What Can A VA (Virtual Assistant) do for a Business in a Hour?

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Have you heard of a virtual assistant but don’t know how hiring one would apply to your business or how you could use their services? A virtual assistant is an entrepreneur who works as an independent contractor alongside individuals and/or businesses providing a variety of different administrative, technical, and creative services. Here are some ideas of what a VA can take off your plate and do in an hour:

Ever wonder how your colleagues have time to write so much social media content? Have a VA write your social media updates for the week and send them to you for approval.

Have a VA create an email campaign so you can keep in touch with your customers and prospects on a regular basis.

Do you need help with the editing and proofreading of a report your writing for your business? Have a VA edit and proof read a 5-page report for you in a hour.

Need a rockin’ PowerPoint presentation created for an upcoming speech, virtual event, or video? Have a VA create it for you!

Do you love shooting videos for your business but don’t want the hassle of having to edit them as well? Have a VA edit 5 to 10 of your short videos.

Have you heard that online article marketing is a great way to improve your SEO and get more traffic to your site but you don’t know where to start or what sites are best for you? Have a VA distribute 2 articles online for your business in an hour and start improving your SEO!

Have a VA setup or analyze your Google Analytics and establish regular reporting for your business.

These are just a few items a virtual assistant can do to help increase the efficiency of your online business and allow you to get back to the work you love doing!

Have you worked with a virtual assistant?

Filed Under: Virtual Assistants Tagged With: , , ,

Social Sparks: Does Your Twitter Following Need Some Spring Cleaning?

May 4, 2012 By 2 Comments

There comes a time in all of Twitter lives that we have to do some cleaning. You know when you’ve followed some people that have left the Twitterverse or their messages don’t match your interests anymore, it happens.

I recently went through my Twitter account and did some spring cleaning. Now, I didn’t spend 3 days on Twitter, up to the wee hours of the morning. Nope! I had the help of a nifty tool, ManageFlitter.

I logged into this site with my Twitter account, and let it think for a minute or two. I have several thousand followers so it took the system a minute to process them all. Then I had several options available to help me sort and clean my followers.

Here’s a few steps I recommend in using this tool:
1) No Profile Image – I pretty much unfollow everyone without a profile image, but this will be up to your personal choice. You can quickly review their profile right on this page, making it quick and simple!

2) Inactive - Click this tab, then chose the Last Tweet option. Browser through the list and use your judgement if anyone should be removed from your network.

3) Quite - Click this tab, then chose the Last Tweet option. Anyone who has no tweets or has not tweeted in over 6 months I would consider unfollowing.

There you have it, Twitter spring cleaning in just a few minutes! Let us know how you liked this tool. Did it make this task easier?

Filed Under: Online Business Tools, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tools

4 Benefits Of Article Marketing

May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Every wondered how to generate more traffic to your site and increase your reach? Online article marketing offers a variety of benefits to those who implement its strategy. Article marketing involves posting articles with a particular keyword-focus onto article sites. It is important to be particular when it comes to which sites you post your articles to as many of them have a larger reader base than others. You also want to ensure your article matches the variety of categories available on each particular article site to ensure your articles reach will be maximized. Here are 4 benefits of article marketing for you and your business:

  1. Increase targeted traffic to your website. Distributing your articles to online article marketing sites will increase targeted traffic to your site because readers who are interested in what you have to offer will generally click through to your site from your bio box or other relevant links throughout your article(s). Give your readers a reason to click through by including some teaser content in your article bio box or offering them a free giveaway.
  2. Establish yourself as an expert in your field. Consistently writing and distributing valuable content for your readers will establish a level of respect and trust amongst your following over time. They will come to know, like, trust, and believe in you and your opinions.
  3. Increase and establish trust with your potential customers. Sharing valuable information in your articles that your customers are looking for will increase and establish trust. By giving them the information they want they will realize how your products and service will benefit them.
  4. Increase search engine rankings. The majority of article marketing sites allow you to add a resource box at the end of your articles with information about the writer and a URL back to your site.
Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: ,

Social Sparks: Are you Buffering?

April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been using this wonderful tool called Buffer. Have you used it yet?

bufferI have a really strict schedule that I stick to with my social media. Which caused me some issues. Let me explain a bit. So I check the blogs I love every morning and share the best ones with my social networks. I want everyone to read all the great information I do! Here’s where the snag came in. All of my blog shares would come at once and in a big ‘ol lump…needless to say I wasn’t so happy with this part of the routine.

I tried out a few different things then stumbled upon Buffer. I installed in on my browser right away.

Now each morning when I’m combing through my favorite blogs I can schedule posts to go out throughout the day. It’s really simple to do. I highlight the piece of text I’d like to be in my Tweet or Facebook post and then click the small buffer button in my browser. This prompts a pop-up where it inputs the link to the blog post and I can tweak the post from there if I need to. Then I click the Buffer button. That post is now in my queue to get posted through out the day.

I’ve saved my self at least an hour every week with this simple tool. Check out Buffer and see if it’s a tool that can simply your social media. It is an add-on for your browser so you can use it anytime while your browsing the web. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this tool, share just below.

Filed Under: Online Business Tools, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tools

LinkedIn: The Social Network for Generating Business

April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

LinkedIn has been around since 2003 growing in popularity every year for both personal and business use. As of February 9, 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 150 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Also, LinkedIn currently has more than 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages. With those phenomenal statistics it’s no wonder one needs to be a part of LinkedIn for professional and business reasons. Use these 4 ways to use LinkedIn to generate business:

  1. Include LinkedIn in any social media campaigns your company is currently involved in. Your status updates will impact those you are connected with on LinkedIn and increase your effectiveness.
  2. Grow your network by continually connecting with individuals in your target market. This will not only grow your business network online but it will also grow your network offline. You will be invited to events offline by those who you connect with online.
  3. Using LinkedIn Answers allows you to answer questions by others and solve difficult problems they are having. You have the opportunity to provide them with some insight and information to establish yourself as a credible source. This will showcase your knowledge and expertise to those on LinkedIn.
  4. Join LinkedIn groups where your target market hangs out. This will give you the opportunity to network with various people in your target market in one place. Don’t just join the group and not participate though. Ensure you are an active member and contributing valuable information to the group.
Filed Under: Online Business Tools, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , ,
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