Establishing Your Virtual Identity

CAN HIRING MANAGERS FIND YOU ONLINE?

If you’re a Virtual Assistant professional without a website, you may as well be going door to door like a vacuum salesman. The cold hard truth of today’s technologically driven times is that everyone is online — everyone. Your potential clients and business associates are looking for you on the Internet, social media and job sites. For Virtual Assistants, this means that having an online presence is the ONLY way to be discovered and hired.

“There is not one employers I know of that will hire a VIRTUAL assistant who does not have a VIRTUAL presence.” said Andy Kopher, managing director of Virtual INC, a technology firm that outsources independent contractors to virtual gigs all around the world. “I am amazed at the number of job seekers who do not have the credentials that are necessary in this marketplace. In today’s workforce, that means social media, technology and communication tools. Virtual assistants who expect to be hired must first be discovered and then must be vetted. Employers want to know who they are hiring.”

Are you online?

You can bet your competitors are. The success of your career as a Virtual Assistants begins and ends with a Website and online profile. Without them you will find it impossible to be taken seriously by a potential client. Think about it – a virtual assistant who claims to be able to perform various tasks online but does not have an online presence? That’s a hard sell.

DO IT YOURSELF VIRTUAL ASSISTANT WEBSITES

Thanks to a variety of do it yourself services, you can quickly and easily get your website online. Using “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) technology you will simply select a template or theme, fill in the blanks and click, drop and drag to get a finished product. Simply select the one that is best for you and then begin adding your content. See It In Action Here.

Once you complete your website, be sure to add links. Not only should you put a link to your Website on your VOT PROFILE but you should also put a link to your VOT Profile on your website. This cross linking will help you get discovered, and will allow employers to easily obtain the information they need about your skills and services.

WHAT TO PUT ON YOUR RESUME

Avoid just listing your job duties and instead try to focus on your accomplishments. Your online resume should be more robust and detailed than something you would put on paper. Employers will be looking for what you created, changed, learned, and garnered awards and accolades for, so avoid listing your job duties (for instance: answered phones, typed documents… ) Employers do not care what your day to day chores were. They are only interested in your achievements overall.

Testimonials. Instead of a list of references, your virtual assistant website is a great place to quote your previous employers, publish your letters of recommendation and share your performance reviews. If you have completed virtual work before, be sure to highlight it and get some comments from your previous employer regarding your work.

Your Services. What can you do? Where is your virtual career focus? Instead of being a jack-of-all-trades type of virtual assistant, you will likely have greater success if you focus on a specialty area that best matches your experience. Think of your Virtual Assistant website as the brochure for your virtual business and sell, sell, sell what you do best.

Home Office Details. You will need to detail all of your equipment and your skill level with each. Describe the hardware and software that you have and your abilities with each. Remember to include both your general office equipment (computer specs, printer, voicemail and fax service, etc), but also your software (Operating system, desktop publishing and data processing programs, etc).

SETTING UP YOUR WEBSITE

There are hundreds of services to choose from but, based on our experience and feedback from our virtual assistants, we recommend one the following company. These are not only the most affordable but are also the easiest to use, have the best customer service and offer virtual assistants the best web sites to help them get hired.IPAGE – Besides offering quick and easy website building tools, IPAGE also provides access to marketing services that can help you get your site noticed.