How To Offer That Little Bit Extra To Become An Extra-ordinary Virtual Assistant
The role of a virtual assistant is rapidly evolving as the Internet helps individuals connect easily on a global scale.
This evolution translates to more rapidly changing business practices moving away from ‘how’ they did business 10 or so more years ago, and as a result is creating new opportunities for remote executive assistants.
As many entrepreneurs and business owners work with virtual assistants to grow their businesses, VAs work as an active behind-the-scenes partner to the CEO and Senior Level Management, contributing on the administrative side, Day-to-Day Business Operations, right through to other critical support roles.
A few of the emerging Roles for Virtual Assistants include:
1. General Virtual assistant (performing a range of general support duties)
2. Audio / Video Editor
3. Content Writer
4. SEO / Web Marketer
5. Graphic / Web Designer
6. Web Developer
7. Social Media Manager
It’s important to acknowledge and appreciate that each of these tasks are different and separate unique roles designed to be performed by different people. Irrespective of the role or tasks within that role, every task should be approached with a consistent and extraordinary mindset if you are going to stand out from the crowd.
How Does One Pursue work excellence as a Virtual Assistant?
We often have a sense of bettering ourselves to become excellent at something, maybe even impress others with what we do or simply try to see how good we are at a given task. But, what does it really mean to be excellent?
Love What You Do
Loving your work and loving your role is one of the primary basis of being able to deliver excellent work 99% of the time. When you understand your role and you know that what you do matters to the success of the business, you will see that no task is ordinary.
Continue To Grow As A Person
As we contribute to the growth of the company, we also grow as a person and as a professional, which makes this job even more interesting and enjoyable. The world we are involved in is constantly changing – the internet is always updating, new things are always emerging and businesses are busy keeping up with these changes. These ordinary tasks become extraordinary as we continue to up-skill ourselves by learning new ways to become better and more efficient at these roles.
Be Technologically Savvy
Keeping up with the latest trends in technology is a critical factor for VAs as the internet is where you’ll spend most of your time.
Be a better VA and work to deliver an excellent outcome by learning and becoming more technologically savvy. This means you must continue to advance your Internet skills, which include file sharing and synchronization (Google docs and Dropbox), updating applications, using online calendars, email auto-responders and other internet services.
Understand Social Media and Other Media
Be social media savvy by using social media monitoring and benchmarking software. Understand how to use and get the most out of that software – For example using tools like Google Alerts to monitor new content ideas or keeping an eye out for trending ideas within a specific industry.
Be multi–media savvy by having basic photo, video and audio editing skills.
Most Importantly, Be Productivity Savvy
Be office productivity savvy which means become a master of Office tools used for word processing, spreadsheets and creating presentations.
Striving for excellence is an important part of professionalism in any job. Put quality into everything you do no matter how ordinary you think they are, and continue to up-skill yourself. This attitude will separate the achievers, who make rapid strides in their career from others.
