Being a virtual assistant who is fluent in social media management is going to be an increasingly lucrative career in the coming years. Social media is quickly becoming one of the most talked about sources of traffic and brand building. More and more business owners are seeking virtual assistants who can manage their social media platforms well.
Here are the most important skills and qualities you will need to succeed:
Comfort with a Variety of Social Networks
Each of your clients will have different needs and different social networks. In order to be successful, you need to be fluent with at least Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.
Furthermore, specific clients will have more specific needs. For example, some clients might get a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon and need you to manage their account and relationships with other stumblers there.
In order to succeed as a social media virtual assistant, you need to be fluent in all the major social networks and be able to learn the smaller networks quickly.
Ability to Write in a Variety of Voices
You may have one client who will require you to manage his LinkedIn profile in a professional and courteous voice. Simultaneously, you may have a client who needs you to manage his Digg and Reddit accounts in a crass and satirical manner. One of the most valuable skills you must have as a social media specialist is the ability to write in the voice that your clients want.
Remember that when you are representing someone in a social network, you are basically representing them and their brand. Their readers expect to hear from their brand in a certain voice. If you are able to adapt to and take on that voice, you will become incredibly valuable to your clients.
Consistency and Organization
Finally, being a social media virtual assistant requires being very organized and very consistent. For example, one client might ask that you do certain tasks every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Other clients might ask that you make certain posts on certain dates, and still other clients will ask you to handle certain basic tasks every day. It will be on your shoulders to make sure you manage all these tasks properly.
Furthermore, you will need to keep tabs on all the different accounts and passwords of your clients, in addition to important relationships. In short, you need to have organizational systems that work for you, and need to be able to keep track of notes, tasks, relationships, log-ins and more.
If you’re fluent in social networks, are organized and consistent and you can write in a variety of voices, then you may have the makings of a very successful social media virtual assistant.
