It's not often that you get an opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes professionally. However, such an opportunity presented itself to me last year when the association magazine that I edited ceased publication, and I decided to work as a freelancer. Talk about feeling the shoe on the other foot!
While I worked hard to build good relationships with freelancers, I realize now that there were areas that I could have managed more efficiently to save time and cause less confusion.
If you've hired a freelancer to write an article, it's usually because you're trying to save or make up time. Hiring freelancers defeats the purpose if they waste time resolving issues tangential to the actual writing that you've contracted with them to do. Here are five timesavers most freelancers will thank you for many times over.
1. Make up your mind about the article's focus. Written assignment guidelines are really helpful and give freelancers a reference as they write to make sure they are staying on track. We're not asking you to write the whole article; you've hired us to that. At the same time, if there's a burning question that you absolutely want each person interviewed to address, specify that upfront so that we don't have to backtrack.
2. Get your ducks in a row internally. Designate one primary contact for the freelancer. This sounds simple enough, but depending on the association, various staff members or subject matter experts may need to be consulted about the story or interviewed for it. Give those people a heads up the freelancer will be contacting them in reference to the article.
Also, make sure you've reviewed the basic concept behind the article with your colleagues so the freelancer doesn't have to deal with comments questioning why he or she is writing about a particular subject: "I don't know why you're asking me that. That's not really important. You should be writing about….” Now you've got at least two frustrated people on your hands and a longer route to the feature article that you need for the next issue of your magazine.
3. Prepare us for the politics. If the topics freelancers have been assigned to write about are hot-button issues for your industry or profession, be sure to discuss that with them. Even though the freelancer may be familiar with these issues, it's helpful to have a heads up about any potentially sensitive areas or interview sources to avoid.
Further, if you've asked us to interview a member who has a particular "beef” with the association, it's helpful to know that in advance of contacting him or her so that we can avoid stepping on any landmines. This nuance can be is especially important when it comes to associate or vendor members, who have complaints about XYZ that the association has or hasn't done for them.
4. Let us coordinate communication with sources. Trust us to contact your members and set up interviews. Freelancers tend to have fairly flexible schedules (I love those 7:00am interviews!), but it will frustrate them (and you) if you arrange a time for a member to be interviewed that conflicts with a previous commitment.
Don't spend your time trying to coordinate actual interview times as it may take many emails back and forth before a day and time for the interview are finalized. Remember, freelancers are there to help you save or make up time.
5. Figure out how you want to handle fact-checking. Many associations give their members the courtesy of reviewing their comments prior to publication of an article. This step can be very time consuming if you're not clear on who's responsible for doing what and when. Be specific about whether fact-checking should take place before or after the article is submitted. Clarify whether you will coordinate this part of the process or the freelancer will so that we can budget our time appropriately.
Apryl Motley, CAE, is a communications consultant in Columbia, Md., and former Association Media & Publishing Board of Director.
