Make A Living Writing

Lots of freelance writers use social media — LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the like — as a way of finding clients, finding sources, and staying in touch with other writers. But I think few are aware of the emerging writing niche of getting paid by companies to write on social-media platforms.

The most basic social-media jobs involve writing Web content or doing social-media strategy for corporations, helping them with their social-media presence. Many companies are at the stage where they know they should be in social media, but they don’t really know how to do it, and they are turning to outside experts. It’s sort of a gold-rush moment in the field, since it’s still an emerging medium.

If you’ve been using social media yourself — you’re blogging and posting on community forums and major social sites, or running your own niche site and optimizing it for search — you should realize you have expertise that companies are paying for.

Because it’s such a new field, pay is all over the map. You can tell it’s starting to be a real job niche, though, because niche job Web sites have already sprung up to aggregate these jobs, such as jobsinsocialmedia.com. Recruiter Jim Durbin, the site owner, says pay depends mostly on your credentials and job history. If you’re a brand-new writer with your own blog, you’ll probably start out not making much. If you have copywriting experience or an agency or big-company marketing background, you could find yourself making $120,000 a year in a social-media strategy job.

Recent trends on Indeed.com show jobs that include the phrase “social media” in the description have gone from basically nothing a couple years ago to nearly 1 percent of all jobs listed on the site! I got more than 18,000 job listings for that keyword on a recent search, many for major companies including Radio Flyer, Avis, Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola and Office Depot. Big nonprofits including World Vision are looking, too.

Here are some of the major jobs in social media and descriptions of what they do. Maybe there’s a great new area in writing for you to help grow your income.

• Blogger. Most writers are familiar with blogging by now, but may not realize that companies and publications are paying well for blogs. Personally, I made more than half my income this month from blogging for companies and major publications. Pay ranges from squat to more than $100 a post.  To earn more, think about specialized, unusual expertise you can leverage, and target bigger companies and publications that need to project a top-quality image.
• Community manager. I wrote recently on WM about my cool friend Tony Kehlhofer, who landed an amazing part-time, work-from-home gig as a community manager for Lego’s new massive multiplayer online game for tweens, Lego Universe. You can read over there about the training he got so he can now monitor and respond on behalf of Lego to kids as they’re playing the game. I talked with a recruiter recently at a division of Spherion for my AOL story who said he’d recently filled a similar full-time community manager gig for a big company that paid $120,000 a year. Generally, if you’re already making a big-time marketing salary,  you can command these kind of rates.
• Social-media strategist or digital strategist. If you’re someone with a LOT of social-media experience, who understands what works and doesn’t in drawing people to a Web site, you can earn big in this role. Social-media strategists often oversee a social team developing on a company’s online marketing strategy. This person decides what the company needs to be doing in social media — what messages they should be sending, what sites they should be active on, the works. Copywriting coach Chris Marlow says most of the work is still freelance — but it’s going for upwards of $200 an hour. Working under this top-dog can be social-media marketing specialists and associates who help execute the strategy, tweeting, setting up Facebook fan communities and keeping them active, and so on.
• Online customer service representative. This can be a bottom-rung place to get started. It’s like the social-media version of a call center worker. Online reps troll social sites for mentions of their company, and then respond if needed. Had an interesting personal experience with this recently — got to jawing on Twitter with another writer about taxes and how we’d gotten IRS notices. I mentioned TurboTax didn’t seem to know how to do the adoption tax credit, I’d gotten a revision letter both the years I took it using the software. Next thing I know, a TurboTax rep DM’d me on Twitter to ask if I needed help! I told him about the problem and he said he’d report it to the company. What a feel-good customer experience! Somebody got paid to reach out to  me on there…and you could, too. These folks are also sometimes known as “online reputation defenders,” crusading online to burnish their brand’s image.
• Search engine marketing associate. SEM associates work with a Web site to make sure it’s optimizing its results in natural search on Google and other engines. Some of you are already doing this for your own sites, and could apply what you know to a paying gig.

Photo via Flickr user webtreats

Twitter. Yes, that crazy, 140-character insta-communication place everybody’s talking about. It seems like you’re either hooked on it, or you don’t understand it. I was a serious skeptic, but now that I’ve spent some time on it, I’m finding it an invaluable tool for me as a writer and blogger.

When I first heard about it, I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding.” What can I possibly communicate in these short messages? How can I meaningfully connect with anyone?

But I believe the space limits on Twitter in fact make it more powerful and efficient than other social-media sites. Here are some of the reasons I’ve grown to love it:

1. #1 Internet brain-picking site. Would you like to be inspired daily by the Dalai Lama? Want a quick hit of what Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan is thinking? Don’t know who Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan are yet? Just follow them and find out. Twitter gives you instant access to some of the brightest minds around the globe, in various fields (especially social media and marketing). For starters, just hang out, follow some whip-smart folks, and learn.

2. Make new friends. I’ve connected with wonderful writers around the country, some of which I’ve chatted with on the phone since, from poking around on Twitter, and seeing who follows me.

3. Learn to be concise. The 140-character discipline of Twitter really teaches you how to write for today’s short-attention-span, online audience. Try to be witty in two lines while still including a link–it’s good practice.

4. Find sources…and let them find you. I’ve found Twitter a good emergency source-finding mechanism, even for arcane stuff. Also, some folks are so into Twitter that it’s the fastest way to get them–give it a try if you’re having trouble reaching someone by phone or email. Also, lots of marketing consultants are out there telling business owners they need to find journalists on Twitter to market their business…so if you get on, story ideas will come your way.

5. Meet editors. Lots of publications are jumping on Twitter. Can be a great way to find an editor name in this era when so many publications don’t seem to have mastheads anymore.

6. Get listed. Twitter’s lists feature has become a great way to get known (and to find people). I’m in 85 or so lists, and have made nearly a dozen–easy way for me to quickly save names by category, i.e. writers, business sources, etc.

7. Find jobs. Twitter is an increasingly hot place for jobs. I created a list for job sites that are on Twitter, so I can run a feed and just look at listings whenever I want. You can also use tools such as TwitJobSearch to run job searches on key words.

8. Get social-media skills. If you’re not working with clients yet who want you to do social media for them, you probably will be soon. So hang out on Twitter and learn the etiquette so you’re ready to combine  your copywriting skills with social media to earn more.

How are you using Twitter to help your writing career? Let me know if I’ve forgotten anything. And for more on how writers can use social media to help their careers, see my LinkedIn tips over on the WM Freelance Writing Connection.

3/15/01–Oh heck! I DID forget one more thing that’s great about Twitter — #WriterWednesday (or #WW). Every Wednesday, writers on Twitter tweet about what they’re up to, salute new friends or listers…fun dialogue to scroll through. Just search on the hashtag phrase and enjoy…great way to connect with other writers.–Carol

Photo via Flickr user 7son75