How Can a Social Media Virtual Assistant Help?

You’ve probably heard over and over that social media is about authenticity, sincerity, and transparency. Maybe this has prevented you from getting a little extra help with your social media needs; you aren’t looking for someone to go out and impersonate you online. You want to be sure that you are the one maintaining control over your image, your business or your brand. Unfortunately, you’ve probably also heard that social media can become a colossal time suck. This is where a Social Media Virtual Assistant (SMVA) comes in. Your image and message can remain authentically yours while someone else takes care of the routine tasks and chores of social media. Here are just a few things a SMVA can do for you: Set up your social media profiles. Setting up a new Twitter account or Facebook Fan page is easy, but optimizing them for the greatest marketing value is quite challenging. An SMVA has the expertise and specialized knowledge to efficiently get your account off to a running head start. Already have an established Twitter or Facebook page? Your SMVA can provide you with recommendations on how to use your accounts to build your online visibility and increase your brand awareness. And how many times have you wondered what exactly you’re supposed to do with your LinkedIn account? An SMVA can advise you on how to optimize your profile and how to be seen as an expert in your industry. Save time by having your SMVA research groups for you to join and find questions for you to answer. Research. An SMVA can help research where your target audience...

Tips for Hiring a Social Media Virtual Assistant

Engaging in online media and maintaining your social presence online is time consuming, and it can quickly become overwhelming as well. This is especially true if you are new to using social media. A Social Media Virtual Assistant (SMVA) is someone who can get you set up on different social networks, streamline systems for maintaining your social media presence, and help save you time in the long run.  They understand how different social networks function and can get you up and running so that you make the best use of your time and resources online. Here are few tips to help you make the most of your Social Media Virtual Assistant: 1. Have a good idea what your goals are. Do you want someone to help you create and maintain your profiles? Implement an overall social media strategy? Provide consistent updates and distribute your new content? Do you need someone with experience editing and distributing videos? Does the SMVA need to know how to help maintain the backend of your blog or help with the more technical aspects of blogging? Having an idea of what you want to the SMVA to do will help you to look for an assistant who has the skills to provide the type of assistance you want. You should also be comfortable with delegating tasks and communicating consistently and clearly. It typically takes between 60-90 days for an assistant to fully understand the client and integrate with their business. You need to be especially prepared to provide information and be responsive during the early days of the working relationship.  It is also important to...

Social Media Virtual Assistance on Entrepreneur.com

I was thrilled to be included as one of the people interviewed for this article about working with a Social Media Virtual Assistant for help with social media tasks and managing your online presence. Dawn Pigoni of Be Social Worldwide, another Social Media VA was also interviewed along with social media greats Chris Brogan and Lon Safko. It was an honor to be included and portrays a good representation of how a social media virtual assistant can help with one’s online visibility and their social media tasks. Many thanks to the author, Lydia Dishman for writing up a great article. Here is the article in it’s entirety. Should You Outsource Your Online Presence? You can save time and money by leaving social media marketing to the pros. July 7, 2009 Between blogging, tweeting, Facebooking and updating a LinkedIn profile, it’s a wonder how a business owner has any time to answer e-mails and phone calls, much less run a company. But the time invested in social networking is well spent in this age where maintaining a social media presence can be a necessary piece of a successful marketing strategy. Trouble is, as the number of platforms grows, so does the time it takes to feed and groom each account. Not to mention the front-end investment of setting everything up. For those caught up in a social media blitz–and those contemplating taking the plunge–why not consider outsourcing? A virtual assistant can tackle those time-consuming tasks. What Can a Social Media Virtual Assistant Do? Many administrative professionals who provided support services such as correspondence, search engine optimization and event planning via...

Changing the World

I saw this video posted today in my Facebook newstream and I really liked the message. As a Social Media Virtual Assistant, I also see myself as an entrepreneur and I do think entrepreneurs are changing the world. We are not only contributing to how the world works but we are doing it to make better lives for ourselves and for those who follow us. With the recent economic hard times upon us, I think it especially important to keep telling yourself that anything is still possible, even when it seems like it’s not....

Twitter Tips for Virtual Assistants

Daily you can find me checking out new posts and adding my two cents over at the Virtual Assistant Forums where there is not only a wealth of great information but a great sense of community with all my Virtual Assistant comrades. Recently, an awesome new feature was added which gives all members the opportunity to create their own blog there. So, I decided to try out this new feature and created a blog post titled, “Twitter Tips for Virtual Assistants.” There are many Virtual Assistants who are just getting started on Twitter as well as those who are new to the Virtual Assistant industry. I believe it’s important that Virtual Assistants as an industry help each other out and support one another. With this in mind, I posted what I thought were important tips for my fellow VAs to consider for their tweeting journey. I’m posting the majority of that post here for other Virtual Assistants (and anyone else who needs some good twitter tips) and for other readers of my blog. Many of these tips can easily be applied by any small business entrepreneur who is just getting started on Twitter. I’ve only been using twitter for a couple of months and I will freely admit that I’m thoroughly addicted. When I get up in the morning, I check my email first and then moments later, I log into twitter. All this usually happens before I’ve had coffee or breakfast…(and embarrassingly sometimes even before I’ve made breakfast for my son. Shhh, don’t tell anyone!) In using Twitter I have: 1) received a referral from someone who saw...

Do You Suck at Email?

Recently I have been wondering more and more about what are the current thoughts around email etiquette. Not with regards to how do you draft your emails, what you say or how you say it, but what are the current expectations regarding responses, response time, follow-up and basic communication. If I send out an email to someone following up on a conversation, or to check in with someone, there is an expectation for a response. But after a couple of non-responses, I began to wonder if it was just me who was wondering if common courtesy had completely fallen by the wayside. Has the age of electronic made it easier for us to connect or to ignore each other? Am I way out in left field by myself thinking that a response should be forthcoming? Just like anyone else, I’m busy and am not always able to answer right away, but it’s always been my policy to try and respond within 24 hours and no later than 48 hours, even if it’s just to acknowledge receipt of one’s email and to let them know I will provide them with a more detailed response later. Other than spammers or auto-generated responses, I have never felt that it was okay to just completely ignore an email with no response. Given that everyone is busy, I also do not send out unnecesary or lengthy, overly wordy emails. Am I mistakenly under the assumption that email is still a communication tool? As a Virtual Assistant, email is a critical tool for communicating with clients from any location. This is one of the advantages...