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Referenced Links:
- Upwork
Tweetables:
People are looking for you, but they don’t know how to find you. #vatip 
Gotta Tweet!
Show how great you are through your blog. #vatipGotta Tweet!
Get clients that deserve you by treating yourself well. #vatip Gotta Tweet!
In Words:
Virtual Assistant business owner, how are you today? You’re listening to episode number 57. We are approaching the end of the 50s in these episodes and I am amazed each and every week by the emails I get, the comments, the shares, and the tweets. Keep that coming. Your feedback is so appreciated, and the fact that I know at least one person that’s listening makes it so that every single week I make sure that I’m recording a tip, something to share with you, some encouragement, motivation, whatever it is, to continue doing your Virtual Assistant business.
Today, we’re going to talk about the fact that people are still looking for you.
All week this week I saw, “Where do you find a good Virtual Assistant?” Where did I see that? Online, of course, because that’s where I live all day every day. They’re looking for you. They don’t know how to find you.
I jotted a few things down that I wanted to make sure I share. I’m sure other things will come out. But the first thing is an easy thing. I want you to look at your social media bios, and this is myself included. I had to go back and do this.
Sometimes we get fancy. We want to get fancy with how we describe our business and what we do, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s ebbs and flows in how that works. But if people don’t know how to find us, they may just be typing in Virtual Assistant on Facebook, or they may just be typing it in Google. I don’t know how they’re looking for us, but they are looking for a VA. They know that. They’re looking for a Virtual Assistant.
In your social media bios, include it. I’m not talking about like your personal profile, your Facebook name, Tiffany Parson, and then in parenthesis (Virtual Assistant). No, that’s not what I mean. I mean on your business page. Lately, some people have just been confusing when they say, “Page,” they’re really meaning their personal profile. That’s just a little pet peeve of mine. I’m like you mean your personal profile? Totally different – business page is where people have to click like. That’s what I mean.
In that bio, not your business page name, but in the bio – and let me click on mine and I can tell you exactly – in the about section. I’m not saying you take away what you have in there now. I mean you add to it. You put Virtual Assistant in there, whatever kind of Virtual Assistant you are. I’m a Technical Virtual Assistant, so mine is going to have Technical Virtual Assistant in there. It’s going to include it in there. Right now it does not, but I’m going to have it updated by the time this show goes live.
You know where else you can put it? You can put it on your personal profile, not with your name, though. But they have some type of little – let me see. What is it called now added on the personal profiles? Let me go here to my timeline. Intro – your intro. You could put it in your intro as well. People are looking for us. Let’s put it in those places, so in the intro of your personal profile. Go ahead and stick it in there with whatever you have.
If you don’t have an intro at all, this is a good time to have an intro. If you don’t have a Facebook business page where people can click like, this is a good time to do that. In the short description and long description, make sure it is in there, that people see that you’re a Virtual Assistant. Not just on Facebook, but on Twitter, on Instagram, and I’m going to say wherever you post on a regular basis. If you haven’t been to Pinterest in a while, you don’t plan to go to Pinterest in a while, then hold off. Make a note. You’ll update it later.
But let’s address the accounts that we go to every single day. Those are my three right now – Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Pinterest is out there, but I haven’t pinned a thing in months. I need to get on it. But, hey, focus on what you can focus on. So much is going on.
Update your social media bios to include what type of Virtual Assistant you are. If you are an Administrative Virtual Assistant, put Administrative Virtual Assistant. If you are a Social Media Virtual Assistant, put Social Media Virtual Assistant. Now, this is not the place to give the details. You just want them to know that you are one, so when they see it they’ll be like, oh, okay, okay, I’m looking for one, and will be pressed to inquire, ask you questions, find out more information.
Now, the question they’re having is where can I find a good Virtual Assistant? At this point, we’ve put it in our bios, so if they’re searching we’ll come up. But how do they know we’re good? Just because you’ve got Virtual Assistant in all your intros and abouts and bios doesn’t mean you’re good.
Where do you show off that you’re a good Virtual Assistant? You do that on your website. Do that on your website.
If you do not have a WordPress website, I need you to post something on my Facebook page, shout out on Twitter. I’m curious to know why. Is the technical part getting you? Are you in the middle of it? Are you waiting on it from someone? Tell me what’s up with your website. Is this something that you want to do yourself; you don’t know how to do yourself? Tell me what’s up. I want to help you get that up.
You need your own website because on a Facebook business page, you definitely don’t want to put your Upwork link on a Facebook business page. No. You want to keep your Upwork stuff on Upwork and your business link, what you own, on your social media platforms. Where you show how good, how great you are as a Virtual Assistant is through your blog, what you’re writing, the information you’re sharing for your clients.
There is something that you have to say to every single client that comes through your virtual doors that will make a great blog post.
If they have to send you certain information based on their particular project, and it’s the same across the board for everybody, wouldn’t it be awesome if you had a blog post that you could just send them that link to read and provide that information for you? Here’s a topic and then you work out the kinks for the title, but the topic would be something like 8 Things To Do Before You Outsource Your Bookkeeping or 5 Things To Do Before You Outsource Your Email Support.
Those types of blogs are pretty much the same information that you would share with somebody who’s calling, looking for those services, or emailing looking for those services. Who’s looking for email support, bookkeeping, who’s looking for social media. You’re breaking down what they need to do first.
It could be a whole series. If you’ve added a new service, and I talked about testing out a new service in the last episode, and if you’re adding a new service, hey, write a blog post series for that. I know it’s easier said than done. Get out your notes on your phone to jot down some ideas. Use a recorder app on your phone. Speak some ideas. Make it a point to do that. If it’s time to freshen up, if those blog posts are hidden deep and it’s time to freshen up, freshen them up. I’m with you. It’s time for me to freshen them up. Let’s freshen them up.
One of the sessions in the Summer E-Boot Camp we did a while back was about creating content for your blog. I’m pretty certain I’m going to pull that out and make it a standalone training by itself so you guys can get access to that and get some more tips on creating good content, showing that you’re a great VA in your blog.
On social media, what do you do on social media? Social media is not for us to pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch our business. Be a real person. Show that you’re a real person, not just one note. Show that you’re a real person. Share the things that you enjoy doing, what movies you like to see, where you’ve gone, what you’re doing.
During the day this week I’m sitting there and to make break up the quietness in the day I may just take random selfies. Most of them don’t get posted online. It’s really to get me comfortable with taking pictures and seeing myself and all this stuff.
But share some of those things. If you’re big on recipes, you’re big on organize, share that stuff. It doesn’t need to be all VA stuff 100% of the time. Most of the time just be you. Just be you. You’ll never run out of being you. If things change with your business, guess what? You’re still the same. You’re still you. Anyway, your blog, the whole point of that is to demonstrate that you know your stuff. Okay.
The other thing, I want to press the issue – and I posted this on my Facebook page. I just want to tell you what I said. A professional Virtual Assistant has a schedule just like you’d expect a doctor, accountant, attorney, hairstylist, nail technician, etc to have. It’s rare to get a same day appointment with anyone listed above, and those are the people that I named.
Here’s the tip – please stop negotiating your terms.
You are a great Virtual Assistant. You’re a great business owner. You do not have to negotiate your terms. Every single time I did this I just kicked myself. I just was like, oh, why did I do that?
Perfect example, you have set days when you schedule calls and appointments with prospective clients. If someone wants to jump out of that schedule, you know, you have your schedule set for a reason, whatever the reason is. It’s none of my business what the reason is, and it’s none of their business what the reason is.
When they want to go outside of the scheduled time and you agree, what you communicate is that my schedule doesn’t matter. It’s really flexible. Even though I said these are the times, ignore that because we can schedule it, you know, it doesn’t matter. You run the show, whenever you want to do it. When you do that, down the road, you’ve already sent the signal that I have these terms but everything is flexible. I might be going to the whole extreme about everything is flexible. But stick to what you say.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. But we’re not talking about an exception. We’re going to focus on the rule. Stick to it, and your rates. Stick to it. Stick to it. Stick to it. Okay.
You don’t want to compromise your skills, your experience, or your knowledge.
You come with so much stuff. Man, you come with so much stuff. People should be honored to have you. A long time ago a coach told me, “You want clients who deserve to have you.” Yes! Don’t we all want clients that deserve to have us?
Let me tell you. I have two amazing Virtual Assistants that I outsource to and both of them I’ve been working with for years, years because we have a nice flow of how we work. One of the VAs I knew personally from church and the other one I met on Elance. Shannon, she’s listening now. She does all the transcriptions for me for the podcast, and because I’ve set a deadline to get things to her, that is a way for me to be accountable to all of you because I gave her a deadline of when I give her things.
I know if I’m off my deadline that messes her up. That messes her schedule up and now I end up falling outside of her terms. Sometimes I miss, I’m late, and what I make sure to tell her is that I know it’s past our deadline. I know it’s late, so whenever you can get this done. We’re off our schedule now. I know that, so whenever.
But sometimes we’re working with people that aren’t like that. If they’re late, they don’t care that they pushed you back and messed up what you have going or your schedule. You want clients that deserve you. The way you get those clients is you treat yourself well. You respect yourself as a business owner. You stick to your terms, your schedule, and your rate. You stick to that.
I think it was on a show somewhere, Dr. Phil said, “You teach people how to treat you,” and we do. We are teaching them every single day. Whether it’s what we want them to learn or not, but we’re communicating those messages. When we negotiate time and negotiate rates – if I took a poll now I’d be curious to know how many times did that work out? If I just take a poll of myself and all the different scenarios, nine times out of ten it did not.
Anyway, clients are looking for you because you’re amazing. We need to put ourselves out there more. I know it’s hard to market ourselves because it’s like our whole business is us. It’s so close to us. We have to get the emotions out of it and not worry about it.
If everybody is telling you yes, something is wrong, just like if everybody is tell you no, something is wrong. You’ve got to figure out what it is and get it right. Once you get it right and you’re strong in who you are, you’re confident in what you provide, you’re confident in your business, your skill, what you bring to the table, oh man, you are going to be a powerhouse.
If you’re already a powerhouse, keep rocking it. See the areas that could be improved. All of us could use some improvement. I gave you the one simple tweak at the beginning about adding the Virtual Assistant in your bio. Add that in there, and don’t just put VA. Spell it out so there’s no question about what VA it is, whether it’s Virtual Assistant, Veteran, or Virginia. There’s no question about what VA that is, right.
You may have some people that just come because they’re curious about what a Virtual Assistant does and what a Virtual Assistant is, and you could be the one to share that with them. You never know who they know, whether they’re the prospective client or somebody that they know is.
I woke up this morning feeling really pressed to just tell you put yourself out there. Let people know you exist. Don’t be afraid of the risk. Don’t be afraid, and go afraid. It’s okay. It’s okay if your knees are shaking. You’re like, oh, I put it out there. It’s okay. But you put it out there. Don’t take it all.
How many times have you posted something before and then you’re like, oh, I don’t know. I’m not getting any likes. I don’t know. Nobody’s responding. I’m going to take it down. Have you ever done that? Me too. You’re not alone. Put it out there. Put it out there. No fisherman ever caught fish with his net in his pocket. Put it out there.
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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