Blog Post

What is a VA?

Frances Clifford • Apr 30, 2018

Now there's a question! What is a VA? Aka: Virtual Assistant…

What is a VA?

Now there's a question! What is a VA? Aka. a Virtual Assistant…

We have been asked this a few times this week, so thought it’s time for a little blog.

Over the last 7 years, F.E.S has taken a huge leap; this way, that way over and under and that’s just Emily’s dance moves 😉. We have expanded and now undertake a huge amount of VA work.

A virtual assistant is generally self-employed (like us) and provides professional administrative work; be that technical, and creative work (for social media) remotely from a home office. We work on an ad-hoc and a retainer basis for customers providing a huge weight off their shoulders, not only do we get the job done well, we also don’t need holiday pay like someone who is employed. We give you a completion time scale, and stick to it.

Let’s give some examples.

In the last week we have:

  • Booked a client into a local show to exhibit: ordered their banner for at the show as well as gather their insurances etc needed for the show. (Ad-hoc)
  • Answered several emails for a client who is away on holiday (retainer with other work)
  • Set up an online booking facility for a client and integrated via html into their website (ad-hoc)
  • Reworked and optimised a clients outdated LinkedIn profile (ad-hoc)
  • Designed and ordered some branded business cards (retainer)
  • Answered a huge multitude of different social media messages - resulting in a large amount of conversions. (retainers)
  • Design some creative work for a social media campaign
And much more!

In short, we are assistants you email, whatsapp, text or call, briefly with a job list…and the job gets done!

Those mundane, admin jobs, those little fiddly forgettable things that need doing, that list of problems that you need done but don’t understand how to do…that is what we love to get our teeth into.

Need help? Pop us a message. We would love to hear from you....

LinkedIn Logo
by Frances Clifford 29 Feb, 2020
LinkedIn is just for jobs? ThinkIN again. Ok so terrible joke, but seriously, LinkedIn is the single only platform where professionals go, to do business. And that is it. That does of course involve job seeking and employment. But that is not its sole use. If I Google your name, what’s the first thing that shows up? 80% of the time it will be your LinkedIn profile. Is it up to date? Is it relevant? This is not intended to be a CV, much more of an insight into you, your business and your experience. Remember, this can show your personality. LinkedIn are said to be upping their stakes this year with their video sharing content. Additionally their algorithm is said to reward comments by pushing the content further afield. An interesting fact from Social Media Today “Research has also shown that LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of post. Combine that with the fact that LinkedIn members spend almost 3x more time watching video ads compared to time spent with static Sponsored Content, and it’s fairly safe to assume that LinkedIn is going to make video a key focus heading into 2020.” What if you don’t have videos? What should these be about? Think of what would happen with a potential client/customer in front of you now. Well why not start by aiming at brand awareness, who is your brand and what is it all about? Then aim for what products you offer and why yours stand out from the crowd. If you were lucky enough the attend the #SBSEvent2020 you would have seen Sara Davis inspiring speech on pitching. Sell the problem first, product last… your product or service, is the solution. Let's get back to the question in hand. As a small business why should I dedicate time to something with no guaranteed return. The answers are simple. Firstly its a free brand awareness platform. We always like free! What harm is there adding your company. Plus over time, Google will pick up on the LinkedIn company profile and chuck it conveniently into your company name search results. LinkedIn keep alluding to the fact they will be working on changes to their company pages. Jump on the band wagon before it is fully running! Rumour has it that LinkedIn will reward these companies through algorithm who set up before the trend is well established. Don’t ever doubt the value of social proof . That is inherently why social media is so invaluable. Get those followers up! Everyone is talking about themselves on LinkedIn. At the moment business posts are rarer. Go against the grain. Remember LinkedIn is still offering organic reach. Did you know when you accept a connection invite you immediately get offered to follow that company page? Did you know you can use Hootsuite and other social media management apps and platforms to schedule your content? Do you have enthusiastic employees? Why not add them into the mix. Share their work based content. They are a great asset in the LinkedIn world. Again, it is FREE. If you are already pushing all of your social media channels, what’s another to add to the mix?? Right, I’m off to rework our LinkedIn page. Want to follow suit? Click here I hope this was helpful, Fran
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