If You Like 'Tweeting' and 'Facebooking', You May Love Being a Social Media Virtual Assistant.
According to a recent vocational survey, social media positions are the fastest growing home-based jobs with the lone exceptions of medical transcription and web or mobile programming. What exactly is a social media virtual assistant? It is a VA that specializes in communicating through the various social media outlets on the Internet, with Twitter and Facebook being the most famous examples. Social media virtual assistants help businesses establish a strong online presence by marketing and promoting their goods and services.
For stay-at-home moms, a social media virtual assistant can represent a dream job. Take Dawn Pigoni, for example. She decided to parlay her obsession with social media into a successful career. An SMVA (social media virtual assistant) since October of 2008, Dawn helps businesses - large and small - that lack the knowledge, time, or personnel to strengthen their Internet presence through effective marketing and promotion strategies. For her, this work-at-home career has truly become a labor of love.
According to Dawn, it is the versatility of SMVAs that attracts clients. For large corporations, SMVAs may serve as company or brand representatives. For home-based businesses, they may be called upon to implement networking strategies as well as organizing contests and social events. SMVAs, naturally, use social media to attract clients, usually through their own websites. Clients can also be acquired through networking events and presentations.
If you are already a passionate and knowledgeable user of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, then a virtual career in social media may be right for you. These popular websites are the roots of social networking that eventually expand to concentrate on the client's particular niche or objectives being sought. In terms of qualifications, a social media virtual assistant must firmly believe in social media as a valuable business tool. An SMVA must love to learn and easily adapt to change because social media is constantly evolving. Conversely, a typical VA's home-based office needs to adapt little to focus on a career in social media, requiring only a computer and high-speed Internet connection. A successful SMVA should have excellent time management skills, and according to Dawn Pigoni, must be disciplined enough to know when to shut down the computer and walk away to refresh the mind and body.
In terms of the actual work itself, SMVAs can work on a contractual and/or per-contract basis. For example, setting up profile setups and business customization may be per-project, but the ongoing day-to-day management of the job is generally contractual. When contemplating any career choice, income is always an important consideration. Because social media is such a broad-based genre, the amount of income depends largely upon the particular niche a virtual assistant selects. But as Dawn Pigoni has learned from her own professional experience, an SMVA can generate full-time income.
A career in social media is not for the person who is accustomed to a seldom-varying routine and resistant to change. However, for the person who excitedly networks online for recreation, embraces change, works hard, and loves to learn, social media may well be the ideal career connection. Dawn Pigoni's advice to anyone who is thinking about becoming an SMVA is, "Go for it, but put in the time to do it right. Your reputation is on the line every day. Use the tools that work for you.
About the author:
Tracy Gregory is an accomplished writer, editor, and seasoned Virtual Assistant who specializes in various types of academic and business research and has recently branched out into social media blogging.
