Interview with Social Media Marketing Assistant, Kimberly LeRiche

Kimberly LeRiche - JK Virtual Office Resources

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kimberly LeRiche, Social Media Marketing Assistant of JKVirtualOffice this week for this week’s social media blog post.

Janine:  How do you measure success in social media?

Kimberly: It depends on how you define “success.” Does success mean more leads or more income or simply more visibility? Overall, it can be said that “success” in social media means that you’ve accomplished or made significant progress towards your goals for using social media.

In more concrete terms, you can measure your success in social media by looking at different data and reports that are available for different social media platforms and tracking over time your sphere of influence, your ability to engage and connect with others online and ideally, with your target market.

Janine:  There are many cases of social media which has gone wrong for brands. Can you tell us about a time when something you’ve done online has not gone as planned, and how did you resolve it?

Kimberly: I haven’t really had any instances where something I’ve done directly has reflected poorly for the client online. I have had clients who wanted me to do respond or act on their behalf in a certain way that I did not agreed with or felt that it wasn’t a good way to respond within a specific social platform. In those cases, I have either suggested an alternative way to respond or I have cautioned the client as to what the potential outcome or ramification might be from this act.

Janine:  Where do you see social media going?

Kimberly: Social media is going to continue to evolve for both the online user and for businesses who are utilizing it for marketing. For businesses, I think we are going see more strategizing around how they use social media and paying more attention to measurement of outcomes. We will probably see more people sharing within smaller networks. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will remain the pillars of social networking for awhile but users will also begin to find smaller, niche oriented platforms to share their online personalities with like-minded users. Mobile will also continue to have a big impact on how people use social networks.  I also think video is going to become a much more dominant force to contend with as part of a social media marketing plan.

Social media isn’t going away and there are many who believe that businesses without a  social presence will not exist in the next five years.

Janine:  What brands are doing incredibly with social media right now? Why do you think they have been successful?

Starbucks is doing some great things with social media. They continue to find innovative ways to create engagement and get their online fans to participate in their social media campaigns. They are continually ahead of the curve and are among the first to grab the attention of the early adopters. While they’ve had a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter, they have also been among the first to adopt location based services, sending gifts via Facebook and the acceptance of mobile payments.

Staying innovate, ahead the curve and grabbing the attention of the early adopters continues to make Starbucks successful with the social media efforts.

Janine: Many companies want a social media presence but will not be successful in their strategies. Why is this so? What is your opinion on the lack of success for some companies?

Kimberly: I think lack of success in using social media for a business comes from:

A)  A lack of understanding of what social media is about and what it can do for a business.

B) An unwillingness to actively participate in their social media efforts or to allot a dedicated resources to their social media efforts (a resource who knows their business).

C) Not understanding that using social media for marketing is different than other marketing avenues.

Janine:  If a company comes to you to create a social media presence, what is your advice for getting started?

Kimberly: I actually wrote a blog post on this recently about how potential clients can assess their social media needs and what to consider when thinking about jumping into social media. I covered 5 different points to think about when getting started with social media:

1- What are your goals for using social media? I usually recommend thinking about this as your primary, overall goals and with regards to smaller secondary goals.

2- What overall message are you looking to get out about your business?

3- How will you implement and develop your social media presence? This is usually why they have called me as part of their effort to find someone to help implement and develop. However, this question is good because it also helps to get thinking about their role in the implementation and development as well as any other employees or partners.

4- Who will be responsible for creating content and the ongoing maintenance of your social media platforms? Again, this is something I can and do help my clients with but it is still important to go over this question with the client so that there is an understanding about roles and responsibilities.

5- Decide how you will track outcomes and results.  While I usually do this for clients, it is question that is meant to bring about the conversation about what can be tracked, how we can track and WHY we would want to track these data. This helps to get the client to learning more about what social media can and cannot do as well as set realistic expectations what types of outcomes to expect and when.

Janine:  I have found that although companies want the social media presence (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn), they do not understand that a third party cannot be their company’s voice. Do you find this to be the same issue? If so, how do you explain to them what their role will be once their social media sites are up and running?

Kimberly: It really depends on the client and their needs. I think in some instances when you are working closely with a business or client, then you can move towards representing them online but doing so as yourself. That is, once you know a company or business well enough and what they are about and their audience, then it’s is okay to post on their networks but doing so transparently in that you are doing so as yourself but as a representative of that business. So, that might mean a blog post showing as written by you, a post or tweet from you with your initials after it, etc.

For other clients, where this is not feasible or is not an option, then I advise that communicate is key and they must be willing to provide content to me on a regular basis. In these cases, the voice and content remains theirs and I am simply helping to syndicate it out to their networks and to provide suggestions for how to help their content gain the most visibility. For these clients, I am helping with the tasks related to maintaining their presences on social networks.

It may also mean that I research topics, places, groups etc, for them to go to and post and themselves. This type of research helps them to save time with their social media efforts and allows them to use their time wisely in jumping right in and targeting their efforts where it makes the most sense for them to do so.

Janine:  The biggest ‘complaint’ about social media which I hear from business owners is that social media ‘takes up too much time’.  Do you have any thoughts on this?

I think this concern comes from not knowing the different platforms very well and thinking they need a good presence on all the networks. The reality is that once you understand how to use Twitter or how to use Facebook or LinkedIn, then you can actually do a really good job with social media with just an hour a day. Even just 15 minutes for Twitter or Facebook per day will at least help you maintain your presence. And with tools such as Hootsuite that help you manage different networks all in one place, you can do some scheduling of items as well as check-in quickly and scan for any items that might need a response. There was a post sometime ago on Hubspot where they outline a specific and easy schedule for fitting social media into your day. Another option is to pick one network and really work that network for awhile and then considering adding in another network when you have more time or are more comfortable.

To use social media effectively, it does take time. There’s no doubt about that. But that’s no different than any other marketing avenue that a business uses.  Networking takes time, writing a newsletter takes time and any other form of marketing or connecting with your target market is going to take time. I think it’s harder for people to consider social media this way because they either don’t readily see the value or they don’t understand the amount of  time it takes with social media before you start to see results.

Janine:  As a virtual assistant specializing in social media explain how your business has evolved. What were you doing for your customers a year ago versus the services you provide now?

Kimberly: The biggest difference from when I first started offering social media services to now is that rather than just helping with set up, implementation or maintenance, I now offer more strategy assistance and advice with how my clients can best use social media to get the outcomes they desire. I’ve also moved to offering data and reports that show the effects of our efforts or our growth over time.

The other difference is that a significant portion of  my client list are those who are involved in the social media and new media business themselves so I actually get to do a wide variety of tasks that have helped to broaden the scope of my skills and understanding about social media and how it can be used.

As the role of social media strategist continues to change and evolve (as has been suggested by some of the leading research agencies), then I also expect (and have been experiencing) some shift in how I work with clients and what their expectations are for helping them.

Janine:   Can you offer one tip for a virtual business seeking to enter the social media venue?

Kimberly: Listen first. Take time to listen to what’s going on within a specific platform see how the community engages and interacts before jumping in. Research how to best connect with others and how you can first create value as a member of the community.

About Kimberly LeRiche- JK Virtual Office Resources provides Social Media and Internet Marketing Virtual Assistance to small business owners and solo entrepreneurs to help them establish and increase their online visibility for their business and their brand. She enjoys collaborating with her clients to identify their desired goals and outcomes for using social media and to help craft an overall action plan. Her other services include setting up new social networking profiles, social media management and providing tips and recommendations for how to effectively use social media.  When not scouring the internet for the latest social media buzz, she spends time with her family and their dog in a suburb just outside Portland, OR.

Author’s side note: I met Kimberly online at Virtual Assistant Forums where she has consistently shares her expertise with virtual assistants at all stages of business.  Always willing to help and extend a virtual hand Kimberly is one of the most generous virtual assistants I have come to know.