Stay on top of your marketing with a social media assistant

Are you scrambling to post on social media every day? The pressure of constantly posting online and being present for your business can be overwhelming. Especially when you already have so many hats to wear. So all too often, social media marketing gets left behind, which in the long run impacts your sales… 

The good news is that you don’t have to do it all yourself: hiring a social media assistant could be the answer you’ve been looking for. Let’s go into how you make that happen, what tasks they can achieve for you, and how to make sure your social media marketing is a success.

Feeling overwhelmed by social media?

Even though you understand the importance of it, finding the time, energy, and inspiration to post regularly on social media is tough. It takes a lot of creative juice and can feel exhausting, always taking longer than you expect. And don’t worry – it’s not just you. 

At Virtually Priceless, we work with overwhelmed CEOs and business owners to take things off their plates that they don’t need to do themselves. From our experience, social media marketing is one of the biggest causes of stress. That’s why we work with our clients to offer virtual social media assistance, so they can focus on growing their businesses and doing the things they love.

Take for example Jay Chopra PhD, of Making Shift Happen, who shared how things just weren’t getting done as there wasn’t enough time to do everything. Now his VA, Victoria, helps elevate his thought leadership and personal brand strategy.

5 steps for creating a consistent social media strategy

Here are our top tips for staying on top of your online presence based on our experience:

1.    Evaluate your overall marketing strategy 

This is an important first step to take. You need to get super clear on your overall business goals and devise a marketing strategy to achieve them, working out how social media content fits into the mix. Decide how often you will post online – it doesn’t need to be every day! Choose a schedule that works for you and you know you can stick to.

Remember, your social media content will likely only form a small part of that overall strategy. So although it is important, it won’t be the only element you need to focus on.

For example, are you looking to increase brand awareness? In this case, you need to think of different awareness-level content ideas such as educational posts, ‘how to’ videos, and infographics. But you also need to work out the next steps people take so they can become customers, which leads into areas beyond social media. 

2.    Map out your content pillars 

Once you know your marketing focus and goals, you can map out your actual posting topics. Also called content pillars, this usually includes 3-5 topics you talk about on your social media profiles regularly. The main overarching ‘pillar’ can also be broken down into many sub-topics. 

For example, let’s say you’re in financial services, your content pillars and topic ideas could include: 

• Financial education – covering general advice on budgets, how to save, invest, and manage debts. 
• Market insights – sharing your thoughts on the market trends, any stock market updates, and other expert opinions. 
• Client success stories – case studies about how you’ve helped real people with their finances. 
• Financial planning – how to plan for retirement, such as setting up pensions, estate planning, and adding insurance to your plan.
• Financial tools – share top resources such as systems, books, and other online content to help people with their finances. 

By focusing on these content pillars, you can provide valuable and relevant information to your audience, establish yourself as an authority, and build stronger relationships with your clients.

3.   Batch produce social media content 

One of the best ways to reduce overwhelm by social media is to plan your content in advance. Creating batches means instead of scrambling to post on social media each day, you spend half a day each month dedicated to creating content. This could include filming videos, writing post captions, and creating graphics.

We would highly recommend you set this in your calendar as a recurring, non-negotiable task. Think about the time of day that works best for your creativity and what you need to do ahead of that slot to ensure you’re mentally prepared. 

Say you’re filming videos for Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, a social media assistant could then write captions based on the video content. Or if you’ve written a post for LinkedIn, they could design a graphic image to share with your post in Canva using your brand colours and typography. 

4.    Schedule and post on social media 

Whether you decide to schedule and post your own content or get a social media assistant to do it for you, scheduling tools are a great way to stay consistent online. By using a scheduler, you can spend a block of time focusing on content and then set it to publish when you’re busy doing other things. 

We recommend tools such as Smarterqueue*, Buffer, Hootsuite, and Planly but there are many out there to choose from. You can choose plans that allow you multiple users, so you can ask a social media VA to upload and schedule posts too. 

Perhaps you decide to still post organically once a week, and your social media assistant can schedule another two posts. Once you have a regular schedule, staying consistent is easier. Remember, choose a schedule that works for you and your business.

5.    Repurpose previous content 

Once you get into the habit of creating content, whether that’s blog content, videos, or anything else, you should also have a strategy to repurpose them. Each longer piece of content can be broken down into multiple smaller sections which work well for social media. 

Another way to repurpose posts is to look back at your social media statistics such as engagement levels (the number of likes and comments for each post) to spot which ones performed best. You can repost them again quickly by rewriting the opening hook or changing the associated image. 

People need to see something multiple times for the message to sink in, so don’t worry about repeating yourself – repetition is actually good! 

Say goodbye to social media stress with Virtually Priceless

Getting the right support is a game-changer for staying consistent on social media rather than trying to do it yourself. Remember, you don’t need to post every day, but set what consistency means for your business and stick to it. 

At Virtually Priceless, we have a team of amazing VAs who can help you. Based on your needs and personality, we match you with the best person to suit you so you can smash your goals. Get in touch to discuss your social media assistance needs today.

*Please note, some of these are affiliate links, meaning if you click and make a purchase, we may receive a small reward. We only ever recommend tools that we use in our business, or have personally tried and tested.