How A Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Social Media Marketing

Are you a small business owner, wondering if you genuinely need a social media presence? What does social media do anyway? Maybe you are convinced that you need a social media presence, but you have no idea where to start!

The answers to the questions above are: 

• Yes, you do need a social media presence!
• Social media is how new clients will find you and is the path to growing your business.
• You start by engaging with a virtual assistant who can do this work for you inexpensively!

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ANYWAY?

Most small business owners have heard that they need to market their business on social media and write a weekly blog to increase traffic to their website. But many don’t understand why, what is involved, or the best ways to unify their online presence. More still can’t imagine finding yet another hour in their already busy work week, creating content for the internet.

But social media statistics are mind-boggling!

There are 4.2 billion active social media users, each of whom spends an average of 2.25 hours every day on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. It is clear that if your business isn’t in the social media “game,” you are missing out on an enormous growth opportunity.

The term “social media” can be a bit misleading. The name itself is a relic from the past when people used social media primarily to create and grow personal connections, build interpersonal relationships, and strengthen communities. As little as a decade ago, using social media for business was pretty unheard of. However, social media for business purposes has grown and evolved. Today, in addition to its former usages, social media is also a fertile ground for marketing and promoting any type of product or service. 

Bloggers, content creators, and micro-influencers are all shaping what we see online and are a significant force determining which products and services gain market traction. 

HOW TO DEVELOP AN SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Having a social media presence is more accessible than ever before. There are free platforms for scheduling social media posts on hosting sites like Buffer and Hootsuite and inexpensive online content creation tools like Canva and PicMonkey. Today, it is super easy for every small business to have an organized, cohesive, and creative online social media presence for a small investment in time and money. 

How? Bring on a social media managment virtual assistant to get this work done.

A virtual assistant can create and post graphics that link social media followers back to your website or point of service and create and build community and conversation around your product.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR WEBSITE PROMOTION

Social media is a powerful tool for marketing because it can grow a business and increase brand recognition, all for relatively low monetary investment. In fact, 55% of consumers learn about new brands on social media.

Social media marketing is on the rise, while tv, radio, and print marketing are deflating in value. 

There are many social media platforms. Some overlap in audience and usage, but having a presence across many is essential to ensure your business can reach the broadest possible audience share. Some of the most popular social media platforms include:

• Facebook:  Facebook claims 2.895 billion users and is considered an essential social media channel. Facebook’s audience’s ages range from teenagers to octogenarians. A business can sign up for business pages, create groups, and host online events. Facebook has options for paying for targeting advertising and even live streaming videos and broadcasts.

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is known as a business-oriented social media channel for networking. It claims over 740 million users and helps professionals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses reach out to other business-to-business users. On LinkedIn, users can post on their profiles and create a business page to increase brand awareness. Members can also use LinkedIn for hiring and resource sharing.

• Instagram:  Instagram is projecting it will have 127.2 million monthly active users by 2023. It is a visually-driven social media channel that began as a photo-sharing app. Most people access Instagram through their mobile devices, so Instagram users are demographically younger. Instagram users post photos, short videos, and short-lived “stories.” 

• YouTube:  YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly users and is a social media outlet for video content. A business can upload videos for free and share them with their other social media channels. Its audience base is extremely diverse. Content on YouTube is widely accessible because you do not need an account to view a video about a product or service.

HOW A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT CAN HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

A social media marketing virtual assistant knows the differences and nuances that make each social media unique and can tailor your business’s marketing strategy to each channel’s audience. They can adeptly create a plan to get the maximum exposure for your business across all the essential social media channels.

A social media marketing virtual assistant can research your business area and cultivate valuable content that will be exciting and relevant to potential clients and patrons. They can then tailor a specific social media campaign that will appeal best to your target audience.

A social media marketing virtual assistant can ensure that each social media channel your business has a presence on reflects a consistent message and similar information. Unifying your brand’s image across all platforms is an essential part of your social media strategy. A virtual assistant can make sure any business updates or new offerings are communicated to your audience. They can invite audiences to participate in contests and post creative polls to build consensus or begin conversations and update your status, all with the goal of creating a buzz around your business.

Social media marketing virtual assistants are typically skilled at creating graphic elements using online tools like PicMonkey or Canva. They can build terrific infographics and engaging photographs, find inspirational quotes and stylize product images to appeal to your niche audience. These online graphic studios have subscription levels from free to professional, making visual development exceedingly affordable. A virtual assistant can make other graphics for your business, like a logo for your blog, that will reflect your company and associate your brand with your social media content.

It is vital that a business’s social media accounts stay active and that your virtual assistant posts consistently. Bringing a virtual assistant on to create a plan to post new content and add to conversations regularly will ensure that your audience stays interested and engaged. Many virtual assistants do this cost-effectively by creating an account with HootSuite or Buffer, online social media management tools. By dedicating an hour of time, they can schedule posts for an entire week’s worth of content. 

A social media marketing virtual assistant can also be counted on to participate in online groups and communities where your business could benefit from having a presence. A virtual assistant can be tasked to reach out to people and respond to comments and questions asked on your social media sites. Having someone on hand to rapidly respond to inquiries can build consumer trust and confidence.

Finally, if your website has a blog (and it should!), a virtual assistant can share the link to it on social media. They promote your blog by using the title of newly posted blogs in a graphic, or they can pull a quote from the blog and post it on your business’s social media platforms with the hope of sparking conversation. People who see the post or enjoy the blog can share it with their connections and followers, which helps your business get exposure to new audiences.