If you’re a freelancer you’ll find it essential to have a network of contacts who might refer clients to you or at least speak well of your work.

Some tools like Workana are key to generating new clients, but it will also be very helpful to count on a sound network to gain new projects and build your online reputation.

Some ways to help expand your networking and consolidate your profile are:

Social media, such as LinkedIn and Facebook

LinkedIn is usually the choice for work-related topics and general professional exchanges. It’s one of the world’s most popular social networking sites.

It’s the ideal environment to include among your contacts people such as those who have shared some working relationship with you. Keeping a complete, updated profile will let your contacts know what we’re doing and which new expertise areas you have developed. 

Besides, you can connect your Workana account to LinkedIn and create your profile. That easy!

Facebook, although it deals mainly with much more personal matters, gives you the opportunity to expose what you do and also to publish content related to your service or product, which in turn will help you be on top of your friends’ minds as experts on a given topic.

About this possibility of publishing content related to our business, Twitter can also be a great tool, as it has a massive reach but people don’t need to be a personal connection to access the content –as might be the case on Facebook.

There are many other options; you should find what is most suitable for you.

Events related to your industry

All the industries or work areas usually hold events such as: congresses, conferences, seminars, talks, workshops… Attending is one way of participating from the community, getting to know local market leaders (or get positioned as one of them yourself) and, little by little, start gaining visibility.

At these events we may exchange some information with unknown colleagues, or come across some old friend or former workmate. Besides, these sort of events help us build up our contact network and strengthen our professional profile. It’s imperative to have your business cards!

Be proactive with your contacts network

A network made up of your acquaintances, including not just work contacts but also relatives, friends, fellow students, sports partners, etc., is a great starting point to find new opportunities and consolidate yourself as a freelancer.

To begin with, just let them all know –by email, for instance, what we’re doing and what type of clients we’d like to target. Besides, we may also ask them in an informal chat whether they know anyone who might need our services, and contact them.

It will depend on the job we do, but in general the acquaintances of our acquaintances are a great lot of people who someday might need what we have to offer.

Gaining visibility as a freelancer, as long with a good reputation, with be very useful to be appointed new projects. Our reputation on Workana will also affect your reputation, so it’s vital to make the most of the projects that are published, apply for them and make sure to provide a really professional service.