In this series, editors share their experiences, insights, and tips on the practical aspects of working as an editor. In some of our previous “Editors Advise” instalments, our contributors have shared their thoughts on various topics, including editorial niches and inclusive language resources. For this edition, five editors share with us their social media and marketing advice for newer freelancers.
How necessary is a social media presence in freelancing, and what marketing advice would you give to new freelancers?
Tanya Mykhaylychenko, copy editor and career coach in Montreal
New freelancers need to be consistently visible to their potential clients. Depending on your niche, you will do a market analysis to discover where your clients spend time online. Once you know those platforms and understand client behaviour, you can align your content strategy. You can always start small and test your approach as you go.
Facebook has over three billion active monthly users. Even if you are not going to use it actively to promote your business, it may be a good idea to have a professional page set up and update it from time to time, if you know that some of your clients may be relying on Facebook to look for services or validate business profiles.
LinkedIn, with one billion users worldwide, has a professional audience—these are your potential clients, hiring managers, employers, colleagues, mentors, course instructors, and more. If you are new to LinkedIn, start with a complete, SEO-optimized profile. Pay attention to the visual sections (profile photo, banner, and Featured section), as well as the Recommendations section. The detailed text in your career entries helps you to be findable. High-quality visuals create a positive first impression of professionalism, and recommendations show that your experience is verifiable.
Once your profile is complete, you can observe the space, engage with other people’s posts, and eventually create your own content. Here are some questions that can help: What are my core reader groups on LinkedIn? What am I a subject matter expert in? What are my favourite content genres to produce for my social media (what’s my anchor genre)? How will consistency look for me? How will my engagement look?
Michelle Waitzman, plain language consultant, trainer, writer, and editor based in Toronto
I think the need for (and type of) social media presence depends entirely on who your desired clients are. If you’re looking for indie authors, you need to be where they hang out (likely TikTok, X, and Instagram). If you want corporate work, head to LinkedIn. Ideally, you want to show your potential clients that you’re engaged, knowledgeable, and supportive. You can do that by posting tips, sharing your experiences and insights, or engaging with other people’s posts. But I think it’s important to “read the room” when you post in groups or comment on a post. I see too many editors offering their services to groups of editors, for example. And if you’re positioning yourself as an editor for a particular niche, you need to know the shorthand and jargon the authors in that niche use.
Marketing on social media is about building relationships and trust, not just selling. Another thing to consider is whether you want to set up a “business” profile on some platforms that is separate from your personal profile. I might be old-fashioned this way, but I think it’s a good idea to separate your work life from your personal life. Otherwise, you will have to consider everything you post and whether it might make a potential client decide you’re not the professional they’re looking for.
Amanda Clarke (she/her), freelance structural and copy editor
I believe an online presence is crucial to freelancing, but I don’t think that it necessarily needs to be on social media. There are ways to be visible online other than social media. A website is a must for freelancers. Joining editing associations and being listed in editors’ directories are ways to build an online presence without social media, as is writing a blog or partnering with other editors or organizations for blogs, seminars, talks, mentorships, etc.
When you’re starting out, build on relationships you’ve had from before going freelance. Tell everyone you know you’re freelancing. Expand your idea of who needs an editor. I get a lot of work from film festivals because that’s my background. When I transitioned to editing, they thought of me when they needed an editor for their publications.
It’s important as a freelancer to know where your target client is and go there, whether it’s a real or virtual place. Marketing in a space where the clients you want to attract aren’t is a waste of time. Look at how other editors working in your chosen niche are marketing themselves. Similar ways of marketing might be useful for you, but be sure to find ways to make yourself stand out. Be creative and don’t be too worried about doing it right. You will learn as you go and can shift your approach based on what is working and what isn’t. The important thing is to start.
Kelly Laycock (she/her), publishing and editorial professional
This is a tricky question, because everyone is supposed to love social media and be very active with it, right? I’m not a fan personally, and I’ve chosen to limit my exposure to the often addictive and sometimes soul-sucking platforms. I am not even that old school, it’s just that I find it can be a full-time job trying to stay on top of it all the time, and I already have a full-time business to run!
That said, I haven’t had to use social media that much because I’m fortunate to have made connections with some wonderful people at independent publishers and academic presses over the years. When I left my in-house position, I sent out an email to connect with friends and colleagues in the publishing and editorial worlds that I didn’t want to lose touch with. I was rewarded with some excellent replies, and project offers followed. This tells me that the number-one marketing trick is developing relationships—not social media posts with strangers, but real colleagues that you are comfortable reaching out to.
So my advice, if I’m qualified to give it, is to be kind to people you get to work with, people you meet through conferences and events, and just generally everybody you interact with. You never know when someone will be reminded of how captivating or insightful or engaging you were and then come to you with a project you could never have predicted. (Oh, being reliable and competent are super important too!)
This article was copy edited by Jane Hodgkinson.
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