The new-generation digital trend has paved the way for the surging existence of a unique way of doing business-virtual management. Diana Ransom reveals in her article in The Entrepreneur, a latest survey from WorldatWork found that the number of American employees who worked virtually at least one day a month reached 17.2 million in 2008.
Of course, virtual and social media management can’t exist without each other. In his article in Business 2 Community, Tom Pick informs readers of virtual companies that invest their budgets in social media management or marketing projects are predicted to doubly increase in the next five years, as cited in Social Times.
As one of the virtual companies who’d never want to be left out of the competition, consider asking yourself some questions. Is it important to be aware of the benefits and downsides of your business strategies? Have you ever asked yourself how these benefits and downsides can affect your business’ progress in the industry? Providing answers to these questions sooner rather than later can save you tons of headaches in managing the online tools of your business in the long run.
Getting the most out of your virtual and social media management experiences is possible, as long as you’ve got that drive to make remote business fit into your professional nutshell.
Results, Not People Oriented
One of the most obvious best practices for creating a virtual workforce is business management that gears up on output results, and not on people outcomes. Virtual companies find it easier to recruit and retain employees because of this principle. As a virtual manager, you get more from your workforce by focusing on the results of their work outputs, instead of on the skills they can offer.
Centralized Meetings and Schedules
Make use of collaboration tools to improve teamwork that allow you to schedule virtual meetings and projects in real time. You and your team will not need to fight the hassle of having to make it to face to face meetings and other project collaborations. Your workforce team will enjoy the privilege of availing flexible time at work. This allows yourself and your employees to enjoy work more, without having to adhere to strict professional schedules.
The Art of Conversation
Use social media to your best advantage by engaging in influential conversations with your target clients in various social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Convince your potential clients to put their faith in your business by showing your would-be clients you care enough about them. Exert extra effort in staying connected with your clients to hear out their thoughts and the stuff they have to say.
Feedback to Motivate Employees
Rising trends in social media enable virtual employees to get motivated in their jobs through actively engaging in meaningful and interactive conversations with people from various walks of life. Because employees can incorporate creativity to the conversations they engage in at social media sites, they are given opportunities to combine enjoyment with their professional duties.
Virtual and social media managements may present some detriments. Depending on your skills and initiative to succeed, you may or may not be able to work out these hindrances to the best of your advantage.
Lack of Discipline
Because most virtual managers and workers work remotely at home, lack of discipline in performing professional duties is a common thing. Dealing with a virtual employee who constantly does not adhere strictly to work deadlines may be something that you’ve already dealt with on a daily basis. Following up on a virtual employee’s work output is even harder when communication lines break down.
Creativity Runs Its Course
Taming your social media self becomes difficult when you begin to run out of creative ideas for a conversation or post on social sites. After some time, you may just find yourself struggling to come up with juicy ideas that people would be interested for you to share in Facebook or Twitter.
In social media marketing, things get even more difficult if you are the type of person who can’t think out-of-the-box to come up with any unique and interesting concepts for a social post sharing. If you are this type of person, you may want to think twice before engaging in a social media management work.
Delayed Investment Return
Because it takes quite some time before several people decide to respond to your social site engagements, marketing in social media does not produce financial returns in a short period of time. It takes a lot of patience and hard work before the fruits of your labor become visible.
You need to weigh in your virtual and social media management’s good and bad sides before making a decision if your business is all geared up for online visibility and existence. Don’t be impulsive when analyzing the pros and cons of running your business virtually. Studying carefully and thoroughly the stuff that works and those that doesn’t for your business saves you from unavoidably having to deal with impending massive losses in the long run.