While poking around in my Google Reader this morning, I came across this blog post by Chris Brogan. He was working with a gentleman who runs a barber shop in Columbia and made these suggestion for moving his business forward. I believe they are tips that everyone can use. In fact, I use one of these tactics regularly. I offer all of my clients a referral benefit when they send new clients my way. The existing client receives 10% of the first invoice to the new client that they referred.
It’s one thing to be actively posting on the different social media venues; it’s another thing to use them to their fullest potential. Posting alone will not build your reputation or your business. You need to interact with the people you are connected to. Engage in conversations, even if it seems like fluff; commenting on a post about someone’s bad day will build that relationship and you will benefit by being recognizable and memorable to the contact.
Yes, it takes time to build these relationships but patience and diligence will prove fruitful. Is there someone that you would like to add to your circle of influence? Talk to them. Most people, if they are using social media correctly, will respond and engage in conversation. Before you know it, you will have a new digital friend.
On Twitter, use the #FollowFriday hashtag to promote the people that you follow to your followers. This is a big complement in the Twitterverse. If you have a Fan Page, try to post something beneficial at least every week that pertains to the interest of your Fans. Make sure that you reply to any comments you receive here.
Do you have a blog that accepts comments? Make sure you accept and post the comments in a timely basis and always reply to them, right there on the blog.
Future posts:
· Share your knowledge
· Twitter – spread your message and drive traffic
· Tools to measure
· How long does it take to see a return on your investment/influence
· Follow the right people on Twitter
· Inspire someone in your LinkedIn network
· Become the go-to person in your field
· Gain media attention
Please note: The above list may be added to or subtracted from as I feel necessary.
I found this Chris Brogan Kitchen Table Talk this morning and was surprised to find that Chris was in my hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The interview is with Joe Sorge, owner of three Milwaukee restaurants, including AJ Bombers whose success was built completely with Twitter. This success story reinforces my belief that social media does work for local businesses if you have a plan and follow through with it.
Whether you have hired a virtual assistant or social media specialist to write your social marketing plan or if you have written it yourself, now is the time to start implementing it. The first thing that needs to happen is to create your branded profile at each social marketing site on your plan. It is very important to keep this profile consistent and attractive in order to gain recognition.
This blog post by @TimeOnTaskVA caused me to review how I spend my day. This is a very good thing to do in order to review if you are making the most of your time! I now consider myself optimized.
It seems every single week there is something new in the social media marketing world.
I had been making flow charts for clients social media accounts on what account was automatically linked to what account. Finally, my wonderful accountability partner, Kathy Colaiacovo, from Time On Task Virtual Assistant Services answered a question on VAnetworking regarding posterous.com. This lead me to an afternoon of exploring the features, logistics and setting up an account here. I will be moving some clients off of ping.fm and over to posterous. It really is a simple service.
One email to post@posterous.com and you are able to post to your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as well as a myriad of other sites. The biggest benefit that I see is that posterous sends your message as a Tweet and the characters that don’t fit end up with a shortened URL back to the main posterous site. Brilliant!
As a Virtual Assistant, I have been using social media for quite a while now and recently have found myself disturbed by other’s ideas of how to handle it. This is the first part in a series of blog posts regarding social networking and my beliefs on proper methods of success.
Start with a Plan
A well written social media networking plan is necessary to help guide you to success with minimal effort. You will be able to see on paper, (or the computer screen), what your needs are in order to reach your goals. A great plan should include: Read the rest of this entry »
I was very surprised yesterday morning to discover a Google Alert in my inbox indicating that I had won the VAnetworking Blog of the Month Award. How honored I am especially since my blog is so new! In addition to being new, my topics tend to be all over the board, depending upon what project I am working on at the moment or what is paining me or inspiring me. This just proves the support and family-like atmosphere that this group projects. I would not be where I am today without discovering Tawnya Sutherland from an article in Entrepreneur.com. (This link goes to an article about Tawnya but not the one that got me involved with her. That one is a number of years old and no longer posted.)
Are you an aspiring virtual assistant like me? Do you have an Insiders subscription to VAnetworking? I have found this group of VA’s to be the most open, addressable and helpful people in the industry! You don’t really even need the paid Insider subscription, if you don’t want to receive the valuable RFP’s or invitations to special classes and trainings. It is just a great place to tips and tricks of the industry. The response time is incredible. I don’t think that I have ever posted a question that wasn’t answered by the end of the day.
However, I do suggest that anyone that is starting up their own virtual assistant business check out Tawnya’s Virtual Business Startup Solutions package. There is also a Kick Start download on the website. I should have gone this route, but, I thought that I could start my business by myself. Yes, I was able to but it took quite a while and occasionally, I would have the horse before the cart and have to back up and improve my plans! It would have been a lot easier if I would have just followed Tawnya’s program.
And, if you are not a virtual assistant, but think you may need one or would like to find out more information about how to partner with a VA, first, read their blog and then join the forum! This is an excellent place to hang out. Once you easily discover the openness and honesty of professionals in the VA industry you will feel very confident by posting your Request for Proposal on this board. You can also find out more from my webpage “Why a VA?”
I found this post this morning on the VAnetworking.comblog site and felt that it was worth more exposure, so I posted a link to it here. Karri Flatla of snap-va.com is a great Virtual Assistant and peer of mine. She writes for the VAnetworking blog regularly and always provides excellent information!
Karri’s post is very timely, addressing the client that can’t afford much but knows that they need help. Currently, I am working with a client and by following Karri’s advise in her post, I am able to help this client move the business forward at a steady, controlled pace without breaking her bank.
