
Creative ability to increase engagement and drive sales
An operational understanding of how to make effective posts across the major social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube). Some social media consultants specialize in one or more of these social networks.
The ability to run paid social campaigns
An understanding of the metrics of success and tools for tracking those metrics

If you’re starting from scratch, we suggest investing in online courses to boost your knowledge and credentials. Udemy offers social media management courses at no cost. They also offer advanced courses for as low as $10. Complete a course and you’ll receive an online certificate that you can post on your LinkedIn profile.

Step 2. Find Local Businesses As Your First Clients

Find local small businesses in your area that you’re interested in helping, and offer your services to them at a discounted cost. If you have no professional experience, you should consider working for free to build your portfolio. For example, maybe there’s an ice cream parlor in your area that serves interesting flavors, and you think they can get more foot traffic with social media exposure.

You can target them. If you become active in your local business community, for example by attending Chamber of Commerce meetings or local small business meetups, you can find businesses in need of social media expertise.

Local startups and small businesses probably have a limited budget, and their requirements won’t be that sophisticated. For example, some clients will just need you to create social media pages, schedule posts, and track engagement across platforms.

You may also be asked to engage with users commenting or sending inquiries through social media. These tasks are fairly easy to perform, which enables you to serve more than one client at the same time.

Step 3. Determine Your Rates & Financial Policies

Before you start expanding your client base, you must first establish your rates, payment schedule, and mode of payments. On average, a social media consultant charges $20 – $40/hour depending on their level of expertise.

As a freelancer, you will most likely invoice clients for services that you provide. Some clients are chronic late payers, and that could be disastrous for your cash flow. The standard payment term is NET 30. Offer early payment discounts, or charge a small late fee if payment is not received at the agreed-upon time.

As a business owner, you also have to think about hiring an accountant or buying software to take care of your invoices, taxes, and payroll. Establish this at the start so that everything runs smoothly once you begin operations.

Step 4. Start Freelancing & Choose Your Niche

You can launch a freelancing career working for a wider set of businesses, after you get some experience under your belt with some local companies. Sites such as Freelancer, UpWork, Fiverr, and Craigslist are great places to start looking for a gig.

When you get on these sites, you may notice that some companies are searching for very specialized social media services. That is because there are multiple niches within social media consulting:

Generalist – Possesses surface level knowledge on content creation, community management, and ad management
Data Analyst – Studies data and insights gathered from campaigns and provides suggestions to improve future campaigns
Community Manager – Serves as the face and voice of the brand by engaging with customers, driving conversations, and increasing brand awareness.
Marketer – Conceptualizes and manages paid promotions on various social media networks to increase customer growth, profitability, and loyalty.

Some social media consultants focus on one of these roles, and others play multiple roles. Once you determine your role(s), you must identify the types of businesses that you wish to serve. Will you specialize in retail, restaurant, tech, or services? Consider focusing on one area and expand to the next as you grow and gain more experience.

Step 5. Hire People to Help You

Once you gain experience as a social media consultant, you will be focused on the big picture: campaign strategy for different clients, data analysis, reporting, and continued business expansion. For other activities, you may want to get some help.

Here are roles that you should consider hiring as the first members of your social media consulting team.

Social Media Marketing Specialist – This person will assist you in day-to-day operations such as scheduling posts, engaging with fans and followers, tracking performance, contributing campaign ideas, etc.
Lead Generator – The individual’s main task is to find companies that match your client persona, look for the decision-makers, and then compile their contact information in a database.
Web Designer – Invest in a talented web designer whom you can collaborate with in conceptualizing your website. You want someone who can create cutting edge layouts to reflect your company’s familiarity with the latest technologies in social media management.
Content Marketer – The individual focuses on creating content to establish your company’s online presence by conducting keyword research, writing engaging blog posts, and getting your website to rank.

You might be tempted to hire an employee right away, but consider acquiring the services of freelancers first. Here are the advantages of hiring freelancers:

Pay only for services or hours rendered
Minimal training required
Outsourcing from cheaper markets saves money – there are many virtual assistants and people who you can hire from overseas
Don’t need to spend on worker’s compensation or unemployment insurance

In addition to these benefits, many freelancers possess multiple skill sets to keep themselves marketable. Instead of hiring for two or three positions, you might find a talented person who can handle multiple types of responsibilities.

You can always hire freelancers as full-time employees if you’re satisfied with the quality of their work. What’s important is that you start lean with plenty of room to maneuver.

Step 6. Obtain Financing If Necessary

As you get more clients, you may need to add staff, travel more extensively, or otherwise upgrade your business. All of these things can come with a hefty price tag. Sometimes, businesses fail to grow due to lack of funds.

Fortunately, there are many startup loan options available out there. Some loans require collateral, but they come at low interest rates and longer payment terms. Some may not require collateral, but they charge higher interest rates. Options include small business loans, crowdfunding, and even business credit cards.

While many people hesitate to use credit cards to finance their business, it can be quick and many cards offer introductory promotions with 0% interest. Yet another option is a Rollover for Business Startups, which lets you invest your retirement funds in your business without a penalty.

Once you’ve had your business for 2-3 years, many more business financing options will open up.

How do You Become a Social Media Content Creator?

1. Read news about your industry every day.

Creating great content that really resonates with your target audience requires you to know what’s going on in your industry. And the best content creators scour — not just read, but scour — the internet for industry news and trends. This sets them up nicely to understand the context behind what’s happened historically in their industry and how that shapes their target audience’s mindset in the present.

Get in the habit of reading by putting everything you read in one place. You can set up an RSS feed with an app like Feedly for blogs you know that contain relevant industry news.

Also, ask a few colleagues what they’re reading these days and follow suit. Discover where your buyer persona spends time online and snag those blogs, too. Ahead of the game and have a few favorites already? Add ’em to the list.

2. Write on the regular.

If you don’t use it, you lose it. Successful content creators understand the importance of constantly flexing their writing muscles. Doing so helps them work through ideas that might be jumbled in their head and identify nuggets that could turn into fully realized ideas later. Successful content creators may not always be inspired to write, but they know something inspiring can come from their writing.

Get in the habit of writing by doing it daily or every other day. I’m not saying you need to write a polished, 1500-word essay on an industry-relevant topic daily. Rather, I’m talking about setting aside 10 or 15 minutes to jot down some thoughts and ideas.

Figure out when your mind is the clearest — for most people, that’s after or during a cup of coffee — and just free-form write. What did you read yesterday that stuck with you? What didn’t you understand? Asking yourself those questions should start the flow.

3. Study your industry’s audience.

One of the hardest pills to swallow as a creative professional is that you are at the mercy of your audience — and the needs of that audience can sap your creativity.

But, at the end of the day, your audience pays your bills. And if you study your audience deeply enough, you’ll find interests and creative opportunities you wouldn’t have found without them.

The third quality of all successful content creators: They know their audience inside and out. Examine your own readers and viewers: What do they want that you’re not yet giving them? What problems do they have that you can solve for them? Here are some other characteristics of your audience you can identify for yourself or for your employer:

Age
Gender
Location
Family size
Job title
Salary

4. Establish your own voice.

Quick reality check: You’re not the only content creator in your industry. That means you’re not the only one offering the advice, observations, and thought leadership your industry is asking for.

There are lots of things you can do to stand out from the other content creators in your field: diversifying into a new content medium, promoting your content on different channels, and naturally gaining experience and trust over time. But even then, the content producers with whom you’re competing for attention are doing the same thing.

What you can bring to your content, that nobody else can, is your own personal voice.

Readers click on your content for the information, but they come back for the personality. Writing about cybersecurity? Don’t just offer fresh insight on today’s malware; offer analogies and personal stories of data breaches that justify your insights and that only you can offer.

The brand you write for might restrict you from opinionated or overly informal content, but that doesn’t mean you can’t indulge in the unique perspective that inspired you to join this business in the first place.

Learn how to blend your employer’s content guidelines with your own creativity, and you’ll become a much more valuable content creator in the long run.

5. Curate other people’s content (when it makes sense to).

There’s no shortage of people curating content these days. In fact, anyone on the internet can take someone else’s content and retweet it, share it on Facebook, pin it — the list goes on. But successful content creators know it’s not enough to take relevant industry news and spit it back out to your fans and followers.

“You must also position yourself as an expert and genuinely interact with your communities,” says Guy Kawasaki, the New York Times best-selling author. Sharing content isn’t enough. Engaging with the content you’re sharing now makes it unique to you.

Get in the habit of curating content when you have something valuable to add. Now that you’ve started scouring the internet on a regular basis for industry news, you probably have a wider depth of knowledge than you think.

So be confident, and give your readers additional, useful information or even a thought or opinion when sharing others’ content. Your networks will appreciate it, and the author probably will too (or it could at least spark a debate — bonus!).

6. Understand your KPIs.

The internet is a big place (obviously). In fact, it’s safe to say it’s too big for your content to be discovered by your audience all by itself. In 2018, 61% of professionals stated that generating traffic and leads was their top marketing challenge.

Just because you publish content online doesn’t mean you’ll get the traffic your insight deserves. To get your content discovered, you first need to focus in on a key performance indicator (KPI), and optimize your content for it. A KPI is a specific metric you’ve chosen to measure how well your content is doing against your expectations. Modern KPIs include:

Social media traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a social media post.
Direct traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content by entering your website’s URL directly into their browser’s address bar.
Organic traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a search engine result link.
Submissions, the number of people who visit your website and leave having submitted their contact information in exchange for a resource you offered them (a form of lead generation).

If you or your employer chooses to focus on organic traffic, for example, it’s a good idea to study Google’s search algorithm to find out how it ranks content. Then, optimize your content so that it performs well under the organic traffic KPI. The more knowledge you have of the KPIs available to content creators now, the more successful you’ll be as a marketer.

7. Network at every opportunity.

Successful content creators know their success is due not only to their passion, but also to those who taught them, inspired them, and pushed them to think in different ways.

This is one way content creators grow into successful content creators. They’ve accepted the fact there’s more to learn than what they already know, and they’re open to new ways of thinking. Networking forces you to do just that. It’s a time to listen to others’ ideas and take them into consideration alongside your own.

Get in the habit of networking by seizing the countless opportunities you have to do it. They aren’t called social networks for nothing! Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them.

Once you do that, you can ease into in-person networking. If you’re not a natural extrovert, the thought of networking can make you cringe. Make it easy on yourself and start small with colleagues. You already have something in common, so striking up a conversation in the kitchen or at your desks shouldn’t be too scary.

8. Offer solutions, not just commentary.

When you’re just getting started as a content creator, you might already have the knowledge your market is looking for. For successful content creators, however, expertise isn’t everything.

Want your audience to remember your content? Don’t just recite the things you know — explain why they’re important and what your audience can take away from it. The people consuming your content aren’t interested in just hearing you talk. They come looking to satisfy specific needs.

Whether those needs are to solve a problem to simply increase their confidence in your industry, it’s your job to put your market observations into terms they can understand and find lessons in.

9. Question everything.

Polished content creators are curious by nature. They’ve learned to be curious about the internal knowledge they already have and the external information that’s being promoted out in the world. It’s the insights that come from this inherent curiosity that makes great content.

“You need to be curious to identify problems worth solving,” says Lorraine Twohill, head of marketing at Google, “and then come up with new solutions.” It’s these proposed solutions to age-old problems that gets content creators on the radar.

Get in the habit of questioning the status quo by constantly playing devil’s advocate. Taking the contrarian view of a piece of content can be difficult at first, but if you start to question why the author thinks this way and what happened in the industry that triggered this viewpoint, you’ll begin to think more critically about the content you’re consuming. And if you didn’t know, critical thinkers make great content creators.

What Skills do You Need to be a Social Media Manager?

1. You Think Outside The Box

Social media marketing is all about keeping your followers interested and engaged through creative content. And as a social media manager, it’s your task to ensure that this is done rightfully so.

It’s essential that you understand the importance of creating content pieces that will keep your audience hooked. You have to be willing to experiment with new trends and strategies that have never been done before by other brands. You must consistently come up with fresh and appealing ideas, creative initiatives, and original campaigns to keep your followers coming.

Generally, you have to be inventive and innovative and constantly thinking of ways to stand out from the hundreds of millions of marketers out there.

2. You Are Proactive

Social media is rapidly changing and you don’t want to be left behind. That’s why you have to cause things to happen instead of waiting for what’s to come. Pay attention to what’s happening on social media, in the world, and the people in it. Be curious and fascinated by current events, stay updated with recent developments, and immerse yourself in the online world.

Be on top of the latest and upcoming digital marketing trends and think of ways to apply these to your marketing efforts. Remember: The industry is constantly evolving and so should you.

3. You’re A People Person

Two of the toughest and most crucial tasks of a social media manager are community engagement and customer service. To be effective and successful in the role, you have to be a people person, at least online.

As the face and voice of your company on social media, the job description includes:

Developing, monitoring, and responding to conversations within your community.
Social listening and keeping a close eye on mentions and tweets.
Responding to comments and messages – yes, even the trolls.
Answering questions about your brand.
Engaging with brand advocates and all of your loyal followers.
Asking relevant and intriguing questions to kickstart engagement.
Providing stellar customer service.

That’s why it’s important that you genuinely enjoy social media and participate in it on a personal level. You must know the ins and outs of the platforms and be well-versed in what each of these entail. You’re responsible for building customer trust and establishing a solid social community for your business.

4. You’re A Good Communicator and Leader

A successful social media manager handles multiple fronts – customers, team members, and company management.

Be confident when speaking in front of a crowd to keep your audience interested. Help improve your reach and engagement and create upbeat live content – which means speaking in front of the camera with several people behind it. Be calm and assured when you present ideas, interview clients and guests, answer impromptu questions, and interact with your followers.

You’re also the glue that keeps your team together. That’s why you must recognize the way team members communicate with one another. Listen attentively, be open to each person’s ideas, and understand how these can be used in your campaigns.

The industry can be demanding and overwhelming, so it’s important that you keep your teammates in check, get along with colleagues, and motivate your team members.

This is often overlooked, but it’s equally vital to update and keep your management team informed of what’s going on. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to get their permission on every decision you’ll make. But you have to keep them aligned with your current and upcoming plans.

5. You’re A Strategic Planner

It’s important to understand the bigger picture and recognize how social media fits in your overall objectives.

To do this, you have to be able to do the following:

Set goals to clarify the vision for the business.
Define your target audience and identify which platforms to use.
Know which tools will help scale your efforts.
Execute your plans.
Evaluate and make the necessary adjustments based on the results you get.

Part of your role is to set priorities, effectively allocate time and resources, and strengthen business operations. Ensure that employees and stakeholders work together toward the common goal, establish agreement around the intended outcome, and assess and adjust strategies as needed.

6. You Are Analytical

Numbers are a huge part of a social media manager’s job. You have to read and interpret data, understand the metrics and what they define, and identify which media formats work best.

Knowing these will help you convert page visits to engagements and sales, use analytics to prove your ROI, and create insightful reports. Learning the ins and outs of social media metrics will help you know what works and what doesn’t, what should be avoided, and what can still be improved. Understanding the underlying causes of such trends will also help you make informed decisions and create more successful campaigns in the future.

Don’t worry, you can learn all these in your training and along the way. What’s important is that you’re interested in the nitty-gritty aspects of numbers.

7. You Have Great Visual and Content Creation Skills

Social media is driven by creative visuals and interactive content. That’s why you must have an eye for appealing designs that embody your business and aesthetics that connect with your followers. You should be able to handpick appropriate photos and videos, create your own, or instruct your designers on what to do.

You don’t have to be a pro with the technical software. But it’s a huge plus if you’re aware of photo-editing trends, familiar with the basics of photography, video, and design, and have a keen eye for details.

It’s also important that you know your content sources and audience preferences. This will help you decide what your followers want to see and when they will see it.

8. You Write Well

Great content is best paired with great writing. As a social media manager, you’ll compose captivating headlines and engaging introductions, structure easy-to-read bodies, craft inspiring calls-to-action, fill up profile bios, create tweets, posts, and captions, and maybe write blog posts.

It’ll help if you find a copywriting formula that’ll work best for your brand and its audience. This way, you’ll remain consistent and know the perfect balance between personal and professional in the tone and language that you’ll use.

9. You’re Adaptable and Flexible

As we’ve said before, social media is an ever-changing industry. You have to quickly digest the changes in each channel and its user base so you can shift your campaign approach accordingly. You must rapidly adapt to new situations and respond to things happening in the social media space. Stay updated with recent developments and keep up with such changes to remain ahead of the industry.

It’s also important to be agile enough to address situations, whether good or bad, as they arise. Learn how to go with the flow while at the same time ensuring that you don’t sacrifice your business objectives. You need good judgment to make decisions in a timely manner, conduct yourself to prevent bad PR, and positively handle any social media crisis.

10. You Are Business-Minded

You have to be holistically involved in your company, especially the business side of it. Additionally, you need basic financial and budgeting knowledge to ensure that your resources are allocated correctly.

You must have a good foundation of sales and marketing principles to understand what role social media plays in your business strategies. You’re also tasked to establish strong and lasting relationships with stakeholders, clients, suppliers, media partners, other brands, influencers, and other parties.

It’s important that you see and understand the relevance of social media and how it helps grow and scale your business.

11. You Know How to Work Efficiently

Being a social media manager means juggling multiple tasks at the same time. You conduct market research, do audience segmentation, or cross-check your data to ensure that your facts are straight.

You also create content schedules, track contacts, keep up with trends and conversations, maintain social media profiles, craft reports and presentations, meet with designers and writers, and manage ad budgets. And doing all these simultaneously can be overwhelming.

How do I Become a Social Media Manager With no Experience?

If you’re on the hunt for an exciting new career and know your way around Facebook and Instagram, social media management could be for you. You can expect to focus on building a social media following through posting likable content, running ads, analyzing user data, and staying on top of insta-worthy events.

However, most companies expect proof that you are a social media wizard before they hire you and put their public image in your hands. So how do you gain this type of experience so you can land the job?

Learn the basics:

1. Build your own online community

Create your own pages on all major social media platforms, including at least Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and SnapChat. Use these pages to practice building, engaging and maintaining an online community. Actions often speak louder than words, so this is a great conversation topic to have under your belt in an interview.

2. Take an online social media marketing course

In addition to learning social media by doing, find online or in-person courses tailored to social media management. Some topics we recommend focusing on are analyzing user data and best practices for SEO. Having even a basic understanding of these concepts will seriously benefit you in a social media management role. Plus, this will give you the grounds to ask better questions in job interviews.

3. Do your research on social media management tools

In social media, you’re only as good as the tools you employ. Research ahead of time on the best ways to save time and money by implementing social media management tools.

These can help manage content calendars, schedule posts for you ahead of time, and alert you if anything comes up that needs your immediate attention. Walking into a job interview with recommendations for the most efficient tools out there will impress potential employers.

4. Get your GED — or, better yet, a college degree

This is not necessarily required for all social media management positions, but it will give you a leg up in this highly saturated job market. Adding an associate’s or bachelor’s degree to your resume shows you have the dedication to finish difficult tasks and expertise in your chosen major subject.

Now land the job:

1. Network in person and online

Seek out and follow brands you admire online. Nowadays, many companies post on social media if they’re hiring. So start commenting, liking, and sharing the content of companies you truly admire so that they are familiar with you before they are ready to hire.

Reach out to friends for contacts, join your school’s alumni networks for connections, and reach out to businesses personally through direct messaging. Be clear that you are looking for a social media management job, and ask for advice or referrals to get hired.

2. Take any opportunity you can get, no matter how small

A great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at social media management is by picking up gigs here and there that are related to social media management. Don’t underestimate the power of experience here, as even small opportunities can show a company their need for social media management.

3. Volunteer to manage social media for a nonprofit or small business

If you are able, build a resume for your first job as a social media manager and volunteer for the position first. Oftentimes, smaller nonprofits and businesses need help in social media but don’t have the budget to hire for it. This can give you the space to learn the needs of the position, as well as build your experience in the digital space.

4. Start in a related entry-level position

Find a marketing job in your area and you’ll likely be exposed to elements of the social media management job position. Jobs don’t always have “social media” in their titles, so finding jobs in marketing or digital marketing often include similar duties.

What Does a Social Media Manager do All Day?

The day-to-day life of a social media manager entails checking the day’s scheduled posts, making any changes needed, editing copy, and meeting with fellow marketing team peers on upcoming campaigns, product launches, or other promotional opportunities — like a CEO interview or a new partnership that you’d like to announce publicly. These must all then be incorporated into your social media planning roadmap.

Your day will also include community management responsibilities such as liking, commenting, and sharing posts from your followers, partners as well as peers.

Note: the role of social media is slightly different if you work B2B vs B2C. B2B social media marketing will require you to offer business-based solutions and speak as an industry expert. B2C social media management involves speaking directly with your consumer community, so your interaction with your followers will probably be more conversational.

How Much Should I Pay a Social Media Manager?

Hiring a freelance social media professional is an excellent way to kick-start a new product or almost any business venture that can benefit from additional exposure. The average social media campaign will run for 1-6 months and can include everything from marketing strategy to writing services, graphic design, social sharing, social ads, client outreach and attracting large influencers.

1. Does the project involve existing social media accounts or setting up new channels?

There is a lot of work involved with the initial setup of social media channels, including the creation of artwork, branding, taglines and initial content. It is also more difficult to start generating followers as an unknown brand, so initial costs are usually higher in the beginning as the social media management freelancer will need to run both paid and organic campaigns to grow your following. Established accounts are more affordable since they usually require a quick graphical refresh before moving straight to content.‍

2. How many social media profiles will they manage?

While almost all businesses tend to gravitate towards Facebook and Twitter, certain industries actually see a greater benefit from channels like Pinterest, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

Targeting each additional channel can raise the expected costs by $300-$2,000 per month for small businesses, and up to $5,000 per channel for enterprise ventures. Commerce sites like Amazon and review websites like Google+ and Yelp also fall into this category, which is discussed in more detail under topic #4.‍

3. Are you planning to target influencers?

One of the bigger benefits of social media marketing is the ability to attract influencers and complementary businesses to your channel. If they share you with their own followers, it can lead to tens of thousands of potential consumers discovering your brand. With larger budgets, social media managers can actively engage influencers to create these types of opportunities.‍

4. Will the social media professional handle customer service?

When a customer is unhappy about a product or service, they often turn to social media in order to vent their frustrations. Companies are realizing that they can turn these bad experiences into positive outcomes, but only if they are actively monitoring the most common review sites and reaching out to customers.

Social media pros use specialized tools to track company mentions in real time. Their responsiveness to customer inquiries will depend on your overall budget and the timeframes that are negotiated before the project begins.‍

5. How will social media content be created?

Since popular social channels need fresh streams of content, blogging along with photos, videos, GIFs and other multimedia are a necessity in order to keep followers engaged. This may include content from 3rd party news outlets as well to ensure a steady stream of content.

The type of content created and its frequency will be decided by an editorial calendar, which may be run by a social media contractor or the client. For those with limited budgets, it’s likely staff members doing most of the writing after a few quick training courses. Larger companies may have multiple bloggers generating content independently.‍

How Much Should I Expect to Pay?

Most social media consultants charge a flat monthly fee for the work they produce, although some do accept hourly rates for training sessions and smaller projects. Novice marketers may handle up to 6-8 small business accounts per month to keep their pricing competitive, while top-level professionals usually handle only 1-2 accounts at a time.

Corporate accounts are often run by a small team of individuals with varying specialties. This can bring a lot more value to clients with better monitoring software, dedicated writers/artists and much more experience with impressing influencers.

Summary

A social marketing consultant is therefore, not simply the person who uses marketing techniques to garner non-marketing benefits; he can also be a game changer or the factor behind the success and popularity of any company across various platforms and audiences.

Bringing in a change even if it’s for the betterment of the individual or the society is still extremely difficult, and it’s even more difficult when things like behavior changes come into picture, which is why the job of a social marketing consultant is not a run in the park. So, always remember failure is just a reminder that you need to work harder to achieve your goals. At the end of the day, there is no substitute to hard work.