What is a social media virtual assistant?
A social media virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who helps businesses, influencers, or individuals manage their social media presence. VAs might dedicate themselves to social media management. Or, virtual assistants may manage social media accounts along with other tasks like calendar management and admin.
Social media virtual assistants often help with the following tasks:
- Scheduling posts
- Content creation
- Account monitoring
- Analytics and reporting
- Content curation
- Strategy development
- Competitor analysis
- Trendspotting
For businesses that don't have the time or expertise to handle their social media profiles, hiring a social media VA is a cost-effective way to maintain a consistent online presence.
What are the benefits of a social media virtual assistant?
If you want to maximize your online presence without getting overwhelmed, there are multiple benefits to hiring a virtual assistant.
Erik Pham, CEO of HealthCanal, explains how VAs play a vital role in their social media strategy.
“VAs schedule posts, engage with our audience, and monitor trends, allowing us to maintain a consistent and active online presence,” he explains.
“Integrating virtual assistants into our operations at Health Canal has been a game-changer. It has not only saved us valuable time but also contributed to our ability to provide high-quality health and wellness content to our readers. The experience has been both surprising and immensely rewarding.”
Here are the top five benefits of hiring an experienced social media virtual assistant:
1. Time Savings
Managing multiple social media platforms is time-consuming. Between scheduling posts for multiple channels, engaging with other users, and reporting on your performance, these tasks soon add up.
By outsourcing these tasks to a VA, businesses, and individuals can free up more hours in the week.
2. Consistency
It’s easy to start posting on social media, but it’s hard to be consistent. Before you know it, work and meetings pile up, and your social media schedule gets shelved.
Working with a dedicated VA means they’ll take care of scheduling all social media posts consistently. You won’t have to worry about following a schedule, your VA will handle all social media posting.
3. Expertise
VAs often have experience and knowledge in social media management. They’re familiar with the latest tools, hashtags, trends, and best practices. That means you won’t feel the pressure of keeping on top of managing changing social media campaigns.
4. Cost-Effective
Hiring a full-time in-house social media manager can be expensive. A VA, especially one based in a location with lower living costs, can offer quality social media management services at a fraction of the cost.
5. Flexibility
Depending on your needs, you can hire a VA for a few hours a week or for more extended periods. Unlike hiring a full-time executive assistant, the flexibility of a VA allows you to scale up or down based on your requirements.
Managed virtual assistant services can also help find, vet, and train VAs to do other tasks like project and email management.
What is a social media virtual assistant?
Overwhelmed at the thought of managing your social media presence? Here are ten social media tasks other than posting content that a VA can help with.
1. Schedule your social media calendar
Do you have loads of content ideas you’re ready to publish? But no time to upload them onto your social media?
Scheduling content for publishing can be a massive time drain. Once you’ve already spent time writing captions and editing images, deciding when and where to post can feel like an annoying extra step.
So instead, have your VA schedule your social media calendar. Using tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Later they can schedule and automate the publishing of content to your social media channels. If you want to approve scheduled content before it gets published, it’s easy to review the publishing calendar scheduled by your VA.
2. Create social media graphics
We’re not all gifted with design skills. But you can bet there are VAs out there who are skilled in creating and formatting graphics for social media.
For example, VAs can use platforms like Canva or DocHipo to create custom graphics for an Instagram Story or infographics to show your business’s latest research on LinkedIn.
3. Reply to comments and DMs
Hands up, who has an overflowing social media inbox? Whether you receive piles of Instagram DMs or endless messages on LinkedIn, it’s time-consuming to filter, prioritize, and respond to these messages. On top of messages, there are also comments to consider.
Instead of spending hours replying to countless DMs and comments, a VA can do this for you. To get started, share templates and guidelines on how you expect VAs to communicate with your audience.
For example, if your brand voice is fun and engaging, you can train your VA to engage with followers using that tone. Or, if your brand is informative and educational, share tips on how your VA can adopt this style.
4. Curate social media content
Once your VA understands your brand values and goals for your social media content, they can source and curate content for your social media channels. This role shouldn't be confused with a user-generated content agency designed to provide high-quality, audience-driven content. Your VA primarily provides the administrative support of your social media program, not generally writing net-new content.
For example, VAs could curate content including:
- Articles for LinkedIn
- Relevant tweets you want to retweet on X (Twitter)
- UGC from your audience on Instagram
- Industry trends your audience will find relevant
5. Research competitor content
Staying on top of competing content is a key part of sharing relevant content on social media. But it’s also another item on your neverending social media marketing to-do list.
Have your VA research competitor content so you have an idea of what’s going on in your industry.
Your VA could research:
- Topics covered by competitors
- Content formats used
- Active social channels
- Audience engagement
You can then use this competitor research from your VA to influence your future marketing campaigns.
6. Interact with relevant accounts
A big part of success on social media depends on how you engage with other accounts. Consistent interaction with other accounts, such as your target audience or similar brands in your industry, sends the algorithm important signals about the relevance of the content you create.
But constantly engaging on social media can be a big time drain and distraction throughout your workday.
Have your VA schedule time to interact with relevant accounts. These interactions could include likes, follows, and comments.
7. Manipulate Images
Ever need to add a quick filter or shift the brightness on an image before posting? Get your VA to make those subtle image tweaks before you hit publish. Show your VA how to use photo editing apps like Lightroom and Afterlight, and then let them handle simple image tweaks and manipulation.
When you get set up with your VA, share a set of image guidelines that include:
- Size dimensions for each platform and format
- Names of filters or adjustments
- Any templates you use for Stories or carousels
8. Update or delete existing content
Sometimes before you start publishing new social media content, you’ll want to remove outdated content or update it.
For example, if you use social media to promote upcoming events or promotions, you could ask your VA to update content to say that the event or promotion has ended. Or, if you used to sell a specific product line that you no longer stock, you could ask your VA to remove the existing content that promotes it.
If there’s any content on your social media profiles that no longer matches your branding, your VA can remove that too.
9. Monitor platform analytics
Staying on top of platform metrics and engagement can be a headache. Let your virtual assistant monitor key metrics for you.
Ask your VA to monitor metrics like:
- Number of followers or connections
- Post impressions
- Profile visits
- Average number of likes or comments on each post
- Video and Story views
- CTR on paid ad campaigns (if you run them)
When you don’t have to keep track of all your social media metrics, you can focus on evolving and pivoting your marketing strategy based on what the metrics show you.
10. Create Reports
Using these metrics, VAs can create brief reports on how your social media accounts are performing.
Ask your VA to pull a report weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on your priorities. When you don’t have to create the reports yourself, it’s easier to focus on bigger strategic initiatives.
Manage your online presence with Prialto social media virtual assistants
Working with a trusted social media virtual assistant can save you time, that you can then invest in your broader online marketing strategy. Instead of getting hung up on the details, you’ll save your energy for creative and strategic decisions.
Once you get started working with your VA, you’ll find that there are many other repetitive, time-consuming tasks you can delegate too.
Ready to streamline your social media marketing? Learn more about how hiring a managed virtual assistant can boost your presence and save you time.
Social media virtual assistant FAQs
1. Can a virtual assistant help with social media?
Social media virtual assistants help businesses and individuals manage their social media presence.
Virtual assistants can help with various social media tasks, including:
- Scheduling
- Publishing
- Image manipulation
- Graphic design
- Copywriting
2. How much does a social media virtual assistant cost?
Social media virtual assistants have different rates that usually depend on their experience, skillset, and location. For example, Prialto managed virtual assistants provide up to 55 hours of monthly support for $1500.
Looking for a virtual assistant to assist your social selling? Book a call with us today and let's discuss your needs.