We are down to the last few seats (9 last time I checked) left for Kathy Colaiacovo’s new VASES program called Setting up your Virtual Assistant Presence on the Top 3 Social Media Platforms which will start June 22nd at 3PM PDT (6PM EST) and run for 6 classes through to August 3rd.  Recordings will be available if you cannot attend all the LIVE webinars.

As a Virtual Assistant your online presence is more important than most businesses.

• You work virtually; people from any location can be your client.
• You don’t always have the benefit of a face to face meeting in order for someone to get to know you, to meet you, to network with you.
• Building trust and confidence is key to signing clients that you only ever meet virtually.

Your presence online can be the factor that ‘hooks’ your potential client and turns them into a ‘signed client’.

Watch this video to pick up 3 helpful tips to give your social media online presence a kick-start for your Virtual Assistant business…

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Once you’ve watched the video, note that instead of a $50 OFF coupon, we are now offering a $100 OFF coupon in compensation for the date changes which you can view on at the website:

Your online foundations – website, blog and newsletter – are easily supported by a social media presence that helps you build your business.  This 6 week training program will help you build an online presence that shows visitors and connections exactly who you are, what your skills are and how you can help them build and grow their own business.

Each week in the one hour class you can follow along as Kathy Colaiacovo, your Social Media VA, walks you through the steps to building an enhanced and effective online presence – specific to a virtual assistant business. Between classes you will have time to work on your own profiles, setting them up as recommended.  The final class is an open Question and Answer Session meant to help you ask any final questions before you go off to start using your social media channels to market you and your business.

Here’s the class outline with more specific details at the website:

• Facebook Personal Profile
• Twitter
• Facebook Business Page (2 classes)
• Linked In
• Open Q & A to wrap things up

Act now and you’ll receive these 3 BONUS ITEMS:

1. Kathy’s Talking on Twitter  eBook.
2. Facebook Strategy Plan
3. Sample Action Plan to use for Social Media Marketing

What’s makes our VASES program different from others?

• This training program isn’t just another Power Point presentation
• You’ll follow along LIVE on the Internet and see exactly where you are and what you need to do to setup your social media profiles
• You’ll learn to optimize you profiles specifically for a Virtual Assistant business
• You’ll learn setup tricks to helping you save time
• Taught by highly skilled trainers who are experts in the specialties/niche with Q & A throughout the training sessions
• Recognized as re-education credits for VAcertified.com
• Collecting & displaying these VASES on your website will show credibility to your potential clients

What’s the Price?

It’s only $197 if you use the coupon code (“social50”) OR if you’d rather pay in two payments, you can do that too! Pay $98.50 now and then in 3 weeks, if you like the course (which we know you will), you can pay your second payment of $98.50.

REGISTER HERE

Coupon code for $100 off is: social50

This VASES Networking Program will be presented as 6 one hour webinars held June 22, 29, July 6, 13, 27, August 3 at 3PM PDT (6PM EST) for $297 (or $197 with coupon code “social50”). Registrants will receive #1 Networking VASES badge upon passing mark on final exam.

We only have 9 seats left as we wish to keep the classes small to allow for full interaction between the trainer and students.

See you on Wednesday!

Tawnya and Kathy

                          

Not everyone knows how to create a customized Facebook fan page.   While there are some generators out there that can surely help some, there is nothing like having a professional fan page made up for you according to YOUR every expectation, design and liking.   So guess who can do this for you?   You guessed it – your ever loving, loyal and trustworthy Virtual Assistant!   You do not need to hire a company so-to-speak to do this for you, but rather have your VA, and/or find a VA that can and will produce what you are looking for. Another point to consider is that even if you did utilize a generator you may not be able to get the results that you are seeking, but more than that you might be wasting valuable time trying to accomplish what your VA might already know how to do, and if it’s not at 100% to your liking they can edit and fix it at that, as well as manage the page! What a deal!

Never underestimate the skill-set of a Virtual Assistant, as there are many out there that can do so much more than some might have thought possible. All you have to do is ask and if you ask then you shall receive.

                          

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
• More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
• There are more than 150 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
• There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

If the above statistics are in fact true, which I personally believe that they are, then what stops one from using what is given to us on a Silver platter?   Keep in mind that Facebook is not just for socializing with people that we may already know.  Facebook is used in many ways such as, making new friends, acquiring new clients, customers, and Virtual Assistants alike. Yes there are sites that enable you to find clients, and enable you to find the VA of your dreams which is fantastic, but what better way to showcase what you do for both the client and the VA than a Facebook Fan Page! With that being said one has the opportunity to speak to potential new clients, customers, VA’s and leads in real time or via email right through Facebook’s platform. How easy is that! I guess that you can say that while a free lunch is hard to come by, this is one of those rare grand lunches that is in fact free for all!  Why not utilize the biggest and grandest social media outlet available to us at our fingertips and is free to boot!

Going back to the older ways of the world, when people know you, or get to know you they begin to trust you. Trust spurs long lasting friendships, new customers, clients, Virtual assistants, and so much more! A client that would like to do a search on a Virtual Assistant will not only find them in Google, but can also find then in Facebook as well, if they are a member, or has a fan page. Doesn’t it make sense to join the largest social media venue of our time? I think so! What do you think?

                          

Imagine the possible loss of business this establishment would have experienced if they had not seen that “tweet” or worse, if they had just ignored it. Instead, as a result of one tweet, they immediately contacted a pest control company and had the whole facility investigated for the pests. Guess what? They got a clean bill of health. But they didn’t stop there. They made sure the media in that city heard about the tweet AND  the actions they took to resolve the complaint. It became quite the hot news item on the radio and television for a few days. So they turned a negative into a positive and illustrated their concern and their desire to rectify the problem.

This is a prime example of “Reputation Management” and how to handle issues with customers. If you do not make a point of monitoring what your customers are saying about you – if you ignore customer service issues or worse still, do not make the effort to resolve those issues – you most likely will suffer some loss – the reputation of your business, customers, revenue and/or future growth.

Today’s consumers are very sensitive to customer service and in a challenged economy that we are still experiencing, it is hard enough to acquire new business:.don’t make the mistake of ignoring your past and present customers because referrals are the best way to gain new business.

Another example would be a manufacturer of locks for bicycles. They were the “crème de la crème” in the industry.   Then someone had an issue with how easy it was to actually break those high quality locks:..and the dissatisfied customer made a video and posted it on You Tube. Word spread fast and sales dropped. But the manufacturer was not monitoring their reputation on the internet. They didn’t know why their sales were dropping until they finally became aware of  the video.   By that time it was too late. Now, they would have to try to recover from this incident and earn back their reputation but probably will never rise to the status they experienced before when their products were highly regarded and trusted.

Do you know what your customers are saying about you?

Don’t make the mistake of ignoring the power of the internet and social media.  It can make or break your business in a flash!

Do you know that an experienced Virtual Assistant can handle that task for you? There are systems they can set up that will monitor what your customers are saying about you, they can alert you to problems so you can address them quickly OR notify you of rave reviews where you might want to offer  a special discount in appreciation of their testimonial.

                          

Social Media now allowed people to contribute and share content in various ways throughout the internet, over and above their own websites and suddenly there was a resurgence in popularity of blogging, article writing, list building and email marketing.

However, Social Media Channels were in their infancy and were better suited to international and national on-line businesses. It was difficult if not impossible for local stores, brick and mortar businesses, restaurants and bars and almost anyone else to effectively use Social Media to get to their local target markets.

The Social Media realm listened and where they saw the need, they came up with ways for local businesses to now utilize their Channels.

Examples:

A burger restaurant in Milwaukee and a savvy owner who chose to market his new establishment through Twitter.  He accounts for 75% of his customers discovering his restaurant through Twitter. And his business grew so quickly he opened 2 other restaurants. How cool is that?

Or a local bakery who is off the beaten track and newspaper and Yellow Pages ads were not showing any results. But one of their customers started using Foursquare and every time she used her iPhone to mention on Foursquare that she was at that bakery, their sales went up substantially for the day. You can be assured they are now developing a social media marketing plan because they have already seen results.

And speaking of Yellow Pages, have you listed your business on Google Places? It is the Yellow Pages of Google. Anyone with a smartphone or computer and can access the internet can use local search terms to find your business even if they have never heard your Company Name.

There are many new LBSN’s (Local Business Social Networks) popping up every day.

There are also MeetUps. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook connections are taking their interaction off the Social Networks long enough to meet up locally “in person”  to build the connections they already have and make further connections. Recently there was a Social Networking Day, June 30^th to be exact, and Social Media participants everywhere attended local Meet-Ups to celebrate. Lots of new connections were made and everyone announced it was a big success.

If you are having an Event, there is Eventbrite where you can not only announce your Event, but issue tickets (paid or free) to  interested participants and post to your Social Media accounts with a link to send them to your Event listed on Eventbrite.

Social Media is not just for international business anymore! Whatever your local business, you too can achieve amazing results!

If you don’t know where to start or are confused about what best strategies would work for your business, ask a Social Media Virtual Assistant. They will be happy to help you.

                          

• Will your outsourcing strategy change? Should it change? Are you missing out on something here?
• What’s more efficient? Crowdsourcing? Outsourcing? Hiring in house? Some combination of the above?
• Is not the traditional “RFP” crowdsourcing? Or does it depend on what community is being targeted?
• Is it crowdsourcing only if it’s online and involves a social community of some sort?

I haven’t read the book (yet!), but perhaps a true “crowdsourcer” is one who will not necessarily go actively looking for a specific type of VA; instead, crowdsourcers might prefer to just throw a post up on Ping.fm once a week and see what comes back.

Although Pinging isn’t really targeting an identifiable crowd, is it?

There are more questions than answers, at least for me, at this point.

There are obvious drawbacks to the throw it at the wall and see what sticks approach. While the response rate may be higher, versus submitting an RFP to VAnetworking.com for example, what will the quality of those responses be?

On the other hand, it might be argued that crowdsourcing will create a sort of self-selection process where the cream rises to the top, because who really knows what the competition is like except that they all follow the same person on Twitter? Or Facebook? Or even subscribe to the crowdsourcer’s blog feed?

Then again, marketing is marketing. As such, like attracts like and maybe crowdsourcing has been here all along but under a different name: outsourcing.

What do you see as the fundamental difference between crowdsourcing and outsourcing? And how will it impact your business as a potential client of Virtual Assistants, if at all?