If you’ve arrived at this website looking for Absolute PA you’ll see that things have changed quite a bit around here! So I feel like I owe you an explanation.

 

A Short History

I started Absolute PA, a virtual assistant service, in 2009 and built it from scratch in to a successful business, largely using social media and online marketing to raise my profile and find clients. You can read more about that in this press article.

At the time I launched, social media was just beginning to make waves.  As a micro-business owner and having previously worked in media and PR, I recognized its benefits immediately as a low cost way to reach more customers, build my reputation and make valuable business connections. The more success I generated through social media, the more excited I became. I knew I had to make it an integral part of my business! Social media became a valuable resource and marketing tool for me, providing numerous leads, clients, opportunities and web traffic. I generated a huge 56% of web traffic and a quarter of new business wins in 2010 from Twitter alone!

Having experienced the power of social media marketing for myself, I wanted to help other business owners achieve success too. I was increasingly being asked by clients to help set up, manage and implement social media and online marketing plans for them.

As I made my way around the web and spoke to other small business owners, I saw that many were getting it wrong, and how confused and nervous some were (still are!) about using it. I really wanted to help. But, if I was really going to help them succeed I wanted to know all the tricks and techniques to provide excellent value. I didn’t want to simply rely on my own success with Absolute PA. As great as that was, I didn’t feel it was enough. So I studied and researched how best to provide social media and online marketing as a service, concentrating on strategy, planning and measuring – the important bits that many small business owners don’t think about. Anyone can set up a LinkedIn profile or Facebook page, that’s the easy part. Making it work for your business is what counts.

So in 2011, I wound down the VA side of the business, (which was now only a small part of what I was doing) to concentrate fully on providing cost effective, realistic, time saving social media and online marketing support to other small businesses. Enter AliciaCowan.com!

 

The Present

I love social media and digital marketing. Everyday I see how it helps small business owners increase profits and positively effect their work and life experience through gained knowledge, more customers and joint ventures. It’s what I get excited about!

I believe that most importantly, social media marketing has to be simple. I draw on my practical organisational skills to find ways that make it less time consuming and overwhelming, and how to slot it in with the way my clients work.  I specialise in creating realistic and simple strategies, training and mentoring, dealing with the techy set up stuff and long term management support so they can stop wasting time and start seeing results. As small business owners, we haven’t got money to burn or time to waste!

I also run training workshops and regularly speak on the obstacles facing small businesses using social media and how best to overcome them.