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Ok let’s get straight to it. You’re here because you want to know how to find clients for your virtual assistant business.
And you’re not alone, the many virtual assistants say finding suitable remote work is their biggest struggle.
However, studies show it’s not lack of remote jobs that’s the problem. In fact the demand for remote workers and freelance VAs is growing year on year.
Securing new clients is one of the most significant challenges for virtual assistants, but with the right strategies, you can build a steady stream of business.
In this blog post, we’ll explore proven methods to find and secure the clients you need to thrive as a virtual assistant.
Platform by platform I’ll walk you through various methods to finding clients and job opportunities as well as how to attract clients via social media.
Having a strong presence on Instagram is helpful for two reasons. The first is that you can attract clients to your services by posting useful content and promoting.
The second is that you have somewhere to send potential clients to see examples of your work, testimonials and content that demonstrates your knowledge. If you offer social media marketing as one of your services it also serves as a demonstration of your design and writing skills.
Potential clients also want to see a glimpse of your personality and your passion as well as evidence your an expert in your specialty.
For ideas on the types of content to share visit my blog post with engaging Instagram post ideas for Virtual Assistants.
Did you know you can use Instagram to get alerts on new jobs?
The first step is to find and follow as many hiring and job hashtags as possible so you’ll get shown these in your feed.
Don’t forget to like the posts and save them (even if not the best fit) in order to get the algorithm to show you more similar posts in your home feed.
For this here are a few hashtags you could follow:
#remotejob
#hiringnow
#wearehiring
Also try location specific hashtags such as:
#usaremotejobs
#ukremotework
#hiringcanada
Next, create a new saved collection called ‘Jobs’ or similar and save all the hiring posts you come across to it.
Then every day, log in and check your feed for new opportunities that you can apply to.
This next method isn’t as effective on Instagram as it is on X (Twitter) but still worth trying out. So if you want to find more job opportunities via search, head down to the X section of this blog post.
Ok, so log into Instagram and search for keywords like “social media manager apply” or “virtual assistant apply” and you should see at least a couple of open hiring posts.
As searches on Instagram aren’t shown in chronological order, if you scroll down you may see hiring posts that are more recent than the ones at the top. So just click through and check the posting date.
Apart from waiting for new opportunities or searching, there is another way you can use Instagram in order to find virtual assistant work.
It involves email outreach and it’s something you can do to stand out as a proactive candidate and maybe even get yourself first on the list for new opportunities.
However please note this outreach method does NOT mean using the DM feature to message accounts. I don’t recommend doing that unless you want to risk being blocked on Instagram.
The only exception to the above, is on currently open hiring opportunities where the post specifically says to DM them.
So onto the method. Using the hashtags you’ve already found, go through the larger ones such as #hiringnow and #remotejob and and save ALL the hiring posts that are for people and brands you’d like to work for.
Still save them even if they are a few years old, just ensure that their IG account is still active.
Once you have around 20 or more saved. The next step is to find their email address and send them a short email enquiring if they have any need for a virtual assistant to help with (your specialty) and add a sentence or two about your services.
I think this strategy works best in smaller or niche communities on Facebook where there is less competition. However, there’s no reason not to try this in one or two large groups as long as you’re following the rules of the group.
I also think it helps if you have a specialty or knowledge of a particular tool or platform. For example, your specialty might be building funnels, blog writing, bookkeeping or lead generation. You might have knowledge of working with a particular tool/platform like ManyChat, Thrivecart, or Kajabi for example.
To get started, join Facebook groups where your ideal clients might join in order to get help or learn about a particular tool. Then participate in these groups by offering advice and sharing your knowledge can establish you as a trusted resource.
To make it easier on yourself, I recommend just focusing on checking and responding to posts in 2-3 of these groups every couple of days so that you don’t spread yourself too thin.
This method involves joining Facebook groups where your target clients are active and keeping an eye out for job posts.
If you are already in any paid or exclusive membership groups these can be a gold mine for job opportunities as there will be far less competition than the larger free Facebook groups.
You can also join groups dedicated to sharing job opportunities. Search for terms like “virtual assistant work” and “virtual assistant jobs.” You can also search for groups based in your country with “virtual assistant [location].”
Another really effective way to find clients in Facebook groups is by joining groups that have online networking events.
One good networking group that I know of is the WeMeetWednesdays.com – Networking Events & Referrals for Women Entrepreneurs Facebook Group.
To help you find more networking opportunities, below I’ve detailed the best way to find both in-person and online events on Facebook.
In Facebook search for terms like “business networking” and “business connections” and in the filters section choose ‘Events.’
If you’re only looking for online networking events scroll down to ‘Online events’ and toggle it on.
Then you’ll see a list of upcoming events you can join. Just remember to read up on the group’s rules before the event starts!
If you’d like to get found by people searching for virtual assistants on LinkedIn then follow these steps.
Start off by optimizing your profile to highlight your skills, experience, and the services you offer.
Write a compelling headline that clearly states your services and expertise. For example it can be as simple as:
Virtual Assistant Specialising in Excel
Or something like:
Creative Virtual Assistant | Social Media Support for Business Coaches and Entrepreneurs
Ensuring you have a professional up-to-date photo for your profile picture and customize your banner to reflect your brand.
Make sure you have a detailed summary for your about section. Highlight your skills, experience, and the unique value you bring to clients. Include lots of relevant keywords in your about description and all throughout your profile to improve searchability.
Remember to include information about how people can get in touch with you and add a link where they get a quote and/or book a call.
You can also showcase your work by adding portfolio items, and request recommendations from past clients to build credibility.
If you’ve skipped down to this section, make sure you’ve optimized your LinkedIn profile first by going through the steps I’ve mentioned above.
Ok, armed with your fully filled-out LinkedIn profile keep reading to find out how to get alerts for virtual assistant jobs on LinkedIn.
First search for “virtual assistant” and then filter by jobs. Then to see the full list of jobs click below where the ‘see all jobs’ button is. I’m in the UK so for me it says, ‘See all jobs in United Kingdom.’
Next, you should see a blue bar appear above the list of jobs. Simply toggle on the alert to get sent job opportunities. You can turn this off again in settings.
However, if you’d like to get alerts for jobs in another country from this results page, you can now go up to the top bar and change the country or just select remote. And again, toggle on the alert for that search.
Using the same search methods above, search for jobs and go through the results and save all the positions you like the look of.
To find even more opportunities, go back to the home page and search for terms like “virtual assistant apply” – but this time don’t click on jobs but instead select ‘posts’ in the filter menu.
Next, you can select sort by date so the most recently posted will appear at the top.
Then I recommend you follow the person who posted the job and ensure you save the post. Keep going until you’ve run out of jobs you want to apply for.
To find your saved posts again, go back to the home page and your saved items are linked to from the menu on the left, just under your profile pic and stats.
Then you can go through all your saved jobs and posts and apply to them one by one.
If LinkedIn is your preferred platform for posting and engaging with potential clients, sharing insightful posts and articles related to your niche will help you stand out in your professional network.
Again, if you’re after some content inspiration on what to post on LinkedIn you may find my blog post with post ideas for Virtual Assistants helpful.
Or if you’d like a whole set of done-for-you content for VAs then grab the Virtual Assistant social media Canva templates kit.
There are a few different ways to network on LinkedIn. The first is to follow industry leaders, and connect with potential clients and other professionals.
The key to this is – don’t be afraid to hit that connect button on people you don’t know. Nine times out of ten, they’ll accept your request – especially if they’re a 2nd or 3rd connection to you. Just be sure not to spam them in the messages.
When I send connection requests on LinkedIn, I personally don’t include a message and I have found this to work well. However if you prefer, you could add a short message to yours just stating why you’re sending a connection request.
Ultimately the key to success with this is to increase your connections on LinkedIn and engage with people’s posts you see in the home feed.
Take the time to write thoughtful and useful comments in a way that encourages conversations with your ideal clients.
The next thing you can do is to join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in discussions there in order to increase your visibility.
The last method is similar to the Facebook event method. On LinkedIn search for terms like “business networking” and select the Events button under the search bar. This will show you all the events you can join in order to meet and network with new people.
Similar to the Instagram email outreach method, this method involves searching for people who are your ideal client, finding their email address and reaching out to them asking if they have any open opportunities.
Firstly, again this will work best with people who have posted job opportunities fairly recently and are still actively in business.
They don’t have to be active on LinkedIn so much, but check out their other social media profiles and website to see if they are still going strong.
Again, I don’t recommend reaching out to people via LinkedIn messages. Most people will just ignore the messages on there – I know I do!
So back to the home page for a fresh search, and use the same search terms from above and select posts.
Then in the date posted filter select past-2y or past-3y (in filters keep ‘top match’ selected).
However, if this gives you way too many recent jobs to wade through, click the ‘all filters’ button and then right at the bottom in the author keywords box put in a keyword that describes your ideal client such as “coach” or “founder.”
Then you should find a lot less, but well targeted results that are more suitable prospects for your email outreach campaigns.
Log in to X and search for phrases like “virtual assistant apply,” “virtual assistant hiring” and “remote job apply.”
Using these keywords and selecting ‘latest’ in the feed will show you a whole load of recent posts with job listings for virtual assistant positions.
You can use the save icon to save all the posts you like the look of to a list. Similar to Instagram you can create a saved list – to keep your list private make sure you’ve set it to private.
Saving the posts to a list means you don’t have to keep going back and forth opening tabs and potentially losing where you were in the search results.
To find even more virtual assistant jobs on X you can search for tags like #workfromhome, #virtualassistantjob and #remotework.
You can often find VA jobs and remote work on Reddit in subreddits like:
/r/forhire
/r/VirtualAssistant
/r/freelance_forhire
To find more subreddits, search for keywords like “hiring virtual assistant” or “remote jobs” and see what subreddits the posts shown are from. You can also select ‘Communities’ to see a list of all the subreddits that contain those keywords.
Most of the jobs posted will have links to an application form so you can save the post and then click through to apply.
Well I hope you’ve found the above methods to find VA work via social media useful!
I just wanted to end this post with a few top tips when it comes to finding work online:
> Don’t forget to bookmark this post to come back to at a later date.
Wishing you the best of luck in your job search – you’ve got this!
For marketing insights and expert tips, don’t miss my article on marketing mistakes to avoid as a virtual assistant.
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