Where I Get Most Of My Work

…And why you should be active online regardless.

If you only know me from social media, you might think that's where I get most of my work.

Truth is, I don't get loads of business from connections made online.

The majority of my clients come directly or indirectly from the mostly local network I’ve built over a few years of being in business.

But you write blogs, right…?

The number of online enquiries I get, could be a chicken and egg thing.

From the beginning I've put energy into building a local in-person network.

That's involved some 'traditional networking' yes, but by far the most effective thing has simply been working in a co-working space that has a healthy and active community of businesses.

Perhaps because of this, I've not felt as much pressure to ramp up my online marketing activities to the level of other remote freelancers.

That undoubtedly affects the amount of leads I generate online but it’s less of a concern because I’m getting work from elsewhere.  

Now, this might strike you as an odd thing to admit, for someone who's business is writing online content with the sole purpose of marketing your business.

You may wonder why I even bother to put effort into my own content, whether that's my newsletter, blog, website or any social media bumf I put out there.

Well, I still see it as an integral part of marketing my business and you should too.

Why You Should Still Do The Content Thing

In person relationships are never not going to be great for business. It's certainly worked well for me so far.  

But I'd be foolish not to make use of the vast resource that is the internet.  

I still believe creating online content and engaging with other people on social media is 100% worth doing.

Even if your main lead generation activity consists of in-person networking*, having a strong online presence is still going to benefit you.

Here's why:

*Not so in-person at the moment admittedly. But that’s just another reason to focus your efforts online.

Reinforce connections

Pretty much everyone is online. Although I’m sure there is some valid business model that allows for being offline, I'm by no means advocating for an offline approach.

Even if you've met someone in person initially, they're still going to look you up online, pretty much as a first point of call.  

So, you not only need a presence there but also evidence that you're active.

Evidence that you're interacting with people, social proof and most importantly examples of what you can do/what you sell.  

It’s often only after this that they’ll be happy to go further with their enquiry.

Stay front of mind

It may be the case that you make a connection who’s not initially interested in your service.

It's only once they've seen your activity online, engaged with your posts and realised that they need what you do, that they then get in touch with an enquiry.

This has definitely happened with me. Someone I’ve met has subscribed to my mailing list, seen what I can do, heard from me on a regular basis and eventually got in touch.

Even if people aren't ready to buy from you now, you never know when they will be.

By having fresh content and sharing it even just a couple of times a week you're already going to be more memorable to your connections and followers than a significant percentage of other people on the platform.

Only 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly active users actually post content on a weekly basis.

It makes sense too. Just think about how your feed looks over the course of an average week. Say you have 1000 connections, I bet there's maybe 50 people that are guaranteed to pop up regularly with original content each week. Out of 1000 people!

Content is an investment

Having an active presence on social media or in people's inboxes is kind of an investment in your business.

Yes, one post may gain you very little, but the collective weight of regular activity is a net which is only going to grow over time.

It's the extra connections you get after a certain post does well.

It's the confidence that grows in that one business exec that was already considering getting in touch.

It's the comment from one influential follower that provides you with a bit of social proof, there for all to see.

This is also why evergreen content like blogs, articles and YouTube videos is so valuable. Not only does it have the potential (if done well) to improve your SEO ranking but it can also be referred to and reused whenever you want.

People will always be asking the same questions. You might already have exactly what they need.

Business changes

I'm perfectly happy working with local clients or connections of people I know well. Business is fine. But there's a lot of exciting work to be found through people you meet online and it’s an area of the business I’m hoping to grow.

Whether you're wanting to boost awareness in your local eco-system or actively attract leads from further afield, there's always a good reason to have regular content going out of your site, in an email or directly on social media. 

If you need help to do that, let me know.