How Much I Made in my First Year as a Full Time Social Media Marketer…

Hahaha! I am definitely not about to disclose personal finances incase that is what you thought you would find in here today. Big ups to those who share their exact figures though. I think the main reason behind this blog post is the topic of sharing your finances itself than how much i made.

Now this is also not a clickbait title because i will most certainly share what i made just not in figures, i will share how i made it and hopefully how we, you and i, can continue to make the best out of our social media marketing careers as freelancers. Mostly freelancers. Here it is unlike being in a world where you are expecting a specific amount of amount of money at the end of the month, as a salary. It is the wild wild west, over here.

Firstly, i will put out a disclaimer that as a freelancer i do source income from different streams however being a social media manager is what pays me the most so let us say 80% of my income is from social media marketing. This is a very rough figure but the data would definitely prove to be around there. I know it is a very common topic in the digital marketing industry to share our personal finances as freelancers and small business owners/agencies (content creators and digital marketers). I love that this is not too taboo here, the transparency is exactly what the world needs. Considering how new the digital sphere is, how new social media managers are, putting this information out there is what is needed as education, firstly. Secondly it is what is needed for fairness, if this industry is to grow (AS IT IS GROWING!) then it needs to do so the right way. Transparency will help to guide it, content creators, social media marketers and all digital marketers will get to be paid equally (hopefully) no matter the race, their background or place as long as they have the same skills and requirements for the criteria. And honestly this now applies to whether you are a freelancer or not, fair pay is fair pay. I mean when an employer signs you they literally make you swear on paper that you will not tell anyone your salary., WHY?!. so big ups to you digital marketers.

Now where i come from, personally, nothing professionally related, it is not only not allowed but it is rude to discuss how much you earn hence i said i can’t disclose that. Nonetheless, I do doubt that sharing specific figures will help in anyway as we are all different. However i can tell you that, i made as much as i wanted to and as much as i needed. How i measured this is by the goals with price tags that i had put in place. The goals i had were only 30 % of what the agency paid me through social media marketing. This is honestly a great deal for me because the previous year i had made absolutely nothing when comparing. I had my long time social media management clients that i was stagnant with but happy, happy because social media marketing was not my focus it was just ONE of my MANY focuses. The reason why i am writing this blog post today is to testify that (testify sounds so serious but i cannot think of another word haha) with time and effort, social media marketing can afford you the business life you want for yourself.

How did i manage to make social media marketing work for me in my first year of doing it full time? well, i did just that. I decided to be a social media manager full time and everything else ad hoc. I treated being a social media manager like having a full time job, the nature of social media marketing requires you to show up every day anyway so that helped. Then i treated the adhoc (website development, graphic design etc.) as the side hustles. Because with social media marketing normally one works with retainers, one being me, so depending on your rules, you can atleast estimate how much you will be making from your retainer clients every month. This helped me to budget better for my goals, by knowing how much is needed in order to pay myself a salary, i knew how many retainer clients i needed. I wish there was a definite method to it or some sort of rocket science, other than putting in the work. If you know how much you need, then you will know how much work you need to put in??? that is literally my motto going forward as a social media marketer.

For social media marketing to continue to work for me, i need to let go of control and insecurities so i can expand. For you to make being a social media manager work for you, you may need to just do it full time, set your prices and plan your budgets accordingly. If social media marketing is your side hustle then consider it as your second job rather than just a side hustle (work two jobs if you have to, Americans do it **hides**). Taking it seriously is all it takes sometimes. For me, i need to continue working hard so i can hire more people, that is the only way for it to continue working for me. My goal is to have two more social media marketers working for the agency by the end of 2024 so here is to putting in the work!

I can help you put a step by step guide for yourself to start making money as a SMM… leave a comment and let me know if you want us to chat

In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful image (check my Notion is always open, it’s become second to Canva in my life) i took from my vacation afforded by my SMM salary, it looks straight out of Pinterest, does that mean i am living my Pinterest dreams? rural girl me can hardly believe it.