It’s taken me ages to admit I’m a “Social Media Consultant.” I mean, the term is… well… blech. In my mind it’s a sleazy dude on Twitter with a background featuring their face superimposed over a city skyline. They have 100,000 followers and their stream looks like this:

So maybe I don’t go shouting it from the rooftops, but what I do is consult. On social media.

I specialize in helping authors, but have recently branched out to helping freelancers, small businesses and people I think are pretty swell. Just the other day I Skyped with a badass minister about helping my childhood church land a Pepsi grant by using social media (vote for them here!). I’ve worked with health practitioners, career coaches, photographers, web designers, artists, bloggers, very big companies, very small companies, a yoga retreat, freelance writers, my mom, the auto guys at the New York Times…

Thankfully, people are (sort of) getting over the whole I-don’t-care-what-you-had-for-breakfast thing and people now (sort of ) know they need be using social media but aren’t sure how. So I’m working with the incredible James Chartrand of Men with Pens to help solidify the services I offer. I’m bartering with the superduper talented Desirai of Lucid Dream Designs to make my site the most rockin’ place online. Starting this business on a shoestring budget has been difficult, but I’m slowly and surely upping my game, raising my rates and doing some general ass kicking on the interwebs.

So what does my day look like?

Lots of emails. Like, an obscene amount of emails. Emails from clients, readers, random people who to “pick my brain,” newsletters, my grandma… About half of my day is emails. Which is fine, who doesn’t like talking to people? But I think it’s time I got an assistant.

Contrary to popular belief though, the rest of my day isn’t spent on Twitter, but I do make sure my social media presence is the best it can possibly be. This is because I do think it’s important for someone like me to “walk the walk“. So I spend about two hours per day working on blog posts, responding to comments, scheduling tweets, answering LinkedIn questions and reading other blogs. This is so I can always be the best example to my clients, keep up-to-date on the latest social media happenings and show off my mad skillz.

My day starts when I wake up at 9am and get straight to work. No morning run, no breakfast, no relaxing with a book. I’ve read all the personal development blogs that tell you to disconnect and have quiet time when you wake up, but do you know what? I don’t work well that way. I like working in bed with my lovely new Mac. Also, I tend to stress about the state of my inbox so I need to time in the morning to tame the bitch.

Then I have breakfast (this week I made a big batch of pumpkin granola), read my favorite blogs, maybe go for a walk and really get stuck into my work at around 11am. That’s the beauty of working for myself and living in a place where the time difference works in my favor.

The rest of the day is peppered with attempts to master the Pomodoro Technique, which is a productivity method involving 25 minutes of working on one task, followed by a 5 minute break. You can read about it here.

While the content changes every few weeks, depending on projects I’ve got going on, my work varies from taking notes on someone’s Facebook page as part of Critique My Profile to researching niche blogs for an author. Today I’m putting  the finishing touches on a workshop I’m holding with Alison Norrington as part of the London Screenwriter’s Festival on Saturday.

But what does an SM Consultant actually DO?!

Excellent question, dear friends! When I first started out I had no freaking idea. I started tutoring newbies, teaching them the basics and helping them make their profiles better. Then I started tweeting for them. Then I did a little blogger outreach. Then I decided I hated that.

After a year I’ve now honed my services to encompass three things: Long-term social media coaching, a kick-start package to get newbies off the ground and profile revamps for people who need personalized guidance to accomplish their goals.

My Problem with Consultancy

To be honest, I sometimes worry that consulting is one of those industries dying because of the internet. But then I remember that all this knowledge I have about the internet and social media and online networking is quality stuff. Stuff the right person will pay for. Sure, you can find a ton of this info online yourself. For free. The thing is, to actually have a coach standing by you every step of the way, correcting your mistakes, teaching you the basics? Totally priceless. And personalized information you can’t find anywhere – for free or otherwise.

I don’t know if this gives me hope or frustrates me, but the more I do this and the more awesome feedback I get from my clients is when I realize how much I love what I do.

Tagged as: consulting, Social Media, twitter