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 Maintain Privacy and Security on projects that you Outsource to a Virtual Assistant

I’ve always considered entrepreneurs who work in the ‘Cloud’ (i.e., using Internet-based resources) to be visionaries and life style designers. By most accounts, this is how much business will be done in the future. Still, many business owners have been befuddled as to how to do some business tasks via the Internet. One such task is signing contracts. For instance, I strongly believe that when you hire virtual assistants for your business, you should sign contracts that outline each party’s responsibility. Plus, businesses that serve a national or even global clientèle find it a challenge to sign a contract with those clients. Do they fax the documents back and forth? Sign it and scan it and then email it?

The new online way of signing contracts

While both of those are options, more and more businesses are finding that an e-contract is as good as the old-fashioned physical contract. An e-contract is simply one which takes place entirely in Cyberspace. You agree to terms via e-mail and sign it electronically.

Here’s what you need to know about legal documents in the Internet age: A contract is a contract. As far as the legal system is concerned, it doesn’t matter if it was created in a lawyer’s office or on the Internet. It does not matter if it’s signed with ink or online. In fact, to be perfectly honest, it does not matter if it’s signed at all. Most judges in the nation will tell you that an oral contract is as binding as a written one; it just needs to be proven in court. All that matters is that there is a meeting of the minds. If you agree to sell your TV to a friend for $50 and just shake hands on it, that is a binding contract.

It’s difficult to prove the validity of a contract when it’s not written down

Bringing this into the digital age, this means that if you and John Smith agree to something via email, that is a binding contract. But again, the challenge is to prove whether or not there was a true meeting of the minds between you and Mr. Smith.

So, yes, you can create a perfectly legal contract between yourself and virtual assistants that is entirely Internet based. The same holds true for contracts between you and clients (if you can convince them of the legitimacy of the contract, that is).

The signing of the E-SIGN Law

Although some people say it was unnecessary, President Clinton drove this point home even harder in 2000 when he signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (otherwise known as E-SIGN). The bill stated clearly that electronic contracts have the same legal status at a contract created in hard-copy form.

A contract is a contract, even if it was created online or signed electronically. So says the E-SIGN law. The key, again, is that there must be a meeting of the mind–and if you ever go to court, you must be able to prove that there was a meeting of the minds. This means that when you create a Cloud-based contract, it’s essential that you convey your intentions clearly, that the virtual assistant’s or client’s intentions be expressed clearly, and that both of you acknowledge that you understand what is in the contract.  There is no room for careless suggestions or working.  If you ever have to go to court to have the contract enforced (or to show that you have not defaulted on it), the criteria that you will be expected to prove is “offer, acceptance and consideration.” That is, you must be able to show what you offered to the other party, that they accepted it, and that the exchange of services or money / property actually began (the ‘consideration’).

Suggestions for creating a virtual contract that will be considered legally legitimate by the courts:

• Model your online contract after an offline document. Even though legally it’s not required that your online contract look like a traditional one, psychologically, it gives the contract more credibility.  Also, in the contract, mention the legal jurisdiction where the contract was made.
• State the terms of your contract clearly. Because you’re running a Cloud-based business, you’ll need to use clearer language and images than in other contracts.
• Your contract should contain your offer of service, the acceptance of this offer, the services or products that you agree you will provide, and the intention of both parties to enter into a legal relationship.

An important point to consider when signing cloud-based contracts

You must be able to prove that you had a contract, or a “meeting of the minds,” with the other party. There are two ways you can do this. One is through a “digital signature.” There are several major online sites that provide a digital signature service. This simply means that you send the contract to them and they send it to the other party. The other party then sends it back. The digital signature service then acts as the mediary and puts its stamp on it to prove that both parties have agreed to it. The major digital signature sites are: www.Tractis.com , www.echosign.com, www.RightSignature.com and www.DocuSign.com.

Legal Disclaimer: As always, remember that I am not an attorney, and you should consult one for advice regarding contracts.

Questions for you:

• Would you feel safe about signing a contract online, or do you feel like you have to have a paper version?
• Do you think people take an online contract as seriously as they do a regular one?

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I am so excited because I was able to interview someone who I consider to be a mentor! I interviewed Pat Flynn and he shared his insight on what he has been able to accomplish so far to generate smart passive income to the tune of about $9K+ monthly (which he openly shares with his blog audience on a monthly basis – mind boggling! I mean he goes into detail about how much he makes each month and how he does it). The interview which I am about to share with you is all about how to generate passive income. This is an issue all small business owners face; the question is how can you create streams of income that work on autopilot? Let’s learn together.

In this interview Pat discussed:

• Why an online business is one of the best means to create truly passive income
• How to use deadlines and milestones to your advantage
• How to Mindmap and draw out your entire business model
• How to cultivate the mindset needed to create smart passive income
• What realistic time frame to expect to get to smart passive income
• How to invest the time upfront to create systems that work on autopilot
• How to turn your knowledge and business expertise into a product that serves a need
• Why you need to build several passive income streams
• How to standout from your competitors
• How to get your community to trust you and buy your products and/or service
• When to automate processes and when to outsource

In his own word:

Every action you take must have a reason behind it. If you’re doing mundane work that won’t get you anywhere, what’s the point? Don’t just take action – take action that will advance yourself and your business.

Connect with Pat Flynn:

Pat is someone I have found to be genuine and teaches entrepreneurs how to create Smart Passive Income by being a resource and also someone who is willing to show you in detail how he does it!

On his website www.SmartPassiveIncome.com

On Twitter @PatFlynn

On Facebook www.FaceBook.com/smartpassiveincome

Questions for you:

• Besides creating smart passive income online what other ways this be done?
• Do you think that you can turn your business expertise into a product that meets a need? What have you done to find out that the need exists?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Interview: Ken Robbins on Why Search Marketing is important for marketing a business online and increasing sales
• Celia Milton on Why you need to get to know your ideal clients and what makes them tick!
• Sarah Evans on How to use Public Relations and Social Media to promote your small business

If you have virtual assistants working as part of your business team, do you trust them? How much do you trust them? And just as important, do they trust you? Let’s not forget that trust is a two-way street. And truth be told, it’s probably more important that there be a healthy amount of trust between you and your virtual assistants than is required for your employees. Why? Because with employees, who work in the same office as you do, you can regularly walk by and check up on what they’re doing. With virtual assistants, this isn’t usually possible.

So I’ll ask again: Do you trust your virtual assistants….how much do you trust them….and do they trust you? Let’s look at each one of these questions.

Do you trust your virtual assistants? Maybe you think this is an irrelevant question. After all, it’s not like virtual assistants can steal office supplies or inventory. But they can “steal” from you in other ways. For instance, if you pay your VA by the hour, he could be dishonest with the number of hours that he reports that he worked. Or if you’re hiring someone to do some writing or graphic design for you, she could demonstrate dishonesty by outsourcing this to someone else, and then turn the work, all while insisting she did it herself. Incredibly, some VA’s have even gone so far as to pad their qualifications by either lying about their previous experience or even turning in someone else’s samples and claimed that they were their own. So how about it: Do you trust your virtual assistant?

How much do you trust your virtual assistants? There are degrees of trust that matter. It’s one thing to trust a VA enough to allow them to tell you how many hours they worked. It’s quite another to trust them with the business’s confidential information. You must be very careful about giving company account information, client contact details, and trade secrets, to a VA. Never gamble; only entrust such things to someone that you know is trustworthy.

Can your virtual assistants trust you? This is just as important as whether or not you trust them. After all, you’ll never get maximum performance from a virtual assistant who doesn’t trust you. If they can’t trust you to be concerned for their interests, and to always pay what they are worth, without taking advantage of them, their motivation will wane. They’ll spend much time meditating on how you abuse them—and they might even make this public to others. The successful entrepreneur discovers early in his career the value of building loyalty among his team members, including his virtual assistants.  When a person feels like he is being rewarded for his hard work, he spends time trying to figure out how to benefit the business—and you, the owner. As soon as you shatter the trust he has in you, you shut off that flow of creativity.

Now that I’ve presented to you the challenge of building trust, let’s look at some solutions. First, of all, you need to realize that you build trust with for your virtual assistant over time and here are three strategies that you can incorporate that will allow you to begin the process of trusting your virtual assistants:

• Screen them well before hiring them. This prevents a whole host of problems. Part of this screening process should be having a conversation with the VA and asking what their policies are about keeping your sensitive material confidential. Also in this conversation, try to get references so that you can find out from former clients if the person has ever betrayed someone’s trust.
• Include a confidentiality clause in their contract. Make it crystal clear that if they divulge sensitive materials to someone outside of the company, they will be terminated, and possibly face a civil lawsuit.
• Set up an online time-clock and project management program. While you don’t necessarily have to dictate their hours, this will at least call their attention to the fact that you are monitoring how much they’re working on your project. Do a Google or Bing search on “online time-clock.” You can also make use of project management software (preferably an online one) so that they can enter in details of what tasks they are working on for you and each milestone they have completed. This is help to build trust with your virtual assistant and also gives you a means to verify their work; hence “Trust but Verify.”

So how can your Virtual Assistant trust you? Again trust is a two way street and I won’t be finished with this blog post until I talk about how you can get your virtual assistant to trust you more. One of the best ways to do this is to ask them questions about your business and really listen; their opinion is valuable. They are the ones who get the work done and they might just have a better way to complete the tasks, hence allow them to use their initiative. Try being less formal; call them by their first name instead of last. Send an email occasionally just to check up on them personally, with no work-related discussion. Be generous with your praise; everyone like to be encouraged, so whenever they do an outstanding job tell them that you like it and why. As they see you taking an interest in them, they will start to trust you more.

Questions for you:

• What is the one thing that would make you not trust a virtual assistant?
• How have you built trust for those whom you currently have working for you?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners – part 3
• How to Maintain Privacy and Security on projects that you Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
• How the iPhone 4, combined with Skype and Virtual Assistants just made business Video Conferencing mobile, easier and awesome!

As an entrepreneur you are faced with the challenge of finding various means to market your business. You also need to keep marketing on different mediums in order to find the best ones for bringing you quality leads that you can eventually turn into actual clients.

Marketing online also presents its own unique set of challenges because it seems something new pops up every minute and you have to always play “catch up with new technology”. To me one of the time tested means of marketing on the internet is Search Based Marketing hence I interviewed Ken Robbins from Response Mine Interactive because I wanted to learn from the expert why online search marketing is still a viable means for getting the word out about a business.

In this interview Ken discussed:

• How to use search marketing to get your desired results
• Why you need to build a sales funnel for handling the leads that you get from search based marketing
• The various types of search marketing companies and why those who use the “pay for performance” model are best to work with
• The different way of Marketing on the internet and how to use them for your business
• The difference between marketing to consumers and marketing to businesses
• How to build relationships with businesses when marketing B2B
• Why you need pay attention to research data and how to make use of it when implementing search marketing

In his own words:

Internet/search marketing is more cost effective than branding or other forms of traditional marketing. Most of today’s leads are found on the internet and online lead generation offers small businesses the opportunity to create powerful customer acquisition channels that position them for success. Internet marketing helps small businesses convert their web traffic to qualified leads and sales which is the real leverage in their marketing model. Online marketing increases customers, sales and the efficiency of small businesses’ marketing over time, thus increasing their profits.

Connect with Ken Robbins:

Ken is the president of Response Mine Interactive a company that specializes in helping small business owners acquire more customers

On his website www.ResponseMine.com

On Twitter @kenrobbins

Questions for you:

• What are you currently doing to market your business online using search based marketing?
• What issues do small business owners need to be aware of when looking for a company to implement search marketing on their behalf?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Interview: Pat Flynn on How to create Smart Passive Income for your business
• Celia Milton on Why you need to get to know your ideal clients and what makes them tick!
• Sarah Evans on How to use Public Relations and Social Media to promote your small business