We are about to go into a quiet time of year, whether you choose to work less or there is just less work, and so it is a good time to think about what you can do to get a jumpstart on your freelancing in 2012.
With today’s technology, it is easy and cost-effective to do some online marketing for your career as a freelance entrepreneur. Let’s look at some ways to make online marketing work for you:
- Social Media Profiles – Now is a great time to take a look at all of your social media profiles to make sure they:
- Reflect most recent work experience
- Are Consistent
- Tell your story
- Use keywords to help search engines find your skills
- Have been carefully edited for professional purposes
- Facebook Timelines – You’ve probably heard that Facebook profiles are changing into timelines, but you might not know that you need to go to your timeline and make sure there is nothing posted there from the past that you don’t want potential clients to see. You might not have been as careful in 2006 or ’07 about the photographs you posted and Timelines make it much easier for people to see your posts of long ago.
- New Platforms – While you have a couple of free hours, set up your Google+ Circles, and start getting comfortable there. Still new-kid-on-the-block, Google+ may very well be a big player in 2012.
- Build or Tweak Your Website – If you are a Designer, you have a website, but maybe you haven’t had time to update it for a while. If you are in other creative fields, it is great to have a website of your own and there are free and inexpensive places to host. A domain name only costs $10 a year and Google Sites is one place where you can build a site easily without any knowledge of coding.
- Start a Blog – Since you are an entrepreneur, you own a business—you! Your business needs a blog where you can talk about recent projects, things that inspire you, link to articles that are interesting, and give the world your take on current creative trends. Give blogging a try, it’s fun!
- Comment – If you’re like me, even on your downtime you’re surfing the web for interesting information. Now is the time to take a moment to comment on relevant articles in your field or in LinkedIn Group discussions and build your credibility. If you add a link to your website or blog, you might increase your own traffic as well.
See, you thought you had nothing to do over the holiday break! Get to work!
Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative