Anyone else set themselves up as a Freelance Social Media Administrator? Any advice please?

[LondonGrimmer]

I've got a few years' experience of managing a small charity's Facebook and Instagram page, but have moved on.

I'm currently setting myself up as self-employed in another area, which allows me to work from home. I've got my UTR from HMRC and will be buying insurance soon (the contract I'll have is with the NHS so they'll provide the safeguarding training and do the DBS).

Has anyone on here successfully set themselves up as a freelance social media manager/administrator for a few different small businesses? I've noticed there's quite a bit of need in my area - for example, a local builder who isn't social media savvy, people/friends who have small businesses but don't have the time, experience and/or creativity (I use Canva and CapCut to create content) - so am hoping to subsidise my income by doing a few hours of this a week.

Any experience or tips appreciated! Thank you.

Bump...

I have done this for bigger companies. Do you mind if I ask - when you say you've noticed there is a need, how have you assessed that?

have these people actually said to you that they feel the need for more of a social media presence?

Because a lot of small businesses don't need it, or just need simple updates that wouldn't mean paying someone who can use those creation tools.

And have you had conversations with them about what they would pay and does it fit your rate?

round here, builders are absolutely wall-to-wall booked.

They certainly wouldn't need social media promotion

Hello, thanks for replying.

Oh, I've just had casual chats with people doing work for me at the moment, and/or friends who are small businesses owners who know nothing about algorithms, content creation, Canva etc and don't have time for it all.

I have no idea how much to charge, so any links or tips to try and gauge that would be very helpful. I'm fortunate in that I don't need to earn much, so even a couple of hours a week would suit me.

So you're looking at this as a bit of fun/hobby?

Not really the answer to your question but I’m a lecturer in PR/digital marketing and do a bit of this as a side hustle. It tends to work as a “skills swap” though with a bit of (shhhh) cash in hand on top. My main client is my hairdresser. He owns the salon and after several informal chats I have managed their socials for the last year or so. They mainly provide the images or video - although I do bits myself too - then I write copy and schedule the posts. In return I get my hair free and ad hoc cash if I do more - eg write direct marketing emails.

I’ve also done bits for a neighbour who runs a small antiques business (“paid” in wine/meals out) and a local tree surgeon (“paid” in pruning 😂).

For me it’s useful to keep my hand in and to have case studies I use with my classes. I could probably push to grow it but I’m pretty busy with my teaching job.

From OP's original post, and follow up, it's clear she's looking to supplement her income on a few hours a week. Neither a hobby or just a bit of fun.

@EmeraldRoulette I'm not working at the moment, and I do find managing a social media page fun, actually. So at the moment I'm helping a friend out and she's thanked me with a couple of meals out so far. I've since been approached by someone else in my community who is looking to set a page up and they've asked for help (this is for a not-for-profit community project though, so I'd be doing that on a volunteer basis). I get a real thrill out of reaching 2.5k screens with a post on a page that has fewer than 100 followers (don't know anyone else in this industry so no idea if that's good or not?!).

@Judystilldreamsofhorses thank you for sharing your experience, that sounds similar to what I'd be prepared to do...though of course I'm not a lecturer of PR/Marketing... ! It is a field I'm pretty sure I'd love and be good in, but have no formal qualifications. I'm considering looking for a job in comms/digital media marketing, but not sure where to start. And it needs to work around my other freelance work and family.

I have friends who have done it, but only ever briefly - most businesses don't realise how much work it takes and so won't pay enough to make it viable.

I'm quite surprised at the negative responses on here TBH. IMO if you're a good enough content manager then I don't think you will have any issues finding clients and work! Selling yourself as a "content administrator" sounds less appealing. Could you sell yourself as a Social Media Marketer or something more inspiring? You might get paid a bit more, but you'd need to be good at creating good content.

I would say put together some "packages" at different levels for what you could offer. E.g. silver, gold, platinum (but with better names), with costs for each. Then specify what level of service you will give for each e.g. 5 facebook posts a week, 2 instagram stories, whether you will write posts for them etc etc. Whatever you will need some level of interaction with the business owners, say a monthly meeting whereby you can brainstorm together for the posts you're going to create as they will provide you with the content and updates to a degree.

Maybe also coming up with a social media plan for each business is a good idea - tone of voice, USP, brand colour pallete / fonts for social media, how you are going to up engagement.

Your own social media brand will be key to selling your own product! So get it looking really good. Position yourself as an authority.

I realise you may just want to do "admin" which is fine, in which case just get really clear about the service you offer, the benefits to the business, that said don't undersell yourself.

I think the issue is SMEs don't want to pay what the skill is worth - you can usually see where a page you're following has had great content and engagement for a while, then it drops - someone's been giving them a hand in whatever capacity, or the business owner has had some free time and put some effort in, then it gets busy or they stop paying...

What I'd advise you to do is to become your own case study with the two 'jobs' you're working on just now, your friend and the not for profit.

Set yourself a goal, work out exactly how long it took you to get to that goal (ie grow followers by X took Y posts and that was Z hours). Be meticulous, count every minute. Then you have an idea of how much time and effort you had to put in. Then talk to your clients and be really open: how much was that worth to your business, how much would you have paid for that. And how much they would pay next week if you did it again. Make sure they're not telling you what you want to hear! Then sit down and divide what they'll pay by the time you've done, to get a rough sort of rate.

Then, and only then, can you see if there's a business in it. Remember if you're freelance you need to be making allowances for your tax, NI, business expenses, equipment, training, holidays, sick pay, business development hours and pension on top of that.

So if it's taken you 10 hours to do something worth £500, don't be thinking 'great, £50 an hour'. That's more like £25 an hour when you've taken the above into account.

It's a rule of thumb approach but it's a really good thing to work through.

@cinnamono has good tips. When my hairdresser and I started chatting about their existing social media (back in about 2022) I said that I found the lack of consistency of their content offputting - essentially each stylist would take photos of clients and write a bit of text then the salon manager would post stuff with no real plan. It all felt higggledy-piggledy. I did an audit of their last month as a wee project and put it all into a table showing engagement etc, an analysis of hashtags, but also highlighting areas where there was eg a row of three blonde women on the instagram grid, or no gents’ cuts for weeks and it looked clunky.

Once we agreed I was going to take it on I got my hairdresser to come up with three words that he thought were core to the business, and those shaped the tone of voice for all copy going forward. We also worked out a rough schedule of hair/general salon stuff/salon dog in terms of content. I like the dog to tie in with current events, so last week he was chatting about football, and he’s very fond of talking about the weather too!

We work with WA groups and shared iCloud photo album. There are two WA groups, one that all the stylists can post in, and one that is me, my hairdresser/salon owner and the salon manager - only the three of us have the shared album so I save content from other stylists into there from WA. I often have to pop up and remind people to upload pics/videos but it works well in general, and I am in there in person once a month. I’m flexible so eg recently they found out they were through to the finals of an industry awards thing and I did a late night extra post that wasn’t planned. I use Meta Business Suite to post to Instagram and Facebook but tend to focus on Instagram and often write copy and schedule posts when I’m in the bath!

I’ve been a client at the salon since my previous hairdresser went into a different field after lockdown and recommended him - it’s easy for me because we’re friends, and also because he trusts me and lets me get on with it.

(I have great hair!)

This is why I love Mumsnet! Thank you so much everyone, some really useful hints and tips there. I've read the replies a couple of times and am still mulling things over. Like I said, it's just a thought for now.

I guess I'm more comfortable with the title 'social media administrator' as that's the title I had when working for a tiny charity until recently. Nobody else in the charity knew anything about digital media marketing, and few used social media, so it was left to me. I did some great training with Media Trust, and did lots of my own research. Then it was just learning on the job/trial and error along the way. My highest qualifications are GCSE/NVQ 2, so definitely don't think I could call myself an Executive or Manager?!

I'm currently pulling off the insights from my friend's page and will do a PowerPoint presentation showing the impact of my work. It's so hard to judge how long I spend doing it, as once I've created the weekly post I then share it to relevant local groups depending on the day. I check it a couple of times a day and comment/react to other pages' posts.

I think for now I'll continue doing it on a volunteer basis, until maybe one day I get a formal qualification and some better real-life experience (preferably with a line manager who can teach and mentor me along the way).

Thanks again for all your help above, I truly appreciate it.

Come and study with me, @LondonGrimmer! I teach an entire double credit module where the students become content creators (they have to write a plan, create content on two platforms over four weeks, then write an evaluative report, so it’s not just posting GRWM randomly for a semester) and it’s so much fun.

It's the pulling to other groups/checking/responding that's the most valuable bit of the service though - that's the thing that the client is too busy to do for themselves. So if you do want to do something with it, you have to be able to quantify that skill and that expertise.

@HelloMyNameIsElderSmurf it's quite tricky to do that, isn't it? I have a schedule of when to post to which local groups, as some only allow business posts on a specific day and if you post outside of that day they'll block you. So I wake up and post on the correct day with a caption that's timely and relevant, ensuring I use that town/Village name, and inviting people to follow our page for more information.

Then at various times of the day when I'm standing in a queue, in the bath, chilling out etc I'll switch profiles and then respond to any comments, invite people who've liked a post to follow our page, like/react to local businesses' posts etc. Sometimes it's one or two mins, but guess it all adds up.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses sounds brilliant! I've dropped you a PM 😀

P.s if anyone on this thread has any links to free or low-cost copy writing or digital content creation courses, I'd really appreciate them! Looking to upskill and feel more confident.