Could You be a Pro Social Networker?

Although I primarily focus on writing here at Bizzia’s freelancing category, there are tons of other freelancing jobs as well. Heck, freelance photographers have been around almost since the camera existed. One fairly new field for freelancers, however, is social networking. Now, most online writers are social networkers as well to some extent, but some freelancers are now exclusively becoming professional social networkers.

How does This Job Work?

When you’re hired to be a professional social networker, you work to promote work using sites like MySpace, StumbleUpon, and more. There are three main ways this job can work:

• You’re hired to promote a single site (or group of sites) using all social networking sites available. You’re paid per hour, with traffic goals that you have to meet or bonuses based on traffic you drive to the site(s).

• You’re hired to promote a single site (or group of sites) using a single form of social networking. For example, it might be your job to submit three stories from the site per week to Digg. In this case, you’re paid a fixed fee per submission.

• You’re hired to populate a social networking site. In this case, you’re promoting the social networking site itself, not other sites. Typically, you’re hired to submit random articles from around the Internet, post a certain number of comments or messages, invite a certain number of new users, and so forth. You’ll likely be paid a set price per week or month for a set checklist of duties.
  

  Image: sxc.hu

The Ethics behind Becoming a Pro Social Networker

There are a lot of morally gray areas when it comes to promotion or sales, and that’s true of any industry, not just freelancing. For example, an agent booking actors for auditions shouldn’t work with someone they think is a horrible actor, even if that person is paying a monthly rate, not just a percentage of their earnings.

I’m of the opinion that pro social networkers have two major ethical responsibilities:

• to only promote sites that are legal and of value
• to abide by social networking rules

In other words, don’t promote a site that is worthless in terms of content, plagiarizes others’ work, or otherwise isn’t kosher. And, make sure that you’re following the rules of the social networking sites that you use, or you could get banned. This usually means being an active member of the community, not just logging in daily to fill the site with spam about a single site that you’re trying to promote.

Finding Work as a Pro Social Networker

More and more pro social networker jobs are popping up on job boards around the Internet. You can also approach your current clients to suggest adding these duties to your task. Whenever I start working on a new project, I offer the client a 10% discount on promoting the work as well (if I feel like I’m up to the job – I’m not always qualified). Some take me up on the offer. Some do not. It’s nice to say to a client, though, “For just x dollars more, I can submit these articles to the following five social networking sites once they are published…”

In any case, it is easiest to get jobs when you have experience, so if you want to be a pro social networker, start by learning the tricks of the trade. Sign up for social networking sites and use them to promote work that deserves to be promote it, whether it is your own or not and whether you’re getting paid or not. If you are active in the community, you’re more likely to get hired as a social networker.