You must be living in a hole if you haven’t seen the success of Old Spice’s viral Youtube videos. For so long companies have tried to have make their videos go viral only to fail badly. Procter & Gamble have just shown the world how its done. The secret of the success of this video is the apt use of social media and that is something we can take advantage of as freelancers.

Before you rip your top off and run to the shower with your camera remember that it is not a deodorant which you are trying to sell, rather you are selling your services. So no, keep your tops on guys not only because your beer belly will show, but because we are selling services and need a different approach to selling with sex. We do, however, need to use social media to our advantage.

Marketing With Social Media

If you do not have an account with any of the following social media sites then be sure to make an account ASAP as it is vital for marketing. Click on the sites name in the title and this will take you to that site.

Twitter

Twitter is probably the easiest to use out of all of the social media sites. Try the following points

• Follow people on Twitter who are in your field
• Search for related terms on Twitter, such as “web design” if you are a designer and follow these people
• Don’t follow a ridiculous number of people because Twitter may see this as botting or spam
• Tweet topics related to your niche by clicking the “Retweet” button at the bottom of posts which you like (Hint hint – We have one on the left hand side too!)
• Interact in Twitter discussions
• Every now and again tweet that you are free to work
• Tweet your portfolio
• Tweet every post you make on your blog
• Install a plugin on your blog called “Digg Digg” so you can have the retweet button on your blog too
• Make a custom background for your twitter page, make sure you include your logo

Digg

Digg is huge and if you ever hit the front page of digg, you will be getting a hell-of-a-lot of traffic to your blog/portfolio

• Make friends on Digg with those people who are in your niche
• Write articles on your blog and digg every post
• Digg other blog’s articles which you like using the Digg button at the bottom of posts (Hint hint! – We have one following you on the left hand side!)
• Install “Digg Digg” plugin so you can have a button like the one at the bottom of this post
• Change your profile picture to your logo

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is more of a business related social networking site, so it’s probably best not to treat it like Facebook

• Make sure your profile page is clear and has a link to your portfolio and a description of what you do
• Add all your business related friends and colleagues
• Add people who are likely to give you work
• Send direct messages to people who may be interested in your services
• Try to network and connect other people who may be in need of each others services

YouTube

• Create a channel
• Comment on relevant Youtube videos
• Add friends on Youtube who may be in your field of freelancing
• Push people to subscribe to your channel
• Upload videos relevant to your field
• Get your camera and make a video giving advice to people related to your field – do not take your top off like the Old Spice guy!
• Make sure there is a link to your site in the description
• Mention you mention your site in the video and urge viewers to subscribe to your channel
• Interact with people when they comment on your videos or reply to your comments

DZone

• Share all of relevant blog posts on DZone
• Vote up other blog posts which you like using the DZone ‘vote up’ button (we have one of these on the following you on the left hand side – hint hint!)
• Install the “Digg Digg” plugin so you can encourage others to DZone your posts too

Facebook

By now you should know that Facebook sucks and is really for very long term slow business. But if you did want to still market on Facebook, this is how you could.

• Search and add people who are in your field
• Share relevant articles on Facebook (using buttons like the one at the bottom of this post)
• Install the plugin “Digg Digg” (you should have done this when we were talking about Twitter) so you can have a Facebook share button on your blog posts
• Create a group or celebrity fan page about your blog and push people to join/like
• Create a comical group relevant to your field which people can “like”

Final Word

Utilising all of the above techniques to market your services will not make you as popular as Old Spice, but they will ensure that you stand head and shoulders above the competition. Now you should subscribe to our RSS and share using the Digg, DZone, Twitter and Facebook buttons below.

Places To Find Work For All Types of Freelancers

Elance – They have over 30,000 jobs posted. They also cover many different categories, almost any type of freelancer can find work here.

oDesk – With almost any set of skills you have, you should be able to find freelance work here. They have a wide variety of categories. This is a heavily posted website.

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