10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.

It's vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and -- perhaps most importantly -- your bottom line.

1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3. The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

4. The Law of Patience
Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. While it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.

5. The Law of Compounding
If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.

This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find you online.

6. The Law of Influence
Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.

If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouthmarketing for your business.

8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.

Freelancers' Futures are Bright

The new year brings good reasons to be happy and smile as it predicts that freelancers would have a bright and prosperous future ahead. Recently a survey was conducted by an online services marketplace for professionals looking for freelance jobs. The survey revealed that freelancing business would exponentially grow in the coming years from over 800 freelance professionals as a whopping 79% of respondents expect their freelance business to increase in 2010. Surprisingly out of those surveyed 59% of freelancers prefer Freelancing to Full-Time Employment. This clearly states that the freelancing sector will witness a major boom in the coming years that means there are more number of freelance jobs would be available to freelancers across the globe.
Professionals from around the world in almost every business sector are looking for freelance-projects as they can't rely on their full time jobs anymore. The insecurity of losing a job could be one the reasons of growing demand of freelancers.

The global economic downturn could be one of the reasons behind the growing demand of freelancers across the globe. 18% of professionals who participated in the survey believed that the recent loss of a job as their primary reason for freelancing, and another 36% using freelancing as a way to supplement income from a full-time job. Only 29% of respondents considered freelancing to be their primary job or business. The freedom is also one of the reason freelancers choose freelancing for as they work from home and set their own hours along with the ability to control their own destiny while increasing their earnings potential.
Another reason as many professionals believe that freelancing would increase as many small and large companies are also looking forward to outsource their important freelance jobs assignments to freelancers. They want to outsource all their core and non-core assignments to freelancers as 57 % of the survey respondents feel that the main reason is to "cut costs or reduce staff".

This clearly explains that freelancers have more freelance jobs coming their ways in the next few years. We hope that freelancers find jobs and grow their business in the near future. Please share with us what are your predictions for freelancing career; also share your comments and suggestions on the same.

Alina, a competent result oriented freelance professional and consultant with more than 4 years of extensive experience in Content writing and website development. Write articles on varied topics such as freelancing, trends, freelance project, market, jobs, resources etc.

Why Freelance?

As few as ten years ago, freelancers were those rare few who strayed from the 9-5 life to make a living working from home. We watched them from our office windows as they strolled by wearing jeans while we were clad in suits and ties. While we were trapped inside eating lunch at our desks on those nice spring days, freelancers were enjoying a long casual meal at an outdoor cafe. We assumed they struggled to find work, but we still envied them. They seemed so free. They were living their lives, while we were stuck inside office buildings working for bosses we couldn't stand just so we could live paycheck to paycheck. Fast-forward to today, and everything has changed. Now, lots of us are freelancing. Why? Freelance employment is the future.

Why freelance? Not one single person on the corporate ladder has job security.

Whether you've been with the company twenty years or you just started, your job could be gone tomorrow. Corporate downsizing and budget cuts wipe out entire departments of skilled experienced employees every day, because it's cheaper for a company to outsource the work than it is to keep a dedicated staff of on-site employees. For companies, on-site employees cost more than their salaries. Companies pay a portion of employee social security taxes, health insurance costs, as well as overhead expenses like office space, equipment and supplies. Why should a company pay all this extra money when they could get the job done by an outsourced worker and only pay a per project rate as needed?

Technology has made outsourcing an obvious choice for companies.

Communication by phone and email is quick and efficient. There's no longer a need to have staff members idle and waiting on hand for their next assignment on the company's dime. They can outsource the job to a freelancer who will only charge them for the completed assignment -- no employer tax contributions, no health insurance costs, no overhead. As more and more companies learn about the benefits of outsourcing, more and more employees will find themselves out of a job. Now is the time to begin a freelance career.

Why freelance now? Why not wait until that dreaded day comes?

There are plenty of freelance jobs you can do in your spare time, even while you're still with your present employer. You can work during lunch breaks or in the evenings, on weekends or even during your slow times at the office. It's wise to build a freelance career while you're still working, because it can take months to find enough steady freelance work to replace your current income. Although it can take some time to build a successful freelance career, there are many reasons why freelance employment is actually a lot more enjoyable and beneficial than staying at that old day job. As a freelancer, you can take on as much or as little work as you want, and because you can take on multiple jobs at the same time, you're apt to make even more money than you did as a salaried employee. At your day job, you might get a small raise once a year for being an efficient worker, but as a freelancer, your efficiency will pay off instantly. The pay rate for freelancers is generally at least double that of an on-site employee, and the better you are at what you do, the more work you'll be able to take on. Most freelancers say that within a year of quitting their day jobs they're earning at least twice the annual income they made as an on-site employee, all with the added comfort of working from home and choosing the jobs they want.

Rather than ask "Why freelance?" the better question would be "Why NOT freelance?" You've got everything to gain.

Go Freelance can connect you with freelance jobs across virtually any industry, including freelance writing, freelance editing, freelance proofreading, freelance graphic design, freelance web design, freelance programming, virtual assistant work, and much more.

Freelancing as a Career Option for Women

The word "freelance" was first coined by Sir Walter Scott, a renowned Scottish historical novelist and poet, in 1819 when he wrote his novel Ivanhoe, to refer to a medieval mercenary warrior. The term has then shifted into more figurative meanings. In the 1860s, freelance became a figurative noun, and in 1903, it was officially recognized as a verb by etymologists like the Oxford English Dictionary.
Today, the word "freelance" has changed into different forms: as a noun, freelance or freelancer; as a verb, a photographer who freelances; and as an adverb, she works freelance. Working freelance has become a career and lifestyle choice. It has given many women a variety of benefits and these women feel that there is no better option than the ones they have due to the flexibility of work which is a boon for women who need to strike a balance between their work and their families.
More women today are choosing to leave the security of their day jobs and engage in freelance work due mainly to the following factors:

Variety of jobs
Most women are drawn to go freelance for this reason alone. Freelance work offers a greater variety of assignments compared to regular employment. And with the internet offering more opportunities, freelancing becomes a mine for those who seek good opportunities and better projects, not to mention higher paying jobs. A freelancer can also take on different jobs at one time. She can write feature articles while designing a website.
Fast turnaround of projects
Most freelance jobs are time bound. These jobs are usually done fast and allow freelancers to move on to new projects as soon as they finish the job.
More freedom, more flexibility
Going freelance can give a woman the freedom to choose the place, date and manner in which to do work. Though some freelancing schemes require contracts, freelance still spells a no employer-no employee relationship. Freelance work offers more freedom for someone who does not want to be confined in an 8 to 5 or 9 to 6 work scheme. The freelancing woman is free to choose his working hours and be his/her own boss. Because of the freedom in work schedule, freelancing gives a person more time to pursue other interests or take on more jobs. Other freelancers also consider the fact that they can even take care of their family better as soon as they start working freelance.
Improved income and savings
Freelance workers can usually command higher income rates for their projects because they are hired for their specific talents and skills. This is a big plus because they are paid high but do not have to work full time. Though income rates for freelancers vary, most of them still benefit from the setup. They charge either by the hour, by the day, or on per-project. Others use value-based pricing methods instead of imposing a flat rate. Payments are arranged based on the agreement, and could be done upfront, percentage upfront, or paid whenever the project is completed. For others, a staggered payment scheme may be agreed upon. Today, freelancers can easily find work through the internet. The internet has been a good facilitator of freelancers and employers around the world. These jobs can range from writing short articles to language tutors to architectural designs. The demand to complete projects through freelancing is still very high, as shown by the thousands of projects posted on the Internet. For women, this is a wonderful and lucrative avenue which also gives them creative satisfaction and it is not surprising that women all over the world are going the Freelance way!