3 Tips for Social Media Managers

Social media management isn’t the only thing I do—and, I’ll be honest, it’s not my favorite thing to do.

Back when I first got into marketing, I dreamed of being able to take on social media campaigns, writing witty Instagram captions, optimizing hashtags… I took on other roles in the meantime, like email marketing or blog writing. When I finally got to social media management, I realized that it’s not quite the walk-in-the-park that people think it is.

I do want to start off this blog post with a bit of a disclaimer and explanation: social media management is a challenging, difficult field. It requires a lot of work behind the scenes in analytics and strategy. It goes without saying: just because you happen to have a large number of followers on Instagram personally does not mean you can successfully run social media for brands. You know the basics, for sure! But these are not the same thing and a brand that is selling a product is going to want more from you than perhaps you understand.

This isn’t to say it’s not something to strive for. But I’ve found myself getting frustrated seeing very young girls on Instagram try to pivot to being SMMs…. just because they’ve grown their Instagram (sometimes through blogging groups, sometimes through buying followers) to 10,000 followers. Those simply aren’t the same thing. This might be a bit of gatekeeping on my end, but all I ask is that if you’re interested in this line of work, you understand what you’re getting into, what it means to offer social media management services to a business, and how serious it is to take a business’s money in exchange for results.

All that being said, if you’re new the social media management world, I hope this blog post is helpful to you! I wanted to share 3 pieces of information I’ve learned over the past 6 years that have helped me become better at my job.

1. Social media management requires cooperation between lots of different departments—so make sure you know the entire marketing plan and how you play into it.

Too often, businesses and brands want social media to exist on its own island. They don’t want to provide creative; they don’t want to hire a graphic designer; they don’t have a blog or if they do, they don’t think social media is related to that at all. They just want the results. This is such an incredibly common attitude and it comes from a place of not understanding marketing.

My advice here is this: if you suspect a client is like this, it’s a red flag. You aren’t ever going to be able to do your job effectively; your client is going to get frustrated at the questions you ask; and the relationship will sour pretty quickly.

Social media does not exist in a vacuum, completely separate from other pieces of the business; a good social media manager knows the company calendar, speaks to others in the marketing department, and plays a role in each part of developing a marketing plan for the year.

2. Managing expectations is 50% of your job.

Here’s an example from a client I had at an agency once. When we asked what his goal for social media was, this is what he said: “My goal is to spread rumors about my competition and destroy them politically.”

Yes. He said that.

He wanted to use social media ruthlessly. And unethically. After the meeting ended (it was via teleconference), I turned to my coworker and said, “That’s not something we can do.” She shrugged her shoulders and we both went about our days. I knew what was going to happen though: we would do one month of social media, he would get mad that he hadn’t gone “viral”, and he would refuse further services.

Which is exactly what happened.

The person i am now knows that, during that phone call, when he first made that statement, I should have said: “that expectation is unreasonable. Here are some better goals.” Or I could have talked him through the purpose of why he wanted to do that. Eventually, though, I would have adjusted and managed his expectations so we could provide a better service without burning a bridge entirely. However, I didn’t know that at the time.

Managing expectations is an important part of running any marketing services; your clients need to know what is realistic and what isn’t. Most likely, a furniture company in the midwest isn’t going to go viral—and if they do, it probably won’t be a good thing. The same goes for literally any business in any sense. Managing their expectations of social media, what they want, and what it can do is a critical part of your job—and unfortunately, it just takes practice and experience.

3. Social media is an on-going, rapidly changing business.

What worked for a client last year might not work this week. What was popular a few weeks ago no longer is. The things you expect to perform well suddenly won’t.

Social media management can be very frustrating in this way: you never actually know what’s going to take off and what will succeed. It’s always a bit of guessing game because things change constantly on all platforms.

Here’s an example: in March, many of my clients pulled all their social media when COVID19 shut downs hit. This just felt responsible. Most of them shifted to a week-by-week basis of social media content creation, which increased my stress and the amount of time I worked with each client. However, it was the responsible thing to do with so much changing.

We were just starting to get back on track when BLM protests erupted. Again, clients pulled their social media and social ads. It seems that every single week, something is changing on social media, requiring brands and businesses to reassess what they’re doing on social media. This requires me to be on my toes and able to pull posts at a moments notice. It also means that, in terms of community management (a huge part of being a social media manager), I have to work with their PR (or if they don’t have PR, be their PR) to provide the best possible responses.

A lot of “social media gurus” (again, these are people who grew large personal followings then tried to transition to being a social media manager in the loosest sense of the word—without being too harsh, they are charlatans and much of their advice for businesses is bad) offer these kits or services where you plan your social media months in advance. I can’t begin to explain to you what a bad idea that is.

Yes, plan your calendar out in advance; yes, have an idea of your plan for the year. But I’ve begun to realize that scheduling an entire month’s worth of content for a month or two at a time is a good way to make it so your client finds it challenging to pivot should anything need to change. And now more than ever as social media managers, we need to be able to guide our clients in a way that is ethical and responsible.

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Whew! I think that’s everything! Are you interested in social media management? I’m always up to chat about how I got into the industry, how I get clients, and more over on Instagram. Send me a note—I’d love to talk!

5 Tips for Marketing Your Brand During a Pandemic

I’m going to tell you a small annoyance I have: a lot of the women I follow who own businesses have tried to use the current social climate as an opportunity to sell more. To pivot their businesses, or increase their revenue. Here’s the thing: we’re all scared. We’re all nervous about what comes next because we simply don’t know.

One thing I always tell my clients is: you should never take advantage of certain situations to make sales. You can use a tragedy or a societal event to make sales. You can let those things guide your content. But that’s it.

To best illustrate this, here’s an example from back when I worked at an agency: after the devastating fires in California, one of our clients wanted to place targeted ads for their luxury products in the areas most effected by the fires. Their logic was that people needed a place to live, why not buy one of their products to live in?! I remember reading the emails, listening to the conversation, and thinking, “I don’t know how to make people have a heart.”

It goes without saying: we did not comply with their request. We recommended a few other options—such as gathering donations for those effected and driving them to the area, or donating a significant portion of sales percentages—and they didn’t like them. They wanted to make sales, period, on the backs of people who had lost everything they owned.

Friends, I can’t tell you how much this made me want to quit marketing. I think there are lots of misconceptions about marketing, but the one thing that is, occasionally, true is that some businesses will do anything to make money. The good thing is that many marketing agencies refuse to be as cutthroat as these businesses anymore: most agencies have high morals and a specific outlook on how to treat consumers. But battling with clients takes a lot of energy and clout.

I’ve been asked a lot lately about how businesses can best market their products right now. What is the right thing to do? What is the kind thing to do? How can you keep your business afloat and support your community and still participate in marketing so you don’t lose momentum?

Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve been telling my clients.

1. Use Common Sense.

It goes without saying, but: if it feels gross or wrong to do it, it probably is. Posting something that just doesn’t feel right… you probably already know it’s not right. Something that takes advantage of people’s fear (such as posting ads for masks or claiming products help or prevent COVID 19), or something that preys on people’s fears or insecurities… these aren’t good marketing practices even in the best of times.

In general, there are two rules here:

• Don’t post anything that can harm people. Will your marketing cause harm? Will it make people do something stupid (like rush out to buy something they do not need) out of fear or because they think what you said was true?

• Don’t make false claims. Right now, there is a lot of information out there on “this prevents COVID 19” or “this will keep you healthy.” The truth is there is no product you can buy and consume that will prevent you from getting COVID 19, so making claims otherwise is bullshit.

2. Chill Out on Heavy Sales.

Heavy sales-focused posts are going to rub most consumers wrong—and all marketers. I have been screenshotting ads that I feel are in poor taste. One I got recently was for a brand I love (I buy their products at Whole Foods all the time) and it was a special sale code using “COVID 19” or “STAY AT HOME” for a certain amount off. Big oof.

There is nothing wrong with advertising a sale right now. But make sure what you’re advertising is appropriate for the situation and you do so with care and kindness towards your community.

Here’s a good example:

• “We know many of us are at home, which is an incredible privilege. Right now, we are offering a sale on our X product; use code SUNDAY to get 10% off—and we’ll donate 10% of proceeds to [charity].”

Recognize and acknowledge that people might be struggling right now, especially financially.

3. Focus on Compassion.

Related to my last point: a lot of people are struggling now. Some mentally, some financially, some physically. People are ill. People are grieving.

Show some compassion.

If this means pivoting your content away from selling and more towards supporting your community (“what can I do for you? how can I help you? what charities should I donate to?”), then do it. If you have the ability, do it! It’s easy right now to be entirely focused on you and your business. We’re all worried, like I said. There is no point in trying to participate in the “worry Olympics” or trying to make hard times a competition. Yes, some people have it worse. We’re all struggling, though, and being kind of people is pretty much free.

Show some compassion to your customers. Send free product if you can. Cut people some slack.

4. We Don’t Need Another Work from Home Article.

Ok, I’m fully guilty of writing my own work from home article. But if I see one more huge brand posting their work from home tips, I’m going to scream.

After all, it was barely 6 months ago when a business in Eugene told me that they didn’t foresee a world where it was possible for people in my career to work 100% remotely and that asking to work from home so I could more effectively take care of my child was unrealistic. Who is laughing now, friends!? So yes, it sucks to see that very same business churning out work from home content, taking care of your children content, etc. It’s just frustrating for those of us who know that at least some of these businesses have not effectively supported the women or men in their employ who need the ability to work from home, either due to children, commute issues, or disabilities.

So, in short: we don’t need any more work from home content. We just need compassion, support, and a good laugh.

5. Think On Your Feet.

Things are changing every single day. Being able to pivot your content on a moment’s notice is going to be important. For many brands, the ability to stop their content right at the beginning of March was challenging, but it’s taught us one thing: as much as social media managers (like me!) like to have content planned and scheduled months in advance… the reality is that’s probably not an effective strategy in a world where things can change in a moment’s notice.

This also applies to replying to consumer complaints; being able to take on your followers (customers, fans, however you refer to them!) challenges and issues will be part of your strategy from here on out. Seeing a ton of the same complaint? The same issue? How can you help? Can you think of a meaningful response on the spot?

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I hope these tips help you market your brand in an uneasy time! Have additional suggestions or ideas? Let me know in the comments

What Is a Sales Funnel (And Do I Need One?!)

If you’re a blogger who wants to make money, or a small business owner who wants to use your website to make more sales, then you need a sales funnel.

But for many people, they simply don’t know what that is. And we can’t create something to make our lives easier if we don’t know what it is or why we need it. So let’s talk about it. In this blog post, I’ll break down what a sales funnel is, the steps to creating one, how to automate effectively, and finally, provide a full example of a sales funnel.

First and foremost, before we talk about what a sales funnel is, let’s talk about why you need one. Let’s look at an example and I’ll use this example throughout the blog post. In our example, our business owner is named Sarah and she runs an Etsy shop that sells primarily personalized nursery signs, as well as other personalized art pieces and printables. Sarah has a decent number of sales on her Etsy shop, but wants to see that number increase—however, her art takes up a significant amount of her time, so she doesn’t want to have to spend hours of her day posting on social media, toying with ads, and more.

How can Sarah use social media and her existing blog and website effectively to increase sales?

The answer is a sales funnel. It will take some time to get set up and require a little bit of effort at first, but as time passes, she’ll be able to focus less and less time on it—and more time on her art.

Sarah needs a sales funnel because it will help drive sales to her Etsy store, give her a list of potential customers to turn to whenever she needs it, and give her control over that list of potential customers.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a fancy way of saying: a system that drives potential customers from free content to paid content or products (or services).

The widest part of the funnel is the entry step: lots of people will enter, but not everyone will get to the bottom of the funnel. The middle part of the funnel is where you provide more and more targeted content. The bottom of the funnel is making a sale. That’s it!

However, a sales funnel won’t be the exact same for every single business or individual. Let’s talk about design.

How to Design a Sales Funnel

Think of a sales funnel as a customer’s journey towards buying your product. You want to be on their mind every single step of the way: invested in your brand, your product, and what both can do for them. For that to be helpful, you need to know who your ideal customer is and what motivates them.

What do they want from your product? From your content? What would be most helpful to them?

If you’re already making sales, what questions do you find yourself answering the most? What things do you notice customers needing?

And more specifically, besides your product and service, what is your customer interested in? What draws them in?

Once you answer all these questions, you can create a profile of an ideal customer. You’ve probably heard of these before; you can give this ideal customer a name, but you don’t necessarily have to. If you have more than one ideal customer profile, you can create a group of them. Once you have an idea of your ideal customer, you can design a sales funnel for one ideal customer (if you have a group of them as an example).

Let’s look at our example: Sarah sells personalized nursery signs, as well as other personalized art pieces. Her ideal customer for this sales funnel is currently pregnant women, aged 22-38, who enjoy: Pinterest, home design shows like Fixer Upper, and Instagram influencers like Elsie Larson. They want to design their nurseries to be beautiful, but functional, and want to learn more about design. That’s Sarah’s ideal customer; we’ll call her Helen. Now, what would be the first step towards getting Helen to make a purchase?

Step 1: Provide free content.

Starting with Sarah’s website, what content would Sarah post to attract potential customers like Helen? Here is what I would outline for Sarah:

• Design-focused content

• Nursery-focused content

• Using Pinterest as a promotion method

Sarah might consider questions that her customers typically ask, such as: “Can I see some examples of nurseries where you have signs hanging?” or “What are the best ways to hang this sign?” She might consider content that:

• Centers around customer photos of how they’ve styled their signs (in a style that would attract a potential customer like Helen)

• Provides the best additional decor to style her products

With providing free content, regardless of your product and service, there is a thin line to walk between providing your services for free and providing just enough value that customers remain interested. Provide enough free content that aligns with Helen’s interests and Helen will become a fan.

Step 2: Create an email list where you provide consistent (still free) content.

The first time Helen finds a blog post from Sarah, she might get a pop up with a CTA to join Sarah’s email list. She might skip that for the time being. By clicking Sarah’s blog post from Pinterest, however, she’s still entered the funnel—she just hasn’t moved down a step. But let’s say a week later, Helen returns to that blog post; she wants to see those signs again and how customer’s have styled them in a farmhouse style.

She returns to Sarah’s blog post, because she saved it to a board on Pinterest, and gets that pop up again. She decides to sign up for Sarah’s mailing list.

Congratulations! She has moved down the funnel.

By providing great free content, Sarah attracted Helen as a fan. By having an email pop up, she invited Helen to join her mailing list and receive even more tailored, free content.

No matter what product or service you offer, you need an email list. Read that twice, please. It doesn’t matter if you started your website or blog yesterday. Sign up for Mailchimp or Mailerlite and get your email list going now. Why is that? Because with an email list, you own those subscribers. Your website can go down or Instagram might get deleted, but no one can take your email list from you.

Step 3: Use your email list to launch low-cost products.

Sarah uses her email newsletter to highlight new products in her shop and provide styling options. Every month, she styles a sample sign in a different style or creates a piece of personalized art to style. This keeps her potential customers interested and aware of her products.

She also occasionally offers discounts on products in her email. She might offer 20% off orders for Valentine’s Day or 31% off orders for Halloween. No matter what, she provides a way for her subscribers, and her subscribers only, to receive a discount on her products.

Your newsletter and email list should be a place for you to continue to provide valuable content for your potential customers: your list isn’t purely to sell to. If you only send them sales-focused emails, you will see a lot of unsubscribes. For businesses like Sarah’s that sell products, using a newsletter that highlights new products and continues to provide valuable, ideal customer focused information is the best option. However, for other businesses, sending a newsletter that only provides value for a while is your best bet; an example here would be if you are a coaching service, you would want to send essentially shortened blog posts that answer common questions or that advertise your (already free) blog posts. You would only occasionally send an email advertising your services. Let’s talk about why.

Step 4: Use that warmed up email list to sell high-cost products or services.

Using her newsletter to continue to provide value to her customers, while also advertising her products, is an important part of the funnel. Helen might just read the first 3 or 4 newsletters she receives; but in that 4th or 5th one, she sees a 30% discount for signs and decides to finally go for it. Congratulations! Helen has gone through the entire funnel!

But let’s go to that other example: if you’re a coach, what you’re selling is a service, not a product. It might cost more than a personalized sign. In this case, you would use your email list to warm up potential customers. Send them 4-5 emails in a drip campaign (this means they receive constant, small pieces of content designed to move them through your sales funnel) that aren’t about making a sale: these are purely to provide information. If you were a content coach, like I am, you might send emails about writing better Instagram captions, that show the data behind Instagram and making sales on Etsy stores, and more. Then, you might end that drip campaign with a single email that advertises your product or service. This gives your subscribers more of a chance to purchase from you—because they know you, they know your service, and they know that you know what you’re doing.

Think of your email list as a select group of people who love your blog content—but also want more from you. This is your chance to really flex your knowledge, show off your products & services, answer questions before they ask them, and then advertise what you do best. It might take a while to warm your email list up as much as you’d like, but having a plan for emails every month to provide the most information you can without giving your business away for free will keep them coming back for more.

What’s Next?

So, you know what a sales funnel is and we’ve walked through the primary steps. When creating your own sales funnel, it will probably be helpful to refer to this blog post and these steps. As you outline your plan, write out what you plan to do—and then write the steps of those plans separately. This might look something like this:

• Step 1: Provide valuable content on setting up your first blog

  • Blog posts include: [topic 1], [topic 2], and [topic 3]

  • Promote on Pinterest and Instagram

  • Instagram hashtags include: [examples]

  • Instagram accounts to tag include: [examples]

  • Instagram story to promote needs hashtags [1, 2, and 3]

That will help you not just create a funnel, but create a plan for the content you want to create, including social media posts, Pinterest pins, and more. From there, outlining email sequences, what products or services you want to highlight first, and more will be incredibly helpful. If you have a network of fellow bloggers or business owners, asking them to promote your blog posts can be extremely helpful as well.

I’ve created a small template you can use to outline your initial steps.

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps you design a sales funnel to improve your business. If you need help with any step, please don’t hesitate to send me a note.

How I Grew My Pinterest Engagement by 400% Without Really Trying

I’ve been looking forward to writing this blog post for a while now. Here’s why: I think Pinterest is a bit of a mystery to a lot of people, especially woman-owned businesses. They might use it personally (nearly every woman I know has a Pinterest account), but they might not be using it for their business. And if they are, they might not be using it effectively.

This blog post isn’t just for bloggers looking to increase traffic, by the way. This blog post is for:

• Business owners

• Anyone selling a product to women between the ages of 18-45

• Bloggers

Here’s the rundown of what I’m about to tell you: I increased my engagement on Pinterest by 400% without…

• paying for Tailwind (too expensive)

• spending hours on Pinterest

• more effort than checking in once a day

I noticed this increase most starkly this month, but it’s been steadily building for the past 6 months, ever since I put in renewed efforts to build a strategy. I am cheap, however, and didn’t want to pay for something like Tailwind. This is all just me, Pinterest.com, and the Pinterest app.

Let’s jump in.

(Pst, if you’d like to check out my Pinterest, you can do so here.)

Analytics

Here are my analytics on Pinterest for the month of July:

And here are my analytics on Pinterest for the month of August:

Between May and June, my impressions varied between 19,000 and 21,000 per month. (For whatever reason, I don’t have full analytics for those months on Pinterest. It may be a switch in their built-in analytics programs.)

That’s a pretty significant jump over 4 months, right? And like I said, I didn’t spend money on it and I didn’t dedicate hours of my day to it.l

So what did I do?! Let me tell you.

Methods

When it comes to me and basic methods for social media, there are no secrets. I realize a lot of people would put this information behind a paywall and it’s one of my biggest annoyances. I’ve signed up for tons of free Pinterest (or Facebook or whatever) webinars and sat through them, only for it to be 10 minutes of basic information (like “make a Pinterest account” DUH!) and 20 minutes of selling me a bigger webinar or e-course.

Sorry, not interested.

Here’s what I did over the last 4 months:

• For each blog post I posted (which admittedly wasn’t a ton), I created 3-4 additional Pinterest graphics. This was because I was testing what worked best on Pinterest. I don’t have a concrete answer on that, by the way.

• I then pinned each blog post at least the week it was posted. Usually, I did this all as one on Saturday morning. Then I would schedule the different Pinterest graphics over the next few days. All of these pins initially went to my specific board for my blog posts.

• From there, I pinned each blog post pin to my group boards.

• Throughout the week, I would check each day and pin each varied Pin as it posted to my group boards.

That’s literally it! That’s all I did! I just kept up this weekly and daily task list every single week for four months.

It does seem time consuming. But let’s break it down.

• On average for the past few months, I’ve been posting maybe 2 blog posts a week. In total, each blog post might take me 2 hours.

• It might take me an additional hour to great 8 different Pinterest graphics.

• On Saturday, it took me on average about 2 hours to write unique Pins for each blog post and Pin/schedule.

• Every day, sharing pins to my group boards took maybe 30 minutes.

In total, that’s 7 hours for writing blog posts, creating graphics, and posting on Pinterest. However, 4 of those hours I’m already doing anyway in the form of writing and scheduling blog posts. Then, in total per week, I spent 3 1/2 hours on Pinterest throughout the week. That’s definitely less time than I spend on Twitter and Instagram. (Is that embarrassing?!)

Here’s a few additional things I did throughout these 4 months as well:

• Checking daily Pinterest trends (if you press the search box to type, you can see trends for you specifically as well as trends throughout Pinterest). If I saw any trends that correlated to blog posts I had, I immediately repinned those blog posts to my group boards.

• If I had seasonal posts that I thought might be relevant, I would also repin those. In mid-August, I started to notice a steady increase in engagement on my Blogtober pins from 2018 and 2017, so I began sharing those Pins to my group boards as well.

• I created Pinterest-specific graphics for my affiliate codes, announcements, and sponsored posts. These included information that people needed without having to jump to my blog; it helped increase uses of my affiliate codes as well as my traffic. I was slightly worried that giving away the free bit wouldn’t help my traffic, but I was wrong. It helped a lot!

A Note on Group Boards

As you can see, I rely on group boards a lot on Pinterest. I am hesitant to make suggestions for group boards, as these aren’t ones I own. I don’t necessarily want to be held responsible for the rules or content should anyone disagree! However, if you would like suggestions, please don’t hesitate to send me a note and I’ll send a few links over.

As well, if you would be interested in a group board with me, let me know.

Do I expect to see results forever?

“Forever”—what a funny way to phrase that!

To I expect to see these massive increases in engagement (and subsequently, my blog traffic) forever using these methods? No. I think this was a good way for me to get started and get the ball rolling, so to speak. As I continue to tweak my methods, I expect to have to change things and, eventually, I know It will be beneficial to me to start using different methods, including paying for tools and streamlining my methods.

However, I wanted to share this method I’ve used because I see so much advice about Pinterest that literally boils down to “pay for this tool!” I don’t know about you, but I am so hesitant about paying for things that I feel I can do for free, at least for right now. In the future, that may not be the case, but it is for me right now at this moment (given being recently laid off!)

Now, it’s time for you: do you have questions about Pinterest?

Blogging & Business: I'm Going Freelance (& You Can Too)

I’ve sat down to write this blog post over and over, not knowing really what to say. Originally, I knew it was basically going to be all about what happened to me, and my job (which I loved, as most people knew), and how I am now seeking out different opportunities in order to keep doing what I love. But I realized that when it comes down to it, it’s not just about me: it’s about me, and what it’s like to work for a business as a woman or a mother or both.

Every mother I know has looked for ways to work from home, or work for themselves, in a way that is meaningful. Working full-time, or even part-time, as a mother is incredibly challenging. But I don’t think this is confined to just women who happen to be mothers: I know lots of women, from college age into their 40s wonder if working for themselves would be more beneficial. It’s something I toyed with—taking on freelance clients if they specifically reached out to me, but not actively seeking them out—for years before now.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Let’s start at the big bad: what happened.

As I’ve alluded to in posts, and written about on Instagram, I got laid off mid-way through July. July 17 to be exact. It’s definitely going to be one of those dates I remember forever, you know? July 17, the day the company I worked at for 5 whole years closed forever. It was devastating. I spent most of that day sobbing off and on. We’d only been aware for a week in total that it might happen and thought we had more time; until the end of July at least! It’s the worst position to be in: to know you’re going to get laid off in the future, then have it happen about 2.5 weeks early.

Before we knew it, it was over and we were out of jobs and everything felt very up in the air. Everything is still very confusing and there’s a lot going on.

But that’s not really the point of this post. The point of this post is this: I knew it was time for something different.

Sometimes, we all know when our time with a company is coming to an end. It might not be a big thing that happens—it might not even be totally negative. It’s just a moment where you think, it’s time for me to move on or this isn’t working for me, even though I love my job. I had had lots of little moments like that before being laid off, but I loved my job, I loved my boss, I loved what I did… and going freelance scared me. Really bad.

Changing jobs scared me too. I was so used to working for one company: I understood my boss and my coworkers and all the processes I needed to be successful.

No matter what, I was in a position where I was going to be incredibly uncomfortable. I got laid off—that sucked! Now I had two options: go freelance or find another job. Both were scary. But both were my only options.

So on July 18, I put on my big girl pants and went for it. I dove in. I sent emails to all the contacts I had. I started posting blog posts and regular posts and articles on LinkedIn (and interacting on LinkedIn in ways I never had before. I even impressed myself, honestly). I made phone calls and signed up for a CRM (seriously). I let people send emails for me, connect me to other people. I got a lot of Nos in the first week. And then in the 2nd week.

I’ve thankfully managed to sign a few clients for the month of August and into September so far. But thankfully, I already had the groundwork covered (by being 25% focused on freelancing even before deciding it was going to be my 100% set up)and I had some contacts who I could thankfully turn to when I needed help.

On Instagram on Tuesday, I asked for any questions people might have about going freelance, or working for myself. I wanted to share a few of them and answer them here to give you a better idea of how I make it work (so far—I’m by no means an expert at this point!) and if you can make it work yourself.

1. What skills do you need to freelance?

This totally depends on what freelance work you are actually doing. I am a freelance content strategist and copywriter. That means, I need the following “hard” skills (that is, the skills that actually allow me to have the expertise to offer my services):

• Copywriting for digital marketing

• Copy editing

• Knowledge of all aspects of copywriting I’m offering (social media, blogs, email marketing, and website content)

• Strategy writing for all aspects of marketing I’m offering

However, in addition to these hard skills, freelancers universally need soft skills too. Soft skills are not related to the services you offer whatsoever, but rather area entirely focused on customer service and prospecting. Here’s a few examples of soft skills:

• Networking

• Customer service

• Invoicing

• Sales

Yeah, unfortunately, freelancing includes a lot of sales skills. Thankfully, by working at an agency (and before that, in sales-focused businesses), I have absorbed some basics of sales by osmosis. It’s definitely not my forte, but it is something I know I need to do. Networking is a secondary part of that that has also never been my cup of tea, but is becoming increasingly necessary as time has gone on. And again: sometimes trying something new means being uncomfortable for a while.

2. What do I need to know about getting clients?

The truth is, getting clients is hard. You will have a ton of people reach out for services if you network, advertise yourself, and make an effort—but if those people all end up paying you, I’ll eat my hat. And my socks. And my whole house. Because it’s just not something that happens.

I’ve had a lot of prospects that I was sure would be immediate Yes’s. Without going into too much detail, the first people I reached out to were clients of my work, who I already helped with their marketing writing. I thought it would be a slam dunk to sign them on for at least a few months, even with me as an “interim” solution while they found another agency. Every single phone call went like this:

Me: So the amount I would charge would be $xxx each month, and that includes writing, graphic design, and scheduling.

Them: super sharp intake of breath followed by an intense gasp

Every. Single. Time.

A younger version of myself would have immediately said, “But it’ll be less for you! Ha ha ha! I was just joking!” But I set my rates in a very specific way to ensure that I would have the money I needed to 1) live and 2) pay for all the tools I need. (More on this later.)

I guess what I’m saying is: even if you have everything set up correctly, getting clients can be really difficult. But you can’t let yourself be discouraged. That’s easier said than done, obviously.

Getting clients that work for you requires knowing what kind of clients you want to begin with, knowing how to talk to them, being firm about what your prices and what you need from them to succeed, and perseverance. You know, simple things.

3. What’s the tax situation?

First things first, we’ll found out in January.

Just kidding. The tax situation is this: I found a (freelance) accountant almost immediately and asked a ton of questions. Then I called my local Chamber of Commerce to ask if they knew the process. From there, I was able to determine how to set up my business (as myself) in a way that made sense.

I highly recommend that if you’re thinking of going freelance, and you’re reading this blog post, you call local people to help you. Don’t follow the advice of some random article you find on the internet that tells you what to do specifically. Not only will you make connections with your local government and another local business, you will be able to better understand what you need to do.

Long story short, talk to people you trust about the situation and that means professionals in your specific area. You don’t want to mess up this portion. (I know I definitely don’t; it’s been my number one concern.)

4. How do you set your rates? / How do you budget for a family?

Oof, isn’t this the biggest question? I got probably 20 different versions of this question:

• How do I set prices?

• How do I know what to charge?

• What if I charge too much?

• What if I charge too little?

The truth is, what you charge will depend on the market rate for services in your area. Unfortunately, that means having knowledge of what other freelancers charge and potentially what agencies are charging. As well, what you charge will depend on your own personal budget. Here’s what I did.

• I knew that I had to charge what would 1) cover the cost of my workflow products, 2) cover my own bills (aka pay myself a wage that is livable), and 3) allow me to save enough to cover any potential tax burden.

• I knew I had to charge competitively, but as only one person, I also could not charge as much as a full-scale agency.

• I knew I needed to charge differently for one-time services versus on-going retainer-type services.

My prices are based almost entirely on how many hours I think something will take, plus how much I think I’ll need to retain for taxes; my hourly rate is based purely on making sure that after taxes, I have enough leftover. I realize that sounds more complicated than it needs to. For the sake of transparency, as of right now, here’s what I charge for everything:

• $500 full SEO audit for up to 1,000 pages (any huge websites will cost more, obviously)

• $800 for social media strategy & workflow

• $800 per month for on-going social media content creation, scheduling, and reporting

• $500 for blog strategy, plus $250 per blog post including keyword research

• $50 consult fee to discuss needs

These prices allow me to determine how many things I need to do each month to pay myself a livable wage. Let’s say that at the very least, I need $1500 pay to pay my own bills; that needs I need at least $3000 in client services. That means I have space for:

• 6 SEO audits

• 3 social media strategies

• 3 total social media clients

• 6 Blog strategies

• or any combination of them

If there are spaces on my roster, I will post about them to LinkedIn; let’s say I’m at $2000 for the month of September in booked services. So I’d post on LinkedIn that I have space for: 1 social media strategy and 1 blog strategy, or 2 SEO audits.

I hope that makes sense.

(As a note, if I get any comments telling me that my prices are too low/too high, or I shouldn’t share my prices, just an advanced warning: I don’t care what you think!)

(If you’re interested in freelance services, you can send me an email here. I do offer some need-based discounts.)

5. How do you budget for a family?

This is the number one question I got and I totally get it. I have a family, a new house, a car payment, everything. How can I feel secure and stable as a freelancer with that? Knowing that my income is based entirely on my work ethic and hustle for the month before.

The truth is: right now, I don’t really have an answer. Right now, I don’t feel super stable in my freelance business, because it’s very new. I’m sure I will eventually as I get into a rhythm and find a way of making it work for me. The best advice I can give is to set your prices to be fair to you and your business; don’t lower prices just because someone says you should or says they can’t afford you; take jobs that you think will be beneficial to you and your family. And most importantly, work hard and do good work so you get more high quality clients.

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Well, that’s it!

Is freelance the right career for you? I think it so depends on you and your circumstances. Only you know the answer to that, but if you are, I’m here and ready to chat. Send me a DM on Instagram, I’d love to hear from you!

5 Tips for Managing Your Blog's Facebook

I'll be the first to admit that my blog's Facebook page is often the last thing on my list. I can stay on top of Twitter and Instagram easy; Pinterest, I tend to fall behind on; and Facebook? If I have time, I'll throw a post Facebook's way... but not usually. 

However, I've been researching and researching to find out the best ways to manage Facebook without actually spending a ton of time on it. My time is limited and I'd rather have my 30 minutes of relaxing by scrolling through Instagram than having an extra 30 minutes of work (is that lazy?). Here's what I discovered. 

1. Use a scheduling tool that doesn't suck. 

The secret to managing social media, as most people know by now, is using a scheduling tool. I'm on the record as hating Hootsuite; it's probably my least favorite app, and yet, it's insanely popular. It's ugly; it's wonky; and accounts constantly need refreshed to stay connected. No thanks. 

I recently started using Later and it's a game changer. Later allows you to connect 3 accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are my go-tos) and you have about 30 posts per platform per month in the free version. That's one for each day. Not bad! Later is also visually based, so it allows you to store your best photos and use those, instead of having to constantly uploard and re-upload each individual photo. Genius. 

2. Pick a schedule that works for you. 

Some articles suggest that you should post on Facebook as much as possible. Obviously, this naturally increases your reach--but it doesn't necessarily increase your engagement. In fact, it puts you at risk of annoying your followers. I post once every two days on Facebook (when I, uh, make the effort) because I just find this works best for me. 

3. Write Facebook-specific content. 

Occasionally, it's nice to write a Facebook-specific post--like a special announcement, a giveaway, something, anything. You can promote it in your other social media channels, but since Facebook has a higher character limit, it's a great place to play with micro-blogs and experimental content (like, say, a baking feature you've been thinking of adding to your lifestyle blog). 

4. Tease blog posts. 

Facebook is a great place to tease future blog posts: to provide that little sneak peak at what's coming next. Again, you can promote these sneak peaks on other social media channels, but thanks to that character limit, Facebook is a great place to get feedback and hype people up.  

5. Don't stress about numbers. 

One thing I've learned from my day job is that Facebook numbers deviate more than any other social media channel. Facebook's algorithm (like Instagram's these days) is incredibly wonky. Some days, I will have only blogs I follow have posts in my timeline; the next day, it's all my mom friends. There really doesn't seem to be a correlation. So above all else, if the numbers jump around week-to-week, don't stress about it. It will even out! 

10 Quotes to Use on Instagram

I've written before about how I struggle with Instagram captions. It's definitely a challenge for me to write engaging content both on my blog and on so many social media platforms! But I'm trying... I started thinking recently about quotes that can be used in captions to add a bit of humor, thought, and, of course, engagement. I found a few great ones on Pinterest that I thought would be perfect to share. 

1. Everybody has a chapter they don't read out loud. 
2. Better an "oops" than a "what if." 
3. "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." ee cummings 
4. We look up at the stars and see such different things. 
5. "Maybe one day we'll finally learn to love ourselves and stop apologizing for the things that make us who we are." R.M. Drake
6. "Of course I feel too much, I'm a universe of exploding stars." S. Ajna 
7. We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone. 
8. You can ask the universe for all the signs you want, but ultimately, we see what we want to see when we're ready to see it. 
9. Don't let someone dim your light, simply because it's shining in their eyes. 
10. When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars. 

For more great Instagram captions, I always turn to Pinterest. You can follow me here. 

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How to Write Better Instagram Captions

Instagram is a social media platform that I really struggle with. I don't like themes (expect a post on this soon) and I don't really get the need to make my house, or life, or child, or self, seem perfect. Sometimes, I feel really jealous over curated Instagram profiles because it just seems to take so much work. 

One of the most challenging parts of Instagram is writing captions. Seriously, captions. I can have a good photo and a good idea. But then I'm stuck, staring at that caption box. Like, what do I put here? What works? 

I gathered up a few resources to come up with a few ideas. Here they are. 

1. Write to engage. 

This is something I struggle with. When I post photos, I try to post something I think is funny or related to the photo. But on Instagram, when it comes to getting people's attention, there is a benefit to writing something that engages other people. This is a great post on doing just that. 

2. Be brief. 

Does this feel like it is at odds with that first point? A little bit. But here's the truth: it's possible to write engaging captions, without going on for sentences. I definitely try to keep my captions two sentences or less. Although I follow some great accounts (like my friend @poesyross) who use longer captions to great effect. For more about writing with brevity, click here. 

3. Make sure to edit. 

This goes without saying: before you hit post, make sure to proofread. I've definitely hit post before write as I notice a glaring, huge typo on my post. Oops. Not the most professional looking, for sure. For more on editing for length & more, click here. 

4. Use a quote. 

Here's the thing: sometimes, there just aren't words. You have a great photo. You know what time you need to post for maximum engagement. You have everything ready. Except words. Grab your favorite (related) quote, add a question, and post it with your favorite hashtags. Easy peasy. Pinterest is a great source for great quotes. Click here to view some!