Hi all! How do you take holiday as a freelance Social Media Manager?

Hi everyone! I'm new and this is my first thread and I'm sure there will be many more as I have so much to learn and I am so grateful to find this forum!

I have recently lost my job and decided to have a go at working for myself in Social Media Management for companies on the Isle of Wight, UK. As much as I love how social media works so well for businesses now, as you are probably well aware, it is a world that never sleeps! With this in mind I have to ask you all....

- How do you take time off when you work alone?
- Do you find another freelancer to take over your clients social media profiles while you are away?
- or do you schedule all content before having your time off and leave it up to the clients to respond to their customers on social media?

I have a lot to think about before I start my journey so any advice at all from you freelancers out there would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks! Rach x

 

Hi Rachel,

I've run into the same thing a few times in the past and have used a few different strategies. Scheduling content is the best way to get the regular stuff out there but I also use a virtual assistant to keep an eye on interactions and anything that may end up popping up that is relevant to the client. Also, I make sure there is interaction so the social media account continue to be active and not just a posting account for links and articles.

I wouldn't recommend going the VA route if you don't already have someone you can trust and get up to speed. Another freelancer that you know and trust would be the way I would go.

Hope this helps!
Chris

 

I also manage different social media sites for clients and you’re right it’s tasking and never sleeps. What I do is schedule content to make sure that I will not miss a day’s post. Whenever I needed a time-off I hire someone I trust to monitor the activities and make sure that good interactions are being done. I have my phone with data subscription on hand wherever I go so I can be reached for important things - it’s not really a total time-off I guess but having someone you trust can really make a difference.

 

I don't work on holiday. I always go somewhere for excursion. And after come back from their. I take care of my social media accounts.

 

Hi all! Thank you all very much for your replies. Ideally, I would like to have a proper break and relax without having to keep checking my phone when I go away (but I fear it will be hard to resist checking in from time to time!).

Scheduling content is definitely the way to go which obviously means a lot of work before you go on holiday. I'm yet to find someone that I can trust who is also a freelance social media professional so I am very interested in the virtual assistant suggestion to get me started! Customer interaction is something thats just as important and ideally can't be ignored. Suckerpunch - I would love to know what sort of VA you have used and how they work exactly? Did your clients receive the notifications while you were away and they would have to reply to their customers?

Many thanks again
Rach

 

With customers I have had it both ways. Some are deathly afraid of interacting online even though they might be the most friendly and outgoing person to those they deal with in person so I tend not put any pressure on them to jump into the fray. Or it could be their schedule just didn't allow them to check in on things. There are others who were more than happy to stop in and see what was happening or respond to any comments that may have popped up.

VA's are something that it took me quite some time to get right. It was trial and error for me until I came up with a process to find the right person for the role. I use oDesk to find talented people and start them off with small tasks to test them out. As I get more comfortable with someone, I'll dish more responsibilities off to them as well as provide them with step-by-step guidelines on how I do tasks. Screencasts are also something I employ quite a bit. Once you find the right person and build the trust in their abilities, it can be quite rewarding as you are comfortable handing tasks off to them to free up time to work on other aspects of your business.

 

Amazing, and very helpful advice Suckerpunch! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it

 

Not a problem at all. Glad to help. Hit me up if there's anything else I can offer some advice on.

Cheers!
Chris

 

You can try a social media scheduling tool to at least get some free time, I use Buffer and absolutely loving it, of course when I am on holidays I cannot engage with people, but at least the content gets shared according to my schedule on Buffer and that way I don't need to ask someone else at my company to do it

 

God will help you

 

Interesting question, well one of the perks of working for yourself is this though. Finding someone to replace you on the time is alright but I would be cautious with it so they don't actually replace me. Planning ahead is I believe the best way to go, but I usually put aside 1 hour everyday to monitor even in my holidays, I mostly manage websites, but social media is very tricky. There are always assholes who would post irrelevant material or post damaging comments so it needs attention.
Good lulck

 

hey body what kind of websites do you usually manage ?

 

Well mostly Joomla, WordPress and Bigcommerce clients if you mean the platform. They are from all types of industries, from petroleum to funeral home and classic cars. My role is project management from concept development to building the website and managing the content afterwards (I don't do all myself, I manage the projects) then the conversion optimization and analysis and etc.
Why you ask?

 

I think that hiring someone you trust you would be a good idea. If you don't really have someone that you trust to look over it then I would just suggest hiring someone online. There are many people out there who would be willing to look over it for you while you're away. And I'm sure that you wouldn't have to pay them too much either. Just make sure the you tell them everything that need to know.

 

it was a joke ))) don't be so nervous ) i mean if you really want, you'll be on the top