In this day and age, social media must be part of your marketing plan. Social media is here to stay and it’s a great way to increase your visibility online.
More and more business owners are taking advantage of outsourcing time-consuming tasks like social media by hiring Social Media Virtual Assistants to maintain their accounts.
But here’s the thing.
Would you trust a bank to grow your money or would you hire an experienced financial adviser to make your money work for you? Would you trust your health to a well-read friend or would you go to a doctor for an expert opinion?
Who you trust your social media with is just as important.
What is a Social Media Virtual Assistant?
It began with virtual assistants, people who could take care of administrative tasks remotely allowing business owners to focus on what mattered, like growing their business. Access to an assistant was something most people could only dream of but now it’s usually easy to find and fairly affordable.
Then, as social media took off, leveling the marketing playing field for small and medium business enterprises (SMEs), VAs filled a new gap in the market. For a reasonable fee, assistants will schedule posts, manage your accounts, respond to messages and generally keep the engine running so you can focus on what you’re best at.
If you need to get things done, if you define the work, plan your sales funnel, and have a clear social media strategy then a Social Media Virtual Assistant is really worth having in your team because they focus on implementation.
What is a Content & Social Media Strategist?
Just like the doctor or financial adviser, a Content & Social Media Strategist is an expert. It’s what they live and breathe, day in, day out, with their finger on the pulse of all the latest trends and effective practices.
Once a doctor has made a diagnosis and created a treatment plan, you can follow the medication or exercise regimen. Once a financial adviser has taken a forensic look at your finances and helped you invest your money in all the right places, you can continue the strategy and keep an eye on your financial statements.
That’s what a content strategist can do for your social media.
Without a clear idea of what’s wrong and how you can make it right, fast, social media content marketing can feel like an overwhelming chore that never seems to pay off.
Content Strategists are smart with your time and your money.
Sure, they cost a little more than a Social Media VA but their analysis and expertise will put your social media strategy on the right road and they’ll give you a map showing the most direct route. Then you (or your VA!) can keep the engine running and your foot on the gas.
Which one do I need to hire?
A Social Media VA can really take a load off but if you’re overwhelmed by content creation, don’t know where to begin with a content strategy, or not seeing results from an existing one then you need a Content Strategist. Otherwise, you’ll be driving in circles, wasting gas, and never getting close to your destination.
And let’s be clear: Your destination is sales.
A successful content strategy needs the expert eye of a content strategist who will quiet the noise of conflicting advice, maximize your existing resources to actually start paying off, and make social media a manageable part of your business rather than an all-consuming one.
If you have the opportunity to hire a VA to manage your social media on a day-to-day basis, then go for it. Having that extra help will free up your time and create headspace for driving your business forward.
But if you really want to grow your business and harness the incredible power of social media to do it, get a content strategy from an expert.
Your business, and your Social Media VA, will thank you for it.