The Top 7 Social Media Tools a Virtual Assistant Can Introduce to Clients
As a Virtual Assistant, I help many clients begin their path towards making the most of social media. Some clients have already gotten their feet wet, some are curious, whilst others don’t know where to start with social media marketing, which is why they come to me!
The latter is the group that can benefit the most from having a Virtual Assistant introduce them to the world of social media. Why?
Virtual Assistant’s spend huge amounts of time immersed in Twitter, Facebook, etc. I wrote an article last year that details just how much.
I recently helped a long time client of mine try out the various social tools available.It has been about 4 months now and he is pretty much at the “savvy” level both in comprehension of what the different social media tools are and in how to use them to effectively increase the marketing of his business.
Here’s what we did:
First, I signed him up for Twitter
-I did a custom Twitter background for him.
-Since his is a Mac client and I am a Mac Virtual Assistant, I had him download Twhirl, for his desktop Twitter client. Another great application is TweetDeck.
-I linked his Twitter profile to Twitterfeed so his blog posts would automatically get tweeted.
This first step involved some coaching on how he should best meet up with other Tweeters, what to say as a greeting when he follows someone and what to say when someone new is following him. Slowly but steadfastly he learned the jargon and “twittiquette” 
Second, I got him a StumbleUpon account
-I taught him the basic principles of stumbling, and had him install the StumbleUpon Firefox plugin so he could quickly and easily stumble his favorite sites.
Third, I signed him up for a Facebook page
Facebook pages are free, and are like a profile for your company. A page on Facebook permits you to have as many fans as you wish, whereas Facebook profiles are limited to the amount of friends you can have. A Facebook page is search engine friendly, and with it you can discussions, special events, and post polls and video content for your fans to see and comment on.
I also introduced my client to this social media tool because of the valuable Insights area that Facebook pages has. You can see such data as gender, age, and what your viewers are spending the most time on, whilst on your page.
As his Virtual Assistant, I designed the Facebook page, and maintain it by uploading photo’s, video’s, and events. I also send out messages and invitations to his fans.
Fourth, I got him a Delicious bookmarking account
Understanding social bookmarking was easy for this client, and after a few coaching sessions with me, he quickly got into the knack of bookmarking his favorite pages and assigning the proper keywords to them so that others could find his bookmarks with ease.
Fifth, I signed him up for Flickr
Not too many folks realize that one can use Flickr for business purposes. Pay close attention as well to the bottom of the page in this article which gives tips on how *not* to market on Flickr.
This particular client got so inspired that he went out and purchased a new camera, just for this purpose! I set up the account and the page for him, and uploaded the initial photo’s. I also took care of optimizing the photo’s with appropriate keywords. All he has to do now is email me photo’s, and I can upload them to Flickr for him.
Six was LinkedIn
He was already on there, but I helped him to optimize his profile by introducing several LinkedIn applications, like Blog Link, Amazon Reading List, TripIt, etc.
Seven is perhaps the one he uses the most: ping.fm
This extremely useful aggregator service allows one to update Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, LinkedIn, etc, all at once.
As his Virtual Assistant, I set up the account and taught him how to do updates via the special email address you get when you sign up.
So there you have it, my version of the top 7 social media tools Virtual Assistant’s can introduce to their clients. Using a VA for this purpose is ideal for so many people, it helps take the initial apprehension out of getting a Twitter account, typing your first Tweet, or stumbling the first web site that you really love. What will happen next is the most asked question I get from clients when they are new to social media marketing. Meaning, what will be the result of their actions once they stumble, tweet, aggregate, etc. There is a certain amount of fear built into this. Virtual Assistant’s can help clients remove this initial fear and become social media savvy in no time.
Do you think you would like to use Virtual Assistance to get started with social media? Do you think a VA can be a useful partner to maintain your social media accounts?
Author bio: Taryn Merrick is a Professional Mac Virtual Assistant, Social Media Virtual Assistant and Eco Virtual Assistant. As Principal of Merrick Management And Media Services, she has over 20 years of administrative management experience. Taryn works to promote the Virtual Assistant industry and to make it stand out as a true profession of excellence. Her style is easy going, yet precise, with emphasis placed on exceeding customer expectations, client communication and satisfaction.
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Tags: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, Virtual Assistant
Mar 17, 2009
I used this as my weekly linked article. Very good advice! Thank you.
Mar 17, 2009
@Lisa Olinda Thanks so much for doing this and thanks for finding me. I’m glad you liked my article on Social Media Tools for Virtual Assistants and that you found my blog useful.