It might sound like all fancy bells and whistles – being a social media editor in Bristol.

And to be fair, on some days, it can be really exciting: such huge variety, with delivering social media content, client tweets, writing blogs, devising social media strategies, drafting SEO-enhanced web copy, posting competitions on Facebook for clients.

But mostly, A Day in the Life of a social media editor is all about this:

Juggling.

Here’s an average day, as I sit and write on a laptop in a hotel room before two monthly client meetings tomorrow.

* Morning

The day starts with a check of client blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages, to see what comments have been submitted for moderation and approval, any new followers or fans, trackbacks of blog posts and where the content is being highlighted on other sites of potential benefit to my clients.

Then, checking emails to see what updates are incoming – I subscribe to a number of RSS Feeds, blogs and news sites online relevant to my clients industries and business sectors, so keeping up-to-date with their worlds is crucially important in the role of social media editor for them and their businesses.

Next, drafting a 1,200-word industry article to feature online for a coaching client on mentoring and coaching. The piece needs to be laden with relevant SEO-embedded keywords and phrases, so writing it with flow and context can be time-consuming.

* Quick lunch

At the desk in my home office – a habit I got into after more than a decade working in newspaper and magazine newsrooms, where lunch was always unfortunately (due to looming ever-present deadlines), eaten in front of the monitor – and then back to the next job.

* Afternoon

Writing a couple of blog posts for different clients – a corporate aerial imaging client and a hair salon (see, I told you it’s a hugely-varied day!) which are then emailed off to the prospective clients for reviewing and amending. So much copy, so little time.

Then, responding to two new pieces of potential client work – both in London, funnily enough. One is for a documentary production company needing a social media strategy, the other to Brief a new plastic surgeon on Wimpole Street, who is a referred client from a marketing agency in Bristol who has put together his new brand and website offering.

A call from a PR agency director in Bath who has a client for me to speak to about blogging and social media consultancy – I blogged for one of his clients last year, and have helped him put together social media elements of pitches. He returns the favour by providing me with a zero-cost-of-sale piece of potential new social media work, with blogging thrown in. Result!

Next, dealing with web development queries from the technical team of a new social networking client in Bristol, and helping them plan out some media relations activities to newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and the usual TV suspects regionally.

Finally, with the clock striking 6, time to fire off a couple of email responses for social media consultancy requests via the Contact Form on the site – one’s from an old schoolmate with an awesome-looking recruitment firm who wants social media support across the UK, the other for a workshop to a group of local businesses after an introduction to the world of social.

* Evening

Time for me to keep juggling – with my own social media content and blogging schedules. I’m lucky enough to be regularly featured on high-profile sites such as www.socialmediatoday.com, www.journalism.co.uk and www.marketingdonut.co.uk, but this takes effort and a rigorous blogging practice.

I post fresh content on the blog three times a week – because it is the main source of new work to me as a social media editor, and has been for 18 months. Quite simply, giving great content works. Plus, I try and spend 25% of each day on new business tasks.

And so, finally, reviewing and sourcing top content relevant for my audiences on Twitter and Facebook, scheduling it all onto Hootsuite for the following day, and drafting a blog post or two, based on what I’m reading, experiencing, or being inspired by.

Time to stop juggling. Not a bad day, huh?

If not, taking a few tips from this guy might be useful.

Watched an incredible documentary last night, in which extreme fisherman Jeremy Wade traversed up and down the Congo in search of a monster fish called a Goliath Tigerfish – basically, a six-foot-long piranha hybrid which has been responsible for the deaths of people getting in its way.

The moment of glory can be seen here – when Wade catches a huge Goliath Tigerfish in the Congo river. Awesome.

And what a journey our extreme fisherman had hunting down and landing this monster fish – one which made me think about searching for an equally tricky beast – the monster client.

Have you ever caught a monster client? Was it a good experience? Was it enriching for you, or an absolute nightmare?

Let’s look at Wade’s experience for illumination:

* He spent more then three weeks of fruitless fishing, almost catching a monster fish and losing it

* He researched extensively, speaking to villagers and local fisherman about the elusive Goliath Tigerfish

* He consulted an esteemed witch doctor, gaining powerful potions and competitive knowledge to win the catch

* He patiently returned to the hunt – catching a fine specimen of a monster fish, the Goliath Tigerfish

What happened next? Did Wade get fame and glory? Riches beyond his wildest dreams in the world of fishing?

No – in fact, the Tigerfish died at the riverbank within 30 minutes, having been exhausted beyond reason by the struggle. And so, despite having caught his monster fish, Wade was resigned to taking it back to the witch doctor’s village, where it was eaten.

Have you ever tried to land a monster client?

Invested in extensive research, jumped through all the right hoops in order to get the prestigious monster client you think your business needs to succeed?

Have you given blood, sweat and tears to catch the monster client, only to see it die on you when you’ve won it?

Life can be like that.

Three years ago, I had a monster client. Key account, 80% of my revenues all tied up in the one piece of business.

Trouble was, after 18 months of brilliant account management, great results, and a fantastic relationship with one of the Directors, the Managing Director of the business (not my main contact point) put the firm into overnight liquidation.

Lost all that revenue with the death of the monster client within 24 hours. Gone. Never to return. Sunk without a trace.

My point is this – if you’re chasing the big account, the moneyspinner business win, the monster client – beware.

If the prize fails you, it could become an expensive mistake, as our extreme fisherman Wade finds out with the Goliath Tigerfish.

My monster client died on me, too, and taught me an amazing lesson. Never hunt for a monster client again – it’s not worth it. Instead, work with a group of more consistent clients, all with roughly equal revenues.

Today, I work with corporates on the odd project, repeat campaigns and one-offs. But it’s not regular work, just nice additions to the portfolio. It doesn’t pay the bills.

My rosta of 6-9 ongoing clients, all accounting for up to 15% revenues each of total revenues (maximum, ideally) form the bread and butter of my catch.

These smaller fish are easier to handle, easier to take care of, easier to catch, and rarely die on me after being landed.

Think about it.

Now – are you sure you want to land that monster client? Why not let it go, and hunt for more profitable fish instead.

It’s one of life’s difficult questions, which luckily as a long-term freelancer, I’ve only had to ask myself three times in nine years.

I usually post about interesting, positive, useful things to do with social media, blogging, editorial best-practice, media relations strategy and similar areas of core expertise – with the odd bit of funny, unusual, business experience thrown in for good measure.

There’s been the odd bit of consumer injustice covered, such as the ongoing debacle with life-threatening service from Kwik Fit, but mostly it’s all pretty upbeat content.

I’ve covered off the odd negative item now and then, as necessary for readership benefit.

So, returning to my initial blog post question – Is there a right time for a freelancer to sack a client?

My answer is Yes – and on the three occasions in the past nine years where I’ve been forced to do it, each time was the right time.

As a freelancer, you choose who to work with. And who not to.

I had one of the three ex-clients, a one-man-band video and podcast producer, sending one of my trusted and very happy current Agency clients in Bristol, a personal message across LinkedIn last week, saying a few inaccurate and slanderous comments about my delivery to them of media relations services over a short (emphasizes the word short) period of time in 2009.

I won’t name the ex-client, as the point of the post is to highlight a bigger issue than one individual’s name, of course.

It was also, for your information, a short period of time, as I was forced to give them Notice of Termination of Contract, after it became painfully clear that the ex-client thought that they knew more about media relations than I did – a newspaper and magazine Editor of more than a decade’s experience, no less.

Not to mention the PR stints I’ve delivered for the likes of Apple and Mitel Networks.

The warning signs? They were, and in no particular order, as follows:

* Ex-client spends nearly the entire first meeting telling me how to deliver media relations (the service they’ve hired me to do for them)

* Ex-client makes six sets of amendments to the first press release copy (this has never happened before or since: even Apple, with their meticulous and orchestrated global PR machine, only ever made minor tweaks to copy I produced for them in the past)

* Ex-client is consistently verbally aggressive, bullish, and generally unpleasant when everything else isn’t dropped immediately for them (bearing in mind, I usually work with up to nine clients at any one time, giving excellent service to all, not just one)  – I also found out soon after that the ex-client had taken the same aggressive approach (just prior to hiring me) with a large, well-respected, and long-established PR Agency in Bristol…

* Ex-client threatens not to pay due consultancy Fees if certain things aren’t done the way they want them to be done – rather than as is Contractually agreed (trying to financially blackmail an established media freelancer with a great reputation is obviously a bad idea)

* Ex-client dismissed Contractual obligations of any kind (at the time, I was offering a Guaranteed Results Programme over a six-month Campaign period: if clients didn’t get at least their Fees paid back in press coverage terms in the six months, the Fees were returned in full, without quibble. The ex-client had not completed even half this time, when I was forced to sack him)

* Ex-client threatens to go legal if all Fees are not returned (even though I reminded the ex-client they were liable for another three months’ Fees, as per the Contract, and that they hadn’t completed the full six months, thus nullifying the Guarantee anyway)

Yes, you’ve guessed it – the ex-client was sacked. And I learned some incredibly valuable lessons.

It got me to review the services delivered at the time, and to gain some important and positive insights: I discovered that every single client who had previously engaged in and completed a six-month media relations Programme had gained significant and multiple press coverage.

Every single client.

There was a consistency in delivery from that fact-finding exercise which I’m still extremely happy with, and proud of, even though I don’t deliver much in the way of offline media relations anymore: the market is all about blogging and social media now.

I also learned: If it walks and talks like a bad client from day one – it’s probably a bad client. Sack them and move on. Consider it, in every sense, a Bad Debt. Align your freelance time and efforts with the clients you really want to work with.

I think the issue of when to sack a bad client also comes down to the confidence of the freelancer.

Let’s face it, if as freelancers we all worked with any kind of client, and chased only cash cash cash, what would be the point of actually living a freelance working life in the first place. One may as well be working for ‘The Man’ and resigning yourself to a gold watch in the future.

My business model revolves around a freelance-style delivery because it suits me, and the clients I work with, on a longer-term basis. I’m in the incredibly fortunate position to be able to say the following of all of my current clients:

* I like the client

* I admire their company

* I respect the way they do business

Returning to last week’s little incident from the ex-client and the message they posted to one of my current clients, I must conclude by adding that the current client immediately emailed the ex-client, to tell him how surprised they were to receive such a message, and how incredibly happy they were with everything which had been delivered by Bristol Editor.

This, of course, made me very happy. My current clients are absolute gems of integrity, good working practice, and professional conduct.

But then again, I make a point of inviting my clients-to-be the opportunity to talk to all of my current clients before they sign a Contract with me. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear – that’s my working motto.

So, if you’re in the position as a freelancer – whether it’s a freelance editor, freelance PR, freelance copywriter, or similar – and you have a client from Hell like the guy I’ve described to you above, ask yourself this question.

Is now the right time to sack them?

More importantly, can you afford not to sack them.