Enhance working relationships by following your VA on social media
How do you create a warm business relationship with remote workers? You may never meet in person, you live thousands of kilometers away, and yet you rely on each other in many ways. Their livelihood depends on you as their employer, while you need them to perform well for your business to flourish.
Keeping in touch online
Fortunately, our modern world has evolved to let people keep in touch across long distances. Almost everyone has at least one social media account, and most people have several.
Filipinos are more obsessed with social media than most. Their highly social culture has led to the Philippines leading the world in social media usage in 2017 and 2018, in spite of the relatively slow internet speeds throughout the country.
Now, I’m not saying to stalk your staff online. There’s a line that neither party should cross. However, social media interactions can assist in maintaining a good professional relationship with your employees. You can get to know them a little bit outside of working hours, and they can become acquainted with what you’re like as a person, as well.
Using social media to evaluate job candidates
When you do an in-person job interview you can get a good handle on a job candidate through body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and so on – all those little ‘tells’ that leak out of a person willy-nilly and communicate so much more than what is said out loud.
Interviewing potential employees in virtual space is handicapped by the absence of this type information. A candidate might look fantastic on paper, but you don’t really know what kind of person they are in real life.
This is where you can look at their social media profiles. You can usually find out a ton of information, such as the following:
- Place of employment, and how they feel about their job and employer
- Work history – many people list their previous employers. Even if they don’t, scrolling through their timeline can give you a good idea of their past work life.
- Behaviour and attitudes – Checking out what your potential VA posts online is a good way to see what their personality is like. If that person makes a lot of rude and argumentative posts it might be better to steer clear. Maybe they hold controversial opinions that you might want to keep out of your business.
- Lifestyle – You can get a good idea of a person’s interests and daily activities through their social media posts. It might give you an opportunity to bond over shared hobbies, or you might find out that they have some questionable habits that you want to distance yourself from.
Discovering your VA’s talents
Following your VA on social media will let you know of any hidden skills they might have. Maybe they love to cook and could write posts for your food blog, or they might have artistic talents that would be helpful for graphic design tasks.
Maybe they could write and play the musical intro to your next video. At work they might be completely focused on the tasks at hand, so you’d never find out about their other interests without social media contact.
Social media lets your VA get to know you as a person
Since you are social media friends with your VA, they’ll be able to get to know you – what your interests and hobbies are, what your family looks like, and so on. It can add a personal touch that makes your working relationship run more smoothly.
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