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Question
Personal branding & freelancing: doable without social media?
I've been starting to think about this lately, especially as I've been trying to focus on building my LinkedIn presence. I'm somewhat fatigued with social media and would rather find another way to get clients.
Can you have a viable service business and/or personal brand without those platforms? Especially the text & feed driven ones like LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Insta.
I suppose the first thing to consider is how much of your target demographic might spend time on each platform vs something like organic search. Especially if that demographic is geographically localised.
For my freelancing practice I've really found word of mouth has brought 100% of my work so far. My LinkedIn leads have been lukewarm at best.
I've had one referral tell me "it's so difficult to find you tech guys out there", meanwhile everyone I know is talking to almost everyone they meet for clients. So with algo bubbles keeping people within their industry niches, are potential clients even going to find me if they aren't explicitly searching?
Can you have a viable service business and/or personal brand without those platforms? Especially the text & feed driven ones like LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Insta.
I suppose the first thing to consider is how much of your target demographic might spend time on each platform vs something like organic search. Especially if that demographic is geographically localised.
For my freelancing practice I've really found word of mouth has brought 100% of my work so far. My LinkedIn leads have been lukewarm at best.
I've had one referral tell me "it's so difficult to find you tech guys out there", meanwhile everyone I know is talking to almost everyone they meet for clients. So with algo bubbles keeping people within their industry niches, are potential clients even going to find me if they aren't explicitly searching?
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@nikspyratos I actually show people how to be a freelancer without relying (just) on social media. It helps if you have a presence somewhere, but it's not necessary. I operated as a freelance writer from 2008-2017 without being online at all -- no social media, no search traffic, nothing. Just word of mouth, referrals, and walking into businesses to ask for the sale (seriously lol).
In 2017, I started working with online coaches and service providers since I saw a huge demand on Facebook, and just this year, I shifted to B2B SaaS (which has been through cold email exclusively).
1.) It depends on your audience. Go where they are.
SaaS CEOs and marketing managers might be on social media, sure, but I'm more likely to get their attention quicker and make a longer lasting impression in their email, guest posting in publications where they read, getting quoted as a trusted source in the media, and building up my SEO.
I'm dreading becoming active on LinkedIn, but I'll have a simple presence there so they know I'm a real human.
2.) Don't discount freelance boards.
Upwork and Fiverr, sure, you can skip those. (I've gotten good clients from Upwork, but it's rare.) There are other great boards, though, including Slack channels like Superpath.
LinkedIn also has a feature where you can find which companies have open freelance positions, so just reverse engineer it and contact the decision-maker directly.
I do a pretty sneaky thing where I'll search my direct competitors (freelance article writers for B2B SaaS companies), see who they've written for, then add those companies on my lead list because I know for sure they work with freelancers.
Do the same thing for what you do (especially since it sounds like you do tech, and it's much more difficult to figure out the freelance dev than it is a freelance writer because there's no byline for yours).
3.) You've gotta pick up the social media slack with something else.
The reality is that social media is likely the quickest way to build an online presence and personal brand that gets you in front of your target audience at scale, so if that's off the table for you, you have to decide on a strategy and go all in.
I opted for cold email, guest posting, industry events (freelancing, marketing, and tech so I'm networking with potential clients and potential referral partners), and freelance boards. It's working for me, but it's a lot of effort.
Decide if the effort of not being on social is worth it for you. It's an uphill battle, especially at first.
If it's NOT, then create boundaries around social media. Give yourself time limits to connect with X people a day on LinkedIn, batch create your content then go on there for 5 minutes and post 1-2 posts, engage with your target audience's posts for X minutes, network with other freelancers for X minutes to build your referral network, etc.
I've found giving myself limits forces me to take my social media time seriously because it's sacred.
Anyway, yes, you can. It's been a hot minute since I've posted on my Substack (not worth checking out right now til I post again tbh), but it's called Boldly Go Beyond Social for this reason. Most people are burnt out AF with social media and want something far more sustainable, so it's definitely not just you.
I also have a free-for-now Telegram group to help freelancers with winning pitches (whether cold email, freelance boards, media, etc.). I'm happy to share that with you if you'd like too.
Thanks for the insightful reply as always Cat! Will reply on points individually.
Agreed, I've also made better connections directly and through events I host myself in the tech community.
In the current tech downmarket those sorts of boards have been less active, but yeah, I have heavy presence on a local Slack tech community and have built a network there. So the job board is useful, when people eventually get back to posting relevant freelance gigs. Great idea on being sneaky with looking at competitors!
100%. Ironically despite moving outside of Cape Town, I spend more time in industry events in CPT than ever before. I also host a niche tech community meetup. Maybe the calm town vibes are giving me more rest and energy to go out! So I have been wondering if just going full tilt and attending more of those events (and hosting more with the community) makes more sense than this sort of accidental split strategy I've had.
The main drawback I think is that networking like that will anchor me more to my locale - as someone with longer term plans of emigrating and travelling, I'm not 100% sure if that's a smart move. But then again that's also why I'm on WIP too - wanting to build my own SaaS for that independent income so I can do what I want globally anyway :)
Agree on setting boundaries - think this is also part of my problem. I have a bit of an addictive personality, so I tend to make a habit of checking Twitter and LinkedIn too often.
Thanks for reminding me of your Substack, need to go subscribe. Glad to hear it's not just me feeling this way though!
I'm a bit saturated on communities and groups for a while though thanks 😅 Though will go lurk on Superpath a bit
Why not double-down on word of mouth?
Leverage your previous clients' social media and professional networks instead.
Brainstorm things you could do that would increase how often they recommend you on their social media or privately.
Some examples from the top of my head: