By Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage

Ok, my reference to Shakespeare in the title of this post is corny. What can I say?  My two kids say the older I get, the cornier I get. I offer my apologies for subjecting you to it.  But it just fit so well with the context of my post today.

As a frequent ‘tweeter’ on Twitter , I followed a short conversation (can they be anything but with only 140 characters?) concerning virtual assistance.  One person inquired concerning it and the other stated that if the first party were considering becoming one, that they might rather use another designation.  Has the designation of ‘virtual assistant’ become so overused and non-specific that we need to rethink calling ourselves as such?  Does adding the term “Virtual Assistant Services” to my website cause possible clients to turn off whereas using terms such as ‘blog or social media consultant’ ‘business transcriptionist’ or some other designation might garner more attention?

Granted the term ‘virtual assistant’ holds a broad spectrum, but hey, some of us have a broad spectrum of expertise to offer.  I personally have a lot of experience in the mortgage/ real estate law office arena. Yet, I’ve been maintaining websites since my ‘PTA’ days when I was a scrapbook consultant and began blogging when it was called an ‘online journal’, designing my own templates for blogger and personalized headers for ’stock’ Wordpress blogs. I have designed brochures, business cards, letterhead, etc for both myself and former employers for years, transcribed countless documents from both verbal and handwritten form.  On top of that, I’ve got a certificate in Health Claims Processes that includes medical transcription and processing health insurance claims among other medical office protocols.  And these are just the things that come to mind immediately.  So if using the term ‘virtual assistant’ is shooting myself in the foot, just what other designation should I use?

It seems ironic just as virtual assistance is starting to become more widely recognized, that we have reason to question  the marketability of designating ourselves as such. Or perhaps I’m just super sensitive given my recent posts here on the definition of a virtual assistant.  What do you think?