Facebook groups have become a primary way of building a loyal community that are subscribed your email list.
Business owners, like myself, have a habit of neglecting to outsource the management of group requests for a number of reasons.
We often tell ourselves we don’t have time to train someone on how to do it.
Adding emails to a list is a very easy job, so business owners are reluctant to pay a top level VA or Mail List expert for such simple process.
When hiring an entry level VA to do the job, trust may be an issue.
Entry level virtual assistants may be cheaper, but not have built up the testimonials and reviews yet to show the level of trust they can provide.
It can be scary handing the keys over.
Always discuss check ins schedules, expectations on how often, how long things will be expected to take and payment of services before you engage with a task – This advice goes for both he client and the assistant.
Establish Appropriate Check In Schedules
Establishing a logical check in schedule to manage group requests will:
- Save Time
- Save Money
- Manage Expectations
- Set a healthy, consistent approval flow for the group
Don’t automatically assume, just because someone has experience, that they know what is expected of them.
Does your Virtual Assistant know you expect Email Lists need to be backed up routinely? What happens if your VA accidentally deletes a list?
Does your VA know how many hours to spend on Group management, have a “capped” amount of time, ensuring they aren’t working “all the time”.
The task of managing group Requests and entering the data into your mail list provider should:
- Preferably be at the same time each day/week.
- Have a realistic amount of requests to manage.
- Have an acceptable time frame I.E. 15 Minutes for 20 Emails added.
This is not productive at all and paying a VA for a few minutes here and there is not a positive work scenario for them.
Have an agreement to check on a certain amount of times a day or week.
I personally like to wait until I have around 20 requests before I sit down to manage them.
You can always let them know to negotiate additional check ins with them if the group has a surge of requests.
One point to make, when doing bulk request management like this, maybe you are worried about your members having to wait a little while to get into the group.
If you are delivering value – it wont matter.
This is where a system processes come in.
You may also want to add a welcoming thread to your process.
This requires tagging all new members in a thread and letting them know where to find the best value posts in the group, also directing them to introduce themselves and encourage them to make connections with other members.
Creating a system process.
Hopefully you are already here because you are looking to create processes for hiring staff.
System processes can be boring. Especially if you are a creative. They are a necessary part of being able to manage people effectively.
System Processes can be created for many things. Eg: Staff Induction, Managing Contributors, Managing Mail Accounts.
A great system process will help define your expectations, train staff with minimal hand holding and keep record of how things are managed, help identify what is working and what may need to be changed.
If you have no idea where to start on creating the training and process for this, I’ve got your back.
You can download a System Process & Training document HERE.
Please note, This document is live and will evolve over time as more help articles are written from kateshelby.com
You can download the process sheet and add your own help articles and time expectations if you do not like the ones provided.
This will help you while you organise your Virtual Assistant to manage your group requests and the emails that come through using your question fields.