Virtual Buzz Assistant

Is your business blog failing?  A virtual assistant can help your business blog be a big success.

Request a Blog Assistant Here

Blogging has some very tricky elements.  People fall in love with the idea but they fall short on execution.  Here is why.

Business blogs do not have as much personality.

Business blogs do not connect well with the audience.

Business blogs are often not updated enough.

Business blogs are too much about the business and not enough about what people care about.

—-  Enter the Virtual Assistant —-

If you hire a virtual assistant to help you with your business blog, you are making a marketing decision – not falling in love with the free blog idea.  Because it is a marketing decision, you are going to think about the results you want and how to achieve them.

Are you writing a business blog for SEO?  For relationships?  To keep clients up to date?

Your virtual assistant will have a clear set of tasks and clear outcomes they need to meet.  They can help you with a publication schedule, with proof reading your blog posts, with research for blog topics and with the actual posting, including doing search engine optimization on your post.

They can also get out there and promote the thing.

If you find your business blog is dying on the vine, you need to get a virtual assistant to water it, prune it, care for it and show it some love.  Then you will have a successful business blog.

On this Virtual Assistant Blog I argue that you cannot be successful as a general virtual assistant.  We help people become much more targeted in their skill set and become Virtual Marketing Assistants – or Virtual Buzz Assistants, as we call them.

But even that is rather broad.

You can specialize in just one expertise and be very effective, and very valuable to your clients.

For example, what about becoming a Virtual Affiliate Manager?

Affiliate programs are easy to set up, but not easy to make successful.  You have to create all the affiliate tools, interact with the affiliates and keep motivating them.  You are a marketing expert, sales coach and community manager all in one.

The upside of having a dedicated virual affiliate manager is that they will be responsible for many activities that will directly impact a client’s online income.

If you want to make good money from home as a virtual assistant, think about specializing in being an affiliate manager and it will only take a few clients to keep you busy full time.  And they will not dare part with your services if you are getting results.

Virtual Assistants can help clients set up and maintain free blogs.  My two favorite places to set up free blogs are blogger.com and wordpress.com.

Do not get me wrong – everyone should have a hosted blog on their own domain.  This is not a free blog, but it is not expensive and it can generate great marketing results.

The reason to also set up some free blogs is that they can help someone in many ways.

• Free blogs will help you lock up more search engine slots.
• Free blogs can help you with linking to important resources.
• Free blogs get indexed very fast.

When I post something that I want to drive traffic to on a blog, such as this post, I would also go out to some of my free blogs and write summaries (just a few unique sentences) and include a link with good anchor text in it linking to this blog post.  For example, I would use free blogs as the anchor text to this article.

The reason this is a perfect job for a Virtual Assistant is because it does have long term value, is often glossed over by time-strapped clients and because it is not something that takes a great deal of Internet Marketing Training to do.

Once the free blogs age some, they have high value and will help your posts rank higher for their keywords.

Virtual Assistants need to know how to do this and to understand the benefit, so they can convey to the client exactly why they are paying for this service.

How can Virtual Assistants help you grow your databases?

…and why am I saying databases?  Well, lists is too general.  For example, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) is much more than a list.  It is losts of lists with different percentages and categories.

So what can a Virtual Assistant do to grow your databases?

1. Design Squeeze pages – webpages that convince people to add their information, usually in exchange for a free white paper or eBook.
2. Design an auto-responder – much list a squeeze page, an auto-responder is where people sign up to get a series of emails.
3. Contests – A Virtual Assistant can help you design and promote a contest to get all kinds of traffic and information from people.
4. CRM management – have a virtual assistant manage your CRM – including, follow ups, prorogation and cleaning.
5. Data Entry – Simple data entry can be a great way to get value from your virtual assistant.
6. Followup call – Do you have some information about your database of customers but need more?  Have a virtual assistant do a follow-up phone call to collect more information.

I am sure there are more creative ways to use a virtual assistant to help you manage your databases of information about customers, contacts and leads.  There are just some ideas to get you thinking.

Working successfully with any Virtual Assistant, Virtual Buzz Assistant or otherwise, comes down to making your requests crystal clear.  If you are one of those entrepreneurs who thinks it is someone else’s problem to figure out what you mean, that is fine as long as you are OK with not getting what you want.

Here are 10 things you want to get confirmed at both ends before doing a task with a virtual assistant.

1. Expected time it will take for the virtual assistant to do the task.
2. Maximum time the virtual assistant can use on the task.
3. The rate it will run to do the task.
4. The exact outcome you expect the virtual assistant to achieve.  (What does the deliverable look like)
5. Who will be doing your task?  Is it the virtual assistant or an intern?
6. When will the task be completed?
7. What questions does the virtual assistant have before starting – make them repeat the project back to you in their own words.
8. How do they complete the task, step by step.
9. Are there any unexpected things the virtual assistant may encounter and how do they deal with them?
10. Billing and payment details – when will you get the virtual assistant invoice and what are the terms?  Do you need to pay a portion in advance?

This seems like a lot of stuff for one task, but most of it will be standard if you keep working with the same virtual assistant long term.  If the tasks are something you request frequently from multiple virtual assistants, consider using camtasia or another screen capture software to demonstrate how to do the task.  Then you can host it on Amazon S3 for pennies per month and send people to the video whenever there is a question on how to do something.

Crystal Clear Projects that are well thought out and defined rarely let you down.

I just had a nice conversation with someone that was on the Virtual Assistant Network and gave me a call.

She was very excited because she got the need right away.  She’d experienced the same frustration I had when trying to hire virtual assistants and finding then lacking even basic Internet Marketing skills despite advertising services such as web design and marketing.

She happened to already be a Virtual Buzz Assistant in everything but official title.  She does daily work with client with social media, blogging, web design and PR.

She asked me an interesting question:  Is there work in the virtual assistant network for people that are Internet Marketing Strategy oriented?  That question  made me realize we really have two types of people in the Virtual Buzz Assistant network.  We have virtual assistants that are task oriented and we have virtual assistants that are strategy oriented.

Clients just want to hire a Virtual Assistant that is very good and not expensive.  But what they really need to ask themselves first is, Do I need a Virtual Internet Marketing Strategist or do I need someone to do exactly the tasks I train them to do?

Either is fine.  Someone that just completes tasks will be less expensive, but you should not hold them responsible if the strategy fails.  They are only executing your strategy.

If a Virtual Assistant is hired as an Internet Strategist, then they are responsible for the outcome of the tasks as well.  Higher risk, and higher reward in the form of a higher paying virtual assistant job.

Also, there is a good chance that your Internet Marketing Strategy-Oriented Virtual Assistant is going to need to hire Internet Marketing Task-Oriented Virtual Assistants to complete the work.  Strategists rarely enjoy doing the tasks every day.

Ultimately, the answer to the question is that we have both.  There are strategists and there are task-oriented virtual assistants.  Just be clear which one you are looking for and ask them the right questions when you are hiring your Virtual Assistant.

This Virtual Assistant Blog is not just to help Virtual Assistants that want to specialize in Internet Marketing be more successful.  It is also a blog to help people that hire virtual assistants hire the best virtual assistants and get the best return on investment.

So what if you hire a Virtual Assistant and they turn out fabulous?  What if they make you gobs of money or go that extra mile and simplify your life more than you thought possible?

To retain any virtual contractor long term, you cannot just assume they are happy and ignore them.  If they are good, find a way to reward them and encourage them to do EVEN better.  This does not have to be gifts.  I am listing some free things you can do below as well that will show them you really appreciate the work.

Here are 41 Ways to Reward a Virtual Assistant

The Obvious Virtual Assistant Rewards

1. Increase hourly rate
2. Give bonus
3. Send gift card to AppleBee’s, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden….
4. Send flowers
5. Send a gift certificate to Office Max, Staples
6. Send Webcam
7. Send box of promotional items branded with your company logo.
8. Send movie tickets
9. Send Starbucks Cards
10. Send Sweets, Cookies
11. Do they like to read?  Amazon or Borders Cards
12. Buy them a nicer office chair
13. Send them a card and hand written note.
14. Send something for their kids if they have young kids.
15. Digital Photo Frame
16. MP3 Player
17. Have pizza delivered
18. Massage (By a professional, do not offer to do it yourself.)
19. Send real cards on all major holidays
20. Nice Pen set
21. Something engraved for office
22. Wine – Be sure they like it first.

Free Things to Reward your Virtual Assistant and show you care.

1. LinkedIn Testimonial
2. Letter of Recommendation/Recognition
3. Refer a client to virtual assistant, assuming you do not need them full time.
4. Give Award – Maybe Virtual Contractor of the Month?
5. Upgrade the title of their role, if they have one.
6. Give them a call to check in on how they like working on your projects.
7. Video testimonial and post to video sharing site.
8. Link to virtual assistant’s website from your company website as a partner, resource, etc.

Rewarding Big Impact Virtual Assistants

What if your Virtual Assistant does some marketing work that causes a big sales jump or work that creates major savings?

1. Offer long term contract
2. Weekend in Bed and Breakfast
3. Upgrade their computer and software
4. Pay for additional marketing training or online learning.
5. Vacation to Beach
6. Trip to your office for team building and to meet everyone in person.
7. Home office makeover
8. Ski Classes
9. Attend Conference
10. Blackberry on company plan
11. Spa

The bonuses a good sales person gets are often killer.  Why not other people that make a difference, even if they are virtual assistants?  The people I know that are successful online spend a lot of time testing various virtual assistants to see which one’s work out.  That that turn out exceptional get the red carpet treatment because you do not want to lose them and start over looking.

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.

Why does every Open Source Software effort need a Virtual Assistant?

Usually I write about how virtual assistants can use open source software to their advantage.  Today I want to write about how open source software developers can use virtual assistants to their advantage.

Let’s face it.  Open source software developers are technical.  They love technology and are passionate about what they do.  They probably do not get too excited about documentation, testing and promoting the open source software.

Since Open Source means they have a limited (or no) budget, they often have to do everything through volunteers.

Simply by adding a donate button, a group of open source developers could hire a Virtual Assistant that could help their effort get noticed.  Here are some of the things a virtual assistant could do to aid an opensource software project.

1. Open Source Software testing
2. Open Source Software Documentation
3. Website Design
4. Demo Management
5. Open Source Online Community Management
6. Donation Solicitation
7. Promotion via Social Networks and Media
8. Write white papers on how your open source software saves money
9. Open Source Software Project Coordination

I am sure there are more ways a virtual assistant can help an open source software development effort.  The point is that you are far more likely to succeed if you have someone focusing on the tasks that they excel at and leave the other tasks to an expert virtual assistant.

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.