Meet Sara Alston | Social Media Marketing & Optimization Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Alston and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
The answer to this question can be really long winded or simply put and very brief. In my experience, both in life and in work, I have found that there is rarely a situation that governs a reason for ‘giving up’. Imperfect nature may want us to take the path of least resistance and to stop trying, but I can’t think of a circumstance that would improve our character and refine our skills and personality by giving up. I think it’s during the pressure and those hard circumstances where most people would give up, that if we keep going, those are the times that truly shape us into a stronger person.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I work with business owners that are feeling pressured and overwhelmed and on the verge of a major breakup with social media and having to market their business online. There really is such a thing as social media fatigue, so my specialty is helping those business owners to optimize their social media and create a strategy that allows them to be on social media less. My framework for developing this strategy and overhauling their social media accounts allows them to still be present online and speak to their ideal client without even having to be logged into their account, but not feeling the pressure to be on there daily.

What sets me apart from most other social media marketers is that I myself have felt the desire to break up with social media and I know and can sympathize with how overwhelming and frustrating it can be, so I might be one of the only social media marketers that lets my clients know that it’s okay to not look at social media as the end all, be all. I choose to have a fun and refreshing approach to social media so that they can make a profit by leveraging this powerful tool, but stop having those Sunday scaries and not feeling the joy that they used to when logged into their accounts.

I get most excited about the optimization process. This may be a new idea for a lot of business owners that are on social media, but it is pointless to use paid ads or to implement any kind of strategy without first optimizing your accounts. I’ve done that with my own accounts and I’ve done it with many, many clients and I have seen what works so that you can easily get leads on autopilot and the key is: optimization must be done first before anything else.

I have actually been working as an executive assistant and marketing assistant way back since my first job outside of hospitality in 2007. I started in real estate as an executive assistant and from their expanded into government roles and before starting my own virtual business, my most recent secular experience was working in the public school system. I’ve been responsible for marketing in several different Industries across a wide spectrum and that has allowed me to truly master the marketing that I provide to my clients today.

With over 15 years of experience plus the two years that I’ve already been in business for myself, I have really learned adaptable skills and found that marketing is my true passion so it only made sense for me to niche down from a general virtual assistant to something that I specialize in so I can provide the utmost value to my clients when they sign on to work with me.

With that being said it was not easy to get to where I am today. My very first role as a licensed executive assistant in real estate was a challenging one because that was right when the market crashed. I was young and I put my all into the hours I spent working for the team and the brokerage that I was a part of only to learn that in the secular world, you are replaceable and it does not matter how much effort and energy you put into your position. When the market crashed I was left without a job, and I was not even paid for my last week of working for that company. That was a huge eye-opener to me as a young woman, and newly married, but even with all the challenges that came from that, I did not allow it to take away my joy and passion. Instead, I allowed it to teach me the art of finding work-life balance.

As a business owner today, I have learned that the best thing I can do for my business is to provide the best and optimal value possible to my clients. Also throughout my life, I have found that my biggest grounding value is having joy, so I bring a lot of fun and humor into my business and I think it’s so important for my clients to be able to feel that same amount of joy when working with me and when using social media. I feel truly accomplished when my clients say things like “Now I’m finally having fun with social media” or “Now I don’t feel the pressure of having to be online daily” or “Now I can do what I really love and enjoy, spending time with my family and working with my clients, not being logged into social media.”

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’ve been blessed with many good friends that have come to visit and stay with us and I can tell you exactly what I would do. First of all, we live in the countryside so one of my favorite things to do out here is to take the golf cart out on some dirt roads and give them that true country experience. It’s so beautiful to see the ponds and the meadows and the wildlife.

Some of our favorite places to take company is the Atlanta Motor Speedway. We are big on motor sports in our family so you can pretty much catch us at any of the dirt-sport races there, like AMA Supercross. And as silly as this sounds, every time we are in Atlanta we have to stop for Del Taco! I was born and raised in Southern California and we just moved out towards Savannah Georgia about 3 years ago, so we really miss some of the food and Del Taco is one of those places. Being new to the area, we still have a lot to explore in Atlanta and I have a long list of places to try. I’d love recommendations!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Absolutely, I am involved in a lot of different networking groups and communities that have really allowed me to forge some great working relationships and friendships with like-minded business owners. There’s one in particular where I get a lot of extra support (and cheers!) and they have become my dear friends even though some of us have not ever met in person. And this particular networking group is one where we all share the same faith and have the same goals in life. It has been really refreshing to be able to keep my mind focused on why I started my business and what my goals are at the end of the day because it definitely makes those challenges a lot less complicated to solve and also this virtual business space a lot less lonely with their support.

Website: www.preferredvs.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/preferredvirtualservices/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preferredvs/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/saramarieceo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saramariemarketing

Other: Learn how to use hashtags for free: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/630ffdd42812b898e99a94f1

Image Credits
By Bonnie Photography