WHY I BECAME A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER + HOW I GOT STARTED
You’re probably here for 3 reasons:
You’re thinking of becoming a social media manager and wondering whether it’s even possible for you (it is)
You’ve decided to become a social media manager and want to know how to get started
You know me from my podcast or you’re connected with me on socials and wanted to know a bit more about my story
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you why I decided to become a social media manager and how I got started.
Before I started my own business, I was really interested to read about other entrepreneur’s journeys and what made them take the leap into owning a business.Throughout my story, my hope is that you’ll find inspiration, motivation and feel empowered to go after your dreams too.
At 21, I went on my first solo backpacking trip and my love for travel was born.
After a year spent living in Thailand (and falling in love), I moved to Australia where I lived on + off for nearly 2 years. Back in the UK, my boyfriend at the time, who I’d met in Thailand, announced his plans to become a Scuba Instructor and asked me to travel with him to Utila, Honduras where he could do his IDC and we could start a new life for ourselves.
I knew this was an opportunity for me to create a career that would support my love of travel, give me freedom to spend more time doing the things that make me happy and allow me to financially support myself - but what should I do?My first dabble into entrepreneurship was aged 20 when I launched an online jewellery store selling costume jewellery. I didn’t get very far with it because I’d met a boy and love, romance + heartbreak had taken all my attention.
BUT I did have experience growing a (albeit small) brand on social media. In fact, I made my first jewellery sale within the first 30 minutes of launching thanks to the brand I’d built!
Back in the UK, as we saved to move to Honduras, I was working as a Centre Support Assistant (CSA) in a busy shared office space. Surrounded by entrepreneurs, business owners and business mentors opened my eyes to all the different opportunities I could create for myself.
I was inspired and seeing how different each and every one of them were, I started to wonder “If they can do it, why can’t I?”
From the start, the team I worked with knew my travel plans which meant I could have open conversations with them about my plans and ideas. As the CSA, I supported the Assistant Manager, Centre Manager and occasionally the Incubation Director (kinda like a Business Mentor) when he was around - and we were all good friends.
After discussions about social media and various conversations we’d had, it was suggested that I do something social media related due to both my passion and experience.
I started looking into social media marketing as a freelancer and took over the profiles for the company I was working with. Although it wasn’t in my job description, the profiles were fairly neglected and I thought they’d be a good place to practice, gaining some experience along the way.
I figured the more experience I had, the more proof I’d have that I know what I'm talking about and the easier it'd be to sign clients.
I would trial and error different things, I created a social media strategy and started implementing different tips and tricks that I learned online.
Google was a godsend!
I monitored the results over the following months and within the first month there was an enormous change in the following, the reach, the impressions and the engagement we were getting on posts. I collected all that data, tweaked things as necessary and built a case study from it to show potential clients what I’d been capable of.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, it’s really important you do something you’re excited about. Just chasing money won’t help you become successful. You need passion and a love for what you’re doing because running a business can be really hard at times.
The first steps I took to turning my dreams of being a social media manager into a reality
In September 2016, a few months after I’d been playing around with the profiles of the centre where I worked, I set up my own social media profiles as a Freelance Social Media Manager & Consultant. I knew at this point we’d be leaving the UK 5 months later, in February 2017.
Having an online presence was important to be able to attract clients and if I didn’t have a good social media presence, how could I expect anyone to want my help to grow their own?
From the get go, I was strategic.
I optimised all my profiles, had the same handle across every platform, same basic branding and made it clear exactly who I could help and how I could help them. At the time it was something along the lines of “I help startups and small businesses grow an online presence and attract more leads into their business”.
Next, my focus was solely on giving value. Because I wasn’t ready to accept clients yet, all my content was created to inspire and educate my target audience on how to use social media to grow a business online.
Initially, I created a lot of inspiring quotes to share on Twitter too as I knew these had previously worked well for my guinea pig client and were a great way to increase reach.
At no point did I have the mindset of: If I share too much value or if I help them too much, they’re not going to buy from me. This is a mindset trap we all fall into at some point but the truth is, the more value you deliver, the more trust you’ll build and the more likely you are to attract your dream clients.
Sometimes people won't want to hire you because they can do it themselves. But if they don't hire you to manage their profiles, they might hire you for a strategy call or to carry out an audit of their profiles. They might hire you for a one off session where they talk to you about something they’re really struggling with.
Ok, where were we?
Setup my profiles.
Focused on delivering valuable content daily.
Started testing out different strategies on my own profiles - again, to build a case study so I had proof I knew what I was doing.
One of the things I’m most proud of is that I never pitched myself as a social media manager. I never needed to as clients found me through my social media profiles (mainly Twitter) and got in touch.
I even had my first enquiry in January 2016, before I left my 9 to 5.
The most important thing in the beginning is to focus on building your brand. Don't worry about having the perfect brand colours, the perfect bio, the perfect logo or the perfect pictures.
Forget all of that. Just start throwing valuable stuff out there.
I think times have changed slightly now because there’s more competition than there was 3.5 years ago when I started. You can't just put out an inspiring quote and expect clients to come to you. You have to give value.
People are more interested in good quality content than lots of average content but don't sit there and create elaborate plans. Write whatever comes into your head and you’ll soon start to recognise the content that your target audience resonates with most. Most of the time I was just putting out stuff that came into my head. It was really simple, I created a good graphic for it in Canva and just put it out there.
The next step I took to getting started as a Social Media Manager was asking companies if I could manage their profiles for free in exchange for a testimonial. Not only did this give me proof to showcase to potential clients but it also allowed me to collect data, test out different strategies for different profiles/industries and at the same time, help me increase my confidence in what I was doing.
This can be a great way to get clients as a social media manager. If you do a good job on their profiles, you can suggest that you continue working together for a 3 month period, perhaps at an introductory offer.
So that’s why I became and how I got started as a social media manager:
• Wanted more travel, freedom + financial security
• Created social media profiles + focused on delivering valuable content every day
• Worked for free for 4 different companies to gain experience + a testimonial
It really is that simple. I think so often, we convince ourselves what we want is going to be hard to achieve but that doesn’t have to be the case.
A few things I’d do differently if I knew then what I know now:
• I’d have a BIG Vision for my life so I could create my business around that (for help with that click here)
• I’d spend more time building relationships than changing my branding colours
• I’d spend less money on fancy tools + stick to the free ones until I was making a consistent income
• I’d charge my worth from the get go instead of undercharging (learn how to do that here)
• I’d spend more time working on my mindset + practising self care instead of ‘hustling’ for 10 hours a day
• I wouldn’t offer the management of platforms I didn’t enjoy using
• I’d say no to the potential clients who wanted me to drop my prices + who weren’t in alignment with my values
I know this is quite long-winded but I hope this has inspired you to go after your dreams and shown you that it can be really quick + easy to get started.
The hardest thing is to make that decision to go for it in the first place. But what’s the alternative?
A life spent wondering ‘what if’....?