freelance lifestyle + steady paychecks

Inside look at a day in the life of this specialist… [The Writer’ s Life]( April 27, 2023 "Social media is the only area of business where you don't need to outspend your competitors in order to beat them." Jeremy Waite, Adobe Hi {NAME}! We're really excited to have partnered with the "Queen" of Facebook Mari Smith for our brand-new Social Media Strategist training. Social media is a huge opportunity for writers, thanks to a $2 trillion mega-trend that's going to create a "writer's boom!" ([You can read more about that here.]() So now you may be wondering … but what does a Social Media Strategist actually DO all day? How do they handle a marketing channel that is "on" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? How do they know what to charge for their services? Well, to answer that last question first, the good news is that you're generally paid on retainer. Retainers are a regular, monthly fee clients will pay you in exchange for an agreed scope of work. With the proper training, you could be earning $1,500 … $3,000 … $5,000 or more per month, for every client you work with. That's consistent income you can count on, like clockwork. For the other answers, I've asked Robert Rice to pull back the curtain on what he does as a social media manager. Robert is also an actor, so his copywriting projects need to fit around his first career choice. The flexibility of a writer's freelance lifestyle is critical to him! He explains how it works in today's article. You can enjoy the fun retainer work as a Social Media Strategist also with just a bit of specialized training. If you join Mari for just five weeks, you'll get the training you need to be a skilled, in-demand Social Media Strategist … setting yourself up for fees for not only planning the content strategy but implementing it as well. [Check out the details today.]( Enrollment is closing! Over to you, Robert! Rebecca Matter President AWAI LAST CHANCE: $11 today, $297 tomorrow When you grab a subscription to Barefoot Writer magazine by midnight, for only $11 … You'll get FREE access to our Making the Leap program, which takes you wherever you are today … And shows you exactly how to make a smooth transition to paid writing, so you'll have success right out of the gate. It usually costs $297, but you'll get it completely free today as a social media manager. What Does a Social Media Manager Do, Exactly? Simply put, a social media manager runs social media accounts for others. Management comes in many shapes and sizes, ranging from helping a local florist regularly update their Instagram all the way to working hands-on with an influencer shooting TikTok videos. However, most gigs fall somewhere in the middle: you plan, create, and execute posts for 1-3 social media accounts for a single client. The amount of content is entirely up to the agreement between you and them. In addition to planning and execution, a manager often helps with engagement. That means responding to Likes and comments, and replying to direct messages. Although social media is a 24/7 game, no one expects a manager to be on call all the time. You'll typically set your own hours for being available to respond. The last element is converting followers into paying customers. This is an ongoing process that's baked into the previous two steps. You'll largely use tools within social media platforms to track what's working and how to improve what isn't. All of this adds up to an extremely flexible gig that allows you to shape your life exactly the way you want. Especially once you get the hang of it. Work Smarter, Not Harder The most common tool you'll get to know as a social media manager is a "content calendar." A content calendar provides a big picture of the month ahead, including which posts are scheduled and when, and allows for a quick way to shuffle things around should a surprise come up. You may be thinking, "Geez, how long will it take to plan a month of content?" Honestly, not that long. Using the local florist as an example, let's say they want to post three times a week. They're new to the social media game, so all you know is that their customers leave rave reviews for their arrangements. So, the first post of the week could feature a seasonal flower and what it represents (as it relates to upcoming events or holidays). The next post could be a picture of an arrangement featuring that flower. The third post could show the flowers at a customer's event with a short testimonial as a caption. You can try this for one month and see how it lands. If it performs well, you can do the same for the following month. If one post does significantly better than the others, you can adjust accordingly. When you're getting started, the planning process can take a few days. Once you get the hang of it, strategizing can take a few hours. Then it's all about execution, which also can be done quite quickly with the right strategy … A Month's Work in a Single Day There are three chief methods of developing social media content: - Create posts from scratch: taking photos/videos and writing your own captions. - Transform materials the client provides into posts: for example, turning sections of a booklet on how to properly care for flowers into individual posts. (Hint: This is much easier.) - Curate content from other sources: sharing an article written by another publication, or photos from another source (with permission, of course!), for example, and the like. Smart managers pull mostly from #2 and #3. As you get to know your clients, you'll find that they often have a ton of marketing and sales tools they do not use to their fullest potential. You can leverage these into quality posts that provide value to their clientele. Using the florist example, chances are they have hundreds of photos of their flowers, not to mention pictures posted by clients. Every single one of those could be an Instagram post of its own. For a caption, you can go to their Yelp page or Google reviews to pull testimonials. A quick Google search will give you all the information you need about what flowers represent, various holidays, and so on … With all of that, you have all you need to create your posts! And if you need to supplement it, you can go to external sources. Check out recent articles from major gardening publications. Perhaps Better Homes & Gardens did a feature on peonies. There's nothing stopping you from sharing a blurb from that piece, so long as you properly cite and credit it. Again, once you get the hang of this process and get good with tools, such as Hootsuite, you can quite literally plan, create, and schedule an entire month's worth of content in a single day. Then it gets to the fun part: communicating with the audience and building a true community. How Making Friends Makes You Money Once you start posting, you'll likely be responsible for engaging with followers. Engagement is vital as it brings the human element to your client's social media presence. Simply by responding to comments and direct messages, you build a community. One that is primed to eventually become paying customers. This process could add an hour to your day, though it will likely be a lot less. I've been able to get through comments and messages on multiple pages for multiple businesses in 20 to 30 minutes. Beyond that, you'll start to monitor the metrics of posts. Metrics are essentially measurements of how well the post did in terms of reach, engagement, conversions (if it has a call-to-action), and so on … You won't have a ton of metrics to go from initially. However, as you continue month to month, you'll get more and more information. It may take an hour or so to read through and assess these numbers, and all of it will help you adapt your strategy to improve results and make your clients happy. The best part is you'll be able to use that hard data to suggest marketing strategies. Any pitches that go outside the scope of what I mentioned above could become a new paid gig. Enjoy Life on Your Terms Social media management is the perfect vehicle for creating the life you want. It's part time, can be done from anywhere in the world, and is quite lucrative. For those who have been doing the math you could spend a day or two planning and scheduling content for the month. Then, you check in for a bit each workday to engage, and then spend another short stint at the end of the month evaluating metrics. All-in-all, around 20-30 hours' worth of work covers a month of management for one client. Some require more, some less. And if you want, you can take on more than one. With retainer contracts ranging anywhere from $750-$5,000+ a month, you can see how it's one of the most lucrative opportunities with the most flexibility. Not to mention, once you get started, it absolutely is in their best interest to keep you around for the long haul. So, now that you've had a peek behind the curtain, why not give it a go yourself? As a copywriter, you already have so many of the skills you need to get started. It's perfect as a main focus or as a side dish to an already established writing career. Spend just five weeks training with Mari Smith, the "Queen" of Facebook, and you can be up and running as a well-paid Social Media Strategist, with the skills to be making $1,500 … $3,000 … even $5,000 a month from every client you take on. [Check out ALL the details on this new live training program here.]( What's Hot at AWAI … 👉 CLOSING SOON: [Enroll in our Social Media Certification here!]( 👀 ICYMI … Did you catch Jade and Mari Smith talking about Making Money Writing for Social Media in 2023 (and Beyond!) yesterday? [You can watch the replay here!]( 🤓 [4 Cs and an F that I've learned are essential to success as a Social Media Manager](. 🤩 [Retirement professional retires to the golf course while building a thriving copywriting business.]( A reward for bravery … [Social media post about becoming a published freelance writer] You took a chance on yourself and got the win … Congratulations, Megan! 🎉 Several longtime AWAI members got their start the same way … by doing writing work for their current employer. Check out our [success stories]( for a dose of inspiration. Have your own story to share? Email us at mysuccess@awai.com, or [post it over in the Facebook group](, so we can celebrate your win too! Full Access for Just $1!!! This free blueprint shows you how to make $2,500 to $8,000 a month as a writer. And for just a buck, you'll gain access to every resource you'll need to execute that blueprint. All the roadmaps … All the articles … All the how-to videos … All the training webinars … The member forum, the job board, the tutorials, the tools … All of it! [Check It Out Now]( Featured Jobs You can find these jobs and thousands more on [WritersWanted.com](: Content Writer — Design-peak-com Full-time, Remote Deliver strategically sound conceptual content. (blogs, case studies, emails, social posts, website). --------------------------------------------------------------- Senior Security Writer — At-Bay Full-time, San Francisco, CA Work with our social media writer to build our influencer network, engage with influencer content, and find opportunities to partner on guest blogs, etc. --------------------------------------------------------------- Copywriter — Thrive Pet Healthcare Full-time, Austin, TX Collaborate with brand leadership, website, and social media specialists in the creation of SEO content, while supporting always on publishing of digital content. --------------------------------------------------------------- Trouble viewing this email? [View in your browser, here](. For questions or requests: [contact us online](. --------------------------------------------------------------- ©2023 American Writers & Artists Institute Do you know of someone who would benefit from reading The Writer's Life? Simply direct them [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- American Writers & Artists Institute 220 George Bush Blvd, Suite D Delray Beach, FL 33444 (561) 278-5557 or (866) 879-2924 Ensure your subscription delivery. AWAI Whitelisting info available [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to this newsletter as {EMAIL}. To unsubscribe from any future issues of The Writer's Life, please click here: [Unsubscribe from The Writer's Life](. To unsubscribe from all AWAI broadcasts click here. [I want to permanently unsubscribe from all AWAI emails](.