In the previous module we established that there are plenty of companies out there who have figured out they desperately need a social media manager. The next step is to make sure they find one – you.

Question: What do companies do when they need a specialized type of work done that their own in-house staff is unable to provide?

Answer: They hire a freelancer or sub-contractor. This type of worker helps fill the gap, can often do their work from anywhere, and (since they are not an “employee”) do not require taxes to be recorded and withheld or to be offered benefits such as health care or a 401K. This is very appealing to businesses.

Question: Where do business owners find these professionals?

Answer: Multiple online job marketplaces have sprung up across the web. These sites are designed to help connect business owners with freelance workers who provide social media management as well as other services.

Business owners have realized the multiple benefits of hiring freelancers to handle the various aspects of online marketing. They find it easy to post a job online, let freelancers bid on the job, and then select the one whose price, time estimates and expertise best match their needs.

There are dozens of online hiring websites created specifically to bring businesses and freelancers together. Each site has hundreds of jobs posted daily, which can range from website coding jobs to data entry to copywriting to graphic design projects. Visiting each site daily and sifting through the postings can take enormous amounts of time and energy – time you don‘t have!

Our member-only database (which you automatically gain access to when you join our training program) is made up of only the best social media jobs from across the internet, handpicked by our own team. This saves you the time required to search through each site independently. You can browse and even apply for these jobs without ever having to leave the members’ area of our website!

This gives you an edge over any competitors who may be looking for social media jobs – while they are still filtering through jobs and going from one site to another, you can be selecting your work for the week from the very best social media jobs available – all from one convenient location.

Today’s lesson is a quick introduction to the types of jobs you should look for when starting out as a social media manager, with some added tips on how to create your own image as a successful social media marketer.

Typical starter jobs are one-offs, meaning the business owner is looking to have a specific task completed for a fixed price. These jobs are valuable even if they are small, because they allow you to make contact with clients who can later become long term customers.

Most starter jobs fall into one of two categories:

Setting up social profiles such as:

Facebook Pages

Twitter Accounts

LinkedIn Profiles

Google Accounts

YouTube Channels

Pinterest Boards

Businesses may have some profiles already and just want them “fixed” so they appear professional; or they may need completely new pages and accounts set up. They’ll need to trust you and give you control of as much stuff as possible to make this go smoothly. Expect to have to request tools like an email address and login to verify accounts, etc.

Creating an audience on each platform:

Likes on Facebook

Followers on Twitter

Connections on LinkedIn

Circles on Google +

Subscribers on YouTube

Followers on Pinterest

It is not uncommon to see a request for a social marketer to obtain “50 Likes on a Facebook Page” or to “Get 100 followers on Twitter”. This course is designed to teach you how to complete such projects and gain the trust and confidence of your clients.

Both of these kinds of jobs get your foot in the door with a client who may decide after account set-up and audience building that they need someone to handle the accounts for them on an ongoing basis. By bidding on and completing small jobs like these, you create a trusted connection with the client and position yourself as the perfect person for the job.

Learning how to achieve social media goals is the first step to becoming an in-demand social media manager. Expect to start slow and charge competitive prices while you build up a reputation. Once you’ve achieved results for several clients, you’ll be able to raise your bids and point to your successes as testimonials of your prowess.

A great way to show people you know what you are doing is to use the tactics you will learn in this course to establish profiles and accounts for yourself, boosting your online presence and proving in the process that you know what you are doing. This will put real the word experience under your belt so you can go on to use what you have learned and provide outstanding results for your clients.

A good tip to get you on the fast track to high earnings – create a blog about social media, and post helpful tips and information about how social media works. You can easily create a blog using either Google’s Blogger platform or the incredibly easy to use and popular WordPress platform. Give the link to prospective clients.

Having a blog gives you automatic status as an online professional, and can be used to promote yourself as a social media expert. It’s also excellent practice for writing convincing copy that can be used to impress those prospective clients!

In this module you learned what kinds of social media jobs are out there, and where you can connect with clients seeking help with their social media management needs. You also got a tip on how to get started creating your own social image, so prospective customers will have faith and trust in you from day one.

Next we’ll take a look at what you can expect when you decide to really pursue a career as a social media manager, from how to land clients to what you can reasonably expect to make. We’ll also take a sneak peek at the rest of our training program!