PA’s Vs. VA’s; Reasons Social Media Celebrities Are Turning To Virtual Assistants To Build Their Brands

In today’s world, social media influencers and celebrities drive trends far more than traditional celebrities. When a movie is shot and released, an influencer could have released an entire content series and engaged millions of people. The reasons are obvious; influencers are only a click away from their followers, plus social media access is relatively cheaper.

The effect of this shifting trend is that influencers have more influence over customers buying decisions because of the increased commercialization of their activities. The flip side is that these influencers now have to deal with many more corporate and commercial duties. The only problem with this increased responsibility is that most influencers would rather focus on the creative side; cue in virtual assistants.

According to Vivek Sharma, founder of Elite Group, “Virtual Assistants have become to social media influencers, what personal assistants are to traditional celebrities. As social media became more of a career than a pastime and as influencers have gained more status, the need for trained, professional VA’s has continued to rise”.

Elite Luxury, is a luxury VA brand that enables top executives, influencers, celebrities and the ultra-successful section of society to have access to round-the-clock virtual assistants helping them do what Sharma calls, “the small things”; “If they need to go on a business trip or vacation and are they too busy to book a hotel, or an uber, the Elite Luxury virtual assistant can perform these tasks for them. This removes their focus from the small things and lets them focus on the important aspects of the trips, like enjoying the view.”

Brand Management; Influencers Become Brands

It all starts with a desire to be creative and to express themselves, and soon as these influencers gain followers, they slowly become celebrities, and this new status converts them into a brand. They soon realize that building a brand comes with a load of additional work – tedious and time-consuming work. Time spent on such tasks can be counterproductive and take away from the time to be creative.

The growth of assistant technology has also heralded a new trend. Virtual celebrities. Korean virtual influencer, Oh Rozy, was interviewed by Sportskeeda. Rozy is an entirely computer generated individual predicated on artificial intelligence created by the team at Sidus Studio X.

Asked about herself Rozy said, “The real name is Oh-Rozy, which means ‘only one person,’ which sounds like an English name, but it is pure Korean. I am 22 years old, and MBTI is ENFP, a brilliant activist. My hobbies are active sports such as skateboarding, golf, tennis, etc., and my speciality is traveling beyond time and space.”

“Since I’m a virtual person, I admit I’m bound to be different from humans. So, I am collecting and learning the data of their emotions and behaviors with admiration. It’s a rather pleasant feeling to think that the process is learning about a new world rather than feeling pressurized by it.”

On the growth of virtual celebrities she concluded, “I think it is natural for many virtual humans to gain popularity. There’s already a growing need for virtual humans worldwide, and they’re working in many different fields. As more friends compete, I can be a driving force for my growth, and a synergy effect can occur, so I am watching the development of this industry with joy.”

Though certainly very unique, talking and interacting with AI on a verbal level is becoming more common, with virtual assistants in both human and digital form becoming more popular with the rise in the digital sphere. Virtual influencers change even more with the potential for an intelligence to grow a following, influence our buying propositions, and even our lives.

Virtual Assistants Vs. Personal Assistants

A traditional A-list celebrity would always have a personal assistant attached to them, requiring a full-time employment package and salaries. The financial flexibility of a virtual assistant is higher, and an influencer has more power to delegate within their budget. This presents a great advantage, especially because social media celebrities in general do not make nearly as much as traditional celebrities, not initially, at least.

Sharma insists that the experience of having a virtual assistant should not be cheapened nor perceived as having less value than a personal assistant; “We do everything we can to make the experience with our virtual assistants feel just as real and as intimate, each client has access to their own virtual assistants around the clock via calls or zoom so it is easier to address both simple and complex problems. I believe that virtual assistants are the future and we should treat it as such.”

Transitioning from being a production coordinator in the film industry to virtual assistant, Erin Booth, talking to Business Insider detailed how she went from working 80-100 hours a week to becoming a virtual assistant and launching a company in 2012.

“When I officially launched my assisting business, which I called Crescent City Concierge, very few people hired me,” she said. “I struggled to make a good income, covering my rent at the bare minimum. My lightbulb moment occurred when I was working on clearing clutter out of a producer’s home and she said to me, ‘You know, you would probably make a killing if you did this virtually.’”

Booth continued, “She was absolutely right. She ended up being my first virtual assistant client, and she hired me to do a few easy personal tasks for her, like organizing her Google Drive. I realized I had a knack for it, and I liked to do it. After building my business from there, I now earn six figures a year from virtual assisting, coaching, and YouTube ad revenue.”

“Over the last six months, I’ve sold 300 courses through my website, and I have 35,000 active students through (Ed tech platform) Udemy. Most of my students find me through my YouTube channel, which I’ve gotten more serious about in the last two years to help aspiring virtual assistants get started for free. I see an average of $450 a month in ad revenue from my 15,000 subscribers on YouTube.”

Shared Work; Creativity Requires Time

Social Media influencers often have a truckload of work to do; After the ideation phase, they often have to shoot a video or create some other content, edit it, and then respond to feedback to maintain engagement rates. It quickly becomes apparent that creativity isn’t as easy as sitting at home with a phone in their face all day.

As the influencers’ brand grows, they often have to interface with other brands and companies seeking to promote their services or products; in many cases, these influencers need help handling the less creative parts of their content creation; virtual assistants can help in this regard.

“Think of it like hiring a freelancer, only that this freelancer is as dedicated to your brand as a personal assistant would,” Sharma explains, “A virtual assistant is only limited by the client’s instructions. Critical duties like scheduling social media content, video editing, assistance with sponsor research, running email marketing campaigns, and writing web content can all be done or arranged by a virtual assistant. The duty of a professional VA is to make it much easier for the clients to scale their brand by letting them focus on the most critical aspects.”

As social media influencers continue to be center stage, especially among the younger generation, they need to position themselves to carry the responsibility of this influence. For this, they would require a lot of help.

Unlike traditional celebrities, Influencers have found all their relevance from interacting with fans remotely; in the same way, they are also looking to the internet to find this help. An army of professional virtual assistants is arising to answer this rising demand.