It’s natural for many communicators—marketers, content creators, public relations pros—to start and spend most of their careers in a traditional 9-to-5 role. Others of us, however, have found the advantages of freelance work to be too good to pass up and a natural evolution of our career—after we learned how to overcome the many challenges of freelancing, that is.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika and I provide a real look at building your early public relations and content career outside the 9-to-5. We reflect on how and why we changed career paths, share lessons learned in building our freelance networks, and detail the strategies that have helped us thrive as consultants. See my brief answers below — we discussed each of these questions in-depth on a LinkedIn Live audio conversation—listen to the recording here.

Q1: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A1: As a kid, I dreamed of being an actor when I grew up. I never pursued that, however, because a.) I’m not part of an acting family and b.) I lacked the resources to make that dream a reality. #ContentChat

— Alek Irvin (@AlekIrvin) February 27, 2023

A1: I wanted to be a chef, and I did get to live that dream for a while. Now, I’m starting to create food content and write about food!#ContentChat https://t.co/ns2aCYqDei

— TCKlaire (@tckdigitalnomad) February 27, 2023

Q2: What did you go to school with the intention of doing?

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“When you go to write a post on LinkedIn, it literally says ‘What do you want to talk about?’ Not ‘What do you want to sell us?’ or ‘What do you want to broadcast?”

LinkedIn has always been a professional social network, but the culture is significantly different than it was pre-pandemic. Developing meaningful relationships on LinkedIn requires you to balance authenticity with an unwavering focus on your audience—and the marketers and brands that do this successfully will build a platform that sustains ongoing content marketing success.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Louise Brogan (@LouiseBrogan_), a LinkedIn consultant and trainer, to discuss how to use LinkedIn to its fullest as a content marketer. In this recap, you’ll learn about “Creator Mode” and what it enables (and disables), ways to start and grow your network, and how to optimize your profile to attract new opportunities.

Read through a few highlights from the conversation below, and listen to the full recording here.

Q1: What are the most common misconceptions about LinkedIn that you hear from content marketers?

“With all the drama about Twitter, a lot of people jumped across to LinkedIn, not really knowing what it was like… they might have an idea that LinkedIn is boring, stuffy, not really interesting. And that’s not true. You curate the community that you want here on LinkedIn. I’m forever unfollowing people in my network not because they’re offensive, but because what they’re talking about just does not engage me. So I’d rather unfollow them and see content from people and companies that I’m interested in what they’re talking about.” – Louise Brogan

Many content marketers believe that LinkedIn is not effective for driving traffic to your site, but Erika’s B2B clients get 3x the clicks to their site versus other engagement activities.

A1: A big misconception content marketers have about LinkedIn is that it doesn’t drive people to your website. My #B2B clients usually get 3x the clicks to their site versus other engagement activities. It’s all about writing updates that inspire the click. #ContentChat

— Erika Heald | Content Marketer | Writer (@SFerika) April 24, 2023

You can build real connections outside of your network, but it requires personalization in your outreach.

A1: That is isn’t possible to build real connections outside of your network. Not true. You just need personalized, well-researched outreach when contacting prospects on LinkedIn.#ContentChat

— Sweepsify 🎈 (@Sweepsify_) April 24, 2023

Personalization is the key here. I don’t mind if unknown people reach out to me, but I need to quickly understand a.) what they want and b.) why they’re relevant to me. Too many people simply copy/paste the same message and wonder why no one responds. #ContentChat

— Alek Irvin (@AlekIrvin) April 24, 2023

Q2: Why do you think brands should continue to prioritize LinkedIn over other social networks?

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