Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry

About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Monthly Archives: May 2009

Should a Virtual Assistant Network For a Client?

I saw an interesting article today titled “Take Advantage of Social Networking with a Virtual Assistant“  so of course I went and read it straight away.

I have very firm ideas about what a VA should and shouldn’t do for a client and networking is one of those things I don’t believe we should be doing.

I agree we can set up profiles for clients and hold their hand and help them through the process of learning to use tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others but I strongly believe we shouldn’t be in there doing the connecting for them.

Why? Because those people we’re connecting with will assume that we are the person we’re representing and they’ll be forming a false ‘relationship’ with someone who isn’t who they appear to be.

I believe that our clients really need to be doing the networking. They have their own personalities and interests and will be drawn towards certain people that have an instant rapport with them.  Unless our own personalities closely match that of our clients, that really isn’t going to work.

I found the last paragraph of this article interesting:

So save yourself the trouble of running all these online accounts and hire a virtual assistant to do all the online work for you. You will definitely reap the benefits of getting on these online networks and actively build relationships with the people on the networks.

Who is building the relationship in this article? Not the client but the VA.  If the client doesn’t have time to build relationships with others then how are they going to grow their business? They can’t remain isolated from people for too long as networking and marketing go hand-in-hand and are an important part of business development and relationship building.

So while I agree that Virtual Assistants can set up profiles, upload images, add bios and even send out invitations to existing contact lists the client has, I don’t agree that the VA should actually be doing the tweeting, connecting, replying and responding – the client needs to take ownership of that part of the networking and do it for themselves. What are your thoughts?

FoVA not far away now

I can’t believe it’s around 9 months since I was invited to speak at FoVA.  It seemed like such a long way ahead and yet it’s now only 3 weeks away.

I’ll be meeting many well-known names in the Virtual Assistant industry face-to-face which is something I never thought would happen.  You never know what’s around the corner and the opportunities that will arise.

If you haven’t yet booked to attend the Forum on Virtual Assistance in Niagara Falls, Canada, it’s not too late.  And there’s great accommodation available too – linked on the front of their website.

If you’re going I’d love to hear from you so I know who to look out for when I get there!  I’ll be taking my camera with me too so you can be sure of photos of the attendees and the events being shared here on this blog.

Virtual Assistants and Twitter

There are quite a number of Virtual Assistants on Twitter now and with it growing groups. One of them focuses on FoVA 2009 and the group is listed as #FoVA09 if you’re looking for it.  If the link doesn’t work try

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23FoVA09

It’s amazing how a new networking tool can soon become addictive, if you let it!  Where once I thought I only needed one blog and now own many (on different topics), it would seem the same applies to Twitter profiles, depending on the audience or followers you want to attract.  I’ve now created a new profile, which is relatively new, specifically for the Virtual Assistant industry and carries the logo of my business in the profile image.

I now have multiple profiles so needed to find a platform to manage them without logging in and out constantly.  Enter Splitweet.com which is useful but doesn’t automatically choose the right profile to post or reply with so you do need to keep alert. But I believe it’s relatively new so is sure to grow and have enhancements over time. It does work a treat!

In the process I’m meeting lots of new people and learning new things, and having a bit of fun with it too.

So, enters a new blog which I’ll be co-authoring with another VA who is very conversant with Twitter. I’ll introduce her soon when she’s ready. In the meantime you can get a preview of the site that is sure to grow quite quickly. It’s a play on words Twitter and Dictionary and is meant to be a resource on all things about Twitter.  It’s called The Twitionary.

The countdown is on!

4 weeks today Graham and I will be winging our way to Canada.  It will be a long flight (so we’ll be glad to get there) but then we’ll have almost 4 weeks visiting in Canada, with the first stop being FoVA09 in Niagara. And then 6 days later we’ll head over to Vancouver to join a tour with APT to see some of Canada’s beautiful scenery before spending just over a day with a friend and her husband in Vancouver and then back home again.

When you’re in business you don’t tend to think about holidays for sometime. At least I didn’t.  But over the past few years Graham and I have been able to have some time off, especially now our daughters are grown, and we’ve visited many lovely countries so now Canada will be added to that list.

I will still be online and checking in periodically – not for client contacts (as I’ll have made arrangements for them with my team members) but more for social contacts, blogging, last minute meeting plans and so on.  Plus I will be documenting our travels with my camera and posting lots of pics!

I really am looking forward to this break. The last real holiday Graham and I had was in August 2007 in Japan and the past year has been a difficult one for our family.  It’s time to just relax and enjoy time together and with new friends.

Increased non-billable time

As we hear more about the economic turmoil worldwide there are going to be increased non-billable time for some Virtual Assistant businesses.  So what do we do about it?

Make it work for us!

I’m sure, if you’re like me, you’ll always have things that have been put aside till you have time for them. Make sure those things are in easy reach in a folder or a box or something so you can pull it out and start prioritising what’s important to you and what may be income-producing once you have your head around it.

Even in my early days I always had planned projects or things that would help me to understand something better, learn a new skill, develop a new service or product and so on.

So, instead of spending your time despairing and wondering if and when the next job is going to come in, be proactive and start getting ready for when it does come in. Don’t stop networking offline or online – find ways of meeting people that are low cost but get your name and face out there.

There are tons of networking groups online, and offline there are always places where business people meet and congregate – whether through a formal networking group or an informal or casual group.  If there isn’t one, then create one – a group of like-minded (doesn’t mean the same industry necessarily) business people who would like to have a chat and a coffee together and exchange ideas.

Once you get your brain into action, things will start happening too!