Blogging is a key component in a social media strategy. You are not bound by 140 characters or limited by your Facebook Business Page fan base.  It is an ideal platform for you to disseminate great content around the world to your readership and start to become known as an authority in your field. The goal should be to become the person people think of when they think of your product or service and it’s important to use ‘big picture’ thinking.  It’s also important that your blog site contain the right elements to maximize your success in this environment.  Here are my top 10 blog must haves for 2012:

1. Self-hosted

Having a blog on WordPress.com or Blogspot.com is not ideal. They are fine if you are publishing a personal blog but if your blog is business related, then you should be self-hosted. This means that you manage your blog on your own domain name rather than something like yourname.wordpress.com.  The implications of self-hosting are that you own your own content and have accessbility to the myriad of templates and plug-ins out there to really make your site sing. The analogy here would be renting vs owning your own site/content. My personal preference is WordPress.  For more information or to start a new blog, click here for more information.

2. Content

Content is King on the web. The more valuable information you provide, the more attractive your site becomes. What goes around, comes around in the social media space. By sharing great content, you share your expertise and become known as the go-to person in your industry. You may even become known as a thought leader!  I usually advise your post contain between 500-1000 words and a weekly blog would be ideal for most small business owners.  The reality is, people will only spend a few minutes on your site, so it’s important that your content be engaging and provide great value. Here’s a tip for those of you who like to include outbound links to video in your posts. Use the embed feature on YouTube instead of just providing the link and embed the video right into your post. In this way, you keep people on your site. If you give someone a link to YouTube, there is a good chance they will become distracted and never come back to your post.  Additionally, any other links you provide on your post, should open in a new tab so that readers can easily navigate their way back to your post.

3. Branding

You will want to make sure that your blog site is properly branded. By this I mean, if you also have a ‘static’ website, the logo, colours and general feel should be repeated on the blog site (and everywhere else on the web including your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Channel). What is a ‘static’ site?  If your website does not provide a vehicle for people to engage you on the site, has no blog and you don’t refresh your content on a regular basis, your site would be considered ‘static’.  The reality is people are gravitating in droves to user-generate content sites where they can start to build rapport with you and add their own input hence the popularity of Social Media and sites like WordPress.

There is good news if you are already using WordPress as your vehicle to blog because you can also use this site as your main website. Your content can be easily moved from a static site to your WP site.  One site means easier maintenance for you, less confusion/navigating for your prospects and clients and no doubt less expensive. If you are determined to retain your static site, your hosting company does not support WordPress and you wish to start blogging, you have a couple of choices:

1. Move your domain and site to a Host provider who does support WP and set up a blog that runs in a subfolder.

2. Get a secondary domain name and hosting on a host provider who supports WordPress and just run your blog there. You will want to ensure that your static site can connect to your blog and vice-versa.  A domain name and hosting fees can generally be setup for less than $100/yr depending on your requirements.

4. Reliable Host

It is important that you choose a reliable host for WordPress. You’ll want a hosting company that has a good understanding of this platform, keeps its server capabilities in line with the ever changing upgrades on WordPress and has a great up-time record. There is nothing more frustrating than slow load times for sites and errors in the back end of WordPress when you are an administrator. My personal preference is Hostgator for a number of reasons – not the least of which, is that they are a ‘Green Hosting’ Company. You can check out a recent post for more information by clicking here.

5. Plug-ins

There is a list of must-have plug-ins that I install for my clients. Among them are:

• A firewall
• Spam protector
• Login protection against hackers
• Comment vehicle to aid with backlinking (great for Google). Also, remember to respond to valid comments in a timely way. Treat this like customer service.
• Email subscription capability – most readers still prefer to subscribe to content via email rather than RSS
• Syndication buttons – very important to be able to push your content out over the web rather than hoping people will find your post
• SEO (search engine optimization) capability
• Analytics

6.  Render to Mobile

With the rapid growth of smart phone sales, it is important to consider the fact that people might be accessing your site on their mobile device.  If your blog site or static site relies heavily on Flash players for images for example, it might be time to revisit this and find an alternative method. You don’t want people getting to your site to find large blank spaces where the images or video should be, particularly if you rely heavily on these to promote your product or services.

8. Analytics

It is very important that you track your results using some form of Analytics.  In this way, you can review how people are finding your content (what vehicle, what referral sites etc.), what the most successful content is and what is and what is not working well.  It can also reveal some great key word strategies.

9. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It doesn’t matter how great your content is if you don’t have a tool to get yourself found on the net. Enlist the help of someone who understands what people are searching for and how to incorporate those metatags and descriptions on your site – not only as header tags but also in your blog posts. I use Market Samurai for site setup. It’s a great tool.

10. Structure for Google

Last but not least, it’s important to understand how Google crawls your site.  There are strategies one can use in your blog posts to help you get your content indexed higher in the search engines.

If you don’t already have a blog for your business, now might be a great time to start!  If you are unsure as to how to properly set up your site or need help with publishing and syndicating your posts, make sure you enlist the help of someone who understands this space to maximize your success.

Happy New Year everyone and Happy Blogging!

Until next time,

Joanne

While Joanne resides in Newmarket Ontario with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Ducking the Issues

As a business owner, do you duck the uncomfortable questions or complaints that come to you via your Social Media applications or online in general? Do you screen the bad news and omit it from your comment feed on your blog or remove the comments on your Facebook wall so that everything appears perfect in your world?  If so, you might be missing out on a wonderful opportunity and doing yourself more harm than good in the long run.

Social media is all about letting people get to know who you are as a business entity and a person. People want to know if you stand behind your product or service or if you are just paying lip service to the idea.

The truth is, a happy customer is going to tell others about your product or service and you will get referral business. When this happens, you feel great, right? And so you should.  But the reality is, you can’t keep 100% of the people happy all of the time and no one is perfect!  And, these unhappy customers are going to find a way to voice their opinion.  Many now take to the online world to vent their frustrations.  This can have considerable impact on your business.  Negative press in the search engines can hang around for a long time – years in fact.  So, consider it a bonus when they actually send you the message rather than telling 1000 of their Facebook friends about their issue where you may or may not hear about it and suffer the consequences.

If you are at all concerned about reputation management, and you should be, then consider accepting these comments/criticisms you are receiving and deal with them right away. Thank the person for telling you about it, and encourage the conversation to continue to make sure you understand the issue and then deal with it – yes, even in a public forum and then ask for feedback. This demonstrates to that individual and others, that you take responsibility for your business and are willing to make concessions where need be and fix problems that might exist.

Does this mean that you should accept every comment and every criticism that comes your way? Certainly not, as we all know there are unreasonable people out there who are only interested in ruining your reputation not in fixing the problem. You need to evaluate these on an individual basis.  However, if you notice that there is a consistent theme or issue, chances are there are a lot of people out there with the same concern and these should be dealt with.

If you are smart, you will add Google alerts to your repertoire to make sure you know what people are saying about you and your brand. If you are a larger corporation, you may need something more robust and there are many applications out there to assist you. Feel free to ask me for suggestions.

I think it all comes down to confidence in the long run – confidence in yourself and in the fact that you have a great product or service to offer.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to look at this as a great opportunity to deal with the issue head on and potentially turn that customer and others around.

What do you think?  As always, I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time, Happy New Year!  I hope it’s a prosperous one for you all.

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is Virtually Yours, anywhere.

Are You Being Held Hostage or Feel Your Hands are Tied?

I got a call a few weeks ago from a small local business owner who was very frustrated with her web designer. You know the type; someone who holds their cards close to their chest and would rather baffle the client with BS and hold them hostage.This website person actually told me they were smarter than the people at GoDaddy. WOW. Seriously?

Most small business owners I work with have very little to no computer technical skills. Most of them put their trust in someone they knew or took the recommendation of a friend to help them establish their online presence rather than take the time to find out if this potential supplier was the right fit for them – both from a personality perspective as well as taking into consideration if this supplier had the ability to understand their business. Sometimes one gets lucky. Suffice it to say in this case, this individual was not a match on either front. The worst part of all of this is that this person stuck with that developer for 2 years and suffered the outcome I describe below.

So, what are the signs that you are working with the wrong support person?

1. You get the feeling this person doesn’t really care about you or your business. You feel they are only interested in billing you and arm and a leg every time you ask them for help.

2. This person has not taken the time to understand you or your business model and what you need to do to get business.

3. The supplier has not done enough to stay current with changing trends and you feel you are falling behind your competitors.

4. You have begun to feel de-motivated and lack enthusiasm because you feel that lack of support. You now avoid calling or talking to that person because you don’t want a confrontation.

5. You wouldn’t even consider referring this person to anyone else.

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, what is stopping you from making a change? Most of the time, people will tell me that they have invested too much money in their existing situation and don’t want to start over.  They feel their hands are tied. The fact is you are likely spinning your wheels and the longer you sit there, the deeper the rut you’ll create. The online world is changing rapidly and it’s important that you understand that and embrace the change.  Don’t stick your head in the sand. These changes will keep coming.  I say cut your losses and move on.

As a Social Media specialist, forming solid relationships with my clients is vital on all fronts but wanting them to help them form those kinds of relationships with their client base is equally important to me. If I sense there is a change in our relationship,  I want to know immediately.  I am not too big to say it might be time to move on if the relationship is no longer mutually beneficial.  It will happen from time to time.  As a business owner myself, I understand the importance of keeping my finger on the pulse of all my relationships.

So, are you still happy with the people you have taken into your fold?

Next time, we’ll talk about this same situation but with the shoe on the other foot.

Until then, I always welcome feedback. And here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own blog.

Until next time,

Joanne

3 Ways to Reputation Management – Keeping An Ear to the Ground

Yes, it’s true! People talk about their life experiences – good or bad every day.  In the past, they would tell their friends, family and co-workers, but here’s what’s changed.  Now anyone can go online and spread word of that experience… with the world.  With the surge in blogging, article writing and tweeting, people now have a voice and they aren’t afraid to speak up.  If you are a business owner, how well are you tapped into what people are saying about your brand?

If people are saying great things about your business, wouldn’t you want to thank them? Wouldn’t you like to springboard off of that positive feedback to influence others to do business with you? Of course you would.  The other side of the coin however, is this.  Do you think it’s possible to keep 100% of your clients happy 100% of the time?  If you do, please tell me who you are! The reality is, that sometimes clients will go away unhappy and they are going to talk about it, potentially online.  So it’s very important to stay tuned in to the conversation that’s taking place out there.

How do you do that?  Here are a few ways to stay connected to the conversation.

1. Google Alerts

Go ahead and set up a Google account for yourself and install Google Alerts. It’s FREE! Enter the keywords for your brand – your business name, your name, your domain names, your key personnel, etc. Go ahead and enter your competition as well.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to monitor that activity too?  GA will send you an email to tell you when it gets a hit on that search criteria and you can investigate. Yahoo also has its version too. You can find it here.

2. Twitter Search

Set up Twitter Keyword searches to monitor the conversation going on in Twitter. You use the same philosophy as above.  You can do that from whatever console you are using i.e., Hootsuite, Seesmic or Tweetdeck for example.   Don’t forget that tweets get indexed in the search engines too.  Good and bad comments can hang around the search engines for a long time, years in fact.

3. Trackur.com

Consider using an application like Trackur. It has a great Social media monitoring system and comes with a free and a premium version.

There are a myriad of other applications that you can try out as well.   Some are free, others charge a premium.  Depending on the size of your business, you may need something more robust.  Try radian6.com

Good news spreads fast on the net, and bad news spreads even faster.  So what do you do when your brand gets mentioned?  If it’s a great review, as I said above, thank the person/entity that is providing the great feedback. Foster that relationship.   They are acting as a great ambassador of your brand.  But what to do about a bad review?  Don’t ignore it.  Others won’t.  Take this as a great opportunity to engage them in conversation, listen carefully to what is being said and respond appropriately.  By addressing it here, not only are you are showing that you care, but you may be able to change their opinion and you can turn the relationship around.  It’s Public Relations.

As a Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to monitor their brand and make sure they are participating in the conversation – good or bad.  After all, it IS your reputation at stake.

What do you think? Have you engaged people in this environment using these tools? How did they work?  I found an example of this just yesterday where someone included my content in his post and gave me credit for it with a link back to my site.  What did I do?  Thank him of course!

I love getting feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all you bloggers out there. Leave a comment and you can leave a link back to your own blog!  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from all of you.

Joanne

While physically located in , Ontario where I live with my family, as a VA, I’m virtually yours anywhere….

Grand-daddy Of The Social Media Sites

I consider my LinkedIn profile like an “About Me” page on a website.   I point people to my LinkedIn page to find out more about me.  Why?  Because LinkedIn is really your resume online! More importantly, you can keep your work history, activities, interests and personal information up to date yourself rather than bothering your website person each time you want to make a change.   But LinkedIn is more than just your online resume.  It’s an ideal way to connect with colleagues, meet potential employers, form joint venture partnerships an become known as a thought leader.  As a Social Media Specialist Virtual Assistant, I show business owners how to use the power of LinkedIn to grow their businesses. Here are my top 10 things to ensure you stay LinkedIn!!

1.  Complete Your Profile.

Filling in your complete work history is important and so is the summary. People will often just read the summary portion of your profile so make sure it captures your reader’s attention. Showcase your personality!  LinkedIn will tell you when your profile has reached 100% completeness.  And it will even suggest items to you to help you get there.  Be sure to include a professional photo of you.  LinkedIn is one of the more ‘formal’ sites out there.  Also, the ‘tag line’ is one of the first things that people will see after your name when they go to your profile.  Make it interesting and pertinent.  Using your email address would not be appropriate here.

Helpful Tip: When filling in your profile information, write in the first person, be natural and write as if you are directing this information to the person you want to do business with. Keep your sentences short and use language appropriate to a grade 8 reading level.  This enables readers to scan your information faster.  Also consider using bullet points rather than sentences where appropriate.

2.    Account Settings

Make sure to go through your account settings and customize your public profile to ensure people have some access to your information (by this I mean people who don’t have a LinkedIn profile).  I check all the boxes and stay transparent but you may choose to limit access to some of your information. That’s up to you, but remember; staying as open and authentic as possible in the social media world is key to your success.

Helpful Tip: Make sure you allow your profile and status updates to appear in the news feed. This helps to keep you top of mind to your network.

3.     Contacts

Importing your contacts and building your network are easy in LinkedIn.  By filling in your work history and your education, LinkedIn will even be able to suggest contacts for you. Don’t measure your success by the number of 1st level contacts you have.  Look instead at your total network. Know that by choosing people to connect with that have a solid number of contacts in their network help increase your overall reach.

Helpful tip:  LinkedIn enables you to import your address book from sources like Outlook.  Use this feature to help you get started in building your network.

4.      Install Plug-ins

LinkedIn offers the ability to import your blog or a powerpoint presentation. Take advantage of these plug-ins.  They round out your profile.  Also look in the Account settings section where you can copy the LinkedIn button html (like the one below that will link you to my profile) to your Facebook or Blog page.

Make sure all your social media sites and your website link to your LinkedIn profile.

Helpful tip:  Consider installing the “company buzz” application. It sends any mentions of your company name from the Twitter feed for you to monitor what is being said about you and your business. This is important for reputation management. Only you will see this feed.

5.    Answers

Using the Answer Questions portion of LinkedIn is an ideal way to become known as a thought leader and find joint venture partnerships.  Another great way to become known in LinkedIn is to join groups.  Actively participate and become known as the ‘go to’ person in your industry.

Helpful tip: Answering questions often and having your answer chosen as the best one can propel you to an ‘expert’ status.  You will find the experts of the week listed on the Answers home page in your profile.  What better way than to become known as the person people will think of when they think of your products and services?!

6.     Jobs

LinkedIn is a great way to either look for potential employers or to post a job opening. As a small business owner, you should consider entering your company profile and advertising positions here on LinkedIn.  The people who apply for your postings will already have a resume on LinkedIn and it gives you the opportunity to screen them right on the site.   You can even ask your network to recommend and introduce potential candidates!

Helpful Tip:  If you are looking for a job, consider looking under the general ’Jobs’ tab of LinkedIn but Groups now have a job posting tab too. Check out those postings in your areas of interest.

7.     Recommendations

Recommendations on LinkedIn are very valuable. These are testimonials of your work and only the person recommending you can go through this process. You can’t insert your own recommendations, so people tend to have a higher regard for these testimonials.  Don’t be shy to go to your network and ask for one if you feel it is appropriate.   And don’t forget to recommend others!

Helpful tip:  You will receive an email when someone recommends you but you must accept the recommendation and opt to publish it.  It won’t automatically show up so you should check your public profile from time to time to make sure the right information is showing up!

8.     Links

Be aware that all the social media sites are heavily indexed by Google. If you want your LinkedIn profile to show up in a google search, you will want to modify your public profile url.  You will find this in the Account and Settings section under Public profile.  You will also want to make sure people can link to your website.

Helpful tip: When linking to your website, choose the “other” option instead of ‘my website’ and then enter your website address.  Then look at your profile page where it says Websites. Instead of just listing “my website” with the link, it will show your actual website address.

9.      Staying Noticed

It’s important to stay noticed on any of these social media sites.  Here are ways to stay top of mind in LinkedIn.

• Add a new job position or course you have taken
• Add  a new link to a website
• Recommend someone
• Change elements of your profile -keep them up to date
• Change your status

Helpful tip:  Changing your status often in LinkedIn will also help with SEO. I change my status daily.

10.    Etiquette

It’s important to know that there is proper etiquette on all the social media sites.  Be respectful of others. Do not spam or try to solicit recommendations or mis-represent relationships.  This is  a sure-fire way to get reported on a site like LinkedIn.  A better way is to ask for an introduction or join a group and make yourself known. Building relationships authentically is the key.

Helpful tip:  When you receive a request for a connection from someone you don’t know, send them back an email first to ask why they would like to connect with you rather than just clicking the “I don’t know this person” option. It could be that you actually know this person or that they made a legitimate mistake in contacting you.  It’s best to give them the benefit of the doubt at first.  If you click the “I don’t know this person, it signals to LinkedIn that this individual might be a scammer and they can have their account suspended.  If you receive an answer from the individual and still don’t want to connect with the person, simply “archive” the message. If the person on the other hand continues to harass you, then by all means, click on the I don’t know this person button or report them if they are a nuisance.

These are my top ten suggestions.  I love comments!  And I offer comment luv here on my blog…By leaving a comment, you will be able to link back to your own site…great for SEO Look forward to hearing from you!

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….

Your Social Media Specialist Knows Best

TWITTER is the little rock star of the Social Media world. Who would have thought that 140 characters could be so powerful? Millions are using Twitter as a means of driving traffic to their own sites, to others’ sites and for communicating with the masses in real time. Yet for many, Twitter still seems a mystery.  As a Social Media Specialist VA, I coach clients on Social Media usage.  Here are my top 5 No-Nos when it comes to Twitter!

1.   Not Filling in your profile completely.

A completed profile is a must.  This includes your bio and a picture.  I advise against pictures of your favorite pet, cartoon character or using a logo unless you are an association.  People generally want to see who you are and what you are about before they will follow you in a meaningful way.  As a VA, I research potential prospects for my clients and I won’t follow you on behalf of my client unless I have some background on you.

Helpful Tip: Be selective in your keywords when composing your bio.  These are important for search engine optimization.

2. Blocking your updates.

Do not block your updates. The whole purpose of getting involved in Twitter is so that people can see what you have to say!

Helpful Tip: If you are new to Twitter, before you start following anyone,  post about 15 tweets with relevant information so when potential followers visit your site, there will be an archive and people can see what you are about.

3. No personalized Twitter background.

Borrriiiing! Showcase your personality and your business! Spend a few dollars and have someone create a personalized Twitter-back for you if you don’t have the skills to do one yourself.  Some Social Media Specialist VAs like myself can create one for you.  While people don’t always visit your site to communicate with you on a regular basis, they will generally visit it once or twice to get some background on you.

Helpful Tip: Make sure your background ties in with your brand for consistency.

4. Not tweeting enough.

Some people think it’s ok to tweet once a week. Wrong!  You need to be tweeting 3-4 times a day.  What to tweet about?  Tweet important industry related information, news-worthy items, links to articles etc. and only occasionally to your own sites. Avoid shameless self-promotion. Social Media is about relationship building. I can’t stress this enough.  Social Media is an ideal place to become known as a thought leader, problem solver or go-to person in your industry. As far as tweeting what you had for dinner?  Unless you are a caterer,  chef or a food critic, these tweets are best left out of your stream.

Helpful Tip:  If you can’t be at your computer every day at the pertinent time to send out your tweet, there are tools to help you.  Your VA can work with you to ensure your message is getting out there.  You will need to schedule some time each day to review any direct messages or responses to your tweets to build those relationships. Communicating in your authentic voice is very important.  In my opinion, you should not delegate this to your VA.

5. Ignoring the ‘ Re-tweet’

Re-tweeting is a very important part of Twitter.   A compliment goes a long way in the social media world. By re-tweeting someone else’s tweet, you are endorsing the person and their message.

Helpful Tip: When you send out a tweet,  try to leave about 12 characters free (so tweet about 128 chars).  When a message gets re-tweeted, the original author of the tweet gets published again (more publicity for you!)  thus adding the additional characters.  You can’t exceed the 140 character limit and people will not take the time to rework/reword your tweets if they are too long.

Finally there is the debate in the social media world about quality over quantity. Personally I believe quality will win out.   It’s difficult to build quality relationships with 5000 followers!  Seek to find really good prospects and then work at building relationships with them.  If you are unsure how to do this research, your VA can help.

Those are my top 5.  What would you add to the list?

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….

Who’s Next? Have you Googled Yourself Lately?

I wonder how many businesses out there are paying attention to the change that is going on in terms of brand and reputation management.  With the proliferation of Social Media,  the power to define and control  a brand is now shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities.

Back in 2005, before Social Media became popular, blogger Jeff Jarvis who, among other accreditations, was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, TV critic for TV Guide and People, purchased a Dell computer which he considered a lemon. When he wasn’t able to get the customer service he was looking for, he proceeded to take Dell down a very lonely path after writing a blog which he entitled “Dell Lies.  Dell Sucks”.  Not an attractive headline.

At the time, Jeff was not able to get Dell’s Executive to respond in the online forum. It was only after their customer satisfaction, market share and share price took a beating that they started paying attention to Social Media. Since that time, Dell has done a complete turnaround and in 2007, they began using Twitter to market its used and refurbished equipment.

Recently, they announced $2M of revenue directly attributable to their @DellOutlet Twitter id and another $1M of revenue from clickthroughs to their Dell.com site.  Jeff now says he blew Dell a big wet kiss.  If you check out their website, you will see a “community” section where they have incorporated a solid SM approach to doing business. Even their employees are now blogging on Dell’s behalf.  Bravo Dell!

This should have been a road map for other organizations to follow!  Fast forward to 2009.

Earlier this spring, Domino’s Pizza were blind-sided when a couple of its employees uploaded a video to YouTube, portraying them breaking every health rule possible while involved in food preparation.  With no one from their organization paying any attention to reputation management online, it took a consumer to bring it to their attention.  There is now a lawsuit pending.   Not surprisingly, I am now seeing Domino’s ads everywhere professing their high customer sat ratings in 2009.

I can only imagine how expensive this recovery effort is to say nothing of the cost of the lawsuit compared to the cost of  some reputation management software and a little awareness. To their credit, Dominos’ President addressed the incident by publishing its own YouTube video shortly thereafter.

It’s time for businesses to sit up and take notice.  Keeping track of what’s being said about your organization online is becoming increasingly important.  And it’s not just big business that needs to pay attention.  Small business owners are just as much if not more vulnerable to having their reputation sullied from a dissatisfied consumer.   Social Media is word of mouth marketing, and bad press can really hurt you.

It’s time to jump on the bandwagon people!  And, if you’re unsure how to track your own or your company’s reputation online, there is help out there.  While you are at it, it’s probably time to take a look at an overall Social Media strategy for your business.  As a Social Media Specialist Virtual Assistant, I can help you from strategy and action planning to profile building and on-going maintenance and support.  It’s much easier to create a positive flow of communication at the outset than to back pedal and recover from a media disaster.

So, do you know what’s being said about you?  Go ahead Google yourself…regularly.

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….

Getting Serious About A Virtual Assistant

Business getting a little rocky?

Relationships becoming ‘unseated’?

Too many details to ‘rassle‘ with?

Many small business owners start out with a great idea for a product or service and great intentions but quickly find that there aren’t enough hours in the day to take care of all the tasks that are required to run a successful business. The worst case scenario is that they discover they don’t have the skills to deal with the everyday demands on their own.

Before long, the relationship between them and their business, clients and prospects begins to suffer and so too, the bottom line.  If you are relating to this scenario, maybe it’s time to get serious about finding the right kind of help to move your business forward.  And a Virtual Assistant might well be the answer. Here are a few things to consider.

1.  You CAN Afford the Help:

I hear business owners saying that they can’t afford to outsource. I say you can’t afford not to.  If the time you are spending on details is taking you away from billable time or closing sales, then you are being ineffective.  Furthermore, the income you are losing could be paying for your VA.  

But choosing to work with a VA shouldn’t be about a ‘quick and dirty race to the finish‘ of that one-time task.  Instead you should be looking to find and build a lasting relationship with a Virtual Assistant who, as a professional business owner like yourself, has the necessary business experience, skills and industry knowledge to help you propel your business forward. 

2.  Virtual Assistants are more than data entry people.

It’s time to start looking at a VA as a valuable business partner.  They aren’t just filling in your excel spreadsheet with your stock items. They are acting as your Inventory Manager.  If you are involved in Social Media, they’re not just posting your blog, they become your Public Relations Representative or your VP of Marketing etc.

A good partnership with a Virtual Assistant can be like a well oiled dressage team. Each contributes masterfully. One excels because of the other. The magic comes from repeated long term effort on both parts to achieve success and will overtime, appear effortless.

3.  It’s OK to trust someone else with your business.

Finally, a good working relationship with a VA requires trust on both parts. VAs have an innate willingness to help you succeed in your business goals.  That’s why we do what we do! A good VA will help you leap over those obstacles.  A really good partnership means both parties know when to be the horse and when to be the rider.

What are your thoughts?

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….