You’re convinced you should hire a social media manager or specialist. They enable you to focus on what you do while engaging with your audience and generating targeted leads for your company.
You’ve also decided that you need someone to do this remotely because a) paying on-site employees is beyond your budget, and b) hiring a virtual assistant gives your small business access to expertise and higher output.
The question now is: where do you find and hire virtual assistants social media/specialists? We’ve put together the top platforms where you can conduct your search.
Remote Workmate
Naturally, the first place we’d recommend is Remote Workmate. Why? Because unlike freelance marketplaces and job boards where you do everything yourself, we handle the heavy lifting for you, including recruitment, screening, and payroll.
All you have to do is:
- Tell us what you need.
- Interview and hand-pick the candidate you want.
That’s it.
Plus, if your social media virtual assistant underperforms or is a poor fit, we’ll find you new candidates for free until you get the one you’re satisfied with.
After you select your Workmate, we’ll also:
- Make sure they’re working online during your specified schedule.
- Provide ongoing support with whatever Workmate-related matters.
Upwork
When it comes to freelancing platforms, Upwork has what is probably the largest pool of talent in the world. Once you sign up and create an employer profile, you can start posting jobs.
Upwork’s service has improved considerably over the years. The platform now has multiple ways to verify freelancers (e.g. authenticated email, job success scores, video verification), and has introduced a paid service where they help you source freelancers.
You have two payment options: hourly or fixed-price. You can set a weekly limit for freelancer hours and milestones for meeting deliverables in fixed-price projects.
Fiverr
Based in Tel Aviv, Fiverr is another popular online marketplace for freelance services. As its name suggests, Fiverr is a platform that lets you outsource small jobs for as little as $5.
What’s great about Fiverr is that you don’t need to write job descriptions. Simply pick your seller and you’re good to go. If you need something more specific, you can put in a buyer request, which is quite simple to create.
You can also ask for revisions if you’re unsatisfied with the work. If you’re on a tight deadline, you can set a turnaround time as short as 24 hours.
Freelancer
Freelancer.com is a crowdsourcing marketplace. Here are the steps involved to hiring a remote worker from there:
- Register an account.
- Post your project details, requirements and budget.
- Freelancers will then place bids on your project.
- Pick the best qualified and cost-effective candidates.
Every freelancer has their own profile where you can see their qualifications and feedback from past clients. Once you pick your freelancer, set a payment milestone. As the work completes, you decide when to release the funds.
PeoplePerHour
Another option you can explore is PeoplePerHour, one of the top freelance marketplaces in the UK. It has about 1.5 million freelancers and 750,000+ clients.
Posting a project is pretty quick and easy for newcomers: in the application form, you sign up for an account (optionally via Facebook) and provide information about the project.
After you review proposals to your project and pick the one you like best, you pay a deposit which will be placed in escrow. When you’re satisfied with the freelancer’s output, you give PeoplePerHour the go-signal and they’ll release the funds.
FreeeUp
What differentiates the FreeeUp marketplace is that they have an internal team that vets all freelance applicants and accepts only the top 1%. That means you get a better selection of candidates if you post your job there.
Like other platforms, FreeeUp requires you to create an account first before you can submit a request for a virtual assistant. The whole process is pretty quick – you can meet a candidate within 1 business day. You can then interview your prospects and make your decision.
FreeeUp doesn’t have any startup or monthly fees. There are no minimum rates for hourly or fixed payments either.
Guru
Formerly known as eMoonlighter, Pittsburgh-based Guru is another freelancing marketplace with about 3 million members. As with other platforms, you need to create an account.
To find freelancers, you can post a job and wait for the quotes to arrive. Otherwise, you can look for freelancers and ask them for quotes directly. Either way, the whole process is simple.
Just note that you have to pay a 2.5% handling fee for each invoice. So if the invoice charges you $100, you’ll be charged an extra $2.50.
LinkedIn is an excellent option for recruiting candidates.
- It’s massive with over 260 million monthly active users.
- Its profiles are accurate (wrong information can be seen by colleagues who can verify it); easy to compare (all use the same format); and highly searchable (by industry, connections, education, etc).
- Job posts are automatically matched with targeted members.
- There are several ways to post jobs and recruit.
To recruit, you can:
- Join a LinkedIn group, then post your job in a discussion thread.
- Upgrade to a Premium Recruiter account (involves spending).
- Post an opening in LinkedIn Jobs (involves spending).
VA Networking
This one’s a little different: VA Networking is a social network for virtual assistants. It has a blog and forum, and offers a range of products (e.g. coaching, training) and various free resources.
To start hiring, you’ll first need to sign up for a free account, then submit a request for proposal.
OnlineJobs.ph
If you’re set on hiring a Filipino virtual assistant, check out OnlineJobs.ph, especially if you want to employ someone directly. As with other platforms here, OnlineJobs requires an account. Fortunately, there’s a free option that doesn’t require a credit card.
There’s a catch though: you can’t contact or hire workers with a free account. If you choose the paid route, you’ll have to spend at least $69 per month. Regardless, its database of 200,000 resumes makes OnlineJobs a viable option.
Schedule a call with us. Let’s talk about the role you need.
