Freelancing is the first step towards fulfilling your entrepreneurial dreams. It takes a lot of hard work and commitment to become a successful freelancer.
For newcomers, acquiring clients is a major challenge. But overcoming this problem in the early days of freelancing will boost your confidence and help you focus on the needs of your customers.
Freelance marketplaces such as Freelancer, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour, provide excellent opportunities for freelancers to work with clients across the world. Many freelancers prefer to stay away from these platforms due to intense bidding competition. However, very few know that engaging more prospects from social media by inviting them to freelance platforms is immensely helpful.
Why Use Freelance Platforms
No commission – Many platforms such as Freelancer and PeoplePerHour have a zero fees promotional policy. That means you can invite new clients using a unique link, and you will keep the entire commission on future projects from those clients.
New reviews without bidding – Each great review added to your profile will help you get at least one more job from another client in the future. You will also save a lot in bidding time.
Improve trust – Building trust and your reputation is a major factor in achieving success in any business. If you already have excellent ratings on a platform, it will be far easier for you to convince new prospects to hire you using these platforms in contrast to someone who has low ratings. Your conversion rate might go up significantly.
Protection from scam artists – The escrow payment system on these platforms gives peace of mind to you as well as to your clients. You know that the client has the capability to pay you for your hard work and clients feel confident that their money is in safe hands if you don’t deliver what you promised.
Finally, if you and the client develop a mutual understanding, you can move out of these platforms any time and work privately. But what if clients prefer to hire someone else at a cheaper rate than yours? In this case, I must say that you should deliver to the best of your ability and have faith in yourself. Some customers never understand the value of high-quality work, and they are not worth your time.
5 Ways to Get Clients from Social Media
#1. Tell the World
Almost all social media platforms have provisions for adding your site’s information. Don’t hesitate to share your freelance profile links on various social media websites. You can change the settings to make them visible to everyone.
Your first and second-degree connections will be able to see your track record whenever they visit your profile. The ratings and reviews on freelancing platforms will boost your image and enhance your conversion rate. More profile visits on freelancing sites will also increase your ranking in the sites’ directories.
#2. Prove Your Strengths
Share content that matters to your clients. If you are a graphic designer, make some great designs and share them on social media. I have hired several writers from Twitter and LinkedIn because of their original tweets and brilliant LinkedIn posts.
Many freelancers have developed a significant client base out of sharing their passions on social media. Use unique links from freelancing platforms and create a call-to-action, such as “Hire Me on Freelancer” to redirect visitors to your profile.
#3. Build Relevant Connections
You can use free tools such as Tweepi to create relevant followers on Twitter. LinkedIn is also a great place to connect with industry professionals who could be future clients. You should have a goal of building new connections every month on LinkedIn. Share your freelance profile or related project links whenever you come across a posting that suits you.
Remember that sharing your freelance profile is much better than sharing contact details in public places. Sharing your profile will cause others to check it out and then hire you in the future when they have relevant needs.
#4. Share Each Completed Project on Social Media
Share that great moment on social media whenever a 5-star client publishes feedback on your profile. With the client’s permission, you can also share your finalized projects and let the world know about the outstanding quality of the services you provide. This way, you will be in the minds of your connections when they have similar requirements.
#5. Participate in Contests
Clients launch contests on various platforms such as Freelancer and 99Designs in order to get new ideas. You should actively participate in the contests and share your entries with your social media connections. This practice will further enhance your connections’ ability to remember you when they need your services.
Conclusion
To engage more clients from social media, you need to master social selling skills. While pushing your freelance profiles everywhere might have a negative impact, creating conversations around your work will advance your career. Join relevant communities, such as online forums or groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Create meaningful conversations around the skills you have mastered. And last but not least, never discuss pricing structure or contact details in public places. Doing so will turn off potential clients, and you can get hit badly by all kinds of spam.