How a Virtual Assistant Can Manage Your Social Media
As someone who runs their own virtual assistant business, I know how important social media is in promoting your services to a wider audience.
However, a lot of people see it as a time-wasting tool with no real benefits.
Now I do know how precious time is! But I also know how effective social media can be for small businesses.
However, once you start using social media then you can't stop.
There's nothing worse than having an out of date Twitter or Facebook account.
So you do need commitment and focus to get your social media marketing right.
So if you've been thinking using social media marketing to promote your business but don't know where to start, then here are 7 ways that a virtual assistant can manage your social media activities for you.
Set up Twitter and Facebook.
If you want to use Twitter and Facebook to promote your business, then a virtual assistant can set up your profiles for you.
Whether that's designing a Facebook page with a custom welcome tab which includes a sign up box or a video, or setting up a Twitter profile with custom background, a virtual assistant can ensure that your profiles are projecting a professional image to your contacts.
Manage your LinkedIn profile.
If you're a B2B business then LinkedIn is an important part of your social media marketing.
You need to ensure that your profile looks professional and a virtual assistant can set this up for you and ensure that it contains the appropriate keywords so your profile appears when people are searching for businesses such as yours.
They can also add applications to your LinkedIn profile such as blogs, presentations etc, which all help to make your profile stand out.
Finally, they can search for appropriate groups for you to join, any contacts that you want to be introduced to, and manage your invitation requests.
Promotional campaigns.
Whether you want to promote an event or a special offer that you're running, a virtual assistant can schedule posts about these to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
They can also promote events via the events feature on LinkedIn and Facebook.
A virtual assistant can also set up a hashtag on Twitter to track and handle any comments or enquiries from your followers related to the event or promotion.
Manage Twitter followers.
If you're using Twitter then it can be very time-consuming to check every person who follows you to see if you want to follow them back.
A virtual assistant can do this for you and decide on whether to follow them based on criteria set by you.
This prevents you from following spammers or people who you aren't interested in connecting with.
Track conversations.
A great way to build relationships on social media is to track discussions around subjects that are related to your business so you can respond to any comments or questions with tips and advice.
A virtual assistant can research keywords for you and set up search streams for these keywords on applications such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.
Manage your blog.
Blogging is a great way to raise your profile and promote your expertise.
A virtual assistant can design a blog on WordPress, research content online based on relevant keywords or topics, and set up your blog posts so they are automatically added on to your social media profiles.
Video marketing.
Videos are becoming an increasingly popular way of marketing a business online.
A virtual assistant can upload your videos on to YouTube, add appropriate keywords and promote via your social media profiles or video sharing sites such as TubeMogul.
By outsourcing the set up and management of your social media marketing activity to a virtual assistant, you can focus on raising your profile, promoting your authority and building relationships with your online contacts, which over time will start to generate leads for your business.
However, a lot of people see it as a time-wasting tool with no real benefits.
Now I do know how precious time is! But I also know how effective social media can be for small businesses.
However, once you start using social media then you can't stop.
There's nothing worse than having an out of date Twitter or Facebook account.
So you do need commitment and focus to get your social media marketing right.
So if you've been thinking using social media marketing to promote your business but don't know where to start, then here are 7 ways that a virtual assistant can manage your social media activities for you.
Set up Twitter and Facebook.
If you want to use Twitter and Facebook to promote your business, then a virtual assistant can set up your profiles for you.
Whether that's designing a Facebook page with a custom welcome tab which includes a sign up box or a video, or setting up a Twitter profile with custom background, a virtual assistant can ensure that your profiles are projecting a professional image to your contacts.
Manage your LinkedIn profile.
If you're a B2B business then LinkedIn is an important part of your social media marketing.
You need to ensure that your profile looks professional and a virtual assistant can set this up for you and ensure that it contains the appropriate keywords so your profile appears when people are searching for businesses such as yours.
They can also add applications to your LinkedIn profile such as blogs, presentations etc, which all help to make your profile stand out.
Finally, they can search for appropriate groups for you to join, any contacts that you want to be introduced to, and manage your invitation requests.
Promotional campaigns.
Whether you want to promote an event or a special offer that you're running, a virtual assistant can schedule posts about these to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
They can also promote events via the events feature on LinkedIn and Facebook.
A virtual assistant can also set up a hashtag on Twitter to track and handle any comments or enquiries from your followers related to the event or promotion.
Manage Twitter followers.
If you're using Twitter then it can be very time-consuming to check every person who follows you to see if you want to follow them back.
A virtual assistant can do this for you and decide on whether to follow them based on criteria set by you.
This prevents you from following spammers or people who you aren't interested in connecting with.
Track conversations.
A great way to build relationships on social media is to track discussions around subjects that are related to your business so you can respond to any comments or questions with tips and advice.
A virtual assistant can research keywords for you and set up search streams for these keywords on applications such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.
Manage your blog.
Blogging is a great way to raise your profile and promote your expertise.
A virtual assistant can design a blog on WordPress, research content online based on relevant keywords or topics, and set up your blog posts so they are automatically added on to your social media profiles.
Video marketing.
Videos are becoming an increasingly popular way of marketing a business online.
A virtual assistant can upload your videos on to YouTube, add appropriate keywords and promote via your social media profiles or video sharing sites such as TubeMogul.
By outsourcing the set up and management of your social media marketing activity to a virtual assistant, you can focus on raising your profile, promoting your authority and building relationships with your online contacts, which over time will start to generate leads for your business.