They are both a curse and a blessing, new formats of communication that we can both love and hate. So to ensure you love them, think about hiring a virtual assistant and let your VA manage email and social media so you can concentrate on running your business..
How do you manage your emails? Do you have an inbox of thousands of messages, many of which you’ll never need to read or access again? How about asking a virtual assistant to manage the cleansing of your inbox, and to help set up systems so that you only need to handle urgent and important emails, as they come in.
Having your very own VA manage email could free up time for you to spend on other important aspects of your business. They can track subscriptions, allowing you to review them on a regular basis, and arranging for you to opt out of those no longer helping you and your business. They can collate FYI copy emails, to give you a quick update sheet that you can scan more efficiently at your leisure. And they can pull together emails about accounts, invoicing and the like, giving you the option of reviewing them or simply forwarding them to your credit controller and Credit Control is an important business tool to get that money in.
That other, more recent arrival is social media, communication platforms that continue to divide opinion. Love them or hate them, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus are all ways to interact with our chosen audiences. And for a business, they can be both a valuable promotional tool, as well as a useful way to keep tabs on peers and rivals. For many consumer facing businesses, they are also an important way to ensure your reputation does not suffer unduly, from unhappy customers venting their fury.
So, how do you manage to cover all the angles around social media? One sensible way is to outsource the tasks, particularly to a virtual assistant who may be managing social media for other clients. Some virtual assistants have social media platforms such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite set up, enabling them to have a strong overview in real time, for a range of clients. Such management tools make for very efficient, and therefore very cost-effective, management.
Your VA will have the knowledge of which platforms will be most effective to promote your business, and can carry out tests to see what messages gain traction. Often, social media can be used to build website traffic, for example. You may not have thought about how your rivals use social media, and a virtual assistant can do that monitoring for you, and report back.
They can also have alerts set up. Not only can these warn you should any negative comments start to appear, they can also let you know if a potential client is asking on line for the kind of product or service you offer – and that’s a great way to find new business. There’s plenty you can do – so why not call a VA today, and get cost-effective support so that you can make more from using social media effectively?
So let your VA manage email and social media and they will help you get back to running your business. For more information on email, social media and our virtual assistant services, call us today on 0161 211 9837 to discuss growing your business or contact us here.