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Tweetables:
Your social media, it’s your space. Be you. Don’t try to be anybody else.
#vatip 
Gotta Tweet!
Don’t try to blend in, especially when it comes to social media.
#vatip Gotta Tweet!
The only way we know what works is to put something out there and see what happens. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
In Words:
Hi! You’re listening to episode 90 of The Business of Being a Virtual Assistant.
Today, we’re going to talk about good enough for social media. A lot of virtual assistants are using their business pages all for business and it makes you very boring. How many Facebook pages do you visit and they’re all business? How do you feel about those pages?
Now, I am in between the nerds and the cool kids if there had to be a classification. I love techie stuff. I am an introvert. I enjoy doing things at home. I find peace in quiet places and all the good stuff. I am not a big traveler. So a lot of things that you see on social media, it’s like you may be like me and think, ah, that really doesn’t fit so I’m just going to stick to business, business, business.
Now, let’s say your service is bookkeeping. So you shared on your Facebook page the QuickBooks tool. Maybe you’ve done a tutorial on how to use QuickBooks. Maybe you even went live and did a tutorial or you had a YouTube video or you found a YouTube video, and you’re giving tips on how to keep your books intact. Maybe you’re giving some tips on getting ready for tax season, and on and on and on. Imagine the same content every single day.
Who would really be interested in that type of content every single day? Not many. Even the people that need that information, they’re not really going to want to see it every single day. It would be like, “Okay, okay, I get it, Kate. I’ll get that handled. I’ll come to you when I’m ready,” and then they’re off and your page is forgotten. They haven’t come back.
However, this is something that I am working on daily when it comes to Facebook. I’ve heard different people give different advice on what to do on your Facebook page, and really the summary is a mix between personal things and business things. When you see that, then you see a lot of people will post their kids and their pets and stuff like that, and for me, I don’t have either. I don’t have kids. I don’t have pets.
I have a husband and when we’re together, he wants our time to be us and not all on social media, not taking pictures when it’s date night and all that stuff, which is cool. So our focus is on each other.
If I show behind the scenes of my business, you’re going to see the computer. You’re going to see me in my fuzzy socks, and maybe that’s something to show every now and then. However, that could get old very quickly.
So what do we do? This is something that may be helpful for you. It’s helping me to work on being more social, especially as an introvert on Facebook. I try to visualize what it was like when I was in an office and I had co-workers. What did we talk about when we came into the office? I mean, what did we talk about?
Well, at the time, if there was a favorite show we all watched, we’d talk about that. We would hang out in the breakroom and make our coffee and talk about the weather. Of course, there would be work conversations as well. But the majority of the day with co-worker friends, we did not spend time talking about work.
We talked about the latest music that came out. We talked about what was going on for the weekend. We talked about a cute outfit someone had on. We talked about who was going to get their hair done that day or where to go. We talked about beauty things – makeup, nails, all kinds of stuff.
I’m remembering back to the last corporate job where I actually had co-worker friends, and we were working at a healthcare company. For me, healthcare was not of interest to me. It was just a job. Anytime I could get into a conversation about something else other than our work, it was fantastic. We’re having a great time.
That is what I’m using to kind of draw from for social media. I mean, if we were to hang out, we would talk about a mix of things. We’d talk a little bit about work, and we’d talk about, you know, casual things – TV, a little sports.
I don’t do a whole lot of sports, but I do know that my team won the ACC Championship. Go Tar Heels! Oh my goodness I got the sports reference wrong…hilarious! Carolina beat Duke and are now the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament.
So we’d talk about that. We’d talk about God. We’d talk about church. Different things like that, and just making you a full person.
The whole point of this is to let you know that you are good enough for social media, whatever it looks like on your side of things. Be personable.
You don’t have to show everything. Nobody wants to see you with your hair rolled up or wrapped up, or dirty fuzzy socks every day. But be personable. Be a friend. Be someone that people would enjoy hanging out with. You don’t have to be into the latest style or have the latest design in your home or be the most organized. All of that is irrelevant.
You are unique and you’re special and the clients that love all of that about you will appreciate you sharing that with them and showing them that you are a person, that you are not a robotic virtual assistant. But you enjoy life. You have fun. You are living your life to the fullest, and that looks different for everybody.
It’s time for us to let our guard down. I’ve had my guard up, and what for? What for? It’s your space. Be you. I know there are all kinds of crazy people online and if you’re online enough every day, you get reminded of that every day. However, they’ll stand out like a sore thumb, and what I love to do with them is block and ban. I haven’t had to do that in a very long time. I don’t get that.
If you’re on Instagram, there are a lot of spammy things on Instagram. “Oh, I can get you followers,” and all that stuff. Don’t worry about it. It’s just part of the territory. If you block them first on Instagram, that will remove any comments that they have made on your post. So block them and then move on and enjoy it. Have fun.
I will tell you, on my Facebook page, my main one is TiffanyParsonBiz, and the name will just be Tiffany Parson, but I also have two other Facebook pages just because of the direct sales companies. It’s just a requirement that we have a separate one for them. But on those pages, you’ll find I am talking specifically about, you know, what that item is.
But my main one, I’m mixing it up. I’m working on having fun. I probably need to do more selfies, and part of that is because when you work from home, a lot of times you might have on the same thing several days in a row. But I have to be like you know what, who cares? Who cares?
I’ll share this funny story with you because it makes me think about it when I say sometimes you wear the same shirt in a row. Years ago, was when I was looking for a job. I had gotten laid off in IT and I was looking for a job. I took them temp job at this data entry place and I was working 3rd shift. We worked from like 10:00 at night until 6:00 in the morning.
As soon as I got there, I stood out like a sore thumb. At this point, I had never worked from home yet, so I didn’t know about any of that stuff yet. But I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, like it was not me at all.
You had an area where people were opening mail and an area where people entered in the information that’s on the bottom of the check, which is the routing number, account number, and the amount because they were making payments and stuff like that. Depending on who needed help, I was mostly doing data entry, but sometimes I helped out with opening the mail if there weren’t people that came in.
It’s the only place I ever worked that gave us – I think we had like 15-minute break twice through the night. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe I was there. It was just like a dream, like not a good dream. It was just weird.
But to try to fit in, I wore this sweatshirt and I would wear it inside out because on the inside it has, you know, the material is a little rough, it like kind of beads up. So I’d wear this sweatshirt inside out to kind of be more slouchy and fit in so I could blend in. But it didn’t matter. I still didn’t blend in.
Lesson learned. Be you. Don’t try to be anybody else. Don’t try to blend in, especially when it comes to social media. Be the standout that you are.
You are good enough. “Good” is not even the word I should be using. But I’m saying that in the sense to let you know wherever you are right now, it’s good enough to get started. It does not have to be perfect. The only way we know what works is to put something out there and see what happens.
But not business, business, business. Have some fun. Think about what do you talk to your coworkers about and let’s start putting that on social media. Let’s apply that to our friends on the Internet.
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like what you heard, stay tuned. We’ll be back. Tell me what’s going on with you. Come on over the Facebook page: facebook.com/tiffanyparsonbiz, or if you prefer a little shorter message, come on over to Twitter: @tiffanydparson.
See you next time!
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