Virtual Buzz Assistant

Serious Internet Marketers needs to be aware of Specialized Communication Channels.

That is a general term to help you think about what you are trying to achieve in todays Internet Marketing environmant.

Virtual Assistants that have chosen to specialize in Internet Marketing cannot just sit back and do the tasks assigned to them.  They need to be developing their own specialized communication channels.  The reasons virtual marketing assistants want to do that is:

1. Experience Building Communication Channels
2. Experience Maintaining Communication Channels
3. Resale Value – Once you develop a strong channel, you can sell advertising or affiliate products.
4. Lead Source – You will find clients from a good communication channel

Most of what internet marketing is can be thought of as communication channels.  Here are some examples that I use or have used.

• Email list with Auto-Responder Course – Like my Free Buzz marketing Course
• Blogs – Like this Virtual Assistant Blog and my Buzz Marketing Blog
• Twitter – Here I am
• LinkedIn – Go ahead and connect to me – Then I use questions to utilize this channel.
• Online Communities – Like Ning
• Video Channels – On many video hosting sites
• Micro-Blogs like Tumblr – Buzz Marketing example.

These are just some of the examples of specialized communication channels.  You need to develop your own in order to understand the tools and help clients better.  (Not this exact list, these are just more common things I use)

Several things are missing from the list:  Social Bookmarks and Photo Sharing Sites I consider too weak to be considered communication channels, but I could be wrong in some cases where there is a lot of interaction and people actively follow other people.  Also, this does not include search engine strategies or advertising.  Those are hugely important to Internet Marketing as well.

Nearly everything in the above list of specialized communication channels is free or very low cost.  There is no reason not to develop good habits of building these channels for yourself, and eventually helping clients build them as well.

Managing projects well is a complex job.  The best way to manage a project well is to have the project manager focus on their core skills and have a project manager assistant do the mundane tasks and daily management that needs done to be sure that everything is being coordinated and is on schedule.

For example, if you are doing Internet Marketing yourself you have no chance to really do a good job of managing your internet marketing projects, doing SEO, managing your PPC campaigns, writing quality content every day and any number of other tasks that need done.

That is why you need to use a Virtual Buzz Assistant as a Project Manager Assistant.

This does not mean that you hire one person to do all the tasks and manage themselves as well.  That is not practical.

Instead, hire a really good, experienced virtual assistant that has a talent and understanding of Internet Marketing and is highly organized.

Then ask them do do some of the tasks that are in their core competency and hire and manage other virtual assistants, blog writers, SEO specialists and anyone else you need for your Internet marketing project.  This trusted Project Manager Assistant then becomes the person that drives the project forward each day.  They are also responsible for reporting progress and problems to you before they escalate.

Ultimately, this is a great way to get the best results from outsourcing your internet marketing.  Trust me, I have tried to outsource portions before and I often spend more time managing and training people than  I want.  That is why one virtual assistant project manager – acting as your project assistant – will help you get much better results, keep your time freed up and be focused on the project’s success.

The problem with a trend becoming popular is that everyone starts doing it.

For example, I liked Shakira before she ever did an English song.  Years before.  With Hips Don’t Lie how can anyone not like her?  I am just a part of the masses now.

Virtual Assistants have been around for a long time.  However, with the The 4-Hour Workweek, hiring virtual assistants became in vogue.  The company specifically mentioned in that best selling book became so busy that they could not handle the rush to hire their services and lost a lot of opportunities.

Now I see a trend for Virtual Assistants, and if you are one of the pre-4 hours work week virtual assistants, you should be mad as hell.  (Although maybe not, since you cannot do anything about it.)

Everyone is a virtual assistant.

Here are just a few of the careers of people that I know that are calling themselves virtual assistants but still doing the other work as well.

• Business Consultants
• Life Coaches
• Business Coaches
• Freelance Writers
• Internet Marketers
• Graphic Designers
• Web Designers
• Accountants/Book keepers

I am sure the list is much bigger, but you get the idea.  If you are a Virtual Assistant and that is all you do, you are now competing with everyone.  You might ask yourself WHY?

The answer is simple.  Virtual Assistants are people that work remotely and help businesses or people achieve particular goals by completing specific tasks.  Many activities can be done virtually, including most of the jobs I mentioned above.

The reason that people are calling themselves virtual assistants is because it is a gateway into a client.  In Internet marketing, we know that a client that is willing to pay $10 today has a good chance of paying $100 tomorrow.  So a business consultant or coach may begin by assisting a client with a few tasks, all the while offering valuable advice.  Later, that client may chose to upgrade and become a coaching client.

For this same reason, general Virtual Assistants should specialize and up-sell their specialized skills.  For example, a virtual assistant might do general tasks at $25 an hour, but charge $50 an hour for copyrighting or website design.

Oddly enough, a VA that has specialized skills will find it easier to sell their services as well.  Sure, not everyone will need the specialized skill, but when someone does, it is much easier to get that work.  Think about it from the client perspective.

Client: Do you do Internet Marketing?

VA: Sure, we do everything.

- Yeah, I am going to hire this VA.  NOT!

Client: Do you do Internet Marketing?

VA: Absolutely.  That is my specialty.  I help people with adword management and conversion analysis.  I am also quit good at SEO (Search engine optimization).  I do not design HTML, but I have a partner that does that.

- Wow, that VA has got her act together.  And yes, I will pay her much more per hour than the generalist.

So let me propose something.  The term Virtual Assistant is dead.  It is as general as saying you are a Worker.  Imagine someone asking what you do and you replying, “I am a worker.  I work.  I do whatever I am told.”

The good news is you just have to become good at something by focusing on it for a while.  Here we do Internet Marketing and call the virtual assistants Virtual Buzz Assistants.  You could also do accounting, technology, design, sales support – there are a ton of things.  But don’t try to do them all.

Internet Marketing Assistants are in hot demand.  The problem is, everyone thinks of themselves as an Internet Marketing Assistant even though they are not offering anything that is special or highly skilled.  Read this post about hiring internet marketing assistants from oDesk.

John Cow is a good group of Internet Marketing Experts and they are desparate for some quality help.  The problem is, finding quality help amoung the multitude of people claiming to be internet marketing assistants is difficult.

The fact is, once you get really good, you make more money doing the marketing for yourself.  So to find a good internet marketing assistant, you need to find someone that is experienced, but not so good that they do not need the work.

Another solution is to hire different assistants for different tasks.  For example, instead of hirning an internet marketing assistant, you may want to hire several people and each specializes in one task.

• Blog Writing
• Online Advocacy
• Online Contest Manager
• Editing
• Social Bookmarking
• Newsletter Management
• Help Desk

These are just some of the ideas.  If you hire individuals to run one area well, then it is easier to assess their skills and less likely they will become good at overall internet marketing and start doing things for themselves.

Many people dream of being a Virtual Assistant and working from home.  It is a great job, if you do not mind wearing the many hats of an entrepreneur.  But to make money as a virtual assistant, you need to think of yourself as more than a virtual assistant.

The problem I have always had with the term virtual assistant is that it is so vague.  Business owners often cannot grasp how to use a virtual assistant.  The virtual assistants do not help when they tell them they will do a bunch of things.  That just seems like they will try to do anything but are probably not good at anything.

To make real money as a virtual assistant, you need to focus on developing special, high value skills and selling yourself as a virtual specialist.  That is why we started the Virtual Buzz Network.  Our virtual assistants hone their virtual internet marketing skills and offer a variety of high value services that are very specific, have measurable goals and save the business owner time.

Here is a list of the more common virtual marketing assistant skills.

1. Blog writing
2. Copy Writing
3. Article Publishing
4. Online Advocacy and PR
5. Community Management
6. Adwords Management
7. eNewsletter Writing and Publishing
8. Social Bookmarketing

Now you may think this is a small list of skills, but consider this as a sample project for a company.

1. Your company wants to create leads for small business owners of your industry.
2. You build a ning community and customize it with a virtual assistant.
3. You set up a blog and do keyword research – you begin writing daily to attract your target audience.
4. On the blog, you offer the visitors free access to your private community when they sign up for your newsletter.
5. Traffic is now coming to your blog from search engines, social media, twitter and adwords.  You are getting 5-10 new people signing up per day.
6. You use the email and the community to educate people on the advantages of your product, and also give away all kinds of free content.
7. 1% of people buy from you eventually.  Approximately one new customer every 10 days.  As all your efforts keep growing, word of mouth and search engines increase the rate of subscribers.  The second year it is a new customer every 5 days.  As long as you keep working on it, you continue to get better and better results.

This is just a ficticious example, but accurately demonstrates a solid strategy.  You’d have some expense in blog hosting and email marketing tools, but it is minor.  Your virtual assistant would do everything above to ensure that you would keep selling in your normal channels and not have to spend excessive time on the internet marketing side.

Now doesn’t that make a lot of sense?

If you have a website design firm you probably do not think you need a virtual buzz assistant on staff.  You already know everything about technology, and nothing else is all that important.

Well let me give you some advice based on my experience.  I started out a website design and custom technology consulting firm.  We set up great tools for people.  Really great.

But more than 80% of the people thought they were spending too much money and not getting enough value.  Not because of the tools, I said they were great.  It was because normal users do not take the time and effort needed to put good tools, websites and blogs to use.  Then they do not produce results (through no fault of your own) they still blame you.

Let me give you a better idea:

1. Hire a Virtual Buzz Assistant.  Have them work a little each day helping you with blogging, answering support tickets, doing online advocacy.
2. Sell additional Virtual Marketing services to your clients.  Don’t try to do it yourself.  You techies can’t spell.  Hire a virtual buzz assistant.  Now your web design firm is getting more marketing and you are subcontracting out services (for a profit) that will make your clients more happy.
3. Set expectations up front.  Virtual Buzz Assistants will help you close the sale because you can tell a client that they should produce regular content to get good web results, and you have just the person that can help them.

When you are looking at the success of a website, there are many important elements.  Good design will make your feel happy on day one, but good, steady content creation will make you feel happy in the long run.

If you are a Virtual Assistant reading this, think about approaching local web design firms and offering your services.  A couple clients like that could keep you more than busy.

How do you assess the value a virtual assistant network provides and how do you know if the VA network is worth paying for?

Here are some tips to help you think about whether to pay for membership in a Virtual Assistant Network.

1. First assess your own needs. What do you want out of the network?  For example, you would not want to join the Virtual Buzz Assistant Network if you are just looking for basic information on becoming a virtual executive assistant.
2. Assess value to needs - How much is a solution to your need worth?  In our case, is becoming an Internet Marketing Assistant worth $99 per month?  Depends on your goals.
3. Job Leads – A Virtual Assistant Network will probably not provide you with 100% of your work.  Instead, figure out how many new clients per year you would need to be happy with the network.  Networks are usually only going to provide leads, and your ability to offer a service and close the deal will be critical.  Some of our Virtual Assistants have reported making a profit within the first month, but some have never gotten a virtual assistant job.
4. Commitment – Is the Virtual Assistant Network trapping you into a long term commitment?  Do they require monthly payments that you cannot cancel?  We allow people to cancel any time and offer a $9 trial membership that is good for 7 days.
5. Virtual Assistant Network Cost – Money and Time – If you invest your money and time into the network will it help you grow your organization?  What are the key values they give you to grow your Virtual Assistant Business?

You might think I am all about talking you into joining a Virtual Assistant Network.  I am, if you are serious about growing your virtual assistant business.  But it is an investment and if you are just going to dabble, you should stick to the free virtual assistant message boards out there.

You  should join our Virtual Assistant Network only if you understand that long-term, you will be a better asset to your clients and worth more because of your Internet Marketing skills.  It does not happen overnight, and you have to learn by doing marketing for yourself as well.  But it is a great long-term investment in your Virtual Assistant Business.

A Virtual Buzz Assistant can easily also be called a Social Media Manager.

Here are the differences

1. A Social Media Manager works full time and explores all kinds of avenues for developing relationships and information online.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant focuses on the specific social media tasks as defined by the client.
2. A Social Media Manager can handle complaints, bad reviews or negative comments.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant will point these items out to the client and the client should address them.
3. Social Media Managers are doing many social networking tasks.  Virtual Buzz Assistants focus on a few high value tasks and leave experimentation up to the client.
4. Social Media Managers need to be able to create great original content about the organization.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant might create content, but rarely are they the main messenger of the organization.
5. A Social Media Manager monitors the web for information EVERY DAY.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant can do that, but rarely do clients schedule enough hours to include that service.
6. If you employ a social media manager, they are going to be going to all kinds of conferences and group meetings, because those online relationships actually get stronger when you meet people in person.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant can do that for you, but I am thinking you will not want to send a VA.

This post is not to say that Social Media Managers are better than Virtual Buzz Assistants.  It is simply a budget issue.  If you cannot afford a full time social media manager then a Virtual Buzz Assistant, with some great involvement from you, is the next best thing.

Go here to read a great example of what a Social Media Manager would do?

Deborah, one of our Virtual Buzz Assistants, entered a contest for top 100 home-based businesses.

I voted for her, but I also signed up the Virtual Buzz Assistant network.  VOTE HERE.

Entering contests is a great way to get some buzz.  It provides a link back and nice visibility even if we do not win.  But go vote for me and maybe I will win.  Or go sign yourself up – and enjoy the extra exposure.

Virtual assistance with Internet Marketing just makes sense.  Can you get any more virtual than Internet Marketing?

First, how do you request virtual assistance that will be effective?

1. Begin with a limited request.  Don’t make a long term commitment until you have tested out the virtual assistance quality of service.
2. Do not pay a fee to make your request.  There are lots of places to request access for virtual assistance.  For example, here at the virtual Buzz Assistant network you can post your request for free and work directly with the service provider of your choice.
3. Clearly define the assistance you need.  The advantage of working with a virtual assistant is that it is MUCH cheaper than hiring a marketing firm.  But you have to know what you want as far as virtual assistance goes.  The more clear you are on the marketing tasks, the more effective you can be with assessing the value you are getting back.
4. Hire someone that can provide virtual assistance that has the background to help you succeed.  Our virtual assistants get Internet Marketing training in the network, so they can be of the highest value to you.
5. Respect your service provider.  Do not ask for unreasonable things.  They need to make a living too, and if they turn out to give you great assistance, you do not want them to go get a job because the pay was too low.  Find something that works for both of you.

The advantages of virtual assistance are:

• lower cost
• short term commitment
• no equipment, utilities, benefits
• contractors that want to keep you as a client
• less administration

Seeking virtual assistance with Internet marketing, as well as many other business activities will help you keep costs low and build relationships that are more valuable and better focused on outcomes.