Social Media Marketing For Virtual Assistants: Try These 5 Steps To Find + Get The Right Clients!

Joining online groups is a great way to use Social Media Marketing for Virtual Assistants. But NOT groups that are 99% VAs. Unless, of course, your target audience and dream clients are Virtual Assistants – then it makes sense. But if not, then you’re in the wrong group for finding clients.

Market Yourself In The Right Groups

I’ve noticed an increase in the number of Virtual Assistants joining my Facebook and LinkedIn groups as a referral from their coach as a place to join to find clients using Social Media Marketing. Here’s the issue. When you join a group made up of 99% Virtual Assistants and wait for a “Help Wanted” post to get clients, who knows how long you will be waiting. You and 5,000 other people, just like you, are all waiting on the same thing.

Don’t Join VA Groups To Find Clients That Aren’t VAs!

Then somebody eventually posts that “Help Wanted” post, and 500 people respond in the blink of an eye. The poster is overwhelmed with responses. You can’t get noticed that way because you’re lost in a feeding frenzy. And it’s not an effective strategy for getting clients. 

You don’t want to join VA groups to find clients that aren’t VAs. If you’re looking for VAs, you’re in the right place. But you shouldn’t join VA groups to wait for a post from a potential client because:

• You’re going to be waiting for who knows how long.
• You’re never going to get noticed in the feeding frenzy.

You’re waiting for clients to come to you instead of being proactive (you and 500+ others who were told that it’s the way to get clients for your business).

Now, this is my opinion, take it for what it’s worth. There are VA programs out there that cost a thousand dollars, and the only method they’re showing you to get clients is to join a Facebook group. Then wait for the help-wanted-post, and be part of the feeding frenzy. That’s just wrong!

They should be teaching you marketing because you must understand and embrace marketing if you want to have a long-term and successful business. You have to. You need to be proactive and find the clients that are right for you. Because who’s to say that the clients posting in these VA groups are even right for you? 

There Are Only Few Quality Help-Wanted-Posts In VA Groups

And what I’ve noticed many times is those “help wanted” posts in those VA groups are not all quality. Now there are a few quality posts, but many of them want to pay you less than you’re worth for a ton of expertise that usually would go for a lot more money. Or they’re looking for somebody to work 40 hours as a contractor. Well, here in the US, that’s an employee. 

So they’re looking (in my opinion) to take advantage of people who don’t know what they don’t know and are desperate to find a client. Desperate people do desperate things. So they’re going to take whatever is offered in these VA groups because they don’t have any other means to find and get clients. 

If you’re struggling with finding clients or finding the right clients, you’re going to need to change the strategy you’re using. Stop joining groups full of Virtual Assistants (unless, of course, that is your target market). I know that is what you were told to do, but it’s wrong.

Learn The Marketing Basics – It’s Not Hard

If you have a look at all the long-term and successful businesses, they all know how to market. That’s something that you can learn too. I’ll drop this here right now. If you want to learn a marketing method that works, join my VA Success System. I’ve been in business for over 11 years; I’m still using the same approach to this day.

Watch the videos on how to market, and you’ll learn what you need to create multiple strategies to find and get the right clients. You shouldn’t just have one way to get clients; instead, you should have various methods. You can learn multiple strategies on how to get clients in my VA Success System.

As I mentioned earlier, it is an excellent strategy to join groups where your target market hangs out to use Social Media Marketing – not where VAs hang out (unless they’re your market). For example, say your target market is Business Coaches. You definitely should be joining Facebook and LinkedIn groups targeted to Business Coaches. Joining a VA group will not work in that case, because the numbers are against you.

Try A New Social Media Marketing Approach

If you want to try something new – read on. I’m going to give you actionable steps to take that work in this blog post. You want to be proactive in finding the right people that you want to work with and go and get in front of them. 

#1 – Less Is More

Believe it or not, and this might be counterintuitive, but the fewer people you get in front of, the easier it is to get noticed. In other words, if you’re getting in front of a small audience, more people are going to understand you. Because you’re able to connect more and you’re going to start to build a relationship, which is what this business is all about.

It’s all about focusing on a specific profession or industry. They are your target market, not business owners or entrepreneurs. (I’ll use business coaches as my target market in this exercise to make it simple.) You focus on getting in front of your audience, aka target market, and sharing how you can help them (not selling).

In my example, I would look to join groups that focus on Business Coaches to get in front of them, not VA groups. Just substitute the VA groups that you’re currently joining for where your market hangs out. So instead of VA groups, for example, join business coaching groups or health coaching groups. It’s a proven strategy that works!

#2 – Be Proactive

Instead of waiting for your audience to ask you for help – be proactive. Create valuable content to share. That is marketing 101 – sharing valuable content that shows your target audience how you can help and it also applies to Social Media Marketing. Marketing is all about awareness, and it’s not about you. It’s about them. It’s never about you. It’s about how you help your clients, and you do this by creating and sharing valuable content. 

For example, you can create a one-page checklist that you can share everywhere your target hangs out (business coaches using my example). It will get you noticed faster than sitting around waiting for someone to post a help-wanted post in all VA groups and then trying to get found in a feeding frenzy. Take charge of your business and your livelihood. Be proactive with how you find clients. 

#3 – Share Your Expertise

Create a checklist that focuses on either: 

• Mistakes to avoid.
• Top 10 tips.
• Shortcuts
• Best practices.

And then plug in your expertise. Sticking with my current example: “I offer WordPress services to Business Coaches. That’s my what (service) and my who (target).”

You could – for example – create the following:

• The top 10 best practices to follow when creating a WordPress website for your coaching business. 
• Or top 10 mistakes to avoid when setting up your Facebook Page?

You give something before you get. Don’t sell, don’t join these groups, and go, “Hey, I’m a VA. Hire me.” That’s not marketing. Instead, share your checklist. Answer questions. Be of value. Because the next step they’re going to take is finding out more about you. They’ll look at your Facebook page, or they’re going to go to your LinkedIn page, etc.

#4 – Update Your Social Media Profiles

Make sure your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are up to date. You want your Social Media profiles to show what you do at a glance. Connect with me on LinkedIn and look at my profile’s headline. You should be able to tell what I do by what it says. Feel free to use my profile as a blueprint for your own.

It is what is going to draw the right clients to you. So you’re not out beating bushes, looking for clients, they’re coming to you because you’re helpful in groups where they hang out, sharing your free stuff, right? 

#5 – Repurpose Everything 

You can take that checklist and create a blog post from it or a podcast or a YouTube video as part of your Social Media Marketing strategy. Use this same formula over and over again for every service you offer. Take control of your business, learn marketing, create valuable content, and then share it.

I’ve given you lots of tips here that you can use right now. And if you still want to know more about marketing and getting clients, watch my free Dream Clients Masterclass. It teaches simple to use marketing (including Social Media Marketing) that will help create a steady stream of dream clients.

Marketing is the difference between long-term success and short-term success, between chasing clients and attracting clients. It would be best if you had multiple Social Media Marketing strategies.

Don’t join VA groups to wait for posts. If you continue to follow that advice, you’re going to struggle, and it’s going to take you a lot longer to be successful. Instead, – learn Social Media Marketing and everything else related to marketing. Marketing is not difficult. Marketing is just sharing. That’s all it is – making your audience aware. 

I think the most challenging thing for people is to figure out who they’re going to market to. If you don’t know, start with business coaches. That’s it. Start with business coaches and start marketing to them and watch how things will change for you and your business.

So who’s going to take me up on the challenge of creating a simple checklist and sharing it with their target audience and STOP joining VA groups and going unnoticed. Get off the feeding frenzy and take control of your business by learning marketing. Comment below if you’re in! Oh, and be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading – Susan