There are two reasons why someone would decide to look for a side hustle:
- He/she is tired of the same 8+ hours of work every day and not having more freedom. Thus, another option seems profitable.
- The person needs some extra cash to save money, make ends, or just pay other expenses.
Whatever the reason you are here or if none of the above is why you decided to look for a side hustle, it doesn’t really matter since we are not trying to offer ideas to those with specific problems but rather anyone who wants to find something new and give it a try.
But out of all the side hustle available, how can you know which one is the best for your situation and ideas?
If you are open to some piece of advice, remote or online side hustles will always be the best option right now, and even in the next decade, as long as people continue to rely on the internet. Therefore, you should try to consider any option that works with it since they are also quite profitable.
One of the popular is managing social media for small businesses. Although this niche looks a bit saturated, believe us when we say there’s enough space for you to come in and find your opportunity.
Now, do you have what it takes to work with this side hustle? Or maybe you should skip it and give another a try? We don’t think the latter will be your answer.
Managing social media doesn’t have to be complicated, people just make it like that, and if you take the time to learn and like the idea, we’re confident you will make it along with the money you need.
But to give you a better idea of what to expect and what you’ll need to do, what about going over the details?
Manage Social Media = Social Media Manager
If you are familiar with the latter, it is exactly the same. Still, you will be aiming for small businesses since those are the ones trying to find assistance with their profiles and get someone who can handle strategies in a bit less of a serious manner than other businesses.
Are we going too fast? Don’t worry; let’s review social media management for a bit.
When businesses struggle to manage their social media accounts, either because they don’t know how to increase engagement or attract more people or don’t know what to post and handle a simple task, they will always try to find someone capable of doing so.
Here is when you enter the picture.
Social media managers handle the entire strategy of building an online presence on the platforms and making sure the business’ accounts are optimized and able to generate more impressions, engagements, leads, and clients.
So, basically, you get paid for managing people’s social media, and the good part about this side hustle is that you can manage more than one account and help several businesses simultaneously. Of course, based on your skills and time.
But based on the specific side hustle, why would we mention small businesses?
Continuing where we left it, small businesses are more common to find managers that can handle simple tasks, bring their accounts up for more followers, and so on.
However, large companies already have their teams of social media management. They are usually formed by professionals in the area that have degrees or have gone to college to fulfill this position.
We’re confident you’re quite aware of the small details of this side hustle since people who don’t know anything about social media are very rare.
So, we want to focus on the part you probably wonder: what will you exactly do?
Mentioning you will have to manage all social media accounts from a business is pretty ambiguous, and we know you are like, “what does that even mean?” Thus, it is only ideal for us to mention a few more details since this job involves more than posting and replying to comments.
Social media managers can be employed by social media marketing agencies or in-house marketing teams to build a following on social media and promote the company’s brand.
They engage their audience through comments, social media posts, and replies and help to build a company voice.
We need to mention that social media managers can delegate content creation tasks to other members of a team and analyze which aspects of campaigns lead to the greatest engagement and conversions.
They also monitor online comments about the company to reduce negative reviews and share positive testimonials.
Usually, managing social media can involve supervising a team, planning and executing strategies, handling campaigns, and, you know, being the manager of an entire team designated for this.
However, when you are starting in this area, you will have to do most everything, especially if you are taking the role as a side hustle and working with small businesses that usually don’t have a team assigned for this.
This means you will have to go beyond the “standard” tasks a manager would handle and:
- Create and post content.
- Interact with users and followers.
- Reply to messages, comments, and track campaigns.
- Design illustrations and post content, or work with a graphic designer for this.
In other words, you will need to handle every single step. Even when this can look like a lot of work, small businesses won’t request you to overwhelm yourself with details, and if the client does ask you this (indirectly), you better skip that since it will always be a lot of work for one person.
Can You Manage Social Media for Small Businesses?
We know where this question is going: do you have the skills to handle this job? That’s a good question.
If you ask us, social media management is pretty easy in terms of knowing the work you will handle. Still, it can be hard when you know nothing about social media or just the fair amount of posting, commenting, and usual interactions.
As people who tried this side hustle and stayed in it for a while, we can tell you it involves a lot of work and skills, but it isn’t something you cannot learn, so it isn’t about talent but just dedicate some time.
Have you heard about statistics, SEO, engagement, impressions, and all the details people worry about in social media? Well, you’ll need to start worrying about them as well.
To make this short, we can tell you the main skills you will need to work in this side hustle, and as we mentioned before, managing social media isn’t a 200 IQ job but rather something you can get a handle on with time. That being said, this is what you should focus on learning or integrate for yourself:
- Know how to use social media: This is, without a question, the must-have of this side hustle. Any social media manager is required to have the ability to use social media for brand building, and maintenance and not only for posting and handling common tasks since posting regular text, video, and images is the basic, the fact they also need to engage the target market of the company is another deal. Meanwhile, you also need to follow online conversations via company social media accounts.
- Communication: This occupation requires excellent verbal and written communication skills. You must communicate with customers, writers, developers, and designers and report to the senior management when it applies. You must be able to identify social media events, such as a hashtag or sensitive topic, and then share the appropriate content in line with the company’s social media strategy you are most likely to develop.
- Be creative: You need to be able to create engaging content and ensure it is in line with market trends to interest people.
- Technology: You need computer skills and the ability to use social media management platforms properly, as previously mentioned. To achieve the social media campaign goals and know how to come up with new ones based on social media analytics as well.
- Research: You must know how to research social media trends and identify new social media management tools. Social media managers must be familiar with the latest trends and techniques to effectively manage social media marketing to find better alternatives and uses.
- Time Management: This side hustle requires the ability to organize tasks and meet deadlines if you want to meet goals and ensure the best results for the clients.
As we mentioned, this side hustle doesn’t really need talent but rather just takes the time to learn the skills and continue updating yourself in terms of tools, strategies, and knowing what is best for the client’s accounts.
Not all clients and social media are the same, so you need to work around the niche, statistics, trends in it, the target audience, and many other parameters you should learn to identify and work with.
Is It Expensive? – Getting Started
The best benefit we can mention of choosing to manage social media for small businesses? You don’t need much money to start in it.
We were talking about choosing digital side hustles since they are the future and bring benefits for those who dedicate their time to them.
With this one, you only need to worry about having an internet connection, a smartphone, and a good computer in which you can easily work.
Some tools to handle the accounts might be required, but the businesses often provide them, or when starting, you can rely on free ones until you are able to finance the premium plans.
Though most of the apps are quite affordable and cost about $20 per month or there are better deals based on annual payments and plans.
In our experience, we only had to invest about $60 per month in the beginning, and it was covered by what we charged our clients since you need to include your job but also the tools you are using, at least a percentage per client or depending on how many you have.
This investment can increase based on what you have at the moment.
Do you have a smartphone that can support all the files and editing you will do? Can you take good photos? You really need a good phone for this, and although the latest iPhone isn’t the answer, you shouldn’t rely on the most basic one.
What happens if you can’t finance a new phone? Should you skip this option? Not quite.
You can rely on what you have for now as long as it works well and later invest in new tools depending on how well your side hustle is going.
If you need to invest in a computer, smartphone and include the tools’ expenses, the investment, of course, will go quite high.
But if you have the basics and are just missing the tools, don’t sweat it for a better computer or smartphone for now.
Now, what if you require some training and education?
College careers are available to open this door for you, but since you are taking this as a side hustle and work with small businesses, you can rely on some courses.
We have taken some from Udemy that start at $14 and go up to $89.99, but you can also find a local social media marketing agency near you that offers some capacitation.
One of the first courses and training we took was near us, and it only costs $40 at the time for four classes that were quite complete to get started and work around the client.
If we have to mention something, it takes practice and experience to grow in this niche, so don’t feel pressure for being a bit slow, and just be honest about your skills with your clients.
When taking the course or program, make sure it is well-known or has good reviews. If you choose Udemy (which we recommend), we’re confident you will find some options that fit your needs and budget for this next occupation.
Will You Become Rich? Earnings & Payments
First, how do you charge your clients when working in managing their social media?
This is usually the issue most people face here because they have their doubts about what is the best option.
It can be a bit difficult to answer since some people charge per hour, per project, or based on a specific task.
If you are going to handle all the tasks of managing all social media platforms or accounts, you should focus on getting paid per hour instead of project. However, if you are in charge of specific parts and campaigns, you can focus on the latter option.
It all goes around how you end up working with this side hustle and your client’s budget.
On some occasions and depending on the job you find, clients end up paying a salary if you are working for a marketing team they have built.
Also, the earnings can vary according to the number of clients you are working with.
A beginner in this side hustle can earn between $300 to $500 per month while working with one or two clients and their social media.
Others that are able to handle more people can earn $500+ in a month.
When working this as a side hustle or in your free time, we recommend you stick with two or three clients to avoid saturation and too much work based on all the tasks you are managing for them.
Now, if you are aiming for this as a long-term position in the future, you can expect to earn about $70.000 annually, and yes, that’s thousands per month which are quite worth it despite the social media management software, social media management tool, or anything you might need to use.
Where to Find Your Clients? + Our Verdict
The million-dollar question: how can you find clients for this side hustle?
Since you will be more of an independent manager, you will need to rely on freelance websites like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and even your social media and website as long as you market them and generate traffic and leads.
You just need to use technology to find them, and we guarantee you many people are looking for someone like you who can handle their social media accounts and make their small businesses grow over time.
With this in mind, we consider managing social media to be a great side hustle.
You can do it from home; there’s no need to invest a lot of money, you only need to find clients, and staying knowledgeable about new topics or tools is as simple as reading a bit of the news every day.
Considering you can also make quite the handsome revenue every month and aim for a great long-term and full-time option if you get experience and education, we could say this is one of the best side hustles we have recommended so far.
Thus, why not give it a try? We have had a great experience with it and highly recommend it to everyone.
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