Virtual Assistance | Delegating Your Social Media

Guest Post from Professional Virtual Assistant Susan Poirier 
(Disclosure: I use Susan's VA services and I am not receiving any compensation for this post.)

In today’s ever competitive business climate, social media is not a passing fad or simply a source of amusement for the younger generations. It represents an essential platform as part of your marketing mix. Consumer buyer behavior now reflects their consistent quest for up to the minute information about your company’s products and services. People buy from people and customers prefer the immediacy of the web, the data they can search, the recommendations they find and a community for their voice. You need to not only have an online presence but to be actively listening to your prospects, colleagues, partners, competition and clients.

Social Media (SM) is a key facet in your viral efforts to drive business to your website, enhance company recognition, build your brand, create market segments, meet your clients and prospective client needs for information and customer service, join communities, disseminate news, press releases, product launches, improve customer service, troubleshoot issues and listen to the chatter about your company.

A recent survey by Deloitte revealed that 60% of consumers are going online more often to locate the best products and services and their decisions are greatly influenced by the tools, information and service they find when they visit websites or perform a search. Brand loyalty and reputation are still based on the quality of the customer experience.

Whether you are B2B or B2C, your social media presence should represent a strong role in your marketing and online energies.  Your message must reach your audience where THEY reside, not where you think they are. Whether you choose to blog, send an e-newsletter or generate dialog via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram or Google+, you need to discover where your client “hangs out” and greet them on their territory.  Remember, you will need to utilize more than one neighborhood to reach your target markets.

You don’t generate revenue by posting on your blog, scheduling social media updates, searching for relevant content or images for your e-newsletter, creating Google keyword alerts, content marketing, editing/proofing your website or sending appointment reminders.  While these sample tasks are vital to your daily business operation, they are all low payoff activities that do not directly produce income.  They inhibit your “real” productivity. Sustainable growth is derived from doing more of what creates growth and less of what seizes your time in the name of growth.  You must determine the most profitable use of your working hours.

“Simplify, delegate, or eliminate other low payoff routines and activities that absorb too much of your time. This common-sense approach frees you for productive work on high priority items.” Strategic Essentials

Your valuable time is best spent focusing on your core genius, doing what only YOU can do to produce revenue for your business.  Essentially, your income is limited by your time. If you are hindered with all of the backend details and daily minutia, you are not able to concentrate on business development, customer experience, creating relationships, engaging with your tribe, creating new products, planning your goals and action steps or networking with other industry thought leaders.

  

Case Study

Social Media Woes:
You are set up with some basic social media platforms, but realize that to create engagement, increase visibility, generate a sense of trust and build your tribe, you need some assistance.

Enter the Virtual Assistant: 

• Discuss key market initiates, where do your clients commune, who is the competition
• Important industry keywords
• Create keyword alerts across multiple services
• Enhance social visual image of social media pages
• Set up news aggregators to deliver targeted content
• Create RSS feeds for industry blogs for post commenting or content generation
• Design content calendar
• Find/follow pertinent groups or lists
• Research, write and deliver relevant posts
• Edit/proof your blog content
• Regularly monitor and update your social media
• Other VA industry secrets employed! 

In reviewing this list of a few of the social media management processes we administer, how much time do YOU have to spend to successfully handle your online reputation and brand?  Maintaining your online presence can represent a highly significant amount of hours that take you away from your core genius. Is this the best use of your precious time?
These are low payoff activities but in the digital world, they are crucial essentials to building your positive online presence.

If you want to operate at your maximum efficiency level, focusing on only your high payoff activities, please contact us today!

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