With a long to-do list and little free time, we all probably feel like we could use a personal assistant from time to time. Although hiring someone to manage your emails and confirm appointments would certainly do the trick, it might not be a practical solution to your scheduling woes. Fortunately, all of the benefits of a personal assistant can be found in something you likely already use every day: social media. Believe it or not, social media can be used for more than just sharing funny pictures of cats and following the entire cast of Jersey Shore.
To learn how you can use social media as your own personal assistant, consider the following tips:
- Skype Your Professor
Are you in online classes learning about international business relations and can’t remember core concepts or principals? You could send an e-mail and wait around for your professor to offer a complex response with so many high-level vocabulary words you need a dictionary to decipher the message. Or, you could call him or her on Skype and receive a visual and audible answer to your question, along with answers to your questions along the way. When it comes to getting through your college education in one piece, social media can be your best asset for quickly connecting with professors and classmates without having to wait until the next scheduled class period.
- Tweet Your Appointments
Do you often find yourself having to make or reschedule several appointments, but are so swamped at work that you don’t have time to call each person to set everything up? This is normally where a personal assistant would come in handy, but Twitter does the trick just fine. Many businesses allow customers to tweet appointment requests, submit questions, and make cancellations all from their Twitter accounts to enhance convenience for both parties. You can quickly tweet your dentist, hairstylist, and personal trainer all in less than five minutes to have all of your appointments confirmed for the following week.
- Facebook Your Favorite Businesses
Say you want to file a complaint about the poor service you received at your favorite restaurant this weekend, or perhaps you want to find out if your bank will be open on an upcoming holiday. You can connect with customer service reps at nearly all major corporations and even small businesses by posting your concerns right on their Facebook walls. A customer service representative will often respond right away with a quick answer or further instructions for sorting out your concerns through phone or email if necessary.
- Strengthen Your Professional Connections with LinkedIn
Whether you’ve just graduated college and are looking for your first job or you are working on developing your professional image and gaining clients and partnerships, LinkedIn is an excellent social media outlet for keeping up with all of your professional affairs. You can use the site to schedule meetings and interviews, update information regarding your education and experience, and network with other professionals in your industry. LinkedIn not only helps you connect with several clients and partners from one convenient location, but also helps you continually establish your professional image and increase your online presence.
Communicating and connecting with others is no longer restricted to phone calls and e-mails. Although most people understand this concept to the extent of socializing with their friends, only a small portion of people realize how social networking can help them connect with virtually anyone—from their doctor to their favorite fast food chain. This might be bad news for personal assistants, but for everyone else it saves time and money, while eliminating the hassle of completing your to-do list the old fashioned way.
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