Virtual Assistant vs. Social Media Manager: What is the Difference?

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant is usually an independent contractor that works for a client remotely or separately from their employer’s office. They primarily provide administrative support, offer help in planning and scheduling appointments, and mainly serve the needs of their clients online. 

Apart from conventional administrative roles like organizing appointments, booking meetings, answering phone calls, and making travel arrangements, virtual assistants have now broadened their skill sets and areas of expertise. People with skills in managing social media, content management, digital marketing, graphic design, search engine optimization, and blog post writing can already be virtual assistants — providing new opportunities for everyone. This is why the demand for experienced virtual assistants is projected to rise since working from home has become more rampant, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lot of benefits can be gained from hiring virtual assistants as they allow you to focus on the greater picture of building your business while also reducing stress from your initially heavy workload. A virtual assistant will assist you in keeping track of the things that need your utmost attention so you won’t forget them. In effect, you’ll never have to miss an appointment or potentially lose a client due to an ignored inquiry that you weren’t able to notice.

What is a Social Media Manager?

A social media manager manages the overseeing of a client’s social networking platforms. Basically, they are the ones who represent a brand across all their social media platforms, acting as the voice. A social media manager’s role mostly revolves around responding to comments, creating social media content, developing social media campaigns, and making reports about engagements as well. These specialists provide businesses the advice they need to improve their social media presence.

Furthermore, a social media manager is also in charge of developing content strategies and increasing engagement of a company’s social media platforms. To be effective in this position, social managers must have a great eye for design, a penchant for storytelling, and the ability to analyze what works and what doesn’t with an audience.  

SMARTVAs is a virtual assistance agency that provides remote working virtual assistants who specialize in social media management. To boost growth and improve your company’s online persona, we can curate creative content which is appropriate for your brand. More so, we do not just post anything online. It first has to undergo a social media marketing plan that we have found great success with in order to maximize the reach of posted content. Our team utilizes and exhausts various marketing strategies that may be applicable for your brand to ensure that more people will be aware with the help of social media.

Job Description of a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant mostly handles all company communications and administrative tasks remotely. In addition, part of a virtual assistant’s job description is also to organize your business’ schedules, take care of the bills, and arrange travel plans. Ultimately, before one can fully embrace the role of a virtual assistant, they must first secure a stable internet connection, and of course, they must possess outstanding communication skills, both verbal and written.

Job Description of a Social Media Manager

A talented and professional social media manager should be adept at the role of being the voice of your company online and help you in establishing your social media presence. By developing high-quality and original content, a social media manager should also execute advertising campaigns and generate interactions. Part of the responsibilities of social media managers as well are interacting with your brand’s established community through being responsive to your customer’s comments, engaging with influencers, and supervising customer service across all social media platforms. Lastly, a social media manager must also be able to analyze data to see if all the social media efforts met their goals and, of course, produce a report for that. The results will then be used to further improve your social media marketing strategies.

What is the Difference between a Social Media Manager and a Virtual Assistant?

After knowing all the information between a virtual assistant vs. social media manager, some might still get baffled as to the difference between the two. In comparison to a virtual assistant, a social media manager focuses on growing your social media presence and has a different set of skills. 

At SMARTVAs, we believe that you don’t have to choose between a virtual assistant vs. social media manager as each role offers significant contributions to your business. In fact, we would suggest that you hire both for your team. If you need someone to assist you in your everyday tasks, then a VA would be a good match for you. Meanwhile, if you want to expand your social media network, then a social media manager can give you a helping hand. 

Now, you may ask, can’t a virtual assistant be a social media manager? Well, they could be, but they aren’t really experts in the field. A virtual assistant is well-versed in organizing the business, while a social media manager is a marketing expert with the motivation to widen your social media reach. Thus, it would be groundless to compare virtual assistants vs. social media managers.