Launchest

How to start a social media marketing business.

How To Get New Clients For Your Social Media Business

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The process of getting clients for your social media business takes time, and it never stops. You must be prepared to actively network, prospect, send out proposals, and close new business. Consider the time required for these prospecting activities:

  • Networking is one of the best ways to build relationships. There’s something to be said about a good old-fashioned in-person handshake and meeting. When you put yourself out there, people start to know who you are. You need to build awareness, and networking is one of the best ways to get in front of your target audience.
  • Offer a free presentation on social media to a local business group. This can build awareness and credibility for your business. Fast track this idea and sign up HERE for Launchest. We’ve already built the presentations (plus a WEALTH of additional materials and tools to help build your business) so all you need to do is add your logo and get to work!
  • Build an active presence online. Not only will prospective clients expect you to “walk the talk” but online visibility can drive a significant amount of new business. Plan to spend time each week promoting your business online through your website, social media, and more.

Whether you’re building a freelance side hustle or a social media agency, understand the time it takes for prospecting and build this into your day to day activities so you’re always working on building your business.

Why You Need Social Media Training + Experience

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If you have or are considering a career in social media, proper training and experience is critical. You need to start with a solid skill set that comes from formal training, often found in accredited certification programs. You also need a plan to stay current with the ever-changing industry or you will lose business to someone who’s just a little bit smarter or learned something new just a little faster than you did.

To have a successful career in social media, do these three things:

  • Get Social Media Certified. Boot Camp Digital’s Online Social Media Certification program is 40+ hours of online digital marketing classes and great for people who are self-disciplined and like to work at their own pace, on their own time. This robust online course teaches you how to turn ideas into action and get better results faster. Boot Camp Digital also offers an intense 4 day Live Boot Camp in 4 cities, which is a great fit for people who learn more in a classroom environment and want to get certified in just 4 days.
  • Keep up with trends. With access to the right resources you can keep up with the latest and greatest in social media updates and news by spending only about an hour per month. Boot Camp Digital has a Digital Marketing Insiders Group for social media pros to stay up-to-date.
  • Sharpen your skills. Be active on social media for your own brand, work on client projects, and if you’re just starting out in social media, consider taking on a pro-bono or low-fee client to build your portfolio. This can take as much time as you have to dedicate to it. The more you do, the better you’ll get so just get started!

The formula for success as a social media marketer is to always be learning and improving.

3 Steps to Building Social Media Skill Set

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social media training, social media certification, social media class

The idea of having your own freelance social media business or social media marketing agency might seem exciting, but there’s one critical thing that you need to know before you get started.

You need a solid social media skill set before you start your business.

Not just a basic understanding.

Not proficiency from a user perspective. (Just because you are on Facebook every day for personal use doesn’t mean you’re an expert at using it for business success.)

You need real knowledge. You need to understand the fundamentals, strategy, execution, and analysis of social media campaigns.

A certification in social media marketing is a big step in the right direction. And you also need a plan to stay current with the ever-changing industry. Here are 3 steps to upskill and set yourself up for success as a social media marketer:

  1. Get Social Media Certified. Boot Camp Digital’s social media certification is 70+ hours of online digital marketing classes. Most people earn their certification in 30 days or less.
  2. Keep up with trends. With access to the right resources you can keep up with the latest and greatest social media news by spending only about an hour per month. Boot Camp Digital has a Digital Marketing Insiders Group for social media pros to stay up-to-date.
  3. Sharpen your skills. Be active on social media for your own brand, work on client projects, and if you’re just starting out in social media consider taking on a pro-bono or low-fee client to build your portfolio. This can take as much time as you have to dedicate to it.

If you’re smart about planning, you can build a skill set that starts out strong and improves over time. What are you waiting for?

Hire Slow, Fire Fast – Trust Your Gut!

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If you do the opposite, you’re destined to learn this lesson the hard way. When you are building your team, don’t make this critical mistake that could cost you your agency.

Following the mantra of hire slow, fire fast, will guide you through the process of finding the right talent and into the journey of growing and running your business with a great team.

But when businesses forget the importance of taking their time to build the team, and knowing when to cut bait fast when something ins’t working out, everything starts to derail. Consider the following story, where “hire slow, fire fast” would have produced a completely different (and better) result.

A small business was growing at a rapid rate and in desperate need of some experts to add to the team. They needed someone to fill a position fast. Proposals were going out, work was coming in, and the entire team was beyond capacity. So when a seemingly qualified candidate entered their office, everyone jumped on the hire-fast train. They were excited because, on paper, he was a perfect fit. So they hired him, fast.

But it didn’t take long until the red flags started to appear. It wasn’t anything major at first. No seriously unethical behavior. But, it was very clear that it was not a good culture fit. But something like that seems petty and the business wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just a personality conflict, they thought. But then clients started canceling contracts. New proposals were taking weeks to go out. Business was suffering. Red flag!

But the sad part of this story is that the business didn’t fire fast. They did quite the opposite. They took almost a year to make the decision. Despite the mutual “gut feeling” around the office that everyone just didn’t feel like it was a good fit, and then the glaring fact that business was suffering, they just didn’t take action. This happens a lot in business. No one wants to fire a person. It doesn’t feel good and it can have a really bad impact on an entire family. So even if business is suffering, the business will make the decision to protect the individual vs. the business.

What happened in that year almost took down the entire agency. Clients were canceling contracts, proposals were stalling out, new business was dwindling, and employees were quitting because the company culture just sucked.

But here’s the thing, when you are running a business, you have to take emotion out of it. Hiring an employee, while it may seem like the advice is similar to dating (take it slow but stick to your ethics and break up if there’s a deal breaker), this is not dating. It’s business. And you could very well be sacrificing the livelihood of an entire team of people to save the feelings of one person who should take responsibility for their own actions.

So what can you learn from this?

Hire Slow: Check references, make calls. Don’t just go with what looks good on paper. If they are leaving a current job, talk to their supervisor or coworkers and ask for a reference. Look them up on LinkedIn and see if you have any mutual connections who you can reach out to for a reference. Spend some time with them too. Have lunch or coffee with a few members of your team and see how your personalities mesh. One of the best interviews I ever had was one where I sat in a room with the team and we talked about the type of music we like, our favorite foods, and what we like to do for fun. From that experience, we all knew that I was a good fit for the company, and ended up staying there over 10 years!

Fire Fast: Trust your gut. If something seems off, investigate. Don’t fall victim to office gossip, but pay attention to the things being said around the water cooler. Ultimately, the proof is in the results so if you have a sense that someone isn’t a good fit, AND business is suffering as a direct result of their efforts (or lack thereof), it might be time to let them go.

Power Tip! When hiring, begin the relationship with a trial period that is contingent on one project with a solid end date. If things are working out, then you offer them a position. But if they aren’t working out, you simply thank them at the end of the contract term, offer some constructive feedback if you have it, and tell them you’ll let them know if more work comes up.

Here’s the bottom line…

You can’t afford to have someone on your team who isn’t contributing to the overall success of your business and positive company culture. You literally can’t afford it. One bad hiring decision may cost you your business. Leave emotion out of it. Don’t be a jerk, but don’t sacrifice your livelihood to save someone’s feelings, especially if they are hurting your business. We’re only human and we all make mistakes, but know the difference between something that is teachable and something that is not fixable. It’s much easier to train someone who is a good culture fit, than to have a smart person on staff who doesn’t have the best interests of the business in mind.

8 Time Management Tips for Social Media Marketers

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When you are managing social media for multiple clients, efficiency is the key to success. Time is money and the more time you can buy yourself by using efficiency tools, the more revenue you can generate for your social media business.

These 8 tips will help you make smart decisions about the tools you use to manage social media, so you can maximize the results that you get while minimizing your efforts.

  1. Consider ROI in everything
    You must consider ROI in everything you do. Only plan to do things that are likely to give you a good return or good result. Spend time where it counts the most. If you know the potential return then don’t invest more than what you can expect to get back. What is the anticipated value of what you’re doing? You could ask yourself – is this going to lead to more sales? Keep this in mind when you’re deciding what to do. Focus on the things that are the best use of your resources.
  2. Be disciplined
    Schedule the time to manage your accounts each day and make it part of your routine. If you don’t schedule time to work on specific tasks, then you just have a big to-do list that will never get done.Power Tip! Set a time limit for certain tasks and make it a goal to spend less time completing tasks. You could spend 1 hour writing a blog post or 5 hours. But if you spend 5 hours, it’s not going to be 5 times as good, right? Set a limit for yourself and get into a good habit so you spend less time on tasks.
  3. Have a plan
    A content calendar will help you organize content for the next month (or several months). It’s a great way to make sure you’re posting a consistent message across all channels and not missing any gaps. There’s nothing worse than remembering at the last minute that there was an event you should be posting about and then your entire day derails as you scramble to pull content together.
  4. Checklists
    Know what you want to achieve every time you login. Checklists are super helpful because they keep you on track and focused on the activities that are important. Follow the checklist so you don’t get distracted. As part of your Launchest program, you will have access to our library of checklists for all major social media networks and more!
  5. Limit distractions
    Social media and all of the notifications that come with it can be extremely distracting. Turn off the notifications that are distracting you and only keep the ones that are useful. You don’t need to know every time you have a new fan, but you do need to know every time a comment is left on your page.
  6. Integrate Social Media Into Your Other Activities
    Look for opportunities to create social media content with other marketing efforts. What other marketing activities do your clients do, and how can you add a social element? Create content on-the-go with a mobile device, and encourage your team and your client’s team to be proactive in creating content for social media where they are already marketing.
  7. Test, Learn, and Improve
    Test and learn so you can become more efficient and effective. How do you know what works? Set your objective, align all content to that objective, and measure the results. If you want to drive sales did a post about a product get engagement and did sales for that product go up? If you want to generate awareness for a cool new product, is your post about it getting comments and shares?
  8. Use Social Tools
    Tools are a big part of efficiency. You can use efficiency tools to schedule posts, check multiple social networks from one site, setup smart automation of tasks, and create images. Check out our post on some efficiency tools we recommend!

Use these tips to help manage your time and you’ll be on your way to making more time to take on more clients!