Daily Social Media Content Experiment- So Far So Good!

What am I doing here? What message do I want to express? Not questions for you. They are for me. Two answers. I want to share breaking information with Social Media Managers and Small Business Owners who do their own social media marketing. And I want to get across to these people that I am available to write blogs.

To that end, I have decided to absorb content from a newsletter I had been generating over the past year. Social Media SLICE (SoMe Slice) will now be a M-F blog/summary of useful news items with links to full fledged stories by top publication and websites. Then, I plan to fill the weekend with blogs, thus producing a daily presence.

Can I find interesting and informative content to share daily? You be the judge.

Having generated news & features for over 100 print, broadcast and online outlets over the past 40 years, I am skilled at content curation (we used to call it research) and posting organic content (we used to call it writing).

And on that subject of posting content, let me say that I plan to focus on news & tips in the social media world. But I have two hot button issues that I will divert to: abuse of children by people in power, Republicans or Democrats; assaults on the Freedom of the Press by Republicans or Democrats. Sadly, both issues are greatly in the news.

Big Thank You to You

I want to thank the people who have either “liked” my efforts or who have given full vote of confidence and “signed up” over the past week. I know this is more of a Twitter thing to thank followers, but I am trying to make a point. Looks like I may be on to something.

Marketing Tool Shed
GeraldPilcher
webinarstarterblueprint
1722002mt
Kevin J.P Ebsworth
digitaltools4you
mnp2192
geoffreyurch
samorascorner
LetlerFit
Matthew Brewin
antonioortegaen

Appreciate your interest & response. On with the experiment.

Social Media: To Outsource or Not To Outsource, That Is the Question

Dilemmas of Shakespearean proportions befall many a small business owner (SBO) when faced with the question of doing social media in house versus outside. The smart SBO knows his/her strengths and weaknesses. Do you? There is a world of difference between being a talented consumer of social media and a skilled producer of engaging content.

It is not just luck to get 1000 Facebook shares or 1000 Twitter retweets. Let me step back on that. It can be luck that something your niece posted about a kitty went viral. But did it bring any customers into your store? There is engagement and there is targeted engagement. Who are the people seeing your social media marketing and are they motivated to do something in their favor which benefits you?

Outsourcing to a social media manager (SMM) provides answers, as the SMM is skilled in asking certain questions before launching a social media marketing campaign. For example, “who exactly is your prime customer?” Sorry, “everybody” is not the best response. But it is the best indicator that you need someone else to guide your business through today’s world of multiple algorithms, KPIs, ROIs, customer avatars, etc. And if you don’t know what those are— point proven.

But, I will go a step further. What are the factors a good social media manager considers in preparation before, during and after sending out those “lucky” Facebook posts, ads and tweets? They are called Social Media Metrics. Check out this article from Sprout Social. Tell me how far you get before your head explodes with data overload. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-metrics-that-matter/

And then you must respond

Social media is like talk radio. Once you turn on the microphone, not only do you need to keep speaking during your entire shift, you need to be ready to take phone calls. Social means being social. You need to be ready to respond to customers. Do you have the time?

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that investing in social customer care drives revenue. According to a previously conducted Twitter poll, airline customers would be willing to pay $2.33 more for the same or enhanced service if a social response is provided in 67 minutes or more. Even more incredible, customers would be willing to pay an astounding $19.83 more if a response is provided within just six minutes. Time is money, so start saving both by providing value quickly on social.” – Conversocial (https://www.conversocial.com/blog/the-7-most-important-customer-service-stats-for-2017)

Check out this infographic from GetAmbassador.com

Would you open your store to customers and then have no salesperson there to ring up customers? That is what you are doing when you post on social media and not have a skilled practitioner to not only respond but also know how to use the response to entice additional customers.

That’s the difference between someone who just consumes social media and someone who is skilled at making social media work for you.

To outsource or not to outsource? When it comes to social media, it really isn’t a question.

5 Important Steps for Social Media Managers to Attract the Right Kind of Virtual Assistant

{Diane Leone is providing this guest blog. She is a published author with numerous articles/columns in regional and national publications as well as online articles and two published books: Marketing Multifamily Housing with Integrated Marketing Strategies and How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Interior Design Business}

Social media is ever changing, constantly in motion. The rules of engagement change all of the time. When you are selling your time for services, you eventually run out of time — then you’re limited on how many customers and how much work you can take on.

You don’t have to be limited!!!

Hire a Virtual Assistant to help you. I know, you are worried that you have to do it all because of the “what if’s”… what if this happens, what if that happens. It’s enough to drive you crazy. I bet about now you are thinking, “I can’t afford a Virtual Assistant and how and where would I find one that I feel comfortable enough with to give access to my clients?” (And, if you work with a VA in the United States, you must follow freelance/employee rules.)

But, take it from experience, to manage a large workflow and definitely to take on more work, you either need to hire staff or a virtual assistant.

5 steps to find and attract the right kind of virtual assistant.

Decide, based on the task and work, if you will hire a Local VA or hire a VA on an online platform.

If you go the online route, you must be comfortable with the VA working remotely. Decide which countries you will hire from and designate the language the VA needs to know fluently.

There are several platforms to choose from. Upwork.com earns good marks on their freelancers. There are many other agency sites to choose from. A good way to get responses from qualified VAs is to write a subject line that clearly states what the work is such as “social media posting” or “create Instagram posts,” and include the amount you will pay per hour.

Another way to further narrow the applicants is to outline in detail the assignment or job description including the specific programs they need to be proficient in. If you are using well-known programs, it is likely you will find VAs that are familiar with the same programs. This will save on training time to learn a specific program.

If you want to screen further, within the text include a line that goes something like this: “Include the word Apple in your response.” If the person didn’t read the complete job posting or understand it, he or she probably is not going to be among your top candidates.

You might also want to select your top 2 or 3 applicants and assign them the same task to see the quality of work. Sometimes this helps determine the person you want to hire and is worth the money.

Use Online Programs to Communicate with VAs

Asana.com and Slack.com– Both are free online project management platforms that allow you to create a team environment making it easier to communicate and manage a project without using email.

Calendly.com – a free online platform to schedule appointments. You can include a link in your email and the person receiving the email can use the link to schedule a time on your calendar that is open.

MyHours.com – a free platform to track billable hours. If you hire someone through Upwork, it is strongly recommended to always have your VA bill you through Upwork and for you to pay through Upwork, but MyHours.com is a great tool for tracking billable hours.

TimeAndDate.com – Working with VAs in other time zones? This page is a quick way to know what time it is anywhere and offers much more, such as calculators and timers.

Keep Your Information Secure

If you are responsible for your client’s website and social media sites, you need to feel confident that when you hire a VA you are in control of the security. Over time, you will build up trust and get to know your VA. You want to protect yourself and your VA while feeling equally confident that you are keeping your client’s pages secure. You could use one of several password manager programs.

LastPass.com
Dashlane.com

These are online programs that allow you to securely share login information with VAs. They can login and work without seeing your password.

Within the backend of platforms such as WordPress and Facebook™ you can assign a role as well as unique username & password to your VAs. Not everyone needs full Administration access.

Create a detailed Standard Operating Procedure or SOP for all tasks

This might sound like a lot of work however, if you create it once, you don’t have to explain it every time you hire someone. There are screen capture extensions that work with Chrome that can be used to capture a shot of each step of a task. Sometimes you may want to actually record yourself going through each step and explaining what you are doing.

Jing is one such extension and it is free. With Jing you can capture the screenshot and draw and write on it. This makes it easy to develop a visual SOP for a given task.

Communicate with your VA

You’ve created a SOP and you’ve hired a VA. What’s next? Communication! Skype or Facetime or any of the many ways to communicate online will work. You want to go through the work agreement terms and the SOP to answer any questions.

Communication is the key to success in working with a Virtual Assistant. Get to know the VA and how he/she works. A good VA can help you grow your business and is worth the time invested to find the right person for the job!

{Diane Leone founded Leone Social, a Digital Marketing Agency and The Marketing Edge Group-a public relations and marketing firm working with numerous clients including small to large corporations, non-profits, government agencies, political campaigns and grassroots organizations. Diane is a professional speaker and trainer, focusing on helping business owners find success}