As a virtual assistant, I offer as one of my services the task of posting your social media content. Why do I not write copy? Why do I not offer to write your posts for you?

Social media is just that – social. Even as a busy small business owner, you need to be in some direct contact with your clients through social media. It’s important that they get to know you as a person, and not just as a source for services or a product. That’s the whole point of social media marketing. You’re in a conversation with the world. It’s your story that needs telling.

Ever notice how autobiographies tend to have a certain special appeal? You’re hearing about interesting people in their own voices, getting their personal perspectives and hearing it in their own words.

The same holds for your blogs, Facebook posts, tweets and other forms. Your clients need to hear from you. They don’t really want to hear from your ghost writer because when you have someone else writing your content, the personal touch necessarily gets lost. It takes a skilled professional in their own right to really be able to take the time to read a lot of what you’ve written, get a sense of how you express yourself, what your values are, what your style is and then mimic it.

In the end, I think Chris Pagli sums it up in his post, How “Social” Is Your Social Media Strategy?

What we post online is out there for the world to see. Isn’t that the point? Have we created another mask for people to hide behind? Are you truly bringing your authentic self to your”strategy and posts? If we took away the device would you be the person you claim to be online?

If you’re not writing your own content, how can you be the person on line you are in real life?

I really want to pause, having just celebrated Veteran’s Day, and publicly acknowledge our veterans of all the wars who have fought to make America what it is – the land of the free.

We hear a lot about current unrest; many refusing to stand and salute the flag during the singing of the National Anthem, the poor care many of our veterans get in the VA system; protests. In all the clamor of this time, I simply wish to join my voice with so many I’ve seen and heard around me in gratitude that we are a nation that can withstand these trials because of your strength, your courage, your selfless service to our nation.

God bless each and every one of you. And God bless America.

Boosting Productivity

In my last post, you read about how Virtual Assistants can turn some of your administrative overhead into revenue productions. Now, let’s consider another dynamic.

As a mason’s tender, I picked up a couple of skills. Nothing terribly exciting or technical, but, important nevertheless. I learned to rake joints and to tuck-point. It’s easy work, but demands some attention to detail because the goal was to make the joints between the bricks look as good as possible by smoothing them out and by filling in any holes that may have been created. Tuck-pointing is also used as a technique as part of repairing old mortar joints that may be weathering to prevent more damage.

This meant the mason could focus on the more advanced technical details of the construction, installing trim around windows, doing the fancy brick-work, or just making time by getting a lot of bricks laid. It also meant I was more busy, and, more importantly, of more value.

Every skilled job has its own “grunt work”, if you will. Web designers have to move or insert content, something that a less highly skilled but still knowledgeable assistant could do at a lower cost while the web designer worked on the more involved details of developing a site, or on getting the next site started. Social media marketers may also be responsible for posting the content they create. While there are great efficiencies for this, sometimes it may be worth their while to have someone else take this on while they focus on the more demanding role of strategizing and good content creation. Writers always could use a hand proofreading and maybe even a second set of eyes to get feedback on how the text flows.

“But,” you’re thinking, “I’m far too small to hire someone to take this on. I’m just not at that level of production where this is always a problem for me.”

That’s probably true, or you’d be hiring a full time or part time assistant. Still, what about that one time you’re working on those kinds of details and a nice lucrative project comes your way you’d like to grab onto, but can’t because you really need to get these “punch list” items taken care of on the projects you’re wrapping up?

Virtual Assistants pay off well here. We’re available for a one –hour knock-off gig, or for several days of helping with a project. There’s no need to find work for us; that’s our concern. As a small business owner, you may not even have the space to provide for an in-house assistant. Virtual Assistants provide our own space and our own equipment to work with in most cases.

So, if you need to get an email newsletter laid out and sent to your mailing list, push the newsletter through social media and put the final touches on a direct mail campaign to send it to a mail house for processing, there’s help with that. If you need someone to handle the technical aspects of getting your blog onto your website, content onto a client’s website, your posts and tweets onto social media or your invoices in the mail this week, because you’ve got another new, exciting project you’d like to take on, give your friendly, neighborhood Virtual Assistant a call.