How to find clients – Social BlaBla

Los Community Managers Freelance Like any other self-employed worker, they face one of the biggest professional challenges when it comes to hiring clients, usually SMEs, who are willing to pay, and above all, pay fairly, for the services they offer. The majority of freelancers affirm in almost all surveys that getting clients and payments are the two main problems those they face, especially in times of crisis, like the current ones.

For Community Managers, there is also a plus of «risk» major, nothing more and nothing less than convincing SMEs, clients, that it is beneficial in the medium and long term, to have a strategy, a presence, planned and well managed in the Social media. Something almost impossible especially when it comes to approving a «budget«: I would not want to belittle anyone’s work, all work is worthy of respect, but how can we pay a Community Manager who generally has a bachelor’s degree and some other higher education, postgraduate or master’s degree, less than other workers from the service sector that does not require studies? To César what belongs to César, and it is not about paying less to those who are waiting tables or cleaning offices, but about understanding that if we pay them about €10 an hour, which is already little, How can we pay a Community Manager less than €4 per hour?

The solution for the vast majority of freelance Communty ends up being the famous ones «packages» €300, €400 or similar per month, for managing the social networks. I repeat, if you pay with bananas, you get monkeys. There are many risks in following this tactic, which, on the other hand, rarely works and gives positive results, among other things because if they are paying someone a pittance, logically they are not going to invest the time, dedication or effort.knowledge necessary for it.

Furthermore, this package thing only serves to prove right those who think that Social Media Marketing is just that: Facebook, Tuenti, Twitter, YouTube and little else.

But I’m getting off topic; Leaving aside the fact that SMEs want Community Managers or Social Media Strategist work practically for free for them, with everything that implies “giving and giving” ideas, creativity, knowledge, etc.”, we are going to see some clues to be able to locate, contact or find possible clients.

How and where to find clients:

• Portals freelancers and SMEs: there we can see which businesses could benefit from a social media plan, whether or not they already have a presence in the media and social networks, etc. That is, we can do prior field work to pre-select those companies that best fit our services.
• LinkedIn: obviously, if a company is already there, it will also be easier to access it, it may already have a presence on other social networks, and it may be more aware of the benefits of being there.
• Search in Facebook y Twitter: we will be able to see which companies are already in our environment, and above all, what and how they are doing it, something that can be very useful when interviewing with the right person: showing them what they are doing wrong can give them an idea of ​​what Things done well achieve much more, it is not a waste of time. Of course, let’s not forget that we cannot reveal all our cards, because if we start to let goideasthings to do, etc., what the SME will do is implement them and use them themselves, which is cheaper, and there is no shame in not “paying” for consulting.

Not long ago I was with a friend, one of those consultants who charges you €120 per hour. He told me that a well-known Social Media professional, whose name I prefer not to reveal, had met with him to see if they could do something with Social Media, the strategy, etc. My surprise was when my friend confessed to me that the Social Media Strategist had asked him for more than €60 per hour… And I responded “but if you charge double, what makes you think that your hour is more valuable than that of that other professional?” ?» Without further comments, I will just say that since I know both of them, I cannot understand how a graduate who charges €120 an hour belittles a professional with a great reputation, master’s degrees, a doctorate and professional prestige like the one that endorses him.

How much was my friend willing to pay? About €300 a month and it was already their limit… If we divide it between 20 working days, it remains at €15 a day… And that is for a self-employed person who has to pay thousands of things… IRPF, VAT, etc…

Continuous…

• The ideal is not to go to cold dooralthough it depends on what for business, may be advisable. But if we talk about SMEs It is best to make an appointment in advance with the person in charge of marketing, or with the manager himself, depending on the imprint and idiosyncrasy of the business itself. Arranging a meeting is much more professional for certain companies and gives greater confidence and security. Of course, if we talk about family businesses, making an appointment can give the impression of “something expensive” that we should avoid with this type of business.
• Therefore, it is important and fundamental not to knock on doors from one place to another, but rather to choose the companies, the businesses to which we should go: do good field work,investigation prior, it will help us both to save time and to improve results. Planning and strategy are also essential when finding potential clients in business. B2B.
• It is essential to go to events that bring together professionals and SMEs: we must lose the fear of presenting ourselves at events networking and learn to do it well. We must know how to present ourselves professionally without our first sentences implying a sale, which has always been called the «procession«. If we are not able to master networking, clients will not believe that we can manage and control a community. It is also essential to know how to choose events: not all about marketing, not all about social media, most of the time you find many others like you instead of potential clients, so it is advisable to be at business, company, investment events, etc
• Send of email: It may or may not work, depending largely on luck, sometimes it is the right and right time. We should not rule it out, especially if we want clients who are not in our environment, but we must be extremely careful with email, itscontent and his message. About this, I will write a post shortly, with some basic guidelines on how to make it as productive and effective as possible.

I have already expanded more than I thought I would, so I leave it to you to complete the post with other forms and techniques, strategies, which you use to get clients. I hope it is useful, our job at the end of the day is to get clients for a company, a business, so let’s start by getting clients for ourselves.

Via: Dolores Vela