The pandemic is accelerating digital transformation for businesses, both large and small, with more brands and organizations shifting to ecommerce and social media, as well as marketing collaboration, requiring more and more expertise, advice, and help to operate, especially given the increasing complexity of digital marketing.
Hiring for digital marketing roles through 2020 grew nearly 33% year-over-year, and social media roles figured heavily:
These figures suggest it’s a prime time for social media consultants to start their own agency or freelancing service. And that’s what this guide is all about.
Inside, you’ll learn:
Let’s start!
For this guide, we asked five experts to share their thoughts and experiences on building a successful social media consulting business:
Jason Culleton
Freelance Social Media Executive
Mandy Edwards
ME Marketing Services, LLC
Marketing Consultant
Andréa Jones
OnlineDrea Inc.
Social Media Strategist
Sam Flynn
Planet Social Media
Social Media Trainer and Membership Site Owner
Fi Shailes
Digital Drum
Freelance Social Media Manager
Social media consultants perform a variety of services depending on their expertise and their clients’ requirements. For instance, a company might request a once-only social media training for their in-house team or a monthly retainer to manage all their social media campaigns.
Some of the typical services include:
Here’s what our experts said:
As you can see from the responses, social media consultants offer various services based on their skill set, experience, and work-life balance.
Social media consultants can operate either as an agency or a freelancer – but which option is best?
Before examining the pros and cons of each option, we should start with the advantages and disadvantages of running your own business compared to working for an employer.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
So what are the pros and cons of running an agency or operating as a freelancer?
Agency pros:
Agency cons:
Freelancer pros:
Freelancer cons:
Let’s hear what our social media consultants have to say:
To summarize, the overwhelming advice is to start as a freelancer and then grow into an agency.
In short: there’s no right or wrong time to launch a social media consulting service.
Follow these six steps to launch your own social media consulting service:
The first step starts before you launch your services and continually evolves as your business grows.
Without credibility, no one will hire you.
So how do you become credible?
First of all, you need to establish yourself on social media. You don’t have to be active on all the social networks, but you should definitely be active on those platforms you want to specialize in and where your prospective clients will be present. It’s your chance to convince prospects you know how to market on social media.
It’s something Sam highly recommends: “Get active on social media!! Start your accounts now, even if you’re not ready to start the business yet.”
Also, remember to post consistently on your chosen platforms. Prospects will check your profiles and won’t want to see 3-week gaps where nothing was posted.
Fi adds: “I think it pays to dedicate some regular time to building a presence across multiple social channels – and maintaining this effort for the long-haul. Unless you’ve got cash to burn on digital/social advertising, you’ll need to keep your organic efforts strong on social.”
In addition to social media, you’ll also want to consider building a website where you can showcase your talent, and eventually, the services you offer.
Aside from social media, prospective clients will check out your website. You don’t have to build a flashy website, just something that is clean and functional.
It’s also a place to house your case studies and testimonials – nothing beats social proof for establishing your credibility:
Consider adding relevant client testimonials from unpaid jobs (internships), side projects, and charity work when you’re just starting out.
As a social media professional, you need to continually develop your skills to ensure you’re up to date on the latest trends and techniques.
As Mandy says: “Make sure you know what you are doing, and you understand everything, including the Terms of Service, rules, promotions, and analytics for each social network.”
Also, consider getting recognized qualifications that prove you have studied social media marketing.
One way to build credibility is to start some social media consulting as a side project while you’re still in full-time employment. You can test the water to see if you like working solo, and if all goes to plan, it lets you display client testimonials on your website before you launch full-time.
Fi adds: “I’m in the perhaps unusual position of working on social strategy in a full-time employed agency role, and working on the more hands-on stuff in my part-time, freelance life.”
One activity you always need to be practicing is networking. You can start building your network long before you launch your consulting business.
Sam says: “Engage with people and network with them. It will be far easier to launch if you already have an engaged audience.”
Here are a few ways:
Fi adds: “Think about networking with your peers on social too, as there is plenty of work to go around. Sometimes I’ve won work via referrals from people I’ve got to know through Twitter and LinkedIn, and I’ve also returned the favor to them too.”
Before you launch your social media consulting service, you’ll need to choose your niche. There are three ways you can niche-down.
When you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to focus on one or two social media platforms rather than spreading yourself too thin. Remember, each platform has:
For example, LinkedIn and Snapchat are poles apart, so it wouldn’t make sense to cover both platforms. However, if you wanted to become a visual marketing expert, it makes sense to offer both Instagram and Pinterest services.
Next, you want to consider what industry or sector you want to work with.
Remember, different industries need different kinds of campaigns, even if they’re on the same platform. For instance, an ecommerce fashion retailer and a real estate agency will have different types of campaigns and content even if they both use Facebook Ads.
Focus on industries that suit your previous knowledge and skillset, so you don’t have to learn too much new information. Also, be mindful of choosing profitable industries rather than struggling ones, so you don’t have to worry about getting paid.
Finally, you’ll need to decide what services you’ll specialize in. For example, you might choose to focus on organic social media rather than paid social media services.
Jason recommends sticking to what you know at first: “I turn down work if people are looking for paid social through sponsored posts. I’m good at growing social organically – that’s my niche, and that’s what I stick to.”
Planning is an essential step before you launch your consulting services.
When you’re creating your business plan, you’ll need to research:
As Andréa says: “Level up your social media skills as there are tons of free resources available.”
As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to decide on the structure of your business. There’s no right nor wrong answer – just weigh up the pros and cons above.
Next, you’ll need to choose your business name, which essentially becomes your brand name, so it makes sense to take your time and get it right.
If you decide to operate as a freelancer, you could use your own name. However, if you build your brand around your name and then want to expand into an agency later, your name might not work.
Depending on the country and region you live in, you’ll have to obtain different licenses and certifications to run a legal business. Consider the following:
We’ve already mentioned building a website and establishing your social media presence. Once you’ve chosen your business name, you can circle back and make sure these online accounts all have your branding in terms of logo, colors, and fonts, so you start to build awareness with a unified impression.
At this stage, you can also start planning what tools, processes, and workflows you’re going to use to make your business run smoothly.
For example, consider how you’ll manage clients from start to finish:
Also, consider what tools you’ll need, such as:
There are various ways that you can price and package your services. Let’s examine a few options.
An hourly or daily rate is ideal for an unknown variable, for example, mentoring, consulting, or training, that you bill as time is consumed. For example, you might agree to offer your social media consulting services for $50/hour.
You can use a project-based or fixed rate when you provide bespoke services, like consultations, strategy sessions, audits, or training. You’ll need to have a good handle on how long a piece of work will take before you can feel confident charging per project.
For example, you could agree to complete a social media audit for a fixed sum of $500, regardless of how much time it takes you. Payment for project-based work is usually made in advance, at agreed milestones, 50% in advance and 50% on completion, or on completion.
A monthly retainer is used when you agree to deliver regular recurring monthly services with payment on a set date each month. Retainers vary slightly, so you may agree to provide X hours per month or a fixed piece of work. For example, you agree to provide 20 hours per month to manage a client’s social media campaigns. Or, you might agree to deliver social media publishing and reporting for Facebook and Instagram.
By the time you get onto monthly retainers, you’re almost in packaged services territory. These are a set of services you provide every month for a fixed fee.
For example, Socially Contented offers three social media management packages:
Attracting and winning clients is probably the most challenging part of launching your business. Here are a few options to explore:
Before launching your services, gain valuable experience by working for a social media agency:
If you’ve followed the earlier advice in step #1, you should now have an extensive network you can tap into. Even if the person or business you contact can’t use you, they might know of other people who can. You can’t underestimate the power of networking.
Also, as Andréa says: “Start talking about your social media services to friends and family.”
They may need your services or can refer you to other people in their network.
When you’re starting out you can often find suitable work in freelance marketplaces like Upwork and People Per Hour. Just be careful not to work for a pittance.
Andréa adds: “Sign up for sites like Upwork and pitch people looking for the exact services you offer. The best way to get started is to start.”
If you’ve set up your website, then you can create a landing page to generate leads. You can do this way ahead of launching, so you have a waiting list of prospects to contact when you’re ready.
As Sam recommends: “Start a waitlist or share some free resources to build your email list.”
One option when launching your services is to focus on local businesses. Pre-COVID, you could actually get out into your neighborhood and introduce yourself to companies, leave some brochures, and follow-up with a call. Perhaps those days will return? If not, you can still search and reach out to a local business by phone or email.
Also, if you’re going down the local path, get active in your local business community. For example, you could attend the Chamber of Commerce meetings to connect with businesses looking for social media consultants.
Mandy adds: “Be active in your community – word of mouth is always the best way to grow your business.”
Here’s some sage advice on honesty and transparency from Fi to finish: “Make sure you’re always honest with your clients (and potential clients!) when it comes to social. If you think something probably won’t work, say so. Be transparent. I’ve definitely had cases, for example, where a potential client thinks they need to jump straight into paid social when they’re actually not very well set up for it – their channels aren’t optimized, and their social content is weak. Instead, I’ll give them a few ideas on what I think makes the most sense for where their business is at. This builds trust straight away, and people appreciate the honesty.”
Once you’re up and running, you’ll need to track your progress.
First, you need to measure how your clients benefit from your social media services, according to what you offered. For example:
Bottom line: you need to prove that your clients are getting a return on their investment. Use tools like Loomly to track your marketing efforts and show them the results.
You’ll also need to track progress in your business as a whole:
Remember, the digital landscape is always changing, so you’ll have to measure and adjust accordingly.
One area not to forget is your ongoing personal development. It’s easy to become 100% booked on client work and forget that you need some time for yourself. Social media platforms are always changing, so keeping updated on the latest developments is a minimum. You’ll also want to stay abreast of industry trends and what your competitors are offering.
Sam sums it up perfectly: “Study what other businesses are doing. And keep up to date with everything going on with social media.”
Once you’ve established your business, you’ll want to scale and grow accordingly.
Mandy recommends finding a mentor to help you as you grow: “Find someone you can bounce ideas off of or learn from.”
You’ll need to decide how you want to grow. For example, you could hire people so that you can serve more clients with your proven services. It may be prudent to hire freelancers to help you instead of hiring staff and having all the necessary overheads.
There’s no right or wrong time to launch your social media consulting service, but with the pandemic, there’s never been a greater need for qualified social media consultants to advise and help businesses through the digital marketing landscape.
Listen to the advice of our five experts as you follow these six steps to launch your own successful social media consulting service: