What the work is
Content planning, writing and producing posts, scheduling, replying to comments and DMs, and monthly reporting. Some engagements include paid social, some include influencer coordination, most include a quiet expectation that you'll also design the graphics.
Define the scope in writing before you start, including how many posts, on which platforms, and what happens when they want an extra campaign in week three. Unclear scope is the standard failure mode of this discipline — how to write a freelance proposal covers how to nail it down.
What it pays
Monthly retainers, almost always. $500–1,500 for a single platform with modest volume; $1,500–3,000 for multi-platform with production; $3,000–8,000 for full strategy with paid social or a team behind you.
Four to six clients is a full workload. Which means your income is decided almost entirely by what you charge per client, not by how many hours you put in. Benchmarks in what the market pays.
How long until you're hireable
Two to four months if you already understand the platforms culturally. The mechanics are simple; the judgement — knowing what a specific audience will actually respond to — is the part that takes real practice. Platforms also change constantly, so a chunk of every month is spent keeping up. That's the job, not a distraction from it.
Your first three portfolio pieces
One: run one real account for six weeks. A friend's business, a local charity, your own project. Screenshot the starting numbers and the ending numbers.
Two: a content strategy document for a real brand — audience, pillars, posting cadence, sample month of posts. This is what separates managers from posters, and clients can see it immediately.
Three: a set of high-quality assets for one campaign, showing you can produce as well as plan.
Presentation format: how to show the work.
Where the clients are
Local businesses with visibly neglected accounts — the easiest cold pitch in freelancing, because the evidence is public. Agencies subcontracting overflow. E-commerce brands. Coaches and consultants who know they should be posting and aren't. Try how to get clients on LinkedIn for the B2B end, and freelance cold email for local outreach.
Getting paid properly
Report on what the client cares about — leads, sales, enquiries — not follower counts, and do it every month whether they ask or not. Managers who report in business terms keep clients for years and raise rates without argument. Adding video editing to your offer raises your ceiling immediately, since short-form is where most of the budget is going.