Virtual Assistant Forums | Work from Home

Girl Monday · #1 (**permalink**) 08-22-2011

I am newer to the social media "game" and although I realize it is an important part of marketing my business, I feel like I could spend weeks on updating my status and responding to discussions and reading other people's posts.

I really enjoy social media and am contemplating offering it as a service after I get more experience and possibly some official training. However, maybe it is because I am new, but I sometimes feel like it is eating up all my time. I would like to set up some guidelines or time limits for myself, but I'm not sure what is reasonable.

Can anyone share with me if they have guidelines for the time and effort that you spend on social media for yourself and for your clients? How many sites do you update, and how often? How many groups do you belong to and how many do you actively participate in? Do you set aside a certain time during the day or week to work on social media? How much time? If you offer social media as a service, how do the guidelines for your own business compare to those for your clients?

Thank you in advance for all the intelligence and experience I know this group is fabulous at sharing! It is always greatly appreciated!

NicoleA · #2 (**permalink**) 08-22-2011

I'd love to see everyone's answer, as well. Let's say on Twitter...I've seen people post VERY infrequently...and others VERY frequently. Great question.

LucentVA · #3 (**permalink**) 08-23-2011

I think it is important to have goals and to work toward those goals, just as you would any marketing plan. So, you need to ask yourself what your goals are for your FB page, for your Twitter account, etc. For instance, maybe you want your FB page to broadcast your blog posts and "tips". You'll want to focus on working to meet those goals and try not to get distracted in the process. Schedule time for your social media, and stick to those times. Follow up on your comments and also take some time to post on your friends' pages.

Girl Monday · #4 (**permalink**) 08-24-2011

Thanks for your response, Chela!
I do keep a list of tasks that need to be completed and focus on those first. I'm not concerned so much about not getting my work done as I am about not having a personal life. Can you share how much time you spend on networking in a typical week? I think that is where I tend to get a little addicted. Thanks, again!

vgergory · #5 (**permalink**) 10-18-2011

Link Building is the best way to get a lots of traffic on your website and it is very nice concept to improwise your page rank in the google search engine. This is the besdt coincept of seo to get a best quality backlinks.

Busy Fingers · #6 (**permalink**) 10-19-2011

I love hootsuite. It saves loads of time as it links it all together. I find that I check my social media first thing in the morning, lunch time, and then again before I go to bed. You have to focus on what you are doing with your time. 1 Is it personal stuff that is drawing your attention or 2. Is is business focused?

I have made some lovely contacts via social media.

Dane Pymble · #7 (**permalink**) 10-19-2011

Hi Jennifer

I think it depends on your business, however try to commit to at least fifteen minutes to an hour every day. Be consistent & persistent.

What I would do is make a list & sign up to the following:

*Facebook Personal Profile (for liking other pages)
*Facebook Page (for your Business and where you will post information about your industry, start discussions, etc)
*Twitter - similar to your posts on your Facebook Page but obviously limited to 140 characters
*Hootsuite - Allows you to create one post and distribute it to multiple social media accounts
*Linkedin - don't just post your resume, participate in Linkedin Groups related to your potential customers, and also Linkedin Answers and answer questions where you can add value, not just about VAing but anything you have knowledge on
*Forums - such as this one but you should also look for small business forums as that is where your likely customers are going to be
*Blogs that rank highly for your keywords - Presuming your website has been optimised for search engines (if not you should look into it, I have written an article on it at my website - http://www.smallbusinesswizardry.com...ine-marketing/) look for blogs that rank highly for the keywords your website is optimised for and eave comments on the blog that add value to the discussion.

This may seem like an extensive list but you don't have to do all of them every day. Try and do at least something every day to get in the habit. You will learn more as you go.

Best of luck with your business

girlfridayresults · #8 (**permalink**) 11-02-2011

I am pretty new, also. I have read other forum questions about this topic and the number that stuck out for me is "5 hours per week". That is easily doable (I do this in the evenings when businesses are closed...optimizing my time spent...) Once I set up my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (NECESSARY, get on that one and get to 100% as fast as you can), I discovered that when it comes to "tweeting", it really all falls under one category. Search the news for interesting news articles, stats, anything at all that puts the shine on YOU. Then, summarize in 140 characters or less and "tweet". Do it at LEAST once a day. Suddenly, people are following you...(creepy and awesome at the same time)!! This is how we build! When you have that interesting article in front you, see if you can "share" it on your Facebook page, do that and add a short one sentence commentary. Share with everyone. Copy and paste the article and go to email and send to all in your address book you are pining for or friends with. Ask friends to share!!! (They are your friends, so they should share for you) It's a commitment, but it seriously doesn't take as long as you think, and it's...(wait for it...) FREE. YEAH!! All of us love free. Good luck!

bridiej · #9 (**permalink**) 11-03-2011

Just don't make the mistake of linking twitter directly with your LinkedIn profile as there really is nothing worse than pages and pages of irrelevant tweets from people! It's also worth taking time to find different content to share on each rather than sharing the same article on all three. And don't forget about Google Plus either, tipped as the next best thing although it's still early days.

Thebrainygal · #10 (**permalink**) 11-03-2011

Definitely use Hootsuite (or a similar app) to pre-schedule some of your tweets - saves hours of time! I have heard differing opinions from 2 so-called 'Social Media Experts'. The first said to tweet no more than 5 times a day - and not all sales related. The second suggested you tweet a 'sales pitch' once per hour. I think it will just take some personal experimentation to figure out what's best for your company. Best of luck!