Category: Social Media

Posted on

How Do I Get Started With a Social Media Manager?

You have read our Social Media Manager Task List and about the differences a Social Media manager and strategist have. You are ready to hire a Social Media VA with Office Mercenary!

Curious to know what that looks like? 

Wait no longer! 

Follow along as we describe our process when we onboard you with one of our heroic social media VA’s! 

  1. You pick 4 words to describe your brand voice.
    Do you want a professional tone with your audience? Or does your brand offer a touch of humor? We are not in-depth content creators, but this is great info if we need to do touchups, comment or add pictures on your behalf.
  2. You tell us about your target audience. Are you a woman-centered brand? Is your product geared towards Millennials?
    This is really top-level, but it’s still helpful for light content touchups or if there are other accounts, keywords or groups we should be targeting for comments towards awareness of your brand. We do what we can to help before you have to hire an expensive strategist!
  3. Office Mercenary will help you set up standard practices and expectations.
    Google Drive is preferred, but we can also work with other platforms if needed. We can help set up timelines of when content will be shared, etc. In addition, we use our project management software to collect content and feedback from you!
  4. We collect Login info for accounts.
     Office Mercenary will collect your usernames and passwords, so have that handy for us to expedite onboarding your new VA.
  5. We ask you for the ideas you already have. Themed content ideas such as Motivational Monday, Tip Tuesday, etc. or even monthly themes!
    We will want a list of ideas you already have brewed up or themed content days you have planned out for your social content.
  6. We share a Clickup Dashboard with you to keep track of tasks, as well as content ideas.

After we get everything in our hands you and your new dedicated VA will have a project management dashboard through Click-Up ( A very user-friendly and accessible platform that comes at no additional cost ) so you and your VA can keep track of tasks, content ideas, feedback, and hours spent!

Posted on

Is a Social Media VA Worth It?

As small business owners, we understand that letting go of the tasks you have been doing yourself can be hard and daunting. Or maybe you are just overwhelmed by the thought of even starting. (You can read this to help!) Office Mercenary is no stranger to helping both new and old businesses get their feet wet in delegating and prioritizing tasks. Maybe you recognize that some of the social media tasks are “emptying your cup” too fast and should really be handed off to someone else, but your budget is tight and you aren’t sure if they can really nail your brand like you do. 

If you have wondered if a social media VA really worth it, well, we really think it is! Here’s a list of why:

  1. Don’t waste precious money-making time any longer. Even when it’s not part of a large marketing strategy, scheduling, confirming, and interacting on social media can be a time-consuming process. A dedicated virtual assistant can help with that!
  2. Have you ever forgotten to post weekly? Consistency is a major part of how social media platforms allow you to be seen! Your VA will spend their time prioritizing posting and staying true to your brand!
  3. Tools and tech experience for the win! A Social Media Virtual Assistant has tools and experience that allows them to be faster than someone not involved in the social space. Office Mercenary also works with a variety of tech literacy levels. Sometimes the time it takes our less tech-inclined clients to schedule a post is enough of a reason for them to understand the benefit of a social media VA. Other times, our clients may not have the budget or resources to purchase a posting tool so it makes sense to hire a team who has that access. Whatever the reason, rest assured your VA can and will be faster than you and that’s worth hiring someone for! Save yourself time and money!
  4. Don’t get lost in the sea of search rankings- Have we mentioned that consistency is key to your social strategy?! Search rankings like to see a company in multiple places. Even if a social media account doesn’t have a lot of likes/interaction, if they’re posting regularly it allows customers (and possibly even Google’s algorithm) to see you’re a business that’s currently operating and building/growing.
  5. You will only have to learn one name! Your dedicated VA can start in social media and move into other parts of your company. This is what separates Office Mercenary from a lot of other Virtual Assistant Agencies. Our VA’s aren’t just trained in social media management, but all admin-related tasks. So, when you are ready to hand off more tasks, we are here to support you and your process. In addition, you won’t have to retrain a new virtual assistant, which saves loads of energy, time, and money!

Posted on

7 Tasks A Social Media Manager VA Can Help You With Today

There is no question that social media is becoming the marketplace for services and products. In fact, a whopping 90% of brands use social media in their marketing campaigns and 77% of those brands expect to increase their usage of social media in the near future! 

So when our clients come to us struggling to keep up with all their social media accounts, as well as their daily tasks of being a business owner, it’s no surprise that’s one of the first things they want a VA to start helping with. 

But you might be wondering what exactly are the tasks your new VA can help you with, or maybe you read our article “Social Media Manager vs Social Media Strategist” and you’re still on the fence about if a social media manager VA is the right fit for you. If there is any question at all about what one of our talented VA’s can get started with for you today then read on to discover the 7 tasks an Office Mercenary Social Media Manager VA can help you with today! 

  1. Create graphics for quotes or 1 liner content

Your VA can help make your punchy quotes and CTA’s come to life on social media with a quick graphic! You just supply the content and logo and we get to work, making it look on-brand and beautiful!

  1. Search for articles based on topics provided

Don’t have enough time in your week to get to reading relatable articles that you could fill your social network publishing calendar? Let one of our VA’s take the tasks off your plate. You provide topics and our VA’s start reading and researching to make sure it fits your narrative on the topic!

  1. Research external content

Do you need to know who your competitors are? Maybe you need to know better keywords for your hashtags? Our VA’s can help you and set you apart from the crowd through researching external content. You just provide the topics and we do the rest!

  1. Make sure content is posted on all your social media platforms

Did you know that more consistent postings on social media mean better audience engagement? Or maybe you just can’t keep track of which platform you posted what to? We help keep all your social media accounts active, aligned to your brand, and consistent! 

  1. Schedule posts out ahead of time

Know your social media cadence before you post! Set yourself and your business up for success by batch scheduling your posts. That way your brand is consistent amongst all your platforms and you can plan out your other marketing campaigns more effectively. 

  1. Add your logo and/or brand colors to a photo

Sometimes all it takes to take your social media to the next level is branding! Let our VA’s help your audience know your brand and get your logo on images! 

  1. Respond small talk in comments or direct messages on platforms

Don’t miss another brand partnership again! Rack up the great reviews and say thank you to your customers! Keep your consumers happy and hire a VA to keep up with comments and messages for your business. There is no need to worry you won’t be in the loop either, we reach out with questions and keep our clients up to date throughout the process! 

Posted on

Social Media Manager vs Social Media Strategist- What is the difference between them?

Though social media may have begun as a way to stay in touch with friends at college, it has become as much, or more, a place for businesses to thrive as it has for seeing which of your high school classmates and extended relatives believe conspiracy theories. Here at Office Mercenary, we often find our clients handle one or multiple social media accounts that impact their business workflows daily. Social media work is a relatively easy task to start handing off to a dedicated virtual assistant and regaining precious time to leverage your business in other areas. (Though, sorry, we can’t help with the conversations with your great uncle about Flat Earth Theory.)

When looking to hire a social media virtual assistant there are a lot of job titles to sift through from social media managers to social media content creators to social media strategists. You may wonder how in the world you will know which of these job roles is the best for you to be looking for.

First, we recommend you look at your task list and identify all the social media work that you would like taken off your plate ( And if you have trouble with that, check out our VA checklist to get some ideas of what tasks you could be handing off!). Most commonly we find that our client’s tasks fall between either a social media manager or a social media strategist. It can take time to understand the differences between each and understand which one fits your tasks the best or if you need to hire both.

Don’t worry, we got you covered; we break down the differences between social media managers and social media strategists.

Social Media Managers 

A social media manager helps maintain your social media daily, weekly or monthly. They are going to be about consistency: in getting things posted, making sure messages are answered in a reasonable amount of time, commenting, and potentially interacting with other accounts. Social Media Managers can also help with set up to make sure everything is started correctly and gather some keywords for hashtags. Their role may also include some content creation ( making sure your logo and brand colors stay on point), review data metrics, and converting content to work across various social platforms. Onboarding a social media manager can help get things up and running to your desired specifications as soon as they have access to your accounts and content. They can give you feedback from data metrics such as the best time to post so you can make the time you spend creating social content more effective. This type of role won’t help boost ROI immensely but will give you valuable time back to work on other income-producing tasks for your business!

Social Media Strategists 

A social media strategist is going to be a second hand to your marketing efforts. A Social Media Strategist, or Specialist, can create an entire marketing strategy, use data to increase conversations, do in-depth content creation, and much higher level ROI related tasks. They will help identify brand voice, brand imagery, and audience behaviors to heighten engagement. This type of role is considered a specialty virtual assistant and they often are at a higher hourly rate than managers due to the task load and expertise. 

How can Office Mercenary help you? 

Office Mercenary absolutely recommends bringing on a specialist when you can (and we have GREAT recommendations to share), but most small businesses find that they don’t have the budget for a specialist quite yet and really just want to just get started with getting content out regularly. Office Mercenary has dedicated virtual assists that can help with social media management and for less than the cost of a full strategist which makes it a more affordable starting point. If you find later on that you want to bring on a strategist, your social media manager can work closely with the strategist to make sure new strategies are implemented quickly and easily, keeping the strategist able to focus and spend less time to get the results small businesses want, much like how a bookkeeper and accountant work together. 

Whatever your social media and business needs may be Office Mercenary’s knowledgeable and dedicated team is ready to help you get back to doing what you love. We encourage you to reach out for a quick chat if you have any questions or are interested in knowing more about how a dedicated virtual assistant of ours can help your social media marketing! Follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn and stay connected with us below.

>