A virtual assistant is someone that performs work for you and your business but does so from his or her home office.  They are responsible for their own equipment, training, taxes, vacation and medical benefits (among other things).  Virtual assistants can generally assist you with website changes, social media updates, copywriting, e-commerce, Internet marketing and more.

This blog post explores five different ways you can use a virtual assistant in your business today.  I use the services of BSETC (www.bsetc.com) to check things off of my to-do list and many of the things that I explore in this post are things I have had them do for me personally.

1. Upgrade Social Media Profiles

It is hard, as a business owner, to keep up-to-date with all of the social media sites.  Sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are constantly changing their regulations, layouts and abilities.  Your virtual assistant can advise you of these changes, keep you current and show you how to use each tool as a business growth center.

2. Setup Sales Pages to Sell Products or Services

Some virtual assistants, like the team at www.bsetc.com, work with HTML and other website technologies (ie: WordPress, Optimize Press, etc.) and can help create your sales pages.  When having your virtual assistant setup your sales pages, also get them to connect your e-commerce and the associated autoresponder messages.

3. Handle Your Customer Support

There is nothing worse than going away on vacation and coming back to a full inbox.  Also, most business owners shouldn’t be representing themselves in the space where a gatekeeper should be.  Instead, hire a virtual assistant to respond to your customers on your behalf.  Efficiency levels on your end will be higher because you won’t spend your time reading and replying to e-mail.

4. Write Blog Posts and Post to WordPress / Blogger / etc.

If you are a busy entrepreneur like I am, you know that it can be difficult to keep content generation happening and keep your blogs up-to-date and fresh.  With your virtual assistant at your side, he or she can write blog posts for you to review and then post those blogs to your blog of choice.  You can even have your assistant scope out the best keywords and add a photo or two.

5. Create and Schedule Social Media Updates

One of the biggest time sucks can be social media websites.  Facebook and Twitter can take up so much of your time when it comes to adding fresh content and engaging in conversation.  Your virtual assistant can not only construct your Facebook updates and Tweets, but they can also pre-schedule them using Hootsuite (or another similar tool) and then monitor the conversations around these updates.

However you decide to use your virtual assistant, know that there are endless possibilities in the world of outsourcing.  BSETC (www.bsetc.com) offers a free, downloadable “Delegation Workbook” on their website that provides 30 days of delegation tips and other resources to help you find and hire your VA.

(Guest Post: Erin Blaske of BSETC.com)

If you decide to work with BSETC directly, mention my name and you’ll receive 10% off your first invoice!