I met with a professional speaker recently who is a natural and active face to face networker – she has just launched her second website and is confident and very successful. However, when it comes to technology, she tends to see online networking as a bit of a waste of time. From speaking to other professionals about their online presence, I suspect there are a lot of people who think along similar lines, although not all of them are prepared to admit it! This lady was asking me about social networking sites and what she should be doing to keep up regarding her online marketing strategy.
So, to kick off this week, I thought I’d share some of my answers with particular reference to Twitter (which might help you too if you’re still fumbling your way around the web trying to find information about how social media works).
Twitter
What is it?
Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.
(taken from the Twitter site)
What does Twitter do?
Once signed up with a Twitter account, you can:
A) Write Tweets (short messages no longer than 40 characters long) to share your knowledge and make recommendations containing links to other websites your followers may find useful. Other members of Twitter can also view your profile to see your previous Tweets, who you are following and who is following you!
TIP: If you’re a technophobe, ask your Virtual PA or Social Media Assistant to sign you up to social media sites and handle your online profiles for you – we enjoy managing this stuff!
B) Follow people whose Tweets you find interesting. Even if its only for half an hour at lunchtime, its worth logging in to find out what’s going on in your world. I’ve recently heard of someone finding their dream job through “Tweeting” their CV!
Why do I need it?
Not only can you easily keep up with news which affects and interests you, rather than having to scour the papers (so last year) or other websites for informative articles but you must agree, your online marketing strategy is important to you – so, very simply put, you need to Tweet if you want to stay ahead of the game! (Who knows, you may even get to enjoy it)
For additional advice on Twitter go to http://twitter.com/about
Read more from the Virtually 247 Blog
Microsoft Exchange Servers
How To Ensure a Smooth Office Move
The Role of the Executive PA in 2010
About using Virtual PA Services
Ideas on what to delegate before you go on holiday
Comparing Costs
A Virtual PA Can Save You Time By Organising Important Events
Newsletters R Us
Utilise Online Organisers to Save You Time
Writing Blog Posts
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Ideas For Delegation So You Can Really Relax On Holiday
If you have children at home during the summer holidays and are trying hard to balance work with your parental responsibilities, have you thought of using the services of someone else to take your calls and answer your e-mails?
It can be disconcerting when a client calls you and you know they must be thinking "what is all that noise in the background!" Not only that, it sounds unprofessional.
There are companies around who will take your calls (for a minimal fee) and e-mail your messages to you so that you can return calls at a quiet time which suits you. This is not a service provided by Virtually 247 although I know from the amount of calls I get it is a service which is sought after and needed by many.
(See my video outlining services which are offered by Virtually 247)
I do however manage e-mail accounts for people when they're on holiday as, after all, it wouldn't be a holiday if you're constantly checking your Blackberry in case a client needs you. If anything urgent comes up which I am unable to action for a client's client, I make sure I have their authorisation to interrupt them at a pre-arranged time (although this doesn't happen very often).
Other tasks which can be carried out by your Virtual PA or VA whilst you are in the pool or lazing around on the beach are:
- updating your contacts database
- clearing out your in-box
- electronic filing
Let's take one at a time:
Your Contacts Database
Crucial to your business and so easy to manage when up to date but how many times have you looked at a pile of business cards from networking events or post-it notes with names, contact numbers and e-mail addresses, thought "I need to do something about those," and pushed them out of sight? No way to treat your future prospects! All you need to do is mail them to your Virtual Assistant who can upload them into a database so they're ready for your next mail-merge or Em-mail Newsletter, and update your Outlook Contacts.
Priotitising E-Mail
We all know how it feels when you return home to an in-box full of enquiries, unwanted offers, mail from friends or kids' friends' parents which somehow find their way to your work account. Some will obviously go straight into your deleted items folder but others, although not required again, will contain information which needs to be transferred to calendars or forwarded or copied to others. Your PA can sort all of these for you so, and probably respond to most, so that you only need to deal with the prioritised mail (moved to an appropriately-named folder of course).
Electronic Filing
If your VA has access to your PC, or you have a shared electronic workspace, it's a great idea to ask her to set up folders (ensuring of course she names them appropriately and leaves you a hard copy list of what is contained in which folder so that you don't waste time trying to find files on your return).
If you haven't yet gone away on your well-earned break, I hope this blog has given you some food for thought and that you will feel more organised and less daunted when you get back to your office. If, like me, you have already returned, I hope you are coping and perhaps you could implement some of these ideas before you next travel!
Read more from the Virtually 247 Blog:
Utilise Online Organisers To Help Save You Time
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Do you outsource your blog?
If you want to stay ahead of the game and promote your business online, you will almost certainly know by now the requirement of appropriate and rich content if you want to bring new prospects to your website. Blogging about a particular skill, service or product is a fantastic way of creating and building your online profile and area of expertise. If you think of blogging in this way, then hiring someone like a Business Assistant, to write your blog is a positive move – it will save you many hours and will become another weekly task you can cross off your list once you’ve delegated your particular subject and ideas.
There are bound to be times when you think of something new which you know you should be telling your prospects and clients but really don’t have the time to stop what you’re doing in order to set up blog profiles or wait for your web designer to upload new content to your website – sound familiar?
You could consider using the services of someone who understands blogging platforms on a technical level, and who can add real value for you by attracting the right kind of traffic to your website, leading to additional interest, potential leads and eventually new clients – that is after all what it’s all about.
The right VA (Virtual Assistant) or virtual PA is the perfect solution – if you can find someone who has the experience of working in large credible organisations, they will more than likely have been responsible for writing content for their bosses, whether in the form of speeches, reports or presentations. This is just one example of how the typical executive PA saves time for senior guys within the corporate world. If you are considering outsourcing your blog, you need someone who can take a brief, an idea or just raw text and know immediately what they need to do to make it read better, sound more interesting, and, most importantly, grab reader attention (by using appropriate headlines and images to add interest).
You don’t need a ghost blogger but you may well need a Virtual Assistant
Having read this you might be surprised at the skills required, as they have very little to do with ghost writing and far more to do with being web-savvy and experienced in what search engines are looking for when their spiders start crawling the web.
There are bound to be times when you think of something new which you know you should be telling your prospects and clients but really don’t have the time to stop what you’re doing in order to set up blog profiles or wait for your web designer to upload new content to your website – sound familiar?
You could consider using the services of someone who understands blogging platforms on a technical level, and who can add real value for you by attracting the right kind of traffic to your website, leading to additional interest, potential leads and eventually new clients – that is after all what it’s all about.
The right VA (Virtual Assistant) or virtual PA is the perfect solution – if you can find someone who has the experience of working in large credible organisations, they will more than likely have been responsible for writing content for their bosses, whether in the form of speeches, reports or presentations. This is just one example of how the typical executive PA saves time for senior guys within the corporate world. If you are considering outsourcing your blog, you need someone who can take a brief, an idea or just raw text and know immediately what they need to do to make it read better, sound more interesting, and, most importantly, grab reader attention (by using appropriate headlines and images to add interest).
You don’t need a ghost blogger but you may well need a Virtual Assistant
Having read this you might be surprised at the skills required, as they have very little to do with ghost writing and far more to do with being web-savvy and experienced in what search engines are looking for when their spiders start crawling the web.
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