Blogging – it’s a challenge I’ve chosen for me and one that is quite easy once you have your subjects for each blog – I’d probably still be procrastinating on what to write but with a prepared list and as it’s all about what I love in my business – seems ok! Here’s the link again to the 30 Day Blogging Challenge if you are looking to spend some time ‘with your business’.
The tag [TIME SAVED] shows you where a Virtual Assistant (such as Virtual Hand) can save you time by doing these elements. This allows you to do what you love in your business as well as what you are good at.
Social Media
A hot topic if you are in business and I would probably add usually after you have experienced it socially. However, not for me. When I set up in business I didn’t ‘do’ Facebook, I certainly didn’t have a Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ accounts and LinkedIn was purely for showcasing me as an employee but I didn’t use it for recruitment as it was initially intended.
But I believe it is an essential marketing tool for any business – not all of it naturally; there are only so many hours in the day to devote to marketing and if you are trying to be everywhere, doing everything for everybody you tend to end up with nothing for nobody!
So establishing your target market, your ‘ideal client’ is always the first step in looking at marketing and then finding out where they are hanging out. You can then converse, meet (virtually) and share your knowledge and experience which may eventually turn into business if you are offering what people want to buy.
A VA can help with the time consuming stuff and here’s 5 ways to get help to put your mind at rest – you don’t have to do it all.
Content
Having problems with what to post? A Virtual Assistant can help to create your content. Sourcing applicable quotes, tips for your trade, links to your website and regular distribution of your existing blog posts. Coming up with all the content for Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc etc is very time consuming [TIME SAVED] so getting someone else to do this (or start this) can really ease your mind and it is far easier to edit than start from that blank piece of paper.
Scheduling
Once all that content is created (usually in a spreadsheet/csv format) it is ready to get out there. Scheduling your posts or tweets to be prescheduled by using a social media management tool, such as Hootsuite doesn’t take too much time – but it is time nevertheless [TIME SAVED] and to continually do that for yourself can sometimes feel like a never ending woodpecker in your mind to remember! Of course, it is also wise to intermittently add your own content to keep it personable too (this also goes for personal engagement with any comments).
Developing a scheduling plan – how many posts, how many tweets, how often on LinkedIn, how many mailings. Yes, Newsletters need to be issued and a VA is an ideal person to look after that for you. [TIME SAVED] All you need to consider is the content and again if a plan is set your VA can curate and you can edit/fine tune and you may only have to ‘select’ the content or do a small ‘intro’ for that personal touch.
Followers and connections
Again, another time consuming task is approving new followers and people who wish to connect with you. A VA can take care of this by reviewing each request and accepting (or rejecting if necessary) via your acceptance criteria [TIME SAVED]. The same goes for finding new connections and people that YOU may wish to follow.
Building your following on Social Media is key to getting your message out to more, engaging with your audience and having that ‘in the moment’ conversation to answer questions or highlight activities to show more of what you and your business can do for others. This also includes supporting others – Re-Tweeting and Sharing their content on Social Media [TIME SAVED] of those you know and love as well as those you would love to learn more about and possibly work with.
Spam monitoring
Whether we like it or not, spam comments are a common occurrence. So why not have a Virtual Assistant monitor this for you and keep your profiles clear from nuisance notifications [TIME SAVED]. This is important for your website – getting those fabulous comments to show up early helps again with your engagement – commenting on blog comments individually and timely shows your commitment to your audience.
Also handling ‘problems’ or ‘complaints’ quickly is the best way to handle them and reduce the impact on your business. Your VA can highlight these for you [TIME SAVED] so you can be ‘on it’ for the good and benefit of your clients and your business rather than trawling all your accounts on a regular basis.
Re-purposing
Why re-invent the wheel? As a business you are always creating ‘stuff’ for your audience, clients and others. Once it is out there and you’ve shared it everywhere (see last post on sharing) does it now slide into the background, never to be seen again? Once you’ve run one course, do all the materials just get archived? Re-purposing that ‘stuff’ brings it to a new audience. Edit your posts to make them current and get them out there again – for those new followers, clients and others. This is definitely a task a VA can do for you [TIME SAVED].
Do you like all these tips on saving your time? Identified with the [TIME SAVED] indicator.
Here cometh the end of Number 3 – Social Media Help.
Here’s a link to the Start in case you missed it.
One of the hardest parts of working for yourself is building up a strong presence and keeping your business profile in the hearts and minds of your audience. Why not download your FREE GUIDE on how to raise your profile as a freelancer here.
Connect with Michelle on other platforms too: Learn how you can work with Virtual Hand; how your business can grow and how you can communicate better with your audience.
