I think there are two schools of thought on this – obviously one says yes and one says no!
Let’s tackle the naysayers!
They say no one knows the business better than the business owner, no one can represent the business owner and no one has the same voice as the business owner.
All valid points – but if this was the case then no business would ever grow bigger than a one-man band – and we know this is clearly not true. We are definitely not a world full of one-man businesses.
We also know that to grow a business and increase the income we need to build a team to get support and help.
We also know that we can’t do it all or in fact enjoy all the areas required to run a business. In most cases we set up a business to do a specific element of the business and in a vast majority of people this does not include their marketing.
According to Michelle from virtual assistant company Virtual Hand “Marketing is a necessary evil of running a business – if you are wanting to ‘get your name out there’, increase your market share and gain more customers aka sell more.”
Nowadays social media is a massive arena and a necessary arena for businesses to be present on. However, it’s not a simple area to ‘get’.
The platforms are changing continuously, whether that be the new platforms coming online or indeed the players that use algorithms to manipulate the user experience and that means the posts they see and that means your marketing.
Getting help with social media – that could mean employing someone, adding the work onto an employee’s ever-increasing workload or indeed outsourcing – are all possible.
When it comes to outsourcing, you again have choices: a freelancer, a big marketing agency and now the virtual assistant role may encompass such skills as social media management.
When I think of social media management it includes:
- A plan
- A theme
- A message
- Graphics
- Creating posts
- Scheduling posts
- Assessing
- Reporting
All these can be carried out by a third person and that might be a virtual assistant that has social media management in their repertoire.
Those conversations with the client will enable the VA to identify their voice, their message and indeed how they wish to be seen and heard.
Viewing their website will enable information and style of images to be captured to be replicated on their social media. Most companies spend a lot of money on their website, be that the design, style, copy and general impression, so why not use that product to impact their social media content.
It’s widely known that customers should not be surprised when viewing a company on different platforms – there should be a seamless transition, replication of voice and image and therefore a cohesive representation across them all.
There are other areas which I believe can only be done by someone in the business – that can answer those specific questions, engage with contacts and connect with potential customers, collaborators or indeed affiliates and influencers.
It really is not an area where the business can distance themselves or indeed hand over and forget about.
So yes, social media management can be handled by a VA but this does not replace the input required by the business to support the efforts