Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Social Media

How to Work with a Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Social Media

A while ago I started a series of posts called ‘Going Virtual’ here on the blog, where with each post I’m focusing on a specific topic when it comes to running a business in today’s marketplace, as well as whats possible when you team up with a virtual assistant to help you manage that particular aspect of your business and the types of tasks they can handle for you. So far in the series we’ve looked at working with virtual staff to help you manage your blog, marketing through social media as well as marketing your blog and handling email for you. Today I’m going to show you how to work with a virtual assistant to manage your social media. Here’s the thing – except for Twitter, I’m not the biggest social media fan. For the exact reasons I’ve pointed about above. It sucks time away from the important things in life (not just business), and ultimately takes over certain times of your day – for whatever reason. I say ‘except twitter’ because I love how quickly and easily you can send a tweet, especially via the mobile app for the micro-blogging platform. I mean, how long can it take to send a 140 character message!? But, once you get into Facebook, with all it’s bells and whistles, it’s a whole different ballgame. It’s very, very hard not to hop onto Facebook to update your page, social media marketing certification and NOT click around to peoples profiles, check your newsfeed, click on a few ad’s that grab your attention and so on. However, I have learned to appreciate what Facebook, Google+ and other social channels out there can do for a brand and a business, and instead of fighting it off, I’ve embraced it – but, in a smart, productive manner which leads me to this post and the tips contained herein.

Managed services providers struggle for complete business transition

If you're worried that you're behind the curve in transitioning your business to a recurring revenue model, there's good news: You may not be after all. While vendors are clamoring for partners to adopt a cloud-centric, recurring revenue worldview, most companies, it seems, have not yet perfected managed services, the other recurring revenue stream. In fact, in our recent Channel Directions 2014 survey, 337 North American IT solution provider respondents indicated a decrease in the percentage of companies that offer managed services . In 2013, 71% of respondents said they offered managed services of some kind. In 2014, that percentage social media marketing consultant went down to 63.5%. The decrease is small and the difference could be eroded by the survey's margin of error, but it does suggest a thinning down of IT companies doing managed services business. Carolyn April, director of industry analysis at CompTIA Inc., offered an interpretation for this change. "What happens is, a lot of companies … jump wholesale to a new business model without really doing the diligence to think it through. And so, they'll identify [their businesses] one year: 'Yeah, we're an MSP [managed services provider], and we're doing this.' And then the next year, we'll see in a study that number is scaled back a little bit. Well, that's because these companies realize that what they were trying to do was hard and they weren't quite ready for it, or they didn't have the resources necessary to actually get there." The survey also revealed that of those companies that provide managed services, 41% derived a quarter or less of their social media marketing ideas annual revenue from managed services. April said this number is consistent with what CompTIA has observed. This percentage compares with between a quarter and a half of annual revenue, cited by 22% of respondents; half to three-quarters of annual revenue, cited by 19% of respondents; three-quarters or more of annual revenue, cited by 9% of respondents; as well as 9% of respondents who couldn't identify how much of their revenue came from managed services.

With social media, stick your foot in and take the plunge

I was invited to share a day in Toronto with Dell and their partners. The Dell PartnerDirect program has come a long way since the days when Rob, Tony, and myself were providing Dell products and services to businesses in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Now a maturing big brother, Dell is being embraced as a true partner by MSPs everywhere, and they’re going to market together. As Dell North American President Bill Rodriques stated, “It is a win for the customer, social media marketing packages a win for Dell, and a win for the partner.” Earlier in the day I sat down with Bobbi Dangerfield, VP Global Sales Operations for Dell out of Austin, to talk about a lot of things. The one that really tweaked my interest was Dell’s adoption of social media to better serve their customers, help their partners, and ultimately keep their finger on the pulse on “everything Dell” in the social media sphere. As a marketing consultant helping managed service providers with all aspects of their marketing efforts, social media is a big piece of our strategy. It can help many MSPs win, and it’s an area that many struggle with. Why is that? Simple: Many small MSPs fail to recognize the value social media plays in helping even the smallest of businesses connect with their audience. Yes, even the smallest IT firms can leverage social media daily to boost credibility in the marketplace, share trends and their vision with technology, and offer real advice on how businesses can best use IT systems. The other major hurdle facing managed service providers with social media is time. Time to sit down and do it properly. Time: that nasty swear word many of us suffer through. Doing social media is a huge time investment, and it’s something I would never recommend a managed service outsource ever! Why not? Another simple social media marketing proposalanswer: Only you know the marketplace and only you really understand the pains facing businesses today. Why risk that to an outsourced company? Ms. Dangerfield called out one great example on how Dell used social media to tackle a problem with one of their XPS notebook computers. “When the XPS product line first shipped, we had a huge challenge with the fan. They were louder compared to other notebooks. Dell first detected chatter online about this and jumped into action to resolve production issues going forward.” That’s a great example of how watching social media can show you what your audience is talking about and allow you to react and adapt for your success. Dell is a big company, and many managed service companies simply don’t have the resources Dell would have, but you can see the importance of social media in connecting with today’s customer. Ms. Dangerfield concluded with this advice: “Stick your foot in and take the plunge.”