Posts Tagged ‘social networking’
Get Real! Online Networking has its Rewards
Having worked with many social media clients in the past few years, it’s been interesting to note a pattern that has emerged. Clients who are more accepting of the need for them to use their social networks and post a good portion of their own tweets and updates, are the ones having more success.
Why? It comes down to being authentic and personable. Taking an real interest in listening to others and joining in the conversation. Think of it as a business networking event. Except you are not in a room at a local business, you are online. You can talk with people all over, and connections can be made. From these connections, many things can develop.
You only have a sentence or two in which to do this, so really time is not a big factor. When you read other people’s updates / tweets; think of it as the person having said the same thing to you at a networking event. How would you respond? Type it out in 140 characters or less and now you’ve started social networking – online. Initiate conversations yourself. You would never go to a networking event and never talk to anyone – Twitter and Facebook can help your business in the same way. Reach out to people and network.
What’s the point? Most times I tell clients…
“Because you never know where it can lead.”
Last year, I alerted someone that her BIO on twitter had some weird and inappropriate symbols and curse words in it. She was thankful I took the minute to send her an email to let her know. Never sure how it happened, she was nonetheless grateful and invited me to write an article on a website she owns; one geared to entrepreneurs (my target client).
Another client came to me by alerting someone to the fact that they had a link not working. When I emailed her, she saw my signature and happened to be looking for a Virtual Assistant. She replied with her thanks and also asked me about my business, soon I was looking after the project she needed done.
Mine are not the only stories out there… many people are experiencing the same things and most come from talking to others and providing value; whether a tidbit of information or a few kind words of support or noting something out of place that if not caught could have lost them connections and sales.
Be yourself and don’t be scared to connect with others just because you can’t reach out and touch them – Online friendships and business connections can be as rewarding as in-person ones. They can also lead to more business as people engage you and get to know you.
What tips do you have for ‘being real’ online? Please share your ideas in the comments below 
5 Tips for Networking Success after the ‘Live’ Event
Do you often attend in-person or ‘Live’ events? Seminars or training events, even meetups – whether local or requiring travel – can be a great way to learn and network with other business individuals. Referrals, contacts and even friendships can develop at events and seminars. After each event you’ll want to take a breath. But, don’t breathe too long. There is work to be done that mustn’t wait. Seize the day!
The tendency is to think about the exciting things you learned and the people you met – for a while. After a week, you seem to lose your enthusiasm and settle back into life before the event. That is the last thing you want to do especially where your business is concerned.
Now, is the time to cement that lasting impression that you believe you made on the people you met at the seminar. Don’t let a moment go by, from the time you get home, that you are not harnessing the power of that meeting. Besides you know yourself that out of sight truly does mean out of mind if there is no contact for a while.
Here are a few tips to help you get the ball rolling on that pocket full of business cards, that camera full of pictures and that briefcase (or tote) full of helpful handouts and resources.
- Create a new plan. Now that your head is swimming with ideas, take out that handy notebook and look at what you’ve jotted down. If you have been putting off a new program or service for one reason or another, this may be the perfect time to get going. Find out a new way to streamline the process and create a plan to get the ball rolling right now.
- Email your new colleagues. Each business card in your hand should contain the website and email address of the one who handed it to you. Contact each person individually and tell them what a great time you had meeting them. To give them a mental picture of you, include your picture at the end of the email. What will impress them is if you can recount one tidbit from your conversation with them and include it also.
- Get involved in online social networking. Find your new connections on all the social networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Invite them to be friends or followers (depending on the site) so you can keep in contact.
- Blog about the experience. Get your readers interested in the event happenings. Share your experiences and any new business takeaway advice you received.
- Develop new products. Talk about leveraging! You can turn that one seminar presentation into a wealth of digital products. Create an e-course on your topic. Use the handouts as filler for your monthly newsletter, content for your site or new topics for video media. Those brainstorming techniques you developed at the event will come in handy now.
What did you learn at your last live event? Did you do anything with the knowledge? Hopefully you did. If not, use these five tips to reawaken the enthusiasm and create new action items.
The other social media channel – Your Blog
Social Media
Well, today was quite a day… as a social media virtual assistant, I had a very hairy day as Twitter and Facebook both succumbed to Denial of Service Attacks, which appeared to be coordinated attacks too. Their systems in effect were shut down and people could not sign in nor post any updates.
It meant that several items of work done for clients and also to do for clients could not happen. It also was a wakeup call to me, and hopefully many others, that you should not keep all your social networking eggs in one basket. Read the rest of this entry »
Training is vital to Growth
I realized the other day after finishing a consultation with a new client, that my business has grown almost 40% since completing a certification course this past April. It was kind of a wake up call on how important training is to growing your business.
Of course training is always beneficial in that you gain new knowledge and skills. As small business owners, we sometimes forget that it is these very items that make us more valuable to our clients.
Bringing in new ideas and abilities helps clients, and in my line of business the primary goal with any client is to help them get their work done, no matter the task and doing so in a way that saves them time and money. For most the goal of having a virtual assistant is to free up time to devote to generating more revenue or in some cases to having more time for family and life.
What training did I complete? A Certification course for Social Media Marketing. The course from VAclassroom gave me deeper insight into this type of work. Social Media Marketing is quickly turning into my niche, or niche, as some people say (…sorry, I couldn’t help that, so many people pronounce that word differently!)
This training taught me how to focus on my clients, their targets and goals; creating a strategic plan for them. It helped me clarify and define a process and system with my work in social media. I discovered how to be as efficient as possible for my clients and to be always thinking of new ways to use social media in order to help my clients grow their business.
Will I stop at this course? No way, as more opportunities to learn arise, I will sign on! This past year I have taken a bookkeeping course, have taken weekly seminars at VAnetworking and joined in many other courses that saw me making improvements in how I manage my own business or work for my clients. I’m even going to lead a class myself on July 16th as part of a Summer Speaker Series. I will be teaching others – exciting and scary at the same time!
There is always more to learn to improve yourself, your work and your business – and by doing so you will grow and prosper your business.
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If you’d like to partake of 28 Seminars for $27 this summer, please check out the VAvirtuosos site. The topics are varied and very applicable to many types of businesses.
If you are interested in taking VAclassroom’s Social Marketing Training, it is a self study and open to anyone. If you use the coupon code SUMMER09, you can save $100 off the course.
You don’t have 100 fans…what can you do?
This weekend there was a flurry of activity and messages and collaboration between strangers all over as businesses tried to gain enough fans on their Facebook Page to create a vanity url for it.
Facebook changed the rules last minute and upped the ante from 25 fans to 100. Sunday night was a busy night online for many… but if you have yet to reach your goal and are looking for a short url to use for this same purpose, why not add the Memorable Web Address to your Facebook Page?
It’s there, it’s available to everyone and it can be customized as you wish. Ours is http://companies.to/timeontaskva.
Simply sign in to Facebook, click browse applications on the bottom left menu bar and look for Memorable Web address. You can assign one to your personal profile as well. For people with a more common name, it may be an option if you missed out on your facebook username a few weeks ago.
Once you add this to your Page, go to the page and hit edit, under your page profile picture. It is in this area that you will scroll down the list of applications on your page. Once you find Memorable Web address, click edit and it is in here you can assign the address to your page.
Great thing about the Web 2.0 world, someone is always using their brains and talent to create applciations that help out others.
Any questions using this, feel free to leave a comment and I will help you out as best I can!
Technorati Tags: facebook, Social Media, social networking, virtual assistant
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