In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the basic points that all small business owners need to know before getting involved in Social Media Marketing. In Part 2 of this series I explained how to create and distribute content on the popular social media websites in order to drive relevant traffic to your blog. As I promised, in the final installment of the series I will explain in detail how to get a Virtual Assistant to take over your social media marketing endeavors.

Before we begin the “meat and potatoes” of this blog post, I will like to review some of points I made previously, so please bear with me. Social media marketing is a tool every business owner should know how to use to their advantage. It is a very cost effective means of introducing your business to prospective clients not just locally, but globally.

By now you should be familiar with FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and so on; they are some of the most popular social media networks. At the early stage of the internet, having your very own email address meant that you were part of the fabric of the web. Today, that is equivalent to having your own Social Media presence. Having a profile for your business in any of the social media channels means that you not only have an address, you also have a social web presence or web personality.

Maintaining your presence on social media websites is challenging, anyone who tells you it’s easy is outright lying to you. You might be able to do it all by yourself in the beginning but as you build traction and begin to create a buzz for your business it becomes demanding and soon you will realize that you need help. The whole idea of social media marketing is to get leads for your business by providing useful content to them that draws them to your website or blog but you do not want to get so tied up by this process that you neglect your core business duties. This is a task that can eat up the time that you could have used “working on” your business as opposed to “working in” your business. But, this is also an element that you cannot ignore. Everyone who is on the web in today’s environment must have a social media presence. If your business does not have one, then you lose market reach on the web.

So how do you maintain your social media presence on the web and still be able to get the most important tasks for your business done? How do you implement a social media marketing strategy so you can reach prospective clients by providing them with relevant content? Simple! Outsource your social media marketing to a virtual assistant. Well not all of it, but most of it. Here are 6 simple steps on how to get this done:

1. Get a virtual assistant with writing experience to help you create your content. You already know your business. Put in writing what your business is all about, and what your business offers to clients. After writing that down, you can ask a virtual assistant to create a much better written article based on what you have written. You can also have your VA interview you on a regular basis by asking you questions that prospective clients might want to know, your VA can then turn your answers in additional content that you can distribute on the popular social media websites.
2. Get your virtual assistant to invite your existing clients to connect with you on the social media websites. You know who your existing clients are and you already have their contact details. You can ask your virtual assistant to invite your existing clients to become your friends on your chosen social media sites. The reason you want to do this is that once your clients connect with you on those sites, you indirectly or directly get access to their friends as well. For instance FaceBook allows the friends of your friends to see the content you post to your wall, imagine the possibilities and how easy your content can become viral and spread like wildfire!
3. Get your virtual assistant to post details about your successful business transactions and client testimonials. Your business transactions with existing clients are events you can share with your friends on your social media channel. Each story can be written in such a way to show how your business helps clients, provides solutions to their problems or what your product has done for a client. The stories that you tell can show your friends that you are an expert in your field of business. This will add to their level of confidence in you, and can motivate them to do business with you. Your virtual assistant can write the stories for you. All you have to do is tell the story to your virtual assistant who will then put your words in writing. Or better yet, get the virtual assistant to call up the client and record either a video or audio testimonial from your client.
4. Get your virtual assistant to answer questions posed by people on social media sites. As the number of your friends on the social media sites continues to grow, your virtual assistant can answer their questions or react to their posts. This way, you are able to establish a relationship with your friends. This relationship can increase your number of friends through referrals from your current friends. As your friends refer more friends to your social media site, you can expect some of these friends to purchase your products and services. Besides answering the questions posed by your friends on these sites you can answer questions that have been asked by people who you are not already friends with. On sites like Twitter, your VA can search and answer questions that have been asked by users who are not currently followers of your tweets. The key here is to remember to be a resource before trying to be their vendor – give first and then your shall receive.
5. Get your virtual assistant to monitor what is said about your company online and respond appropriately. Your virtual assistant can closely monitor what people are saying about you and your business on these social media sites. They can respond quickly to positive reviews of your business by thanking those responsible for the review and also offer free services or discounts for referrals. The virtual assistant can also respond even faster to negative reviews of your business. The key to successfully responding to negative reviews is to first of all apologize for the negative experience of the user and then have the VA offer them a solution that will meet their needs. This way people using the social media sites can see how your business handles problems and how you care about your clients.
6. Get your virtual assistant to continuously improve and tweak your social media marketing strategy from time to time for better results. To turn your social media presence into an effective marketing tool, there is a need for you to properly plan out your social media marketing strategy. Without this strategy and plan put in place, your social media presence can possibly become a liability for you. Get your virtual assistant to make use of the appropriate social media monitoring and analysis tools to aid them in making calculated decisions.

Social Media Marketing = $$$ (eventually!)

The steps mentioned above might seem overwhelming at first glance but in reality they are very simple to implement. I do hope to see more small businesses getting involved in social media marketing because it’s is a medium that has essentially leveled the playing field and it allows you to now compete with and in certain cases excel over the “big boys”- larger companies within your niche. It is a great way for directly getting in touch with prospective clients who you can over time turn in clients; which equals income for you! All it takes is your careful planning and implementation.

Questions for you?

• Did I do a good job with this three part series or what? (pardon me, I have to brag – this took some time to finish – LOL!)
• On a more serious note, what social media tools for monitoring and analyzing the social media presence of a business do you think are worth checking out? I will like to know so I can review them.

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners – part 2
• Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners – part 1
• How to use Youtube Videos to train your Virtual Assistant on the tasks you need done

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