I know that this sounds very funny at first. After all, you wouldn't send your secretary to attend your local Chamber of Commerce event. But, you might have her put the event on your calendar and send follow up thank you cards to the people you met there. She might set up a system for you to follow up with the people you met at the event. Social networking is the same way. There is no reason why you can't outsource a very large part of your social networking busy work so that you have more time to develop strong relationships with your clients.



Also, having as assistant do the work means that you will develop a system and post to your various communities more frequently.

Here are 7 Ways Your Assistant Can Help

1. Finding Potential Followers and Friends

Your assistant can easily build your network by looking at networks of people who are following the people in your community and sending friend requests. They can also keep up with automated contact managers like Plaxo to make sure that all of your contacts are connected to your network.

2. Responding To Friend Requests

Your assistant can take care of most of this for you once you have developed a template "thank you for being my friend" message. A good assistant can also tailor the template to suit the person who is getting the message. You can also develop a friend policy to help decide which requests to accept.

3. Connecting the Dots

Make Your Posts Do Double Duty A good assistant will be able to help you connect the various pieces of your social networking empire. Your blog posts can automatically show up on Twitter, your Twitter posts and Facebook profile can show up on your blog.... Etc. Once the connections are made, your networking becomes much easier and much more effective.

4. Strategic Posting

Your assistant can send tweets and post Facebook announcements about your events, when the event is about to start, etc. She can also publish information about your event in all of your different social networks. She can also programs like TweetLater to schedule your Tweets to occur when you are not at the computer.

5. Birthday Wishes

One of the most powerful ways to build personal relationships is to send birthday cards. Social networking tools like Plaxo and Facebook make this very easy. Your assistant can send either e-cards, or (even better) actual cards. Send Out Cards is a great way to send real cards. Your assistant types the message into the computer and the company mails a real card - for less than a dollar. You can try out Send Out Cards for free to see if it will work for you.

6. Keeping Up with Your Peeps

You an learn a lot about what is going on in the lives of your circle through social networking. Your assistant can be invaluable in keeping tabs on people so that you can build the relationship. She can scan the updates and let you know when clients have launched new products, had babies, gotten new jobs - so that you can send out personal congratulations.

7. Pimp Your Profile

A good assistant can make sure that your profiles (the social networking equivalent of your business card) are in tip top shape. She can add videos, links to other people, pictures from your latest trip and more. She can expand your empire by creating and updating profiles on different social networking sites. A good VA does this sort of thing for other clients too. Don't be afraid to rely on her expertise to help you keep up on what is new and important in the world of Social Networking.

So, start making an impression in the social networking world...hire a virtual assistant today.

Copyright (c) 2008 Meredith Eisenberg