1Click Virtual Assistant » Burning Questions

How is Social Media Used for Business?

yelena — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:00:25 +0000

That was a question someone asked me a week ago by a business owner who “targets individuals who are business owners/consultants and people within a certain age group”. She then added that she was ”wet behind the ears at this” and expressed hope that I could help figure out how to market her products. She further wanted to know “about blogging and how to attract followers and maybe even create a newsletter that could be linked to a social media site.”

One thing about me is I absolutely LOVE answering questions. I’d play Trivial Pursuit every day if only I could get my hubby (a Monopoly devotee) and my little one (a Candy Land fan) on board. Usually, when answering questions I write long detailed e-mails. But it occurred to me that I already adressed many of the above questions on my blog:

Let’s start with “what’s social media” – it’s basically a catch-phrase that refers to all the conversations between individuals, businesses and organizations, that happen online. These conversations can be in various formats – written words, videos, audio, photos, you name it. The key is not so much the form (full-length blog post, video, etc) or even specific channel used (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc), but the fact that it’s a CONVERSATION (as opposed to a monologue). So if there’s a way for more than 1 party to join in and discuss things – through posts, comments, status updates, reviews, etc – then it belongs to social media.

As applied to specific channels:

Blogs – allow for conversations to happen through comments – that’s a social media channel
Facebook – is basically built on conversations – that’s also a social media channel
Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, etc… – conversations between users are either foundation of these sites (Twitter) or at least possible through commenting, linking, sharing, etc – that’s all social media channels

Newsletters (sent via e-mail) – if someone decides to respond to a newsletter article, there’s no easy way for them to do it other than e-mailing the newsletter author. Newsletters do not allow for open conversation easily visible to all parties; instead they are primarily means of one-way communication. So newsletters are NOT social media.

If you are considering whether to add social media to your marketing strategy, be aware of the barriers to avoid wasting valuable time and getting disappointed with the results.

Of course, with tens of thousands blogs and hundreds of social networking/bookmarking sites, it’s important to narrow the list down quite a bit and figure out which social networks would be the best for you to be on.

But there’s more to social media strategy than selecting the best channels. This post on building a social media strategy can help you get started.

If you are considering blogging, then be aware of the time it’ll take to write and maintain a blog. It also helps to put together an editorial calendar at least for the first couple of months just until you get into the groove of things. I also wrote a post that helps decide whether to have a newsletter, a blog or both.

And don’t forget, you can leave questions for me in the post comments as well as by e-mailing me directly at yelena@oneclickva.com. Keep ‘em coming

How is Social Media Used for Business? is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

Should Realtors Tweet?

yelena — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:00:07 +0000

Q: My client is a Commercial Real Estate Company. Most of the employees do not use the computer for anything other than searching listings and sending emails. Social Media to them seems like a waste of time and money. Is it possible that in industries such as Commercial Real Estate, where there is no substitute for experience, we might have to wait for Social Media users to grow up before they can be considered industry thought leaders?

A: A few months ago I was asked to give a presentation about Social Media to the Realtors at a local office of one of the largest real estate firms. I thought it went very smoothly until we got to the Q&A part of it. Most of the questions I got were the “me” questions. You know, “how do I get more followers on Twitter”, “how do I promote my blog”, “how do I get more subscribers to my e-mail list”, etc. It’s like the previous 30 minutes of talking about the social aspect of social media didn’t even happen.

You see, Realtors have years of experience with push marketing, including handing out business cards, hosting parades of homes home-tours, or encouraging word-of-mouth referrals. Within 2 weeks of buying our first house, my husband and I received 10 brochures from 10 different Realtors, complete with 10 magnetic business cards.

Now, as Realtors get involved in social media (and lots and lots of them do), they use the same approach. They push through their profiles (listing them first and foremost as real estate agents), status updates with links to listed properties, etc.

That’s just the same old annoying stuff that earns real estate agents reputation comparable to that of spammers. Nor does it help that many Realtors end up using the same cookie-cutter approach to social media. That’s why, for example, it’s not that hard to find real estate agents with practically identical Twitter updates or Facebook fan pages.

So yes, if your clients approach social media with the mindset of constantly pushing their services, then they will find it to be a waste of time. It’s not that they have to grow up or get more experience, but rather that they have to start thinking of the value they bring to the community that this said community cannot get elsewhere online.

It’s just like going to networking events. Sure, you do get a chance for a 30-second “elevator speech” about your business and, ocassionally, for a slightly longer presentation. But most of the time is not spent in selling your services. Hopefully, you take at least some time to speak with other business owners about their businesses (or families or the latest Dancing with the Stars) and help them make things happen.

If you want to dig further into this issue, I highly recommend Transparent Real Estate blog. For an example of a commercial real estate firm using social media, check out this blog by Radius Commercial. Finally, here’s a very good article from the CCIM Institute on the use of social media by commercial real estate agencies.

Should Realtors Tweet? is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

3 Reasons Your To-Do List Doesn’t Work

yelena — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:05 +0000

Disclosure – This question was originally asked in the Women for Hire group on LinkedIn.

Q: The to-do list creates an illusion of efficiency, of being “on top” of things. In fact, it seems to do more harm than good. The really important tasks get lost in the list. At the same time, once the list is compiled, it’s left ”as-is” and all the thinking on the matter stops. What are your thoughts on list making?

A: IMHO to-do lists are important, but they are overused and abused. Some of the reasons to-do lists fail are:

Lists are too long

A list of 30 items is overwhelming and obscures the fact that only about 5 of the items are truly important. I think many people confuse to-do lists with brain dumps (when they put down on paper whatever is on their mind regarding any given subject). Brain dumps are awesome in helping you clear your head and get a record of ALL SORTS of ideas and things. But they are not to-do lists.

Proposed solution – create a brain dump list, then work some more on it to transform it into an actual actionable list (whether a to-do list or a packing list or a shopping list). Eliminate all that’s not critical. Then prioritize and do another round of elimination. I read somewhere that a to-do list for one day shouldn’t be any longer than 5 items. Seems reasonable.

Lists that shouldn’t be lists

As I mentioned, lists are overused. Sometimes what you need is not a list at all, but a different (and more visual) structure.

Proposed Solution – I personally prefer using mindmapping. It helps me get the ideas/thoughts/notes out of my head and on paper (or in a computer file). Joanna mentioned how creating a full structure is more important to her than creating a to do list. A mind map can help create just such a structure.

Lists that are filed away

A lot of times putting together a list makes you stop thinking about the issue altogether. I don’t think it’s the list’s fault. Developing a to-do list doesn’t mean things get done (although it does create a sense of being at least half-way there).

Proposed Solution – it might sound obvious, but a list is just a list. It won’t do your work for you (been there, made this mistake countless times). What I do now is for each item on a to-do list, I come up with the “Next Step” action.

The REAL benefit of To-Do Lists

Finally, something that I noticed about my lists. The real benefit of keeping to-do lists for me is not for the stuff that gets done, but for the stuff that consistently doesn’t make it to my list (getting missed accidentally) or, being on my list, doesn’t get done (when I conveniently forget about it).

These “missed” items are like a message from myself to myself – hey there, here’s what I really don’t like doing and trying to avoid altogether.

Technorati Tags: organizing, project management, LinkedIn

3 Reasons Your To-Do List Doesn’t Work is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

How to Build Your Social Media Strategy

yelena — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:06 +0000

Q: I would like to know if you have a social media marketing plan template I could use to get some measurable strategies in place. I will be getting an administrative assistant soon. With that being said, that could become a part of the assistants job description.

A: I don’t think that social media lends itself easily to templating. Sure, there are some building blocks, such as

blogs - yours and others in your niche that you can comment on
social bookmarking sites – Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc
social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are big three, but there are scores of others
forums and Ning communities
photo, audio and video sharing sites – YouTube, Flickr and such
wikis

Then there are basic elements that are a must if you plan on participating (Problogger talked about the elements of social media at length):

Tuning into the conversations – listening to your clients’ and competitors’ chatter around your brand, your niche, your products/services, their needs and desires that are relevant to what you have to offer.
Figuring out the channels that are most relevant to you and which ones you want to participate in (out of hundreds of available options).
Participating in and leading conversations in selected channels.
Creating and distributing conversation-worthy content that promotes your message.
Interacting with your friends, followers, contacts, clients, prospects, competitors, partners in a way that builds relationships

But before you get to all this, you have to figure out what is it you’re trying to achieve with social media marketing. You have to have clear goals whether these are creating awareness of your business; building your authority as an expert in your niche; building up, monitoring or repairing your company’s reputation; attracting visitors to your website; selling; etc.

Finally, a word about outsourcing or delegating your social media work. And the word is “extreme caution” (ok, so it’s really two words). Yes, social media will require your time and plenty of it. But if you need to clear up your schedule, start by delegating something else – e-mails, bookkeeping, content writing, admin duties, answering phones, etc.

If you think you don’t have time to converse with your clients and prospects, then eliminate some of the channels, conversation frequency, and/or number of connections you make (the smaller is your network, the easier it is to keep up with).

First of all, finding an admin assistants with knowledge and understanding of social media as well as copywriting skills is pretty difficult. (And no, having a personal blog and a Facebook profile does not immediately make one a social media expert, not even close.)

But an even more important reason is this (and I’m going to quote from this very thorough article on SmartBlogs:

Entrusting your brand’s voice to a bunch of strangers-– or anyone not directly integrated and passionate about your brand-– is risky business. The idea behind social media is to be authentic– for it to really BE YOU. (Faux celeb Tweeters anyone?) Your own voice is what wins cred with your customers.

The problem with social media (apart from being pretty time-consuming) is that there’s more and more junk clogging the pipes now. More than ever you have to be remarkable, authentic and patient to get through layers of automation, spamming and old-style broadcasting. If you do, social media can be a powerful marketing and business development tool.

Technorati Tags: social media, social media strategy, outsourcing, virtual assistant, social media virtual assistant

How to Build Your Social Media Strategy is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

Features or Benefits?

yelena — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:01 +0000

Q: What’s the difference between features of my service/product and its benefits to my clients.

A: Lately I’ve read several posts in big-name blogs about the differences between features and benefits. They all pretty much agreed that what customers look for are not so much features, but benefits. The difference between the two, it seems, is the fact that the later create value and the former create filler for your Products/Services page. Or something to that effect.

Jason Alba wrote about feature-rich and benefit-rich LinkedIn profiles.

Michael Fortin posted repeatedly and at length about the FAB formula (features, advantages, benefits) and about making a mistake of talking up your product’s features instead of describing how customers benefit from using your product.

Jacob Morgan provided some excellent step-by-step on how to use online tools to build a benefits list supported by existing features.

Still, it was a bit hard to digest without proper examples from daily living (the IttyBiz post on this issue was an exception with lots of examples).

But a few days ago I had a first-hand experience of this features vs. benefits issue and from the customer side to boot. I stayed at a hotel. Ok, nothing remarkable so far. Well, when I was choosing a hotel online, I kept coming across Room Amenities pages. You know, the ones that list all the standard stuff – the coffee maker, high-speed Internet, etc. Well, the hotel I booked listed 32″ flat-screen high-def TVs in every room as their top feature.

As I unpacked and relaxed on a (very comfortable) bed, I flipped through the channels on this said TV and found NOTHING of interest (because the hotel did not carry the full cable lineup). When I realized that the hotel did not offer ANY of my favorite cable channels, I finally got the point of the whole features vs. benefits issue.

The room had a nice feature that carried absolutely no benefit to me personally. I suspect that I wasn’t alone (hey, they didn’t have Comedy Central OR HGTV!).

Have you had a features vs. benefits experience as a customer? As a business owner, do you emphasize features, benefits or feature-supported benefits in your web copy?

Technorati Tags: copywriting, content writing

Features or Benefits? is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

What Should You Be Tweeting About?

yelena — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:00:07 +0000

Q: What should I be tweeting about? There seem to be so many rules – something engaging, valuable, funny, interesting, social – that most of the times when it comes to posting actual updates I just draw a blank.

A: The blessing of Twitter – the 140-character limit – can also be a curse. To write succinctly one needs a lot of time – for all the revisions and editing, for chopping off all the value-less content and crafting a focused unambiguous message.

Having to come up with no more than 140 characters seems so easy! Until we realize how hard it is to write something of value that fits within this limit. Mark Twain’s famous “I’d write a shorter letter if I had more time” has never been more true. Especially since we all are constantly pressed for time.

First, lets take some pressure off of tweeting. Yes, it’d be great to continuously pump out hit one-liners. But it is not realistic. Don’t approach tweeting with an idea that every single one of your status updates MUST be a home run. Spending hours crafting a tweet is simply not worth it since very little rides on any single one of your tweets.

This is not to say that you should resort to “filler” tweets of a “I’m eating a PB&J sandwich” variety. But if your lunch selection, current or expected weather and occassional Twitter (or Gmail) slowdowns are off-limits, then what do you have left?

What should you be sharing with your followers? What is it that they want to see? They (your followers) want to…

Have a great conversation -Give them a statement worth replying to. Reply in kind and open the lines of communication.
Get to know the person behind the tweets – Give them the opportunity to get to know you, your personality, as well as your company and services.
Find out about great sites, videos or information – If you find it relevant and useful, chances are someone else will appreciate the resource as well – share links.
Share tweets that are worth sharing – Whether that comes in the form of a particularly humorous quip or a great article you have read, give them something they can retweet.
Engage you as well – Don’t be afraid to jump in and get involved yourself. Join in on the conversations, thank a fellow Twitterer for sharing a resource you found helpful. Retweet their posts as well.

Give them what they want and what you will get in turn will be invaluable to you and your business.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, social media marketing

What Should You Be Tweeting About? is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

18 Twitter Tools for Marketing

yelena — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:43 +0000

Q: I’ve recently created a Twitter profile for my businesses and posted some tweets. But I’m really confused with all the available Twitter applications. Seems like there are hundreds of them! Which ones should I use?

A: An abundance of Twitter apps is a great social proof of Twitter’s popularity (similar to iPhone apps and Wordpres plugins). And you’re right – things do get very confusing. Some apps are more useful for business while others would turn into time-wasters.

When Twitter is used for business, it becomes more important than ever to organize, schedule, track and analyze your tweets and your followers. The following 18 applications will help you:

TweetLater – Schedule tweets, track keywords, welcome new followers (Warning – do not rely too much on automating your tweets; it makes for a very impersonal experience for your followers)
TwitterContd – Gives you more than 140 characters, upload photos, shorten URLs
Tweepler – Organize your followers
Monitter – Monitor keywords on Twitter
TwitterMass – Enables you to connect and communicate with your target audience
TwitterToolbar – Giving you access to a variety of tools & resources
TwitThis – Add a TwitThis button to your website or blog so visitors can easily tweet about your company
TweetBurner – Track links you share
Trendistic – See the trending topics on Twitter
CoTweet – Platform that aids companies in reaching customers, multiple accounts and users
Twitoria – Reduce Twitter’s clutter by revealing friends that haven’t posted in a while or track down spammers
Twiggit – Updates your Twitter status with your latest Diggs
BubbleTweet – Add a video welcome to your Twitter page
Twitter Gallery – Free Twitter backgrounds and themes
TwitPic – Share photos on Twitter
twtQpon – Enhance your marketing by offering coupons to your followers
TwitterHawk – Targeted marketing that will find people tweeting about a chosen topic and location
TweetBeep – Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, and your company

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter tools, social media marketing

18 Twitter Tools for Marketing is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

19 Reasons to Tweet about Your Business

yelena — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:05 +0000

Q: I keep hearing about all these great benefits of using Twitter for marketing. The gurus says that Twitter marketing is free or very low-cost, but is very effective. But I simply don’t know what to tweet about my business. I feel like I have nothing worth sharing.

A: A good tweet can not only inform your followers about new developments in your company, but it can also educate, inform, or entertain them. .Once you achieve visibility, both your company profile and your client prospect levels will rise. The word of mouth that can come from a particularly intelligent tweet or series of tweets can result in hundreds or thousands of dollars in free advertising.

If you provide tweets that appeals to your followers, you’ll gain credibility and be on your way to forming a valuable relationship. This can be very powerful from a marketing point of view.

If you’re looking for things to tweet about your business, consider some of these 19 ideas to get you started:

Starting a new business
Celebrating a company anniversary – I know a business owner who celebrated her 5-year anniversary in business by a month-long series of Tweets.
Publishing of a new article or series of articles – some of the article directories have an option of automatically notifying Twitter of your newly-published article
Publishing of a new blog post related to your business – this is also something you can automate either by using a plugin such as Alex King’s TwitterTools or through TwitterFeed.
Publishing of a book or ebook – and don’t forget to tweet about pre-launch tweets
Promote a book signing
Receiving an award – and being nominated for one (ask your Twitter followers to vote for you if applicable)
Announcement a partnership or a joint venture
Promote a specific product, service, event, contest or fundraiser whether your own or someone else’s
Promote a product or service that is holiday themed
Promote a sale or holiday sale
Promote a campaign using your company products that promotes a cause or creates awareness about something important
Announce that you’re available to speak on particular subjects of interest
Promote a public appearance on television, radio or in person
Launching of a website or a blog
Certification and any other training – tweet before you start, during the training and, of course, once you get your certificate
Announce free information or resources are available
Sponsoring a workshop, seminar, conference or teleseminar
Announcement of a new strategic partnership or alliance

While there are many other reasons to tweet, these ideas should help you jumpstart your creativity.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, social media marketing

19 Reasons to Tweet about Your Business is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

Business Letter Salutation

yelena — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:00:07 +0000

Q: I’m sending an e-mail to a large list of contacts. My contacts are from various walks of life. Any ideas on how I can address it to the entire list without sounding too impersonal?

A: Without knowing more details about your list, it is difficult to suggest particulars. You know your contacts the best. I suggest to look for some common thread – whether it’s something about their lifestyle, hobby, jobs. How about the reason why they are interested in your products or services? Here’s a good explanation of various salutation ideas.

Another option is to omit the salutation altogether, as explained here (scroll down to #11). Or make it very informal, as explained in this short post from Persistence Unlimited.

Of course, the best and most personal salutation is the person’s name. “Dera Mary” sounds a lot better than “Dear Friend”, don’t you agree? But what if you don’t have names for all the people on your list? Here’s another great article that has a case study on use of three different types of salutations.

Technorati Tags: copy writing, e-mail salutation, e-mail marketing, business writing

Business Letter Salutation is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant

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Can I Use Twitter to Boost My Website’s Page Rank?

yelena — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:00:36 +0000

Q: My website’s page rank is 1. I’ve heard that I can boost it by, among other things, being active on Twitter. I’ve been tweeting daily for a few months now, but see no change to my Google Page Rank. What gives?

A: Sorry for the bad news, but tweeting daily or even several times a day won’t help you raise your site’s page rank. Basically, there are three places on Twitter where you can add a link to your site, blog or specific blog post. The first two are in the Profile section – Web and Bio. The third one is in your status updates.

Twitter links are nofollows. It means that Twitter puts a snippet of HTML code in front of a URL you enter when you set up your profile. This nofollow snippet instructs search engine spiders to not follow the link back to your site.

This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web.

Besides, if you use a URL shortener such as TinyURL, Tweetburner, Bit.ly, etc. (whether for your tweets or updates on other sites), you lose much of the link juice – measure of weight a website can pass onto another site through a link.

So if you are on Twitter only to get higher page rank for your site, you’re better off elsewhere (although most social media sites, including social networks and many blogs) employ nofollow.

Technorati Tags: social networking, Google Page Rank, nofollow

Can I Use Twitter to Boost My Website’s Page Rank? is a post from: 1Click Virtual Assistant