How to get the most out of your social media virtual assistant
What is a social media virtual assistant?
A social media virtual assistant is someone that will help you manage your social media.
Basically, your social media virtual assistant handles the tasks that a social media assistant or social media manager would do.
The main difference is that a social media virtual assistant does it remotely… or virtually, as the case may be.
So, less meetings (hello Skype!), no need to supply a working space, and no commute.
Think minimalism in terms of time and cost.
Now, what does a social media virtual assistant do?
A social media virtual assistant will help you manage your social media.
Sounds kinda vague, huh? The thing is, a social media virtual assistant will be working on all things social media. Seems breezy, but it really just means that his/her to-do list is going to be LONG.
However, there are some concrete (and what I consider to be critical) tasks that a social media virtual assistant will be doing for you. This includes:
- identifying opportunities for you to engage with your audience
- locating the best platforms to run your social media ads and campaigns so you can build social presence
- tracking the progress of your social media hashtag campaigns so you know if they’re going well
- helping you do social networking so you can make connections and build influential relationships
These are all time-consuming activities.
Whether you are a small business taking on all these tasks yourself or working with a social media virtual assistant, the right tools will significantly simplify the steps involved in your work.
Social listening tools like Brand24 automatically collect data from all over the web, data that is crucial to all of the tasks above (and not only). Utilizing a social listening tool like this lets you spend time on activities that will truly add value to your work instead of digging for data.
And in the case of your social media virtual assistant, having access to the right tools will make him/her about, oh, 100x more efficient in servicing you.
So, delegate. But do it well and make sure your social media virtual assistant is working with the best tools!
How does a social media virtual assistant help you engage with your audience?
A social media virtual assistant will help you engage with your audience by tracking online mentions of your brand so you can respond and interact with the people who are talking about you.
Angry and emotionally-charged comments about your brand are prone to escalating and can easily turn into a PR nightmare. Especially if you neglect them and fail to respond.
(I wonder what this spike in negative mentions for this company on Sep 6th is about. Task for your social media virtual assistant!)Have your social media virtual assistant track mentions of your brand across the web. Opt for mobile or e-mail notifications each time someone mentions your brand and be the first to respond.
Unless you’re already popular and people talk about your brand all the time. Then it’s time to set up filters to notify you only when your brand gets a super angry or super happy mention, or foresees one that’s about to go viral. Yep, filters are useful.
How does a social media virtual assistant help you create a strategy to build social presence?
A key aspect of building your social presence is knowing where to promote your brand.
Your social media virtual assistant can help you find your target audience and locate the platforms where people are actively talking about your brand or your industry.
This is where your audience is; these are the places where you need to target your ads and social media campaigns to build social presence and visibility.
Social listening data can significantly narrow this down and provide very specific information.
Tracking mentions of your brand and industry and analyzing the data pinpoints the best time of day / days of the week to schedule your social posts. So you can reach a wider audience.
Also, by keeping track of social listening data, you and your social media virtual assistant will be able to identify the reason behind any dynamic changes in buzz for your brand.
I created a social listening project to track mentions of T-mobile. See the peak on Sep 6th? And the peak for social media reach between August 22-24? T-mobile’s social media virtual assistant could look into these dates and see what the company did to generate this buzz (and replicate it).
It’s all based on research. Market research. Target audience research.
But it’s not a one-time thing. It’s crucial to keep monitoring and conducting research so you stay up to date on the latest info, are aware of any sudden changes, and are not only able to build but also MAINTAIN your social presence.
How does your social media virtual assistant help you track the progress of your hashtag campaigns?
Hashtag campaigns are one of the most effective ways to generate buzz for your brand.
Inviting your audience to share images or other user-generated content by creating a dedicated hashtag is a proven way to get exposure for your brand and interact with your audience.
Your social media virtual assistant can track the volume of mentions for your hashtag so you can gauge how popular it is. Plus, you’ll want to know ASAP if your hashtag has suddenly turned into a bashtag.
But this is far from everything that you need to know to see how your hashtag campaign is doing. Your social media virtual assistant should also track things like engagement, influence, and social media reach. Just to name a few.
Social media reach tells you how many people might have come across your hashtag on the Internet.
It’s like having a billboard on Times Square in NYC and counting the number of people who could’ve seen it. That’s your reach.
For your hashtag, that’s social media reach.
The engagement level will tell you how many people are interacting with posts that contain your hashtag, or how many people have liked, commented on, or shared any of these posts.
Whenever somebody uses your hashtag, your social media virtual assistant can see what their Influencer Score is directly inside the dashboard in Brand24.
A high Influencer Score means that this user has a large number of followers who are very engaged and often like, comment on, or share this user’s posts.
This can come in handy when you want to find potential brand ambassadors and influencers to work with, or build relationships and strengthen your social network.
How do you get the most out of your social media virtual assistant?
Whether you’re your own assistant or have found a good social media virtual assistant to work with, social listening is crucial to managing your social media.
The data you get from social listening tools will help you engage with your audience, build presence, track the progress of your hashtag campaigns, identify potential brand ambassadors and influencers, and much, much more.
These are just a few things that your social media virtual assistant will be responsible for when they sign on to help you run your social media. They pretty much make it so that even after you log off, your social presence remains online and keeps growing.
So, yes, your social media virtual assistant has their work cut out for them. (By the way, International Virtual Assistants Day was on May 19th. In case you missed it, mark your calendar for next year!)
Show your social media virtual assistant (or yourself) some ♥ with a shiny new social listening tool. Sign up for a free trial and see if Brand24 is the right addition to your toolkit. No credit card required.
They are talking about your company