YouTube, Facebook and Google – The Golden Marketing Triangle for Any Type of Business

Remember the Yellow Pages… you know, those thick yellow books with phone numbers and ads in them? In your virtual business activities, have you used one lately to actually find a phone number, or are they more likely to be used as a coaster for your cup of coffee or a paperweight for your desk?

These days, more and more people are moving online, a trend that could soon make the Yellow Pages obsolete. A December 2010 report from the Pew Research Center titled “Generations Online in 2010” lists certain key Internet activities that are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups:

•    Email
•    Search Engine use
•    Seeking health information
•    Getting news
•    Buying products
•    Making travel reservations or purchases
•    Doing online banking
•    Looking for religious information
•    Rating products, services, or people
•    Making online charitable donations
•    Downloading podcasts

And what does this recent trend mean? Well, with Internet activities increasing among both younger and older adults, a lot of the people who would traditionally thumb through the Yellow Pages to find information about businesses could now be searching for this info online through sites like YouTube, Facebook and Google.

This creates an exciting opportunity for businesses to capitalize on. Check out the below video, where we talk about these three sites, the Golden Marketing Triangle for any type of business:

So, times are changing, and both online and local businesses could surely benefit by changing their marketing strategies from the yellow phone book to the golden triangle.

And as final food for thought, consider the increasing power of a local marketing strategy. A blog post by Econsultancy.com, titled “Why You should have a hyperlocal Facebook Strategy,” discusses their research on Starbucks Facebook pages and their engagement rate (ER) – how much fans engage, and response rate (RR) – how much the pages responds, in three months from November 2010 – January 2011. Here, measurements show that Facebook users are engaging on average three to four times more with local than global Facebook pages, with the local pages typically growing on average twice as fast as global communities.

Over the past year, there has also been a huge increase in the use of popular local social networking tools such as Twitter, Foursquare, Groupon and Yelp as local businesses are realizing the potential of leveraging this social medium to bridge the gap between the online world and offline customers.

Amazingly, for only a fraction of the cost of a Yellow Pages listing, these tools can quickly and easily boost a business’s brand recognition, stimulate meaningful connections with a target audience, build a loyal following and ultimately ignite a business’s customer base and revenue.

What are your thoughts on this? As a Virtual Assistant or online professional, do you see ways you could integrate this golden marketing triangle into the services you currently offer local or online business clients? Do you see an increase in the number of local businesses marketing online in your community? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

25 Top Marketing Strategies for Reaching New Clients (Part 2: Online Activities)

As promised (close on the heels of our last post about offline marketing strategies), we will now share some great tips for online activities Virtual Assistants and online professionals can use to reach more clients. Did we say these are our favorite kinds of activities?  Well, without further ado, here they are, with a couple extra tips thrown in for good measure.

Online Activities:

1. Create a high quality, fully search engine optimized website or blog site – We can’t emphasize enough how important this strategy is. Through new blog posts and pages, it’s crucial to expand visibility by producing regular content that is optimized with the keywords you want to build your business around.

2. Build a strong, targeted presence in social networks – Many people are now using social networks to secure joint venture partnerships and post projects in status updates.

3. Build a targeted Twitter following and actively participate in the community – Virtual assistants can land clients through Twitter by responding to requests that have been posted by business owners looking for help.

4. Create a branded Facebook Page and offer valuable and relevant content to your audience – Given the huge growth of Facebook, this is a very important strategy to help build up visibility for your business and create SEO value as well.  If you already have a Facebook Page, see where it can be improved and be sure to regularly add new content to it.

5. Create a LinkedIn Profile – By adding recommendations, joining and contributing in targeted groups, and answering relevant questions one-on-one, you can use LinkedIn to specifically connect with business owners (60 or 70 million professionals are on LinkedIn) who could become the ideal clients for you.

6. Join niche social networks – If you’re targeting specific groups like writers groups or small business groups, etc., look for networks like Ning that are supporting those groups.

7. Set up locally optimized business profiles in Google Places, Bing and Yahoo local directories – Because these profiles also have good SEO value, be sure to optimize your profile, add videos and create branding value for your business in the local community.

8. Contact Google Internet Marketing Firms / Multi-VA Firms, PR Agencies and present your portfolio – Connect with the key decision makers in these firms and agencies to present your portfolio and offer your services.

9. Create a free information product and offer in order to build a targeted e-mail list – A golden way of building up your credibility is to offer some kind of ongoing publication that is targeted to people with your skill sets. It should be valuable content (a video series, monthly newsletter, e-book, white paper, report) that will segue to the services you offer.

10. Blog, but only if you have some relevant content to share – Corporate blogs that merely present product and service updates are becoming redundant. However, blogs that share meaningful content that’s valuable to your audience can build your credibility if that content is targeted, specialized and reaching the right people.

11. Create a YouTube Channel and regularly distribute keyword-targeted videos – Video is quickly becoming the most popular medium and can’t be ignored by marketers. A great way to build your brand is by sharing tips videos (talking head or demos) and integrating these videos into your website to add a personal connection with your audience.

12. Start a BlogTalk Radio Show, regular podcast or AudioBoos where you share your expertise – This type of audio content is easily transmitted and shared on networks like Facebook, so it’s very effective for building your brand and targeting your audience.
13. Distribute keyword targeted articles and press releases through EzineArticles.com and PRWeb.com – Keywords will help you get listed in the top 10, but be sure to focus on the quality of the content before the keywords and write to benefit the lives and businesses of your target audience.
14. Create Presentations and PDFs through Slideshare.net and Scribd.com – With the rise of Slideshare.net, this strategy is gaining popularity as it can feed PowerPoint presentations directly into your LinkedIn profile. With these tools, you can also send new clients a link to your portfolio.

15. Put on webinars for online groups and associations – With tools like GoToWebinar or Free Conference Calling, you can focus on a particular industry (e.g. “Using Social Media for Interior Design Businesses”) and put on an informative webinar or tele-event.

16. Test out some low-cost Facebook Social Ads or Pay Per Click ads for targeted keywords – Another great way of targeting new clients is to test out these ads on your “Like” base from your Facebook Page. It is possible to get a lot of interest, visitors and sales through these ads.

Miscellaneous Strategies:

17. Referral Marketing – This is also called “Duct Tape Marketing” and involves being proactive with your existing clients and asking them for referrals to other colleagues. It relies on the “Know, like, trust factor” and can lead to many new client leads.

18. Set up Joint Ventures – Finally, a great way to build your business is to partner up with colleagues either inside or outside your industry who offer complementary services. For example, a person who writes articles might partner with someone in the social media space, and they could cross-refer each other.

We hope you find these tips helpful. If you are interested in reaching new clients, we recommend going through the lists in Parts 1 and 2 of this blog post series and ticking off the strategies you are currently using, evaluating which activities have been successful for you, and considering which strategies you might want to add to your overall marketing strategy.

As a community of Virtual Assistants and online professionals, we here at VAClassroom are committed to helping equip you with the skills that will help you reach your ideal client base. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a note for us in the comment box below. Also, let us know of any additional strategies or ideas that have worked for you.

25 Top Marketing Strategies for Reaching New Clients (Part 1: Offline Activities)

In this current economic climate, many Virtual Assistants and online business owners have experienced the highs and lows in their businesses over the past couple years. In fact, you yourself may have cycled from a time of abundance with great “high-value” clients to a drought where you have struggled to fill retainer clients that you may have lost for one reason or another. The ebbs and flows of a virtual business can cause a lot of stress.

During these times, it’s important to evaluate your virtual business activities and ask yourself some key questions:

•    What marketing strategies are you currently using to connect with new clients?
•    What strategies or activities have been successful for you? What has not gone well?

As we’re focusing on virtual business marketing this week, we’d like to take some time to share some top marketing strategies for reaching new clients. In our free event on March 17, “Virtual Business Marketing Makeover in One Hour,” one of the things we’ll be talking about is the fact that you must market every single day even if you have enough clients now. So, to start off our list, here are the first seven tips for how you can consistently market your business and connect with new and potential clients through offline activities.

Offline Activities:

1. Join or start a business networking group in your local area – This activity can actually happen both online and offline. Through Meetups, Tweetups, Chamber of Commerce or Local Business Associations, you can connect with like-minded individuals for collaboration purposes or to get connected with your target client audience.

2. Do a presentation for a local business group or association (i.e. local hospitality association, real estate association, small business owners) – For example, you could do a social media presentation that demonstrates how restaurants can use social media to draw in more customers. In a previous blog post, “Social Media Goes Local in 2010,” we talked about how restaurant owner Joe Sorge uses Twitter to engage with customers.

3. Attend a business fair/conference in your local region – These conferences and fairs are a great way to have face-to-face encounters with people who might potentially hire VAs.
4. Host a local event in your area (e.g. Social Media for Hospitality Businesses) – This activity requires some planning and maybe a bit of a budget, but it can be very effective as a form of networking.
5. Research and target local business clients with a one-on-one presentation – You could visit certain restaurants or spas you want to target to see how they could use social media to grow their businesses.

6. Publish an article in a local newspaper or trade magazine – This activity requires a certain level of writing skills, but can be very effective in giving your business more visibility.

7. Send targeted mail-outs to business lists through an association like the Chamber of Commerce – This is not the number one strategy we’d recommend because it isn’t very measurable, but it could definitely lead to multiple client opportunities in the local business community.

Stay tuned for our next post, where we will talk about tips for marketing your business through online activities (our favorite kind of strategies here at VAClassroom :).

And in the meantime, let us know if you have any questions or comments about these offline marketing strategies. Have you used any in the past and found them successful? Please drop us a comment in the box below!

The Worst Product Launches in History

William Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” meaning that it doesn’t matter what something is called, only what something is. In marketing, this often holds true, as history shows us time and time again.

In our own lifetime we have seen some amazingly popular brands attach their names to some really bad product launches that provide us Virtual Assistants and online business owners with some pretty powerful lessons on what not to do.

For starters, you may have noticed the clothing retailer Gap’s recent attempt to update their image. On October 6, 2010, they debuted a new logo on their website and did away with the blue box that had become synonymous with their brand. Throughout the Social Media community, there was a huge public outcry against the new logo, prompting Gap to return to its original blue box logo only a week later on October 12.

The below video creatively summarizes how Gap responded to the Social Media community and finally reached their decision to pull the new logo:

A blog post entitled “The Gap: Defensive vs. Proactive Social Media Strategy” gives an insightful opinion of what the company may have done wrong here:

Its logo-creation process and the subsequent reaction reflects the transition from the previous era to the new one we’re in now. The logo was developed “internally” and “top-down.” It would have been better for the Gap to solicit input on a new logo proactively before rolling one out. But use of the “old” process put the company on the defensive, though it has been very good about communicating around the new design — after the fact.

In another blog post, the same author, Greg Sterling, goes so far as to call this incident “Gap’s New Coke Moment.”

Remember New Coke? What a mistake! This hugely unpopular reformulation of Coca-Cola was introduced in April 1985 and then discontinued only three months later after a major outpouring of negative feedback from consumers. It was the first time in recent history that a company rolled back a big product in response to public outcry.

By now you’ve probably thought of a few more marketing failures, but here are some we’ve retrieved from the annals of history:

•    Heinz EZ Squirt Ketchup – colored ketchup products that eventually included green, purple, pink, orange, teal and blue, introduced in October 2000 and discontinued in January 2006.

•    Windows Vista – Microsoft operating system released on January 30, 2007, that became the target of much criticism and negative press, making many PC users turn to Macs for solace.

•    Crystal Pepsi – a colorless caffeine-free soft drink made by PepsiCo from 1992 to 1993 and marketed as a “clear alternative to normal colas.”

We could call these some of the worst product launches in history for many reasons, but for Virtual Assistants and online business owners, one of the MAJOR stumbling blocks for Online Product launches is no strategy or proper system in place! This is why so many new businesses are in desperate need of someone to support them in building the right strategy and system for their product launches.

For this reason we have launched our fourth major certification at VAClassroom: “The Product Launch Support Specialist Program“. This cutting-edge training program will equip Virtual Assistants with the skills, tools and resources to effectively set up and launch all types of products on the web for themselves and their clients! The Certification Program starts on November 15th!

For more details or to register for this innovative training, check it out at:

http://www.vaclassroom.com/product-launch-specialist

And as food for thought, we’ll leave you with a quote from Yum! Brands Chairman David C. Novak, the creator of the Crystal Pepsi concept:

It was a tremendous learning experience. I still think it’s the best idea I ever had, and the worst executed. A lot of times as a leader you think, “They don’t get it; they don’t see my vision.” People were saying we should stop and address some issues along the way, and they were right. It would have been nice if I’d made sure the product tasted good. Once you have a great idea and you blow it, you don’t get a chance to resurrect it.

A Day in the Life of a VAClassroom Product Launch

Wow, what a week it’s been! Between improving our Membership Center and preparing for our upcoming Spanish Channel launch, things have been hopping around here at VAClassroom! On top of that, we are gearing up to release our fourth certification program, the Product Launch Support Specialist Certification. Well, last Thursday we experienced first-hand the emotional roller coaster involved in an online product launch when our new VAClassroom Membership Center and updated website went live!

As many Virtual Assistants and online business owners know, launching a new product online can be very stressful.  No matter how much you prepare for complications, unexpected things always pop up. This launch went relatively smoothly for us, with the exception of some minor hiccups that were quickly resolved, including a brief outage that was thankfully much shorter than the Great Facebook Outage of 2010.

For us, though, the important thing was to communicate with people and let them know what’s up. For example, we posted this on our Facebook Page to let everyone know things were back to normal again:

Hey, if you were trying to access our VAClassroom Site this morning and couldn’t, we had an outage, but it is back up again! Hey, our turn-around time was even better than Facebook:-) Of course they do a have few more members than we do!

Groundwork laid before the launch was also very important. As Ali Brown writes in her article, “Follow 5 Steps to a Powerful Product Launch,” a key strategy to a successful product launch is building up demand by communicating with customers through low-cost or no-cost Internet Marketing tools like e-mail newsletters, social media, group calls or teleseminars. Therefore, leading up to the launch, we made sure we outlined some of the upcoming changes in our Monthly Newsletter and Monthly Members Event.

So now that it’s up and running, we’d like to highlight some of the exciting changes you’ll see on our updated VAClassroom.com website:

•    New video on our home page – We are very excited about our new video featuring both VAClassroom co-founders, Craig and Kelly Cannings. You can check it out here:

•    New “My Training” layout – Students logging into their online training center will see a simpler layout in the “My Training” area with new tabs for certifications, courses and clinics.

•    New FAQs on our Support Page – Before submitting a Support Request, you can now take a look at our list of FAQs as most likely we have provided an answer to your question. If your question is not answered, you can simply scroll down and send us a message. We will add your question to our FAQs and get back to you within 24 hours.

•    New Membership Home Page and Additional Features – Our current VAClassroom members will notice a more streamlined home page when they log in to their “My Training” Portal. We have also added some additional features like Success Case Studies, “Take Ten” Demos and Special Reports.

•    The addition of a FREE membership and Paid Annual Premium Version – If you haven’t already signed up for a VAClassroom membership and would like to do so, check out our home page, where we outline the features of both our FREE and Premium Memberships. You can choose which membership best suits your needs and access it right from this page.

We are very excited about these changes and how they can help us better serve the needs of Virtual Assistants and online business owners heading into 2011. If you haven’t already done so, please check out our website and let us know what you think of the new features. We’re here to serve you, so we’d love your feedback!

Five Tips to Building a Strong Client Base in a Down Economy

Won’t it be great when we don’t have to talk about the Recession any longer? In these tough economic times, there are many challenges to face, and in online business, many Virtual Assistants and online service providers complain that their greatest challenge is finding new clients and maintaining a strong client base.

Fortunately, this is not an impossible hurdle to overcome because even in today’s weakened economy, the Virtual Assistance field is growing and thriving. In fact, many companies are now choosing to hire a VA instead of a traditional employee because VAs can be way more cost-effective and flexible.

So how do you attract these clients and keep them coming back for more even during this period of belt-tightening? Well, below are five tips that we hope will help:

1. Create an “irresistible offer” – Even during a recession (and especially during a recession), clients need extra help, and your job is to “become irresistible” so that they will hire you to deliver the Virtual Assistance services they need and to perform the tasks they don’t have time to do. Check out Krishna De’s video below, where she provides some great advice and food for thought:

2. Develop an “Internet Marketing Mindset” – Use Internet Marketing strategies to aid you in your client recruitment. In a recent blog post we talked about “Mastering the Art of Email List Building”. Here are some other things you can do to market your services online:

•    Create keyword-targeted video content to build your visibility and credibility with your audience.
•    Create a Facebook Page designed to support your target client audience’s ongoing questions and needs.
•    Develop visually appealing, brand-building PP presentations and distribute them through the web with SlideShare.net.
•    Use Twellow.com to research and build a highly targeted base of followers in Twitter.

3. Join Meetup groups – Meetup groups in your community can be a great place to network face to face with other virtual professionals and meet potential clients. To find one in your area, check out the Meetup website at http://www.meetup.com/.

4. Visit brick and mortar businesses in your area – As mentioned above, many companies could use a Virtual Assistant to perform some much-needed tasks without having to hire a traditional employee. In this case, a low-cost way of marketing yourself could be to take a walk through your community and visit brick and mortar businesses in person. With your “irresistible offer” and some great ideas for how you can specifically help them in their local business, you could entice them to become your next clients too!

5. Take care of the clients you already have – An interesting article called “Keeping Clients in a Down Economy – Is Giving Or Taking Better For Your Bottom Line” suggests that one of the most effective ways to find new clients is to be generous with the ones you already have. Here’s what the author says:

“Rather than spend more time, energy and money to recruit new clients, I’m showing current clients how much I value them by going above and beyond, thus creating raving fans who are telling others and then those others are coming to me.”

So ultimately, a strong relationship with your existing clients could go a long way towards building a stronger and bigger client base even when times are tough.

We hope these tips help generate your creativity so you can face the challenge of attracting more clients to your Virtual Assistance business in a down economy. If you have more ideas that have worked for you, we’d love to hear them, so please post them in the comment area below!

The Social Network: Truth or Fiction?

There’s a lot of talk going on about Facebook these days, from the massive outage on September 23 to the new movie, The Social Network, coming out on October 1, a story about the founders and origins of Facebook.

Biographies are intriguing, and for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals involved in Social Media, this movie is particularly compelling. We’re advised to take it with a grain of salt, though, because there’s a bit of controversy brewing about whether or not the movie gets the facts straight.

According to a blog post on AllFacebook.com, most people don’t know the movie is based on a fictionalized and sensationalized story about the founding of Facebook as described by Eduardo Saverin, one of the initial co-founders. This story became Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires and then was adapted into a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Apparently Saverin presented co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in a bad light because he was bitter about being kicked out of the company, and AllFacebook.com says, “It’s pretty clear that the movie is an attack on Mark Zuckerberg’s character.”

In an interview called “Aaron Sorkin talks ‘The Social Network’“, however, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin asserts, “We were meticulous in The Social Network about sticking to facts,” and goes on to explain the type of online and first-person research they did.

Another point of interest is the fact that neither the screenwriter nor the director of this movie has a Facebook account, which makes you wonder what their perspective is towards Facebook.

But regardless of what people think of this movie or Facebook in general, this is a tool that has become firmly embedded in the fabric of our culture, and for that reason (as Virtual Assistants and business owners), we need to look at ALL the ways we can leverage this powerful tool for our business.  So whether the movie is true or not, Facebook Marketing is definitely a reality that has provided tangible results for businesses seeking to build their brand and customer base.

Now we’d like to hear your opinion! Do you plan on seeing the movie, and would a shady past change your opinion of Facebook and the role it plays in your business?

Bananas and Branding in a Social Media World.

“I’m Chiquita Banana and I’ve come to say, Bananas have to ripen in a certain way…”

(lyrics from the original Chiquita Banana theme song)

Does your food talk to you?

Probably not.

Does it ask you to talk to it?

Maybe.

In this new social media driven world, even food has become interactive online, as you may have seen last week in a recent post on our VAClassroom Facebook Page. When Craig grabbed a banana as a quick snack, little did he know it would have a sticker on it that read “Chiquita – find us on Facebook to vote!” As he said, “This is a web 2.0 banana I am eating – banana branding at its best!”

So we checked out the Chiquita Banana Facebook Page, and this is what we found:

•    Facebook Page summary – “This is a page for all things banana. Pay a visit to our site and see just how bananas our bananas can get. Eatachiquita.com. Or follow us on Twitter @ChiquitaChatter.” (Chiquita Bananas are also on Twitter!)

•    Info tab – containing a link to the Chiquita Banana website, as well as a Company Overview and a list of Products.

•    “Organics” tab – promoting organic bananas and inviting people to vote. Chiquita will donate 10% of organic banana sales sold in September to the environmental non-profit organization with the most votes.

•    Photos tab – with photos from Chiquita as well as from fans. (Wow, a lot of people really like Chiquita Bananas!)

•    Page Terms tab – explaining the Chiquita Banana Community Guidelines. (This is a great idea!)

•    Several other tabs and an active Wall – with posts from both fans and Chiquita Banana itself.

Chiquita adds posts regularly to the wall and is great about interacting with fans by replying to any questions or comments.

Here are some examples of Chiquita’s wall posts:

•    Contests – e.g. “Chiquita Banana Sticker Design Contest” and “Chiquita Champion” (nominating an athlete or an athletic team who has accomplished something amazing)

•    Product Advertisements – e.g. “Exotic” varieties like red bananas and Manzano bananas

•    Fun Facts – e.g. September 21 is National Banana Day.

And if the response is any indication, people are “eating up” this Facebook Page! At this time, Chiquita Banana is “liked” by more than 20,000 people!

Moreover, the contests attract people to the Chiquita websites themselves as they are mostly held off of the Facebook Page. For example, in honor of National Organics Month, Chiquita is hosting an organic smoothie recipe contest on their blog. This is a great way of directing people to read the blog posts!

So what do you think of this banana branding and use of Social Media? Many of us had parents who told us, “Don’t play with your food,” and now here we are, entering Chiquita Banana contests and “talking to our food” on Facebook.

The great thing about this Web 2.0 world is that it can foster a sense of collaboration and trust between businesses and consumers. As companies use Social Media as a way of branding their products, consumers can interact, voicing their opinions and concerns.

A quote from the blog post “Social Media Case Study: Cindy Cieluch, Photographer Building a Brand” sums it up perfectly:

“… Whether you’re a small, medium, or large business there are small and simple things you can be doing with social media that will help with your brand building efforts while at the same time building those relationships and getting people what they truly want which is a relationship with the company before they make business and do business with them.”

So, as a Virtual Assistant or Online Business Owner, how would you use a Facebook Page or other Social Networks to build your brand in this New Media World? The possibilities are endless, so we’d love to hear your ideas!

The Power of Article Writing in a Web 2.0 World

Does article writing still have a place in this new interactive Web 2.0 world? It’s a question many Virtual Professionals and online business owners may be asking themselves as Social Media Marketing and Video Marketing gain prominence.

Well, we would argue that article writing does have a place and that it is still a prolific marketing channel in this Social Media Arena. Here are some of the key reasons why:

• Increases brand visibility and interest.

• Establishes authority and thought leadership.

• Ignites SEO potency (Tons of backlinks).

• Creates opportunity for your content to go viral.

• Generates targeted website traffic and sales.

As an illustration, check out this case study described in “Article Marketing – An Hour A Week To Web 2.0 Success!”

Here the author reports how spending 45 minutes writing three articles (targeted to his sites and online products) yielded the following results one week after being uploaded to a professional online article submission service:

• 55 pages indexed and live in Google showing his resell rights article

• 43 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Article Marketing article

• 51 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Affiliate Marketing article
He summarizes the results this way:

“That’s 149 more places for people to run into my name and solid info from me online, 149 more links back to my sites, each capable of attracting tightly-targeted traffic to my salespages and affiliate marketing pre-sell pages. For one hour’s work, total. That’s the immediate benefit to article marketing – almost instant spidering by the search engines, and a number of new profit conduits set up aimed at your payment button or affiliate links.”

In addition to uploading your articles to online submission sites like EzineArticles.com, you can use Social Media channels to further maximize the exposure of your content. Here are some common ways of doing that:

• Use the EzineArticles.com Bookmarking feature.

• Schedule article tweets in HootSuite. (Send it out 2-3 times.)

• Share your article in targeted social network groups and forums. (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

• Include the article link in a relevant blog post.

• Submit your article to other general and niche social bookmarking sites. (Digg, Delicious)
We cover this in more detail in our Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 course since it is such a crucial step in harnessing the power of Social Media to mass-distribute your articles.

And when you’re writing, always remember the Golden Rule of Article Marketing: CONTENT IS KING! The credibility and influence of your Virtual Business will grow if you consistently provide valuable content that is directed towards your target audience.

Now we’d like to hear your thoughts! Have you used articles to promote your Virtual Business? Do you feel Article Marketing is still an effective marketing channel in the Web 2.0 world?

Facebook for Business – a Love / Hate Relationship

We love Facebook, don’t we? Yes, we do… most of the time.

As Virtual Assistants and online business owners in general, many of us have come to love Facebook Pages as an effective Social Marketing channel to build brand awareness and community. With such features as Static FBML, we have devoted a lot of time to customizing our Pages and adding unique features that make them stand out from the rest.

For example, on our VAClassroom Facebook Page, we have added featured members photos, banners and navigation bars to the left-hand side. Now some sweeping changes due to take effect the week of August 23 will have a profound impact on our Page and many others.

Here’s a summary of the changes according to the Facebook Profile and Page Roadmap Update:

•    The “Boxes” tab, boxes on profiles and Pages, and application info sections will be removed.

•    Beginning the week of August 23, all profile and Page tabs will be resized automatically to a new width of 520 pixels.

According to a blog post by AllFacebook.com, “the removal of the boxes tab is a sweeping change that will see the disappearance of all profile boxes on the left-hand side of Facebook Pages.” A Facebook spokeswoman advised AllFacebook.com that the removal of those boxes will require page owners to move that information to the info page or a custom tab. Page owners also need to be aware of the fact that the new narrower tab width may affect the appearance of their Pages.

So how can page owners best prepare for these changes leading up to August 23?

A HubSpot blog post entitled “3 Ways Facebook’s Pending Page Changes Affect Marketers” has some good advice:

•    If you’ve created any custom tabs for your Facebook page, click on these tabs to make sure the look and feel of each page hasn’t been distorted. Because pages will now be narrower, it’s possible that images or banners you’ve added or formats you’ve used previously will now need to be resized or reformatted.

•    Be sure to take a look at the boxes on your page’s sidebar and in your Boxes Tab ahead of time so you can decide what you will need to create custom tabs for once the boxes disappear.

So, it seems that Facebook consistently makes changes that can present headaches. And yet, the upside is that is an amazing channel to connect with the right audience and has so many cool apps and tools that enhance the business pages.

For now, this newest change will create a lot of work for Virtual Assistants who serve as their clients’ Social Media Specialists. In the long run, will it have a positive impact on Facebook for business?

We’d love to hear your thoughts. How are Facebook’s changes affecting you and your business page? Please share your comments below.?

Social Networking Management: A Comparison of HootSuite, TweetDeck and Seesmic.

As a Virtual Assistant or Online Business Owner in general, do you find it difficult to manage your Social Networking activities? If so, you’re not alone. With the emergence and growing prominence of Social Media Marketing, it can be overwhelming to keep everything organized and ensure that your activities are well timed and effective.

For this reason, some cool tools have been created to help Marketers get the most out of their Social Networking and save a lot of time and frustration. The most popular ones are HootSuite.com, TweetDeck.com and Seesmic.com, and we’d like to show you a little comparison of them so that you can decide which one would work best for you.

First of all, check out this video showing how their dashboards can be used to manage Twitter activities:

Thankfully, though they began as Twitter clients, these tools have in some cases also begun to integrate multiple social networks, a great improvement as Social Marketing activities are certainly not limited to Twitter.

Below is a comparison of some of the more distinguishing features of HootSuite, TweetDeck and Seesmic:

HootSuite:

•    Entirely web-based
•    Manages multiple social networks
•    Tracks link statistics
•    Tabbed layout for different accounts
•    Schedules tweets and status updates
•    Built-in URL shortener

TweetDeck:

•    Has Desktop, iPhone and iPad browsers
•    Manages multiple social networks
•    Ability to customize tweets with groups, columns, saved searches and automatic updates
•    Schedules tweets

Seesmic:

•    Has web-based, Desktop and Mobile applications for iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Blackberry
•    Manages multiple social networks
•    Ability to customize columns and save searches
•    Ability to personalize the application

Paul Sutton’s blog post “TweetDeck v Seesmic v HootSuite: Which is the Most Awesome Twitter Client?” has a great analysis of the big three and concludes that “HootSuite is best for those who need to manage several distinct accounts, and anyone who wants integrated statistical link reporting. It’s also very useful as a tweet scheduler in its own right due to the integrated URL shortening. Seesmic, on the other hand, is best for everyday management of Twitter accounts and engaging in conversations, making it easy to keep on top of timelines with its clear views and unobtrusive but effective notifications.”

In terms of TweetDeck, however, Sutton feels it has some good features, but “the white on black interface is hard on the eyes and is stylized to the expense of usability, and the column functionality is limited, especially when compared to that of Seesmic.”

Tastes may vary, though, so check them out and see which one works best for you in your Social Networking and Virtual Assistance services. If you already have a favorite, please comment below and let us know which tool you like and how it has helped you and your clients!

Social Media Outsourcing: A Wise Choice

They say that timing is everything, and often success comes from recognizing the right opportunity at the right time. This is especially true in the ever changing Internet landscape. A recent Industry Report released by Michael A. Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, reveals some untapped potential that bodes well for those with Social Media Marketing skills. We’d highly recommend downloading and reading the full report from the website, but for now check out this quick video summary:

When we read the report, we were struck by the following statistic:

“Social media outsourcing underemployed: Only 14% of businesses are outsourcing any aspect of their social media marketing.”

This was fascinating because on the other hand, it’s clear that an increase in benefits is directly proportional to the amount of time spent on Social Media Marketing. Here are some of the benefits that were reported:

•    Helped close business
•    Generated exposure for business
•    Resulted in new business partnerships
•    Generated qualified leads
•    Reduced overall marketing expenses
•    Helped business rise in the search rankings
•    Increased traffic/subscribers/opt-in list

However, since the concept of Social Media outsourcing is still relatively new, and many marketers are still new to Social Media Marketing itself, the report predicts it may be another year before businesses embrace the idea of seeking outside assistance.

But with at least 67% of marketers planning to increase their use of blogs, Facebook, video/YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, the tide is definitely going to turn. How else will business owners juggle everything they need to do and still devote enough time to Social Media Marketing?

So what kinds of things will businesses need help with as they ramp up their Social Media activities?

Here are some of the important roles an outsourced Social Marketing Specialist can fill:

•    Social Media Coach (very important)
•    Social Media Community Manager (set up and optimize system)
•    Company Representative (manage customer relations)
•    Social Media Eyes & Ears for Your Clients (SM Monitoring)

Most importantly, businesses need a proper Social Media Strategy, and there will be amazing client opportunities coming available for Virtual Assistants who can perform the following tasks:

•    Create a clear and measurable social media strategy (#1 priority)
•    Research & identify the right social networks
•    Build social networking presence
•    Manage & optimize social networking presence
•    Measure results of social networking activities

So if you have Social Media Marketing skills like these, get ready to catch the next wave in this very popular and profitable niche! Keep your skills current and up to date, and you’ll be in the ideal position when more and more businesses quickly realize they need to outsource their Social Media activities! In our newly updated Social Marketing 2010 course, we provide cutting-edge training to equip Virtual Assistants to deliver the key services clients desperately need and will be asking for in the near future.

6 Attributes of a Great Affiliate Manager

Have you included Affiliate Marketing in the overall strategy for your business or your clients’? If so, you are leveraging one powerful channel for widening your exposure and generating sales. However, this strategy is destined to fail without a great Affiliate Manager at the helm. If your Affiliate program isn’t being managed effectively, it’ll sink like the Titanic!

But what attributes should you be looking for in an Affiliate Manager? Below are some of the important skills and qualities this key team member should possess:

1.    Good Interpersonal Skills – An Affiliate Manager should be a “people person,” willing and able to provide assistance when needed and to interact with affiliates to keep them informed and encouraged. According to the blog post Characteristics of the Proper Affiliate Marketing Manager, “affiliate managers are the face of any company when they go to different conferences and anywhere else where there is contact with their potential affiliates.”

2.    Knowledge of the Business – A great Affiliate Manager has a good grasp of the product being sold and the ultimate goals of the company. This is essential when networking with potential affiliates and also in targeting affiliates who are the right fit for the company.

3.    Knowledge of HTML – It is essential that an Affiliate Manager know HTML so that they can assist affiliates with links and code. The blog post Common mistakes with hiring an in house Affiliate Manager puts it this way: “If your Manager cannot guide them through placing html or altering it, even basic html, then guess what, they are useless to that Affiliate and that Affiliate will move on to your competitor who can create and place their links with and for them.”

4.    Consistent Communication – It is essential to keep affiliates motivated and engaged, and a great Affiliate Manager will have the creativity and consistency to produce monthly newsletters, special incentives and contests, special product discounts, new banners, updated marketing materials and periodic web events to teach affiliates how to improve their sales.

5.    Ability to create Affiliate Broadcasts that are simple and that include tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts, etc. for communication – Your Affiliate marketing campaign will be much more successful if your affiliates are provided with a good variety of targeted content to promote your brand and products. A great Affiliate Manager will be able to create Affiliate Broadcasts that are concise and include all the important elements needed for the affiliate’s communications.

6.    Ability to teach Affiliates how to use Social Media to promote their Affiliate link – There’s no doubt that Social Media has become one of the most effective advertising channels around, so it’s imperative that an Affiliate Manager is well-versed and active in Social Media and can guide affiliates through this complicated landscape so that they can promote their Affiliate link. Recruiting an Affiliate Manager with Social Media Marketing skills is a wise move for any business!

These are just a few of the attributes that make a great Affiliate Manager, and the list could go on and on. Because building a thriving Affiliate Program is key to the success of any online business, we devote more time to this topic in our newly updated Internet Marketing 2010 course.

What attributes do you look for in an Affiliate Manager? Please share your comments below.

Are You Ready to Tell Google Buzz to Buzz off?

There’s a new kid on the block in the world of Social Networks, and if you use Gmail, he’s already living on your street! Google recently unveiled Google Buzz, a Social Network that’s built right into Gmail. If you have a Gmail account, you might have noticed a colorful balloon that showed up on the left-hand side of the page – that’s Buzz!

Google had some great ideas when they unveiled Buzz. Check out this YouTube video posted on the Official Google Blog to introduce Buzz:

Unfortunately, despite these good intentions, Buzz has caused some frustration among loyal Gmail users. For example, the blog post “Buzz off, Google: Social networks should always be opt-in, not opt-out” highlights the fact that all Gmail users were enrolled in Buzz without being asked first. Furthermore, Google automatically made a social graph of your most-emailed people and made sharing of that graph opt-out instead of opt-in. As this article explains, “it’s super easy to miss the check box, and the default should always be the safest choice.”

In Google’s defense, they listened to users’ feedback and have introduced some improvements. The Official Gmail Blog reports that the following changes have been made to Buzz:

1. There is a more visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile.

2. You have the ability to block anyone who starts following you.

3. There is more clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile.

Given Google’s popularity and history of creating quality products, there is definitely the possibility that Google Buzz could someday rival Facebook and Twitter.

What do you think? Are you ready to tell Google Buzz to buzz off, or do you think Google can rise to the challenge of making Buzz the best Social Network around?

Customer Service 2.0 – Local Business Raises the Bar Using Social Media.

You may remember a post we published a couple days ago entitled “Social Media Goes Local in 2010,” where we described the innovative way restaurant owner Joe Sorge is using Social Media to promote AJ Bombers and other restaurants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Well, the interesting conversation on our VAClassroom Fan Page generated by this post revealed that one of our VAClassroom members, Janet Janowiak, a resident of Waterford, Wisconsin, also featured Chris Brogan’s Kitchen Table Talks video in her post “Local Business Success Built by Twitter.”

Shortly after she published her post, Joe commented on her blog and emailed her an invitation to dinner.  “Joe’s comment came in moments after my post was published,” Janet explained. “This really proves how connected the social media world is. I don’t know what tool Joe uses to monitor his brand, but I was praising him and look how quickly he replied. Imagine if someone made a comment that was negative. I’m sure that Joe would do everything in his power to make the customer happy.”

What a gracious response and a perfect example of customer service reaching new heights through Social Media! Joe’s personal touch goes a long way to building positive brand recognition and exposure for his restaurants via social networking – an excellent case study to encourage local businesses to adopt a Social Media strategy ASAP!

Social Media Goes Local in 2010!

If you enter AJ Bombers restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and slide into one of the booths, you’ll notice interesting graffiti written on the heavy varnished wood. As you look closer, you’ll find out that people have written Twitter user names all over the place.

Now why on earth would people be thinking about Twitter at a restaurant?

Well, believe it or not, Social Media is going local, and brick and mortar businesses are capitalizing on the power of Social Media to help generate more traffic to their business and to keep their current customers coming back.

Check out this fascinating Kitchen Table Talks video with Chris Brogan and Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers and other restaurants in Milwaukee:

As Joe explains, “AJ Bombers was built by Twitter.”  Imagine business owners being able to monitor customers’ experiences from a distance, making adjustments and responding to complaints on the fly from their Twitter account.  Imagine loyal customers being offered daily specials through tweets from their favorite restaurant. That’s the power of Social Media.

However, according to a recent article in Social Media Examiner, “3 New Studies Show Value of Social Media and Businesses Slow Response,” only 47% of companies are experimenting with Social Media, and of those that do, many are failing to effectively build online community and provide a favorable platform for interaction and feedback.

This finding shows that there’s a definite need for Virtual Assistants with Social Media skills to fill that niche and educate businesses on best practices for using Social Media. For VAClassroom grads, the possibilities are endless, and brick and mortar businesses would surely benefit from your expertise in Social Media Marketing.

So survey the brick and mortar businesses around you and just imagine how a Twitter Account or a Facebook Fan Page could build their clientele and keep people coming in the door. The sky’s the limit with a little imagination and a passion for engaging people with the tools available in this exciting new Web 2.0 world!

Ignite Your Business Visibility with Facebook Connect.

Have you ever wished you lived in a shopping mall? It sounds funny, but it would make life a lot easier, especially if you lived in a huge mall like West Edmonton Mall or the Mall of America.

You could park the car, enter the building, and everything you needed would be laid out in front of you without ever having to leave home. Stores in that mall would probably get a lot more business than stores outside the mall because it would be easier to access them, and residents of the mall would recommend certain shops and services to each other by word of mouth.

Now imagine you had a place to live on the Internet and were able to visit different websites without having to give up the comfort of that home. The Facebook Connect feature was unveiled in 2008 to create easy, one-stop access to websites from your Facebook profile. It’s an API that enables people to use their Facebook identity and connections to authenticate themselves on any third-party site, community or blog. In essence, it makes your Facebook profile the “home base” and eliminates the need for new sign-ups on other websites.

In Powered, Inc.’s e-book “Marketing Predictions for 2010,” Aaron Strout, Chief Marketing Officer, predicts that Facebook Connect will play an increasingly important role in the ways brands connect with their customers and other constituents on Facebook in 2010.

It’s already showing an incredible ability to help businesses draw more Traffic, thereby increasing their Return on Influence and ultimately their Return on Investment.

Here are some examples:

Increased Traffic:

The Official Facebook Connect News Page reports that since implementing Facebook Connect, the CBS Insider has gained a significant increase in traffic on theinsider.com, with over 85% of new registered users using Facebook Connect.

Increased Return on Influence

According to Facebook’s latest statistics from Citysearch,”Since implementing Facebook Connect, daily registrations have tripled, and connected users are twice as engaged as users not using Facebook Connect. 94% of users who write reviews share those reviews back on Facebook, where 70% of their friends who see the review click on it, and travel back to Citysearch.com.”
This points to the viral nature of Facebook Connect, the ability of users to bring content, activity and conversations from third-party sites back into their Facebook newsfeed, thereby creating more social engagement.

Increased Return on Investment

Lauren Miller in her article “5 Services Using Facebook Connect Effectively” reports that although the Tap Tap Revenge 3 App on the iPhone may be one of the simplest implementations of Facebook Connect on the iPhone, it’s become one of the biggest selling apps of all time on the app store.  It works great because it gives you rewards when you tell your friends about the game and posts updates on your friends’ newsfeeds about your activity and scores.

All this being said, Facebook Connect has great potential to open up a very profitable niche for you and your clients’ businesses. This is good news for our VAClassroom graduates who are already providing Facebook services for their clients or are planning to add that service in the near future.

As Ken Burbury says in his article “Five Reasons Companies should be Integrating Social Media with Facebook Connect,” “At the end of the day, companies need to fish where the fish are. And right now the fish are spending their time on Facebook.com.”

What are your thoughts on Facebook Connect? We’d love to hear your comments!

Don’t Just Shorten Your URL: Understand Your Social Media Traffic Too!

Creating a shorter URL link, made increasingly popular by the micro-blogging giant Twitter, has now evolved into the next generation.   You knew it was only a matter of time, right?

The new kid on the block is Cligs, which is growing at a rapid rate, providing not just shorter URLS, but the additional features of providing you the stats of your submitted links, with analytics, social media monitoring and geotargeting capability.

The driver behind Cligs is to help you understand your traffic.  By tracking the traffic going thru your links, your online activity and the buzz it creates, whether for business or otherwise, is made transparent to you.

Why use Cligs?  Besides being FREE and user-friendly, it provides:

-    An informative Blog, regularly updated with news features and tips;

-    Real-time analytics, who’s sharing your link and who’s linking to you;

-    Geo-targeted destination URLs, to target your marketing and promotions on a per-country basis;

-    Referral statistics, to show which links sent you traffic;

-    Tools, gadgets and widgets, such as WordPress plugins;

-    Various Twitter applications, such as a short a URL partnership with “Twitblogs”, the blogging service with Twitter which automatically gets tweeted with a link to the full post;

-    Ability to create an unlimited number of cligs, pointing to the same destination from different sites for traffic tracking purposes;

-    100% search engine friendly.

Has anyone tested out Cligs yet? I would love to hear your feedback!

TwitWall: When 140 Characters isn’t Enough

For businesses who are utilizing Twitter’s staggering marketing potential as part of a Social Media Marketing campaign, Twitter provides a lot of room for creativity and innovative solutions for reaching target audiences.

Now that celebrities (such as Ashton Kutcher and CNN) , presidential campaigns and millions of users worldwide are accustomed to micro-blogging, Twitter is providing an enhancement to the micro-space of Tweeting.

For everyone already on Twitter, how many don’t realize they have a TwitWall? This easy to use feature is a blog companion for Twitter, allowing a space for Tweeters as an alternative, or addition to their micro-blog of maximum 140 characters. This page within Twitter allows users to embed their favorite videos and widgets, upload photos, mp3 music, podcasts, and source-images originating from existing http:// locations.

The little set-up time and effort involved is very appealing for those wanting more of a presence on Twitter, outside the context of the micro-blog. Additionally, TwitWall utilizes your existing Twitter followers that you’ve already established, with everything posted on your TwitWall updating your status on your Twitter timeline. It also carries over the personal branding design preferences of your Twitter page, such as background image, colours etc.

So why use TwitWall as a blog page rather than just your traditional blog post?

This question was posed to TwitWall founder Michael E. Carluen, who stated, “For users who currently have existing blogs, TwitWall can be a repository of content they would like to share with their Twitter network, but does not fit the general content of their main blog.”¹

As an additional blogging platform that’s unique to your followers, TwitWall provides a dynamic new communication tool, ready to be discovered!

Six Keys to Building a Thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009

Happy New Year! I definitely took a long hiatus from my blog, but have re-charged my creative batteries and am officially ready to go!

I have had the privilege of working with a whole variety of Virtual Assistants over a number of years and have been able to assess the particular traits or characteristics that make some of them  very successful. As we head into a New Year full of much promise here are six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009:

KEY #1 – Be Active in Social Networking – I continue to hear great testimonies of some of our VAClassroom students finding new ideal clients through such popular Social Networks as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are building their network with a target audience and are finding opportunities emerge through these connections! So, one of the keys to sustaining a Thriving Virtual Assistance practice in 2009 is to become a “Master Networker” in the key social networks, forums, groups and online communities!

KEY #2 – Build a Compelling Web Presence - I have also had the opportunity to review many different VA websites and I noticed that some of them still do not market themselves super well. The page sometimes is super text heavy, with no multimedia or compelling images. As an Internet Business Owner (who currently works with 4 VAs), I love coming to site that has a YouTube Video, compelling graphics, an optin box to a free PDF guide, Twitter & Facebook Badges and possibly a blog. This shows me that this business is cutting edge and savvy! So, here’s a test….

Go to your website right now and ask yourself: “If I was a prospective client, would I be drawn to my website?” Now is the best time of year to make changes!

KEY #3 – Participate in Blogging and Social Media Content Sharing - Many of you who are blogging right now know the value of being of thought leader in the VA industry and building credibility with your prospective client base – not to mention the great SEO value of regularly updating your blog! The key with your blog is to create content that would be relevant to your target client audience. For example; I saw a PDF guide that a VA was offering called “101 Reasons to Use a Virtual Assistant in 2009″ – this was great and relevant content for small busineses, which certainly could pave the way to new client opportunities!

It is imperative to build your traffic and web presence through sharing content in such sites as HubPages, Squidoo and EzineArticles. This again positions you as a thought leader and drives traffic and Search Engine results back to your website!

KEY #4 – Establish a Clear Business Niche - As you know, the Virtual Assistant role is constantly in flux and means many different things to different people. Many VAs are bloggers, web-designers, social media marketers, bookkeepers, event planners, PR specialists and so much more! The most successful VAs have been able to establish the right niche at the right time to create the best opportunities for their business. For example; businesses are screaming for VAs with Social Media Marketing expertise, which is why we recently launched our Social Media Marketing Specialist Training Program.

Also, it is important to identify the niche audience you are targeting. Is your ideal client audience, Real-Estate Agents, Business Coaches, Women Entrepreneurs, Internet Marketer, Ecommerce Sites etc..?

KEY #5 – Proactive Marketing Strategies – I always love the saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”! Translation: A Pro-active Virtual Assistant will create the best opportunities for their business! As you know, the clients may find you on Social Networks or via your website, which is great, but for the most part, you will need to go out there and connect with your ideal client audience in creative ways. For example; One of our VAClassroom Students mentioned that she was putting on workshops for small business associations in her local area on “The Power of Social Media Marketing”. Well, this served as an excellent avenue for her to position herself as an authority and build some new client opportunities.

KEY #6 – Highly Committed to Continual Learning – Of all the industries I have be apart of in my career, none has moved faster than the Internet Business. New technology and web trends are evolving at a rapid pace and 6 months is like 5-10 years in another industry! It is paramount that you are actively pursuing learning and training opportunities in your niche to ensure that you remain on the cutting edge and at the top of your game in 2009.

So, there you have it…. Six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant business in the New Year!

I am sure there are other “Keys” and would love to hear yours!