Did you know that freelancers are good for your health?

Not only are they proven to reduce stress, they’re also great at improving staff morale and office dynamics, and that’s before we start getting into all the positive motivational impact they can provide.

Here are the reasons we’re so good for you.

We’re infectiously enthusiastic

The thing about freelancers is, we love what we do. That’s why we’ve decided to devote all of our time to our careers, focusing intensely on one particular talent we know we’re a leader in. For me, that’s writing. For others, it’s web dev, or design.

No matter our niche, you can guarantee that we’re more enthusiastic about it than you could possibly imagine, and that we are excellent at what we do. That’s our job. To be great. The side-effects of this in your staff might include renewed excitement and positivity.

We take a load off your shoulders

That blog post you know you should be writing? Consider it done. Scheduling this week’s social media posts slipped down your to-do list again? Take a deep breath and cross it off completely. The buggy little fixes on your company site you keep meaning to get round to? Bibbity, bobbity, boo.

Us freelancers relish the challenge of getting down to work on a tight deadline. What looms in the shadows to you is a sparkling opportunity to us. Don’t sit there stressing over work you’ll honestly never get around to doing – just pass it on to a pro, wipe that forehead and feel the sweet chill of a job well done.

We’re life-givingly honest

If we don’t think we can hit a deadline, we’ll tell you. If you’re asking us to work on something that’s not our forté, you’d better know we’re working extra hard to get it right because otherwise we’d tell you about our limitations.

We don’t work for your company; you’re hiring our services. That means when we come in and sit opposite you, we’re going to be straight with you. We already have the job, we have nothing more to gain from blagging at this point. We’re often refreshingly blunt too – especially if you’ve asked us to critique your work or run an audit. Not having emotional ties gives us the freedom to say exactly what we think and you’d be surprised how much life that can give you.

We motivate you to look at your own deadlines

If you’re giving us work you need a quick turnaround on, we’re going to email to request amends and feedback. Sorry about it. We want to make sure the work you’ve tasked us with hits the deadline right, and suits the brief well, so it’s on us to make sure we can get the job done correctly.

That doesn’t mean we’ll be bothering you though. Freelancers are self-sufficient geniuses who can work away to a brief without any further intervention. All we’ll get in touch about is fact-checking and deadlines. Listen: That’s the sound of peace and quiet. Now there’s no excuse. Time to crack on with your other priorities.

Think you could use the soothing effects of a freelance content creator and copywriter? Get in touch and let’s talk about what I can do this week, right now, to make everything better.

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but this LinkedIn update gave me the heebie jeebies.

I think it’s the use of the words “should have to.” It implies, pretty directly, that interacting with your followers is a chore. Using Hootsuite, the social media management tool that Ryan Holmes is the CEO of, makes it a lot easier to interact with those pesky followers. You can plan and schedule and set up all manner of time-saving tricks to ensure that your time spent with the people talking to you is kept to a minimum.

What I want to ask is – why are you doing that? Why do you hate your customers so much?

People like to interact with the brands and companies they use. Whether it’s to confess their love (Yorkshire Tea’s Twitter account is a good example of this) or to complain (Southern Rail) these interactions make them feel empowered. It’s important to consumers to keep in direct touch with the things they use every day. People feel the need to talk to everyone about what they’re doing, what they’re using and how they feel about it. That’s not the Millennial effect. We did that.

Businesses and brands have spent the past 30 years developing advertising that doesn’t just instruct, but encourages a feeling of loyalty. The idea that an individual would buy a cup of coffee not for the contents but because they want to be a part of something bigger (Starbucks Pumpkin Spice every damn year) is a sales and marketing dream come true. Fostering that warm and fuzzy feeling of togetherness means answering a few Tweets, offering a couple of competitions and replying to any complaints. That’s the price you pay.

Why would a consumer use social media to talk to a brand?

To make a visible complaint (empowerment)
To talk about how much they love the brand (loyalty)
To join in or add to a conversation (being a part of something)
It’s how they communicate (convenience)
To make a smartass comment in front of “everybody” (also empowerment, but a bit of fun too)

If you have never talked to a brand on social media yourself, try to think about a situation that would encourage you to do so. For most people who don’t use social media regularly, it’s to make a complaint.

Imagine you spent the time thinking of the best way to complain to a company who you believe have made a mistake. You’ve found their Twitter handle and you’ve hit the word count dead on. Everyone is going to see how mad you are and they’re going to apologise. You’ll feel better, and maybe they’ll take the time to improve their services in the future for other customers.

Now imagine you ‘send tweet’ and an automated response comes back to you. It tells you that your concern is important to them and that in 18-24 hours you’ll receive a full response. Or, it offers you a discount code and hopes you have a nice day. How does that make you feel?

Social media isn’t about fire-fighting – or at least it shouldn’t be. A well-cultivated social media account is a place where your customers feel listened to, and where you initiate the conversation. You might get complaints – in fact you almost definitely will – but with a decent social media plan behind you, your company or brand will be able to cope well with that situation.

Social media isn’t an inconvenience. It has become integral to most people’s everyday lives, and to treat it as peripheral means losing out on valuable consumer feedback and customer retention. Using automated services may save time, but they will never be the same as a proper representation of who you are – they will never be a trained employee able to give quickfire responses, start conversations on a whim or turn a negative conversation into a sale.

If talking to your customers is a job your organisation feels it can’t spare the time for, it might be time for a re-structure – or at the very least, some social media training.

Thank goodness then, that this was posted on April 1st. This whole thing was a Hootsuite joke, aimed at making the exact same points I made above. If you’re still wondering whether AI chatbots could help your business, hire a social media Apprentice instead, or ask me to come in and talk to your team about why it’s so important.