What is a social media content freelancer?

A social media content freelancer is a marketing expert who specializes in creating and publishing content specifically for your brand’s social media platforms.

In reality, a social media content freelancer is your creative powerhouse that crafts irresistible converting content that not only makes your brand pop and dance in the digital jungle party but turns your timid audience into raving fans ready to whip out their cards and buy.

What does a social media content freelancer do?

A lot goes into a social media freelancer’s repertoire of tasks.

At first glance, it may seem like your social media content freelancer sprinkles digital fairy dust on your brand’s social profiles, however, creating scroll-stopping delights that leave your audience wanting more requires mastery in many areas.

Specifically, a social media content expert handles:

• Social media channel and campaign management, overseeing your brand’s social media channels and accounts on an ongoing basis
• Content creation, specifically producing engaging and informative content, including text, photos, and videos
• Community management, keeping your audience engaged
• Social Ads and A-Z advertising management, including targeting and budgeting
• Influencer partnerships, identifying, negotiating, and managing influencer and content creator campaigns
• And in between, a lot of strategy development, content writing, research, and analytics.

Content creation

A successful social media marketing strategy starts with a great content strategy 0 so your social media manager should have plenty of experience in this area. With consumers’ attention decreasing every year, building high-quality, engaging, and relevant content is your best bet to win and stay ahead of the curve in the social media wilderness. Collecting all the bananas, if you will.

That means your content needs to be strategic, well-thought-out, easy to execute, and aligned with your overall business goals.

That’s where your expert social media freelancer comes in. Before they sharpen their quill, they need to charter the terrain and craft your social media battle plan.

Your expert starts the content creation process by planning an editorial calendar for 3-12 months. This editorial calendar should align with all of your marketing initiatives and goals, and should include an outline of holidays your business observes, promotions, launches, partnerships, and everything else important happing in your brand’s very active social life. Then, they plan their social media posts with a content calendar that specifies exactly what will be posted on each social media platform.

Once all of that is set and designed, your social media content expert can unleash their creativity and start creating striking content for your brand. This content usually comprises an eclectic collection of text, photos, and video content. Most social media content experts can create their own content from inception to perfection, and some will work with your (or their) design team.

Finally, they create the content’s captions. While the visual component of your social media content creation is critical in grabbing attention and stopping the scroll, your social posts’ captions will get the curious Georges to take some action on your social profiles. Your content captions are responsible for converting lurkers into action-takers by reinforcing the message you’re trying to convey, telling a story, and providing value and relevance.

Platform-specific publishing

Each social media platform boasts its own digital tribe. They all have unique audiences, and they require different approaches to content marketing. For example, your Facebook page or Facebook group will have a mature audience that wants longer videos. Your TikTok account will have the trendsetter gen Z that want to partake in the latest viral song stitches. And the list goes on.

Your social media content expert will create slightly different content for each platform you want to publish to align with its audience and stay relevant.

Community management

Aside from creating high-quality and engaging content, your content expert strategically builds online audiences for your brand. That means they help you build a healthy base of loyal fans, ready to vouch for you and refer you to friends and family and, of course, shop with you.

Social media engagement extends beyond the number of Instagram followers you have or the number of likes you’ve accumulated on your business’s Facebook page. It does, of course, have a bearing on how a potential customer perceives your business, but how you’re engaging with your fans is what’s going to force people to pay attention.

If followers comment on your posts saying how much they love your content, products, or services, new visitors are naturally inclined to think that if other people enjoy working with you, they will too.

Examples of social media growth activities:

• Use relevant hashtags that rank your content
• Host giveaways and contests
• Launch fun games and activities like quizzes
• Share user-generated content
• Partner with industry partners that serve the same target audience with complementary products

Campaign management

Your social media marketing deserves to be treated like the dazzling star it is, shining alongside every other marketing branch in your company. That means embracing the magic of campaigns.

Social media campaign management involves planning, executing, monitoring, and optimizing social media marketing campaigns to reach specific goals. It's a harmonious dance of tasks and resources to ensure your campaign's success across the vast social media landscape. The ultimate quest? Boost brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or captivate your target audience like never before.

The reason why it’s so essential to work in campaigns is that mechanical posting and monitoring does just that – posting. Your social media marketing is a powerhouse that needs to be harnessed properly. It has to have a strategy and a specific goal in mind.

Social Ads

But gone are the days when sharing a picture of a model wearing your product – or, better, a simple quote on an inspirational background – resulted in dozens of followers, awareness, and engagement. Compared to the competitiveness in the social media landscape today, that kind of social media management seemed borderline magical. 

These days, social ads are a necessity in your social media strategy today. Organic content alone doesn’t work anymore, but social media advertising is your key to unlocking the full potential of your content and while it may feel like a “pay to play” game, it can help you achieve a lot when executed correctly. Here’s why:

• Better targeting: social media platforms have access to a wealth of data points, enabling them to effectively target the demographic you desire for your campaigns. This ensures your ads reach the most relevant audience for your specific products
• Cost-effectiveness: social media platforms allow you to maintain control over your ad spend, helping you protect your investment and achieve the right return on investment (ROI)
• Measurability: social media platforms provide extensive analytics and reports, empowering you to track your campaigns' performances and make informed, data-driven decisions

By harnessing the power of social media advertising, you can elevate your marketing strategy and achieve impressive results. So, embrace ads instead of fearing them.

Influencer Partnership

Influencer Marketing certainly isn’t the new kid on the block, but it does pack a punch for most brands in 2023. And it’s here to stay.

That case, Influencer Marketing is a type of social media marketing that involves product placements and endorsements by influencers and content creators in exchange for monetary or product payment.

A lot goes into managing a successful influencer campaign.

Some say it is an art form, and some consider it science, but all know it starts with defining your campaign goals and budget. Your social media expert will collaborate with you to pinpoint your objectives—whether you're seeking captivating content for ad creatives or aiming for a successful product launch that drives sales. This information shapes your budget and the type of influencer best suited for the job. Macro influencers, for instance, excel at generating sales and buzz for launches, while micro-influencers are great for content creation.

Selecting the right influencers is crucial, and your social media expert will meticulously research and vet potential collaborators using influencer tools. The goal is to ensure that each influencer's values align with your brand and that their target audience matches yours, whether you need a micro or macro influencer.

Once the perfect influencers are identified, your social media expert will reach out to them often through a platform and orchestrate the entire collaboration. From crafting agreements to coordinating content, they've got you covered, setting the stage for a show-stopping influencer campaign.

It doesn’t stop there, however. Your social media expert will also negotiate the campaign's terms on your behalf and create a comprehensive agreement. This agreement serves as the foundation for a successful partnership and covers a variety of aspects, including:

• Number of content pieces to be produced
• Specific content types and optimal platforms
• Products offered in return
• Monetary compensation, if applicable
• Brand ambassador link and/or unique code
• Brand ambassador terms
• Expected product shipment timeline
• Expected content creation timeline
• Expected content posting timeline
• Any other details relevant to the transaction

Lastly, your social media expert will set up tracking and analytics to measure the campaign's success. The primary metrics monitored include direct sales, clicks, and impressions. Beyond these key performance indicators, they will also evaluate the influencers' overall performance and whether you should partner up with them again in the future.

Social Media Marketing services for small business

Do small business need social media marketing? The short answer is “yes!”. However, the extent of services required may vary. Here's why your small business needs social media:

Social Media increases your brand awareness

Considering a few very compelling statistics from Hootsuite:

• 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services (Hootsuite)
• In 2021, one-third of Facebook’s users purchased a product on the platform, a number that’s expected to grow over the next few years (Insider Intelligence)
• 59% of US adults use Instagram daily
• 50% of Instagram users say that they’ve visited a brand’s website after viewing their Stories
• People around the world spend an average of 19.7 hours per month using Facebook

Your potential clients are on social media, which means you must also be. When you establish a good presence on your social media accounts and share good, informational content, you can continuously reach a wider audience, get more people to discover your brand, and stand out in the crowded marketplace.

Social media helps your SEO

Social networks hold a lot of power in ranking and visibility. Keeping your social media profiles active enables you to dominate as many keywords related to your business and products as possible.

What makes social media for small businesses different

Businesses and brands of different sizes have different needs. Here's how social media marketing differs for large and small businesses:

• Budget and resources: while large businesses typically have bigger marketing budgets, allowing them to them to invest more in advertising, content creation, and advanced marketing tools, small businesses, on the other hand, often work with limited budgets and need to be more strategic and resourceful in their social media efforts.
• Brand recognition: big businesses usually benefit from established brand recognition, making it easier for them to attract and retain followers on social media accounts. Small businesses may need to invest more time and effort in building their brand identity and raising awareness.
• Agility and adaptability: small businesses can be more agile and adaptable in their social media marketing, making it easier for them to experiment with new approaches, respond to trends, and engage with their audience. Large businesses may have more rigid processes and slower decision-making due to their size and structure.
• Customer engagement: small businesses can leverage their close-knit communities and personal connections to foster genuine relationships with their audience on social media. Large businesses may struggle to maintain the same level of personalization and may need to rely more on automation and customer segmentation.

Social media marketing audit

Know where you are to know where you are going. That’s as relevant in the jungle playground as it is in the digital marketplace.

Before you start your social media strategy, you need a social media audit.

Once you are ready to work with a social media marketing expert, they will start your social media content with an audit. They will systematically assess your online presence, strategy, and performance across various platforms. Their goal is to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.

Here's an overview of what a social media expert will typically do during an audit:

• Review your profiles and branding, and evaluate the consistency and completeness of your social media profiles, ensuring that your branding aligns with your overall brand identity
• Analyze your content, assess the quality, consistency, and relevance of your content, and identify top-performing content and areas for improvement.
• Examine posting frequency and schedule to determine the optimal posting  times to maximize engagement based on your specific audience.
• Conduct audience analysis and pay attention to demographics, interests, and behaviors, ensuring your content resonates with your target audience and identifying opportunities for growth.
• Evaluate engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, shares, and saves, to understand how well your content resonates with your audience.
• Audit paid advertising, including targeting, ad creatives, budget, and performance metrics, identifying opportunities for optimization and increased ROI.
• Perform competitor analysis, identifying areas where you excel and opportunities to outperform your competitors.
• Evaluate hashtags and keywords, as well as recommending strategies for improved visibility and reach.
• Monitor social listening and sentiment by analyzing mentions, conversations, and sentiment around your brand's social media presence and identifying areas for improvement and opportunities for engagement.
• Align with goals and KPIs, ensuring that your social media marketing efforts align with your overall business objectives and help you set clear, measurable, and achievable goals.

After completing the audit, the social media expert will provide a detailed report, including actionable recommendations and insights to help you refine your social media strategy, optimize your content, and improve your overall performance.

While small and big businesses can benefit from social media marketing, their approaches will differ based on their unique goals, resources, and audiences. Each business should tailor its social media strategy to its specific needs and context to maximize results.

And most importantly, you should work with a digital media freelancer that has experience with businesses like yours.

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