So why do I preface this post with that phrase, because it signifies an experience I just had that, to me, personifies what partnering with a Virtual Assistant means. Let me expand.

In my world as a Virtual Assistant, last week was “one of those weeks” where you question the decision you made (in my case 3 years ago) to enter the world of the self employed. A situation happened that could have either helped solidify the client/VA relationship I had OR it could have severed the ties.

The Situation:

Client is a WordPress Developer ( I’ll call him Jim)

Virtual Assistant (that’s me) but to Jim my role is  ”Development and Client Care” which essentially means I help format and develop the WordPress site for the client and communicate directly with them to move the project forward.

The Story:

I received a phone call from the Jim’s client (let’s call him Bob) as I needed some clarification on some content to the wordpress site. Since I am somewhat new to Bob’s industry I had some questions that seemed very reasonable on my end but, as I found out, were not to Bob. The conversation became very one-sided with Bob literally becoming somewhat rude and insulting. His voice was raised and I could hear and feel the frustration but also felt very belittled as his tone was very condescending. I couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. I immediately had to explain to Jim what had happened with a lot of apprehension I might add – could it have just been me, could I have been more clearer etc. etc.

So, three scenarios could have resulted from that conversation I then had with Jim.

A. Jim could have taken Bob’s side in the matter.

B. Jim could have just ignored the situation.

C. Jim could have supported me.

Essentially, the whole direction of how our VA/Client relationship would move forward was held in the balance awaiting a response. My goal was never to “rock-the-boat” but

So what was the outcome???

My respect and admiration for Jim was solid to begin with but now I am convinced our VA/client relationship could last for a very long time.

So why did I tell you this story, definitely not to show you my weaknesses or cry over spilt milk, I was trying to demonstrate that:

1. Virtual Assistants: be open and honest with your clients

And

2. VA Clients: Support your team whole-heartedly and stand up for them.

If you do this, they will be “loyal to the bone” day in and day out.

Do you have a story like this to share, add your comments below so we can hear from you.

                          

Google Places

A Google Places account allows a business to:

• Have that prominent Google map show up beside the web address in the Google listings
• Add up to 10 photos in the listing to showcase the outside of the building or the goods and services sold within the establishment
• Create coupons for promotions
• Solicit reviews/testimonials which give further clout to the benefits of dealing with that business

Google Maps

So how do you set up a Google Places account for your client, follow the steps and your done!

1. Google Account: Set up a Google account for your client(which is free) by going to http://www.google.com. You will need a Gmail account and username to create the Google Places.
2. Activate the Account: Click https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount and click on Google Places.
3. Complete Information: You will then be asked to fill in a number of areas regarding your client’s business info….make this as detailed as possible.

• Basic Address Info including website and a description of the products or services they offer
  • • Service Areas and location settings
    • Hours of Operation
    • Payment Options
    • Photos: add up to 10 photos of the storefront or products
    • Videos: you can upload up to 5 videos to Youtube and have it listed as part of your listing

Google needs to verify the information so warn your client that they will be receiving a phone call from an automated system at Google with a verification code….this is very important as you need the code to finalize the Google Places account.

Next Steps:

1. Ask current or past customers to post a (positive) review on the site…the more the better 
   

   Add Reviews for Google Places

    

2. Add or change up the photos as necessary to reflect the current look of the storefront or products
3. Use the insights/analytics feature on a monthly basis to gain information about the number of people visiting the Google Places account

Monitor the Google Places Stats

If you can set up a Google Places results for your clients and demonstrate the importance of this tool, they will be eternally grateful!… just another way partnering with a VA is a wise decision.

For more information on other local business listings, please review Diane Coville’s post titled Social Media Marketing You can Go Local Now at http://www.vanetworking.com/blog/social-media-marketing-you-can-go-local-now/.

                          

You’ve probably heard of Jing and if you have downloaded it before, you recognize the yellow sun icon that sits on the corner of your browser window. I have often just used it for the occasional screen cast and never thought about the potential of Jing as a powerful communication tool between Virtual Assistant and client.

“Jing is free software that adds visuals to your online communication – instead of typing at people at people, show them what you’re talking about..pronto!”

1. Harness the Power of Video: Jing allows you to make quick 5 minute videos. Let’s say you are working on a sales page for your client but you need to talk to them about the layout, send a quick video to show the page and discuss the options. Jing allows you to save your video to screencast.com and immediately receive a link that you can paste into your email. It’s simple and effective.
2. Screenshots for Visual Effect: Have you ever tried to explain how to understand Google Analytics in an email, I have and it just didn’t work. I should have taken a screenshot or 2 of the various components of Google Analytics, added visual comments and arrows to direct the client’s attention and viola:.a much better idea.

Applications for Jing:

Take it one step further and create a training center for virtual assistant associates or for future clients. Create ongoing videos or screen casts of tasks that are carried out on a regular basis and share them with new clients or associates to help train them. For eg. I always recommend Hootsuite as a Twitter Manager for my clients so upon setting up Hootsuite for them, I send a quick video showing them around the various components of the program.

Further Applications:

E-Commerce:

• How to add a product to a shopping cart
• show a client how to set up a stored search within their shopping cart
• create a bundle offer with the cart

E-mail Marketing:

• formatting an ezine in their email marketing system
• checking on delivery rates

WordPress:

• How to add a thumbnail image to wordpress
• How to add a plugin
• How to upload images to the image library

:..and more and more. The uses for Jing are unlimited and highly effective.

Can you envision the possibilities?

Partnering with a VA who expands the boundaries of email opens up new communication and hopefully, leads to a long-term relationship.

PS.. Jing is owned by the same company that brings you Snagit and Camtasia.

                          

Sales Page:

• write text for sales page – if your VA is a great copywriter, have them work with you to write up the sales page content
• format and upload the sales page to your server
• add product image
• add shopping cart link

Pre-Launch Set Up:

• set up the product in the shopping cart and include all relevant state or provincial taxes
• add the product images to the cart and to the headers in the checkout pages
• set up coupons in shopping cart for discounts for preferred members, clients or joint venture partners

Launching Product:

• draft broadcast that announces product
• manage support email account if customers issues arise

Social Media Support:

• format blog post about product launch and upload to blog
• makes sure blog post feeds into Facebook page, Twitter and Linked in accounts
• add product banner to Facebook page and blog

Affiliate Marketing:

• connect with core affiliates to “get the buzz rolling”
• add new product banners to affiliate area
• format affiliate broadcasts – help write pre-written Tweets, Facebook posts and blog posts
• broadcast affiliate email
• interact with affiliates to answer questions

Follow Up Marketing

• format follow up broadcasts
• schedule tweets for Twitter
• help set up an information webinar

Now you could do this all yourself, but why would you?

                          

One of the growing tasks Virtual Assistants are taken are is the development of affiliate communication geared towards these social media channels. Here’s some examples of how a VA can create materials for promotion.

1. Affiliate Newsletter

Create consistent communication with your affiliates by producing a month or quarterly newsletter. A VA can format it in html or plain text format and set up a broadcast through your email marketing system. I find it advisable to include a merge code of the affiliate link for each affiliate. This way they don’t have to go searching for their affiliate URL; make it as easy as possible for your affiliates to get the information they need. The clients’ email marketing system should have the ability to automatically pull each affiliates default link into the broadcast.

2. Pre-written Tweets

Within the newsletter, supply your affiliates with pre-written tweets. You can’t deny the popularity of twitter today for delivering communication quickly and effectively. Have your VA draft up 6 tweets for you to approve. The tweets will need to be 140 characters maximum and include the affiliate link. We encourage affiliates to shorten their links using tinuyurl.com or the link shortening software within Hootsuite.com, Tweetdeck.com or Seesmic.com.

3. Pre-written Facebook Posts

As with Twitter, your VA can draft up 2 or 3 quick Facebook posts for the affiliates to add to their profile or page. These posts can be a little longer to suit the conversational aspect of Facebook. Encourage your affiliates to augment the message for their own language if necessary. Remember, the key is to make it as simple as possible for your affiliates to “get the word out” about your products or services.

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be difficult and with today’s surge in the use of social media channels it just makes sense to utilize them. Your VA can be an integral part in building your affiliate numbers and sales.

                          

What Would We Do Without Google

“Jimmy got a job at Google”! If you have ever seen the move “21″, you may remember Kevin Spacey’s character quoting that line in reference to a MIT college student giving up the chance to win millions gambling in Vegas by choosing a career at Google instead.  (I hear it’s a great place to work!) You can understand why when you investigate the endless free resources available for you as Virtual Assistants and, more importantly, how they can help streamline your client’s systems.

Here are a couple of my favorite Google Applications:

Google Alerts to Track the Latest Conversations:

Google Alerts are email updates that show up in your inbox on a period schedule based on your choice of a topic or keyword. This is up to date, current information about news, blog posts, tweets etc. based on your search characteristics. When setting up an alert for your client, it is advisable to set up one base on their personal name, their business name and possibly their competitor’s names. Then you can screen the emails that come in and pass on the relevant ones to your client.

http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Reader to Track Relevant Blog Posts:

Have you ever tried to keep on top of the multitude of blogs you follow for yourself or your clients? Fuss no more, Google Reader aggregates RSS feeds from blogs around the web and houses them in one spot. Obtain a list from your client of their most popular blog sites. You can monitor the blog posts from your Google Reader account and forward interesting ones to your client which can be used for Tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates and more.

http://www.google.com/reader

Gmail to Mange Your Email Activities:

I’ve just discovered Gmail…why did it take me so long? AS a VA, you may want to suggest your clients move to Gmail. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. Spam Filter: Google does it right so when it comes to a spam filter. Gmail is amazing. I receive very little spam now and if, by chance, I do, you can label it as spam and Gmail will remember that for next time.

2. Mega Files: Every tried to send a video or images through your email system, Gmail give you 20MB of space so you can send videos, audios, presentations and more through email.

3. Threaded Conversations: No more individual emails when you reply back and forth with people. Gmail threads the emails so you can look at one thread to see the whole conversation.

4. Amalgamate Accounts: Most people have more than 1 email so managing them in one spot is ideal. It’s quite simple to stream all your email accounts through Google. You have the option of emailing from any of your accounts so most people won’t even know you are managing your accounts through

Gmail Tip: Gmail only allows for one signature block. Wisestamp is a Firefox and Chrome applications which allows you to create custom email signatures for your accounts.

http://www.wisestamp.com/

http://mail.google.com/

Here are some more Google tools you may want to investigate:

Google documents: http://docs.google.com/

Google webmaster tools: http://google.com/webmasters/tools/

IGoogle: http://www.igoogle.com/

Next step: Set up some of these Google tools for yourself and then have a chat with your client to see if they can benefit from using these Google Tools. And if you are curious as to what Kevin Spacey gets up to in “21″, here’s a link to the a review of the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478087/

                          

Can you believe that Twitter has only been in existence since March 2006? It’s still a big anomaly to some entrepreneurs which is why Social Media Virtual Assistants are in big demand. Many VA clients are looking to their VA’s for insight on how to streamline their Twitter activities. When asked which Twitter system I recommend, I always reply “why Hootsuite” of course.

5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Using Hootsuite

2. Personalize Your View with Tabs

3. Connect to Multiple Sites

4. Keyword Tracking

5. Schedule a Tweet

Now that you can see the benefit of using Hootsuite ask your VA to set up, customize and train you on how to use your account successfully.

                          

Which is understandable.

Just keeping on top of comments on your Facebook page, reading tid bits of information in your twitter stream and connecting on LinkedIN is enough to make anyone’s head spin. But the question that always come up is:

“To What Extent Should a VA Manage a Client’s Social Media Presence?”

This can be a very “touchy” subject for both parties. What if the client is quite happy with the VA “tweeting” everything for them but the VA feels somewhat uncomfortable with that scenario, then create a “social media contract” and lay out the parameters for action.

Here’s a quick synopsis of how you might go about creating your own Client/VA Social Media Contract.

Lay out the Contract

Add the social media sites in question and then add statements for each task.

Facebook Fan Page

eg. VA will format and update design aspects of Facebook page as requested by client.

eg. VA will delete “inappropriate” comments form Facebook page as necessary.

Twitter Account

eg. VA will only add generic/information type tweets to the clients account, such as:

1. Upcoming events
2. Informative blog posts written by client
3. Quotes

Blog Site

eg. VA will approve all comments in blog
eg. VA will add blog posts to site after approved by client

Add other sites such as Youtube and LinkedIN if necessary then make sure you add an area at the bottom of the document for both the client and VA signature. It just makes good business sense to know where the “line is drawn” when it comes to social media marketing for others.

                          

Many of these soloprenurs are ready to jump into the social media circle but are not sure how to let their followers, subscribers or customers know where to find them in the social media platforms. Here are some quick suggestions to “get the word out.”

1. Your Newsletter is Key

Your online ezine is your best resource for keeping your subscribers up to date on the newest happenings in your business and life. Add Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn icons to your ezine and link them to your accounts. Encouraging your readers to connect with you there is not enough, add some text about what you post on your Facebook wall or what helpful hints you tweet about.

2. Change up Your Signature Block

It seems so minor but has been proven – signature blocks, including links, work well to encourage your email recipients to click away. Many times you’ll see links on the bottom of signature blocks saying:

“Have you seen my latest Facebook Fan Page”
“Connect with me on Twitter”

If you have a compelling conversation happening on your Facebook Fan page, add a link to your Facebook page with a blurb about the topic to encourage interaction.

3. Utilize Your Email Marketing System

If you subscribe to an email marketing system such as Aweber or a shopping cart system such as 1SC, then you have the added benefit of adding your social media links to the bottom of your name in your auto responder. Secondly, add an additional line to your Product Purchase page asking for the purchaser’s twitter address. This is a great way to collect Twitter address from your clients so go ahead and follow them.

4. Don’t Forget Offline Marketing

If you attend workshops, live events or networking functions, consider adding your social media accounts to your business cards. (I believe this will be the latest trend in business cards in the future.) And don’t stop with just your business cards; add the links to the bottom of your PowerPoint presentations and brochures.

5. Optimize Your Website and Blog

It’s almost a surprise these days to not see social media icons on most website and blogs so don’t forget the obvious – add those social media icons to your website and blog. If you own a wordpress.org site, the Tweetmeme plugin allows others to tweet your latest blog post – a great way to help promote your blog on twitter.

This is just a short list of ways to promote your social media presence. If you are a Virtual Assistant, please add a comment below about how you helped promote a clients’ social media presence online.