We asked some of the top social media strategists what their tips were for successful social media that produces results.
Here are their top 3 tips!
1) Always have a plan
As with anything, you’ll see the MOST results from your social media, when you have a plan. Simply posting great content and waiting for something to go viral is not enough.
Sure great content is essential part of any plan. But it can’t be all of it.
A good plan considers your target audience when deciding where, how often, what, and when to post to social media. But it doesn’t stop there.
2) Successful Social Media is Social
Successful social media is a conversation. Like any social setting, to really connect with those around you, but you must have a two-way conversation. No one likes the “Ms. I’m-a-pretty-big-deal” at the party who does nothing but talk about themselves and how great they are.
So make sure to actually engage with your audience. Ask questions. Really listen and seek to understand them. Share other peoples content that would appeal to your audience. After all, people share those who share.
And, when someone comments on, likes, or loves one of your posts, ALWAYS take the time to comment back. Even if only to say “thanks for the love.”
3) Be flexible
Successful social media isn’t rigid and cold. It’s relate-able and relevant. So, while we encourage that you always have a plan, be prepared to scrap your scheduled post for the day to share an amazing industry-relevant article that Forbes Magazine just posted.
In order to follow of second tip of being part of the conversation, it’s important that you are part of the conversation WHEN it’s happening.
Nothing would weaken your social credit more than post “OMG I just saw this. Is this blue or gold?” Cuz, Chickie, that is old news.
For more tips for successful social media, join us in our Virtual Academy.
If you want to learn how to do intentional social media, join us this month in our Virtual Academy. We’re talking about strategy, implementation, engage, collect metrics, and more.
In addition to LIVE training, our membership includes templates, client educational materials, and materials to help you marketing yourself as a successful Social Media Virtual Assistant.
Trying to find work as a social media virtual assistant can be tough. It seems that anyone with a Facebook account thinks they have the credentials to take the job.
But simply drafting and posting content is never going to get the client the results they want. Which is why clients come to us all of the time asking if we know anyone who can do social media AND get results.
The virtual assistants who can draft and post content are a dime a dozen. But a successful Social Media Virtual Assistant knows how to create an intentional strategy that produces results. Follow these simple steps to succeed as a social media virtual assistant as well as get and KEEP the clients.
Start with a Strategy
To really be intentional with your efforts, you must start with a strategy. This strategy should outline who your target market is, explores where they hang out on social media, and outlines things like how often you should post, what kind of content should be posted, etc.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind when drafting a strategy for a client:
Make sure the client is on the right platforms! Just because a client has a Pinterest account doesn’t mean they need one. Consider who the target market is and then determine where that person spends time on social media. Don’t waste time marketing on Twitter if your target is really hanging out on Facebook or YouTube.
Don’t post too often. Did you know that over posting can actually HURT your engagement? If you’re client does not have at least 10,000 followers on their Facebook page, posting more than once a day greatly reduces engagement.
Always include engagement in your strategy. If you’re only posting and never replying to comments, it’s the equivalent of standing on the street corner with a loud speaker spouting off sales pitches. This won’t net you much results. So always include time in your budget for daily engagement to go in and reply to comments, respond to messages, etc.
Implement Your Strategy Efficiently
Once you have a solid strategy in place, your job as a social media virtual assistant gets much easier. Now you know how often you should post and what type of content to post. And you should have an understanding of how much autonomy you have as well as when you need your clients approval.
We find that it’s a more efficient use of your clients time if you schedule your posts either weekly or monthly and then simply drop in to do engagement daily.
Pro-Tip: Third-party scheduling tools are not always the best option. For example, Facebook gives priority to content that is scheduled in THEIR scheduler rather than a scheduler like Hootsuite.
Collect Your Data
A successful social media virtual assistant doesn’t just post and run. Instead, they go back and evaluate the results. In order to do that, you need to take the time to collect your data monthly. By looking at things like likes and clicks you can determine what types of posts performed the best, when the best time is to post etc.
The reason why intentional social media virtual assistants stand out is that they know what statistics to look at in order to understand their target better. And, as a result, they are able to draft content that is going to produce better results.
If you aren’t collecting data, then you can’t possibly adjust your efforts to produce more results.
Adjust Your Efforts
While you should collect your statistics monthly, it isn’t necessary to look at the data and make adjustments that often. In fact, looking at the data over a 3 month period instead will help you be more intentional with your adjustments.
For example, if you note that Facebook is netting more sales than LinkedIn, perhaps you should recommend that more time and efforts be devoted to Facebook and minimal efforts be invested in LinkedIn. Some platforms, such as LinkedIn, are often part of the strategy simply to build and reinforce reputation only.
Become a Successful Social Media Virtual Assistant Today
Find out if you have what it takes to be a successful social media VA today. Take the 60-second quiz now www.virtualsuperpower.com
Optimize your blog today and make the most of your efforts.
We know, it’s easier said than done. Search engines, like Google, often change the algorithms they use to determine the top ranking websites (meaning they show up on the first page of search results.)
But there’s no point in writing a blog, if you can’t get traffic to the site so that people actually read it! Follow these blogging best practices to optimize your blog posts and start moving up in the rankings today!
Optimize Your Blog with Keywords
It’s well known that you need to have keywords in your blog for it to rank. But, you can’t just throw a bunch of words into a blog and hope the search engines pick it up. The ole hashtag method doesn’t apply with keywords.
Instead a more strategic approach should be used.
Here’s a few tips about Keywords:
Use “searchable terms! Your keywords will literally be useless if they aren’t terms that people will actually type into search engines to find your blog.
Don’t use a keyword or phrase more than once. That means, if you already wrote a blog with that keyword targeted, you should never target that keyword again in another blog. If you do, you are only competing with yourself for search engine rankings and will just spin your wheels when trying to optimize your blog.
Use your keyword in your blog title, headers, and through out your blog. To really optimize your blog, your keyword density should be around 1-2%. That means if your blog is 600 words, you should use your keyword rougly 6-12 times.
Chirping with Purpose
When you’re passionate about a topic, it can be easy to ramble. But make sure your “chirping” with purpose.
Make sure your blog is AT LEAST 300 words to ensure you’re writing something of value, and can authentically keep your keyword density strong. There isn’t a magic word count number to stick to. Instead, you want to keep your content engaging. If you chirp-on too long, you’ll bore your readers and they will start to click away.
Pro-Tip: Determine if your content is engaging by watching your bounce rate of each blog. This tells you whether a reader stays to read the entire blog, or “bounces” early.
Optimize Your Blog with Cornerstone Content
Every blog and website should have designated cornerstone content. Your cornerstone blog should be packed with information and updated often. The keyword or phrase that you choose for your cornerstone blog sould be the most common thing that someone would type in to Google to find you.
Many skip this important step because they think “there’s no way I will ever rank for that term!” So they don’t even try. But you CAN rank for that term if you set up your cornerstone content and optimize your blog right!
Find out if blogging in your superpower. Take this 60-second quiz now to discover your virtual superpower and all the tips and tricks you need to succeed: www.virtualsuperpower.com
Becoming a Virtual Assistant was one of the best decisions we ever made. But, it wasn’t easy. We stumbled and fumbled along the way and were faced with all types of challenges we never even considered.
✓ Problem clients ✓Worked for hours and never got paid ✓Had clients calling us at 2am and fire us when we were sleeping!
Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.
If we knew then what we know now, we would’ve saved ourselves so much time (and money!). So, to put yourself ahead of the game here’s what we wish we knewBEFORE we started working as virtual assistant.
Only Work With Your IDEAL Client.
Before taking on any client work, talk to the client first. You should view this call as a Discovery Call, and use it to ‘discover” more information about the project(s) and the potential clients’ working style, demeanor, etc.
If you get a bad feeling on this call, just say no. Listen to your gut, it’ll guide you when deciding whether you want to work with a client or not.
Never, ever take on a new client you’re not sure about.
PRO TIP: Stay tuned for Part II of this post to learn how to handle common client problems. And, if you’re not sure who your ideal client is, we give you all the tools you need to figure it out in the Virtual Academy.
Set Boundaries.
You are an entrepreneur and you control your schedule, your clients don’t.
Before taking on a client explain what your response time policy is, your normal working hours, planned time off, etc., and include this in your agreement with them too. Then, stick to it!
It’s harder to do than you may think.
When you begin working with a client, you want to impress them so you may work late one night, then another night, and then maybe help them on a weekend. You want to show them how awesome you are.
BUT…now the client expects you to be available ALL THE TIME. This is the BIGGEST mistake we see virtual assistants make. So, set your boundaries and let them protect you.
PRO TIP: You can still work on projects outside of your stated hours, just don’t let the client know. Use a program like Boomerang to schedule emails to be sent later so you can work when you want without messing up those boundaries.
Don’t Go It Alone!
It really does take a village. When we started we were alone. Then, we found a place to connect with other virtual assistants. That is when we really started living our dream.
Being an entrepreneur and a virtual assistant is way too hard to do it alone. You need support for yourself and your clients too. You’ll get asked all types of questions by your clients, and it’s simply not possible to know the answer to all of them. It’s also not possible to be an expert at every single task.
That’s why having a community to support you is so important. We never considered other virtual assistants as competition; they’ve always been our partners. Think of it as a community of people cheering you on. People you can ask for help when you’re busy, offer to help when they are and build relationships that can make your biz even more profitable. Now, that’s what we call a win-win.
PRO TIP: That’s why we created the v.a. chicks to form a community of support for the best chicks in the world. It’s a place where you can delegate work to other, get answers to your tech questions or client problems, and find the support you need.
Next Steps…
These are just some of the obstacles that stood in our way of become successful virtual assistants. If you’re ready to take the next step, take this 60-second quiz now to discover your virtual superpower and all the tips and tricks you need to succeed: www.virtualsuperpower.com
If you are looking to find your first (or next) client, then you have come to the right place.
The virtual assistant industry can be a very competitive market. And, the truth is, that any client looking to hire a virtual assistant can easily find one on social media, Fiverr, or even Craigslist. And, they can often find a V.A. for as little as $5/hr if they’re not picky.
So how do you stand out from the rest and find your first client without compromising your worth? Read on for our tips on how to find your first client today!
Find Your First Client Close to Home
Many people don’t even know what a virtual assistant is let alone how one could bring value to their business. But your world is likely FULL of people who could use your services and become your next client.
So start by making a list of everyone you know who owns a business. These may be your friends, family, or that nice man who always come by your table to chat when you frequent his restaurant for Sunday brunch.
Then consider any problems they may have in their business that you could solve. For example, do they have an outdated website that isn’t ranking on google? You could offer to optimize their current blogs and website so they begin ranking in search engines as well as write on-going regular optimized blogs to keep them ranking high.
It’s as simple as that!
Not sure how to approach your peeps to sell your services? Take this 60-second quiz now to discover your virtual superpower and all the tips and tricks you need to succeed: www.virtualsuperpower.com
Find Your First Client on Facebook
Facebook groups are a great place to network and find your first client.
Entrepreneur Groups are a good place to start. We see countless posts daily of entrepreneurs looking for an experienced virtual assistant. Make sure to have a strong elevator pitch to comment with that highlights your unique skills so you can stand out from the crowd and get hired. Want help crafting the perfect pitch? Take this 60-second quiz now to discover your virtual superpower and all the tips and tricks you need to succeed:www.virtualsuperpower.com
Another favorite Facebook hangout of ours are the Software Support Groups. Watch for posts where someone is looking for help troubleshooting an issue you can solve. These posts are an excellent opportunity to show your expertise and offer your services when appropriate.
Find Your First Client on Job Boards
Many clients will look for a virtual assistant on job boards or employment websites. So it’s a good idea to regularly search these sites for applicable opportunities. Here are some of our favorite websites to find your first client.
Apply as a freelancer at Upwork.com to search for the best projects and clients. And, highlight your unique skills on your profile and have the clients coming to you!
Some clients may also post their virtual assistant job on Indeed.com. To find the best, most LEGIT work at home opportunities on Indeed.com, make sure to enter “remote” as location.
