Boost Your Freelance Writing Career In 2012 With These 5 Social Network Tips

By Dan Smith

Happy New Year!

I hope you’ve all had a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful 2012.

Over Christmas, I took the time to look at the blog posts I’d made throughout the year and realised that I hadn’t talked much about activity on social networks, something I strongly believe is imperative to the continued development and success of any freelance writer.

Therefore, linked in with New Year’s Resolutions, take a look at the following five tips, which explain how to boost your freelance writing career on social networks in 2012.

1. Sick to the 80/20 rule

One of the most valuable pieces of information I’ve ever come across in relation to activity on social networks is to always stick to a 80/20 balance — 80% useful, interesting and helpful information, 20% sales, self-promotion and direct career progression talk.

There are far too many people out there who use Twitter, for example, for nothing other than publishing their latest blog posts. As great as this can be when integrated with a larger strategy, it won’t do much at all without other tweets that are helpful or informative to your followers.

2. Don’t blatantly advertise. Not all the time, anyway.

Just because 20% of your social network activity should be activity that directly helps you to progress, you should refrain from blatant advertising.

Social networks are just that — social. If you were in a room with 100 people, would you stand up and say “Hey, hire me, I’m a fantastic writer!”? Chances are you would do it in a much more social, conversational manner, such as speaking to a few individuals, explaining that you’ve got some availability as a writer, you feel you could help their organization and if they’d like to chat, you would happily give them a call.

Of course, a little blatant advertising isn’t going to damage your reputation massively, but keep it to an absolute minimum.

3. Remember you’re a brand

Although you’re a single individual, as a freelance writer, you’re also a brand and you need to ensure that you keep this in mind at all times, not just when you’re looking at activity on social networks.

What I find works best is if you think of yourself as an organization with a few employees and carry out your activity like this. You’re still going to want a few personal comments in your activity, but refrain from — or at least think intently about — making comments that are too personal and may impact upon your career, such as political comments.

4. Little and often is better than bulk

With so many things to do as a freelance writer, it can be difficult fitting in regular social network activity, with many people putting aside time once or twice a week to dedicate to their activity.

While there’s no doubt some activity is better than none, it will always be much more effective if you set aside time every day to carry out a little activity, rather than a lot of activity once a week.

5. Don’t let it take over your life

One of the problems I have with social network activity personally is that 10 minutes can easily turn into two hours, which ends up having a detrimental impact on my schedule as a whole.

Linked in with point four, a properly created social network schedule — and one that you ensure you abide by — will ensure that you really do only spend the right amount of time on your chosen social networks each day.

Whichever social networks you choose, you can be certain that by following these five points, you will continue to progress as a freelance writer and develop your career overall.

Image: suneko (Flickr)