Gary Vaynerchuk Shares The Secrets to Corporations Leveraging Fiverr Talent Discover the secret to leveraging remote freelancers

I've been trying to meet Gary Vaynerchuk for years.

A few of my clients and colleagues have partnered with him, but for some reason we never connected. Until recently the closest I got was sending him a message on Snapchat. I was relatively new to the platform at the time, so I wasn't quite sure how to use it. Instead of sending him a thoughtful message, I accidentally sent a heart emoji. As you may have guessed, I didn't get a response.

Thankfully I was able to connect with him in real time as part of a video series I'm hosting with Fiverr. You can catch the first episode where I chat with Jason Feifer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, on YouTube.

Although I initially planned on chatting with Gary about his new book, Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World, the conversation quikckly led to a discussion around the role freelancers play in helping organizations adapt to changes in the marketplace, especially when it comes to social media.

How Freelancers Benefit Organizations

There are plenty of examples of how freelance workers provide value to organizations.

During our interview Gary Vaynerchuk highlighted two of his favorites.

"Fiverr is an amazing platform," he said. "There is some great talent that's underpriced, especially international."

And he's right, specifically if we look at disciplines such as design, marketing, and editing. But don't assume just because their talent is underpriced (by US standards) that you're underpaying these pros. That was my initial assumption until I researched the cost of living in various countries and realized I was paying a fair amount based on the services provided. After all, you can't expect someone to deliver amazing results if they're not being fairly compensated.

With that, here are a few other ways freelancer workers benefit corporations.

Cost Efficiency: Organizations can save on overhead costs like office space, equipment, and benefits such as health insurance and paid leave. Additionally, freelancers are typically paid only for the work they complete, which can lead to further savings.

Flexibility: Freelancers can be hired on an as-needed basis, which provides businesses with the flexibility to scale up or down quickly depending on the project demands. This adaptability is particularly valuable in industries where workload can fluctuate seasonally or with market conditions.

Increased Productivity: Freelancers are motivated to perform efficiently and effectively as their future work often depends on their reputation and the quality of their deliverables. This drive can lead to high-quality output and faster completion of projects.

Access to Specialized Skills: Freelancers often possess highly specialized skills that may not be present internally in an organization. By hiring freelancers, companies can access the specific expertise needed for a project without the long-term commitment of hiring a full-time employee.

Global Talent Pool: This one came up earlier. Organizations can hire the best talent from anywhere in the world, ensuring they have the best person for the job, regardless of geographical location.

How Freelancers Future-Proof Organizations

If you ask most leaders, they'll tell you they want their organization to be innovative. However, in my experience, large organizations frequently find it tough to innovate. The red tape and a natural aversion to risk can slow down the adoption of fresh ideas. This not only slows the adoption of new processes or approaches, it can also lower the morale of employees who constantly get their brightest ideas shot down.

The result? Your best employees leave and the organization gets left in the past.

Beyond that, in Gary's new book he unveils the concept of the "TikTokification of social media" – where the relevance of content supersedes the number of followers a brand has.

Now, that may be good news for smaller brands and creators, but it could leave larger corporations even further behind if they can't adapt. As Gary stated,

"Social media marketing is the most lucrative but most complex form of marketing today, and those who figure it out will have very fruitful outcomes."

What does this mean for organizations? Innovating is no longer an option, and you may need to look externally to secure the right talent.

How to Best Leverage Talent From Fiverr

I won't say the name of the company, but I once had a manager who had no idea how to do my job. However, they felt fully capable of telling me how to do my job. As you can imagine, that didn't work out too well. I can laugh about that now, but many organizations make the same mistake when partnering with freelancers.

Here's the advice Gary shared for organizations if they want to best leverage external talent:

"They themselves have to actually put in 100 hours of work to understand the work, it's become that important. Because as you can imagine, if you don't understand it at all, well how are you gonna know if the person on Fiverr is good or not?"

In short, you can't hire "good" talent if you don't know what "good" even looks like. And, I get it, you may not have 100 hours to study up on a new area of expertise. But the clearer you are about your desired outcomes and the more effectively you communicate those outcomes, the better results you will achieve.