How to Become a Freelance Social Media Strategist in 2024

This article covers what a freelance Social Media Strategist does and how to gain the skills necessary to do this work. If you work freelance, instead of working for one company or marketing firm, you find your own clients and work on your own schedule, similar to owning and running a small business. As you will learn by reading this article, it can be challenging to get started as a freelance Social Media Strategist but it can also be a rewarding way to pursue another part-time or full-time income stream, run the social media for the types of brands, businesses, and people that you are interested in working with, and grow your own business.

What is a Social Media Strategist?

A Social Media Strategist is someone in charge of the social media accounts and online presence of a brand or company. This includes managing a brand’s posts to various online platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter/X, developing or implementing social media marketing campaigns, tracking and increasing audience engagement, and working to raise awareness of a brand and its products. Social Media Strategists need to have a firm grasp on what content is appealing on different platforms, how users meaningfully engage with content and brands on these platforms, and what the important trends brands can tap into across platforms are. Not only do Social Media Strategists post and manage content on social media, but they also work with audience analytics, paying attention to how users react to and engage with a brand’s content to determine the success of specific campaigns and future strategies for further engagement.

What is Social Media Strategist Freelancing Like?

Many freelance Social Media Strategists start small, by creating and maintaining a social media presence for themselves, a friend, a local small business, or a non-profit, and building their work portfolio slowly as they forge new relationships with other people, brands, and businesses. What you should know as you consider freelancing as a Social Media Strategist is that you are not alone, not only can you use your own social media prowess to become a Social Media Strategist but others have come before you and there are many online resources you can use, for free or for a fee, to help you track your time, budget, and create business contracts and social media proposals. 

Your main challenge as a freelance Social Media Strategist is finding clients and forging viable long-term relationships with them. Networking and building relationships are key to finding clients and getting your name out there as someone who offers unique and provably successful services as a Social Media Strategist. It can help to identify your specialty. Perhaps there is a specific social media platform where you excel and can pitch yourself as an expert to prospective clients? Do you only work for clients in healthcare, fashion, or the tourism industry? Starting from a place of specificity can help you identify prospective clients and can help you know how to pitch your services to those clients. 

The first step to a successful pitch is doing as much research as you can about your prospective client. You want to think about their business needs, their target audience, and how you, specifically, can help them raise their brand profile and gain new customers or new sales. Once you are ready, you will need to put this pitch proposal in writing and communicate it to your prospective client through email or their preferred communication channel. 

As you pitch yourself to clients, you will need to be clear about your rates and the work you will perform for your clients. Entry-level Social Media Strategists with less experience can expect to work for $20-50 per hour and professional Social Media Strategists with more experience and a deeper portfolio often charge upwards of $100 per hour or $1,000 to $2,000 per social media account per client. Clients will want your rate to reflect the work you can do and the outcomes you can achieve for them and they will want to know this in advance. 

During your contract negotiation, you should be clear about the platforms you’ll use, the number of posts you’ll make, how you’ll engage with your client’s audience and implement campaigns, and over what period you plan to do this. Make sure to remain in contact with your client through their preferred communication channel and keep them updated about the work you are doing so that you can maintain an open and professional relationship throughout your contract. If your work for them is successful, they will not only be more likely to come to you again for your services but they might recommend your work to others. 

Is Social Media Strategist Freelancing Right for Me?

The main benefits of being a freelance Social Media Strategist are that you are in control of when you work, where you work, and what kinds of clients you take on. Freelancing is great for someone who has a full-time job in another field, is just starting as a Social Media Strategist, or enjoys having a high level of control over their own work hours and workspace. 

If the idea of setting your own hours and working remotely does not appeal to you, it might mean that you are more suited to working for a large company or at a marketing firm or agency. It also could mean that you need to create more structured days by leaving home to work for a set number of hours in a coffee shop or a shared workspace. WeWork, for example, provides physical and virtual coworking spaces in many cities around the United States. 

Your main challenge as a freelance Social Media Strategist will be finding viable clients and creating long-term partnerships with individuals, brands, and companies. You will need to market yourself and your services (just as you would any other brand) and prioritize networking to get your name out there. If meeting new people and pitching yourself and your unique services to others does not appeal to you, freelancing might not be the right option.

An additional challenge you might face as a freelancer is the cost of subscription services for products like Hootsuite or Canva for professionals. As an individual, if you want to use these tools you will bear the full cost as a freelancer. Cheaper and free alternatives do exist, so, you should not feel like you cannot be a Social Media Strategist without expensive digital subscriptions and tools. 

Steps to Become a Freelance Social Media Strategist

There are a variety of free and paid resources you can explore to become a Social Media Strategist. To start, you can research more about this career online to learn if it is right for you and to clarify what steps one needs to take to become a Social Media Strategist. One such resource you can explore is Noble Desktop’s free Intro to Social Media Marketing seminar. This free video seminar will provide an introduction to this career and its benefits, the basics about relevant social media platforms, and teach the pillars of success for a Social Media Strategist. 

Once you are clear on the basics of being a Social Media Strategist, you can start by building your own online presence or volunteering your services for a local business or non-profit. As long as you have basic familiarity with how to use, post content to, and engage with audiences across different social media platforms, you can get started building up your portfolio initially even without further education or advanced knowledge of analytics, marketing, and advertising. At this point, you can use graphic design tools like Canva, Adobe Express, or many other free alternatives to create and curate social media posts and consider using subscription services like Buffer or Hootsuite to help manage the scheduling and posting of content across multiple social media platforms. These are paid services, however, you can find cheaper alternatives by searching online. Once you are ready to move into the professional sphere of social media strategy, then you will want to think about using services like Google Analytics to aid your implementation of social media campaigns and make sure you not only engage with but also grow your audience.

It is important to note that many employers look for a Social Media Strategist who has a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communication, or public relations and has experience successfully using social media to promote, market, or build awareness of something, like a brand, a product, or a cause. Even without a bachelor’s degree, you can gain some of the foundational skills by pursuing a boot camp or certification program, which should also push you to start developing a portfolio of your work that you can show to future employers to prove your capabilities.

In addition to all the basic skills to become a Social Media Strategist, freelance Social Media Strategists will need to learn skills for running their own business. This includes learning about drawing up a business contract, setting a budget, tracking and managing your time, paying your taxes, and so on. Just as you would with any other brand, Social Media Strategists need to market themselves as a business, so, it is useful to know about web design and other aspects of digital marketing to do so. Other consulting services can help you manage this aspect of freelancing, for a fee, but even those planning to contract outside consultants to help run their small business should have a basic understanding of these areas. This will allow freelance Social Media consultants to know what kind of outsourcing will help support their freelance work.

Learn the Skills to Become a Social Media Strategist at Noble Desktop

For those looking to become a Social Media Strategist, Noble Desktop offers a Social Media Marketing Certificate program that can be taken in person in New York City or live online from any location. This program teaches useful marketing strategies, how to tap into popular trends, and how paid advertising works across major social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. In this program, you will learn the strategies to create compelling visual and written content that will raise a profile to the top of a platform and be seen by the right audiences. Additionally, this Noble Desktop certificate program includes one-on-one mentoring from experts in the field and allows students to create a portfolio of work they can show to potential employers. 

Students might also be interested in Noble Desktop’s Digital Marketing Certificate, which can be taken in person in New York City or live online. Not only will one learn the skills necessary to become a Social Media Strategist in this certificate program, but students will also learn a wider array of skills necessary for the digital marketplace. In addition to social media marketing, this program teaches students about search engine optimization (SEO), marketing across email and other forms of content, and how to track and analyze key performance data and analytics. This program also offers expert mentoring as you work on real projects to improve your digital marketing skills. 

Noble Desktop also offers shorter programs of study, such as a six-hour class on Digital Market Strategy & Web Fundamentals. This shorter class allows students to develop a successful digital marketing strategy to reach a desired audience as well as learn about everything that goes into what makes a great website, who makes up the target audience, and how to reach that audience. In addition, Noble Desktop has targeted boot camps for individual social media platforms (TikTok Marketing, Instagram Marketing, Facebook Marketing, LinkedIn Marketing, and Social Media Marketing: Blogs and Twitter) and skills such as Content Marketing, Email Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization that may interest those looking to upskill or quickly learn the basics of a specific form of digital marketing.