Posting the odd post on Instagram or Facebook is not good enough anymore, especially if you want to build your brand to increase sales. Businesses face an overwhelming amount of social media noise. It would help if you had a solid social media strategy to stand out from the competition.
But is going it alone a mistake? Going it alone, in most cases, leads to disaster. Many startups and other business owners have begun to realize the efficacy and power of hiring a virtual assistant for social media marketing. In this article, we explore how this cost-effective and game-changing strategy can deliver real results. But first, what is a virtual social media assistant?
What Is a Virtual Social Media Assistant?
A virtual social media assistant is not a traditional employee but a skilled remote professional who handles a company’s social media tasks. In this case, a company would hire a virtual assistant to complete social media marketing tasks. These assistants can manage platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly called Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr (but also other social media sites, like Reddit and Quora, to name the best known. Still, their work remains significant in tailoring content for each audience.
A qualified social media VA understands audience segmentation, tone, and platform-specific trends. While they manage your social media presence, you are free to focus on core business activities. Key tasks include content creation, scheduling posts, analyzing performance metrics, responding to comments, and even managing paid advertising campaigns. While your virtual assistant manages the social media channels, they free you up to do your core work. Below are a few virtual media assistant jobs that a virtual assistant can take care of.
Connecting With Your Audience
The main benefit of social media is direct engagement with your target audience. With the help of a virtual assistant, you can expand your market reach, connecting with both new customers and the social circles of your existing followers. The benefits of increasing your marketing include economies of scale, and you have better bargaining power, which can help to reduce your operational costs. Moreover, you can enhance your brand recognition and customer loyalty. The latter can lead to more sales, higher revenue and profits, the ability to influence market trends, and stronger competitive positioning.
That said, social media success is less about posting content, regardless of how good it may be, but it’s about strategy. A virtual assistant can analyze trends, identify the optimal tone, and craft campaigns designed to maximize engagement and shares. According to HubSpot, businesses that actively manage social media see up to 80% higher lead generation rates than those with irregular posting schedules.
Creating a Social Media Strategy
Your virtual assistant for social media marketing will also be able to create your social media strategy. This strategy is the plan of action that the social media campaigns want to employ.
This strategy will also clearly understand and define the target audience, analyze the competition approaches, and select the tools, platforms, or tactics that will be used to reach these goals.
Moreover, your social media assistant will know how to use relevant hashtags to gain more traction online. In other words, they can help to improve discoverability and engagement strategically. Hashtags are used on social media channels like Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Instagram. While hashtags alone no longer guarantee reach, they support broader strategies that increase the likelihood of your posts being discovered and shared.
Paid Advertising and ROI
Using paid ads is an essential and critical component of any social media strategy. These can be paid advertising on Facebook (including Instagram) and other channels, namely, X and LinkedIn. Facebook alone has 2.89 billion monthly active users, yet organic reach has dropped by 52% in recent years. This means that the best results will be achieved via paid ads.
However, when you upload any paid ads on Facebook, you must also upload a similar range of advertisements on Google to boost your results. And if you think that organic ads suffice, think again. Virtual assistants can design, upload, and manage paid campaigns across multiple channels, including Google Ads, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Critics may argue that organic reach suffices, but research shows that companies using paid ads see up to 3x higher engagement than those relying solely on organic posts (source: Sprout Social, 2024).
Manage Your Influencer Marketing Efforts
Using influencers to promote your products is still commonplace. However, managing influencers to ensure they complete their tasks and represent your brand correctly can be daunting, and coordinating influencers is time-consuming.
Your virtual assistant can perform this task to ensure that using social media influencers benefits your brand. VAs can ensure influencers deliver agreed content, represent your brand correctly, and meet deadlines, maximizing ROI while reducing management headaches.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, brands earn an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent on influencer campaigns, emphasizing the value of strategic oversight.
Content Creation and Editing
Although not all virtual assistants for social media marketing can edit, some can. Otherwise, there are virtual editing assistants who can complete these tasks and ensure that the content meets platform-specific requirements. This would involve editing videos and photos on various social media channels. The social media jobs would include ensuring each platform’s videos are in the proper formats and lengths.
Still, other virtual assistants can develop blog posts, infographics, whitepapers, or case studies that enhance your brand’s SEO and authority online. Adding high-quality content drives traffic to your website and strengthens your brand’s digital footprint, which is a key ranking factor for Google’s algorithm.
Content is not just the copy attached to an image for a post. It is also an SEO strategy to drive traffic to your website. This would include landing pages and tools like adding and managing a blog. Yet, not only can blogs add value.
Measuring Success: KPIs and Analytics
A top-notch virtual assistant will track engagement metrics, follower growth, CTR, and conversions. These analytics ensure that campaigns are data-driven, allowing for continuous optimization.
Without this measurement, businesses risk spending time and money on strategies that don’t yield results. By outsourcing these tasks, you gain both efficiency and insight.
Cost Savings: Why a Remote Assistant Makes Sense
Many companies assume hiring a virtual assistant is expensive. In reality, remote assistants cost significantly less than in-house employees. Businesses can save up to 70% on overhead costs, including salaries, benefits, and workspace expenses.
Deloitte reports that outsourcing specialized tasks like social media management improves operational efficiency and ROI, allowing owners to focus on growth rather than daily administrative work.
Potential Objections: Are There Risks?
Some business owners hesitate, fearing loss of control or inconsistent brand messaging. While this is a valid concern, a qualified virtual assistant works with clear communication protocols, content approval processes, and analytics reporting.
In fact, over 50% of employees and clients report better engagement and quicker response times with remote social media management (Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2023). The debate isn’t whether remote social media management works; it’s whether you hire the right professional.
Time to Hire a Virtual Assistant for Social Media Marketing
If you’ve been struggling to keep up with social media, hiring a virtual assistant may be your most strategic move yet. A virtual social media assistant can create, manage, and optimize campaigns across platforms while saving you time and money. And if you think hiring a virtual assistant to manage social media marketing is pricey, think again. Such a person is less expensive than hiring an on-site employee.
They also cost less than doing the work yourself. Especially over the long term, hiring a remote assistant saves a business up to 70% on its overheads.
However, if you are unsure about hiring a virtual assistant and whether this will be right for you and your company, contact our outsourcing expert. Let our expert guide you and offer straightforward advice to help you grow your business.
Book your complimentary consultation today – and find out whether outsourcing your social media marketing is the correct route.
Aristo Sourcing
Aristo Sourcing is an award-winning global outsourcing company that, since 2014, has been helping businesses scale successfully.
Moreover, Aristo Sourcing can source high-quality talent for most roles. Learn more about Aristo Sourcing and how we work.