Making social media work to get more work

Jun 3, 2016 by

Writing for the Freelancers Union site, Harrison Dawson offered “Ten ingenious ways for freelancers to find work through social media.”

There is plenty of good stuff there about becoming noticed and respected by would-be employers.

But first things first. He recommends covering these basics:

  • Use your real name – This will make it easier for employers to find you
  • Have a professional photo – I’m not necessarily talking about ID card photos, but generally avoid using bathroom selfies or car images. Using a clean photo gives you an immense trust and professionalism boost
  • Try to collect them all in one place – The employer managed to find your Facebook, but what about the rest? Create a homepage that contains all the contact information a company might need.
  • Personal Branding – Make sure your social media really represents you and sends a message that stays faithful to who you are. It is also important to use social media to showcase your skills and past projects.
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That subject line on your pitch e-mail

Jun 1, 2016 by

In a piece posted on The Freelancer site in April, Katherine Brodsky sought advice from top editors on what to put in the subject line of a pitch e-mail.

Editors are bombarded with pitches from PR firms and, unfortunately, some freelancers who don’t understand the media outlet’s target audience.

Here were a couple of the responses from editors:

Eric Sullivan, former features editor at Esquire: “At the end of the day, you should think about what makes the story you’re pitching so unique and essential, and focus on that.”

Katie Wudel, articles editor at GOOD Magazine: “Freelancers should just be straightforward, describing what their story is about as simply and plainly as they can.”

Jennifer Ortiz, senior editor at Marie Claire: “Starting a subject line with something like ‘Story Idea:’ or ‘Pitch:’ is a quick way to get lost in my inbox. That’s how publicists pitch, so I assume, at first glance, that it’s a PR pitch and am less quick to open.”

Neil Janowitz, editorial director at Vulture:  “When I fall behind on email, my failsafe is to go back and scan for stories that I know had an upcoming peg. If ‘for a movie coming out April 8’ is buried in the email, I’m liable to miss it.”

And if those don’t work, you can always take a more desperate approach!

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Defeating writers’ block

May 21, 2016 by

Writing for the Freelancers Union site, Sonia Basant offered advice on breaking common sorts of writers’ block.

Here were a few samples:

“Consider going slightly off-target or restructuring your piece. Sometimes a midway block indicates that you’re getting to the true meat of your work – ask yourself if you’ve buried the lede, or harken back to your thesis statement. This is another good opportunity to take a break and shake the cobwebs loose before trying again.”

“Get messy. Give yourself free reign to write and save the self-criticism for the editing phase. Journaling every day is a great way to get comfortable with messiness and knock the debris out of your mind.”

“First write down the idea or thought then work on getting the right words. Break out the thesaurus too. It is easier to have the idea right in front of you and then craft the perfect sentence.”

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Simple advice, but good advice: Follow your passion

May 2, 2016 by

Vancouver-based magazine journalist and documentary film maker Roberta Staley offered some great insights in an interview on the Canadian Media Guild’s Story Boards site.

Her advice for beginning freelancers really resonated:

“You have to work really hard. You have to be ready and expect failure. You can’t take it personally. You have to absolutely follow the stories and create the stories that you want to read that are not being created — that are not out there already. It’s such a cliche, but follow your passions. Create the stories — whether that’s video or whether it’s writing — go out and create the stories that are not being told. The stories that you want to read.

“Because you’ll get so much life satisfaction. And in the great scheme of things, being poor for a short period of time is not going to kill you.”

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Consider scaling back or scaling up your business

Apr 30, 2016 by

Writing for Skyword.com, Emma Siemasko offered some advice to freelancers whose business is getting unwieldy. How can you the money you need without becoming frazzled?

Her suggestions included:

  • Raising your rates, which may prove you weren’t charging enough.
  • Narrowing your niche to what you do best.
  • Outsource work when necessary, which allows you to take on bigger projects.
  • Add a partner or create an agency, allowing you to team up on projects. “If your business of one suddenly becomes a business of two, you can scale more easily,” she wrote. “You could partner with another freelance writer to create a mini writing agency, or you could find a freelancer with complementary skills. For example, I often partner with graphic designers and web developers and can imagine partnering with one of them to create a full-service agency.”
  • Produce another product, such as a seminar or book, that makes more efficient use of your time.
  • Take full advantage of technology — such as invoicing software — to become more efficient.
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