Social Lives 158 | Don't Work for Free, part 800

I can't believe I keep having to say this

May 12, 2023

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DON’T WORK FOR FREE, PART 800

Don’t work for free. If you read nothing else in this newsletter bar the first line, this is the thing I need you to take away from it. DO NOT. WORK. FOR. FREE.

If you’re wondering why I’ve started today’s Social Lives with such a bold statement, then grant me a moment of weakness. Lord forgive me, for I have sinned - I have been hate-reading Social Media Manager Facebook Groups again. I joined a few of these a couple of years ago, thinking that they might provide me with useful advice when I experienced issues with Meta Business Suite, or keep me up to date with the latest industry news. Like so many things in social, I’ve had varying returns. On the one hand, they have gotten me out of a few scrapes. On the other, they make me want to bash my head against a wall in frustration while smashing up all of my internet-connected devices like a 21st century Luddite.

A particularly egregious example came recently on a post from someone struggling to gain freelance clients. It’s a situation that most of us have found ourselves in recently. The economy is terrible and social media projects (unfortunately) are often what gets cut when clients start feeling wobbly about budgets. There was a lot of good advice in the comments: reach out to people you’ve previously worked with; look at LinkedIn and brush up your portfolio; use the time to upskill in areas where you’re less knowledgeable. However, one comment contained the worst advice I’ve ever seen anyone give a freelancer.

“Work for free. Seriously. Offer to do a certain amount of work for free for some potential clients. Put limits on it, but give them your best. That’s how I started mine and now it’s full-time.”

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for as long as I’ve been writing it, you’ll know how I feel about this type of thing but, for any new subscribers, allow me to reiterate my earlier point. DO NOT WORK FOR FREE. There are a few circumstances where you may want to provide services gratis, e.g. if you’re helping out a parent, friend, or charity you feel a deep connection with, but these are rare exceptions. If a client can afford to pay for your services, then charge them for your services. You certainly do not give them your best work for zero pounds, not least because when you actually do decide that you might like some cold hard cash from them, they will inevitably turn round and tell you where to shove it.

Look, I get it. Times are tough and it is a hard time to be freelance, especially if you’re just starting out. But if you give people an inch now, they will always take a mile. Working for free shows that you undervalue your skills, knowledge and time. More importantly, you’re undercutting your peers. Why should a client pay me a fat day rate for my work if they know they can get it for free? It may not be as good as the work created by a paid freelancer, but who cares when there’s more cash to spend on other things?

There will be some people who say that hey, that’s just how Capitalism works, and we should put up and shut up. Ignore them. Talk to your peers and find out what they charge for equivalent work. Look at resources such as YunoJuno’s freelancer day rates report and see what the average is for people at your level within your industry. Make a budget and work out how much you need to earn each month to keep a roof over your head, food in your fridge and your bills paid. It’s a cliche, but you can’t live on exposure. Exposure is what eventually kills you.

I worry deeply that with the economy the way it is right now, more and more people will take advantage of newbie freelancers by giving them terrible advice like the example above. It’s OK to make mistakes when you’re new to the game. I know I’ve made a lot of them and I’ll probably make a lot more. But it really is a mistake to let people take advantage of you in the pursuit of some mythical work that may or may not appear in the future. You may be a solo freelancer but, when times are hard, we need solidarity with each other. This will never be achieved if we let people believe that they can get our incredible work for free.

JOBS BOARD

Freelance: VeraContent are looking for a London-based Social Media Manager and Content Strategist
Freelance: Sumo London have a role available for a freelance Social Media Manager with organic and paid experience
Full Time: The LEGO Group are seeking a Senior Social Content Manager
Full Time: Clorox need a Junior Social & Community Manager to join the Burts Bees team
Part Time: Bank of England are recruiting a Campaigns and Social Media Coordinator on a job share

INTERESTING THING OF THE WEEK: WHAT GIVES GEN-Z ‘THE ICK’ ON SOCIAL

A gif from Spongebob Squarepants where Mr Krabbs has turned green and is saying to a purple fish man "he gave you all the ick."

As a ‘geriatric millennial,’ I live in fear of creating content which gets called cringe by people ten, fifteen, twenty years my junior. Whenever I find myself typing something like ‘mid,’ I feel like that meme of Steve Buscemi saying “how do you do, fellow kids.” In the most recent edition of Link In Bio, Rachel Karten interviews Erifili Gounari, Founder and CEO of The Z Link which advises brands on how to effectively market to Gen Z audiences. It’s a really good, really useful interview which should be passed out to all of the marketers you know over the age of 30 (which is more of them than you think). Creating authentic content is in, calling your audiences ‘besties’ is not. The more you know!

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