Developing a social media strategy for your freelance business

A hashtag ladder strategy is having a set of 30 hashtags ranging from easy to difficult to rank for. Start with popular results for the easy ones, get some engagement, rank for the more difficult ones, get more engagement, and move up the ladder.

• Start with two hashtags that have been used 1M times, three that are in the 50,000 - 100,000 range, the next three in the 10,000 range, and two will be your business' unique and personal hashtags.
• Look at your competitors and see how you could make yours unique.
• Keep a hashtag bank of 30-40 hashtags so you can switch out underperforming tags.

Once you are confident in your ladder strategy, the next step is to find the language and tone of your channel - similar to social brand guidelines for yourself.

To find your brands voice:

• Explain your brand/objective in three to five words.
• What three words do you not want your channel to say?
• What do your offer that is unique?

Tailor your voice to match your audience. Do you want your channel to be playful, charming, confident, edgy?