Professional development, networking and supporting the VA industry are important to me, therefore there were no question that I would attend the Australian VA Conference for the third time.  Once again it was located in Melbourne and was 2 days packed full of amazing presenters, quality conversations and lots of fun.

MC and inspirational speaker Sandi Givens kept things together and gave us a chance to put together an action plan. Her session about work / life balance was thought provoking.  Balance is what we make it and we do all have the same number of hours in a day to do as we chose.  Some key reminders were ‘done is better than perfect’ and the power of choice exercise was empowering. Getting clear on our non-negotiables will help us find balance with good planning.

There are always parts of software not being used and we picked up some great Excel and Word tips from Donna Hanson and some fabulous Outlook tips from Chris Crowe.  Using tasks and keeping a streamlined inbox are the big takeaways along with right click and drag.  If you want to know more you can subscribe to her package:  The big reminder was to put our non-negotiables (discussed earlier) in our diary first, whatever they are.  For me it is professional development, networking and some family and me time.  It is important to take care of ourselves by making the most of our lifestyle.  Working for yourself means that we are in control which some VAs forget.  Taking care of our health is another area that can be neglected.  Leanne Sklavenitis shared some health tips and lots of achievable tweaks we can make to improve our health and make the most of what we have.  after hearing Leanne last year I made an effort to move more, by needing to get up and go get things throughout the day.  I enjoy walking a few times a week and after buying a package from The Get More Guy, decided to do a virtual walk with him for an hour a week – I will be listening to one of his discs while out, in addition to in the car.

I learnt about the value of using a child theme in WordPress from Charly Leetham, who always shares so much. Charly got the biggest “ooooh” when she explained just what a plugin is!  It was lovely to meet branding specialist Annemarie Cross and blogger Renee Mayne - The Bra Queen – great to see I’m doing all the right things and got some inspiration for new ideas. Danielle Storey of The Cartridge Family spoke about wow to create million dollar relationships with our clients, while Michael Licenblat’s session on building resilience and working out where we need to focus to grow our sales.  The conference ended with Warwick Merry who always inspires, entertains and encourages us to get more.

In between sessions I met some great VAs, experienced and brand new.  It was great to see many attending who were about to start a business and many experienced VAs who saw the value of such an event.  Two of us travelled from Perth and another travelled all the way from Darwin!

Well done to the organisers, you should all be super proud of the amazing event you have created and I look forward to 2013 in Sydney!  I recommend this event to any virtual assistant – reward yourself with some time out of your business, developing your skills and building connections.  Nothing beats face to face networking to add another level to our virtual relationships.  I love meeting the VA industry specialists I have know for years online through the various networks or via shared steering committees.

Follow the AVAC blog
Connect to the Facebook page

Here are some other blogs about the conference from other attendees:
Interim Business
VA Directory

This is one of the most common questions from new LinkedIn users.  If you haven’t worked out your strategy, now is the time.

Find relevant LinkedIn Groups to join and participate in. By being active in a few groups your will grow your network and your reputation on LinkedIn.

What is a LinkedIn Group ?

A LinkedIn Group is a place to connect with like-minded individuals in either a closed space.  Groups can be industry or project specific, may exist as an extension of a physical network, may operate as a user group, or could even be used as a mastermind type group. The possibilities are endless.

Benefits of being part of a Group ?

• Extend your relationships from the offline world
• Connect with people you may not otherwise meet
• Have a place to learn and demonstrate your expertise
• Start discussions, ask questions and get feedback
• Be part of a community
• Share your content such as blog posts and any articles of relevance (be careful not to overdo this though)
• Share events of interest to the group (with caution)

Another benefit is by being part of the same group, you have a  reason to directly connect with a person without needing to know their email address.

You can also (check) send members of the group direct messages, without needing access to InMail, which is a great benefit for free members.    You may come across someone you wish to contact directly and if you don’t have any group in common, join a group they are a member of to then be able to make that connection. You can always leave the group again if it’s not of value to you, particularly if you are close to the limit of 50 groups.

When sharing any content, use the 80/20 rule. Share 80% of interesting content, and only 20% of self-promotion, such as events, blogs etc.  If you get this wrong, you will be seen as spammy and may even be thrown out of the group. Educate rather than sell while promoting yourself.

Every post is a link back to your profile and will let people get to know you, hopefully like you and then trust you enough to invest in you.

Post often enough to be top of mind around your niche, but not too  often that you become annoying and spammy.  Look to see what others in the group are doing so you don’t appear to be dominating. By posting valuable content you position yourself as an expert in your field.

Take a look at the groups you have joined already, and find some more to check out.  Remember you can always leave them later if they are not of value.

One quick tip when joining a group;  By default the email notification is turned on, so as not to clog up your Inbox, I would recommend you turn this off and keep up to date via visiting the group.

If you can’t find a group to suit your needs, consider starting your own!  Set yourself up as an industry leader.

50 may not sound like a lot of groups to be able to join, but it will be time consuming trying to actively participate in that many groups, so do limit your core groups to a manageable number.

Read more and watch the LinkedIn video

What success are you having through the smart use of groups?

Following on from a recent discussion about the best way to speak to your network, here are a few ways to share your content across various platforms.

Where you begin is up to you, it all comes back to the strategy to suit your business.  In this instance I will assume that the content we are starting with is a blog.  Ideally we want to bring traffic back to our blog/website, where we are in control, using various channels to drive traffic. So create your blog, with valuable, compelling, keyword rich content and don’t forget some vibrant relevant images to compliment the post, then look at how and when you will share the content.

Create  posts for each platform you use and post these at particular times or schedule some.

1. Create a short link for your blog URL using Bit.ly or similar
2. Create a handful of Tweets about the article using the link and a relevant hashtag
3. Create a Facebook status update
4. Create a LinkedIn update
5. Share any images from the blog to Pinterest
6. Create content for other channels
7. Repurpose for other websites or newsletters

You can include these in your plan and copy and paste to each platform at the relevant times, or use a scheduling tool, such as TweetDeck, Hootsuite or Buffer.  As mentioned in a previous blog, use these tools sparingly and don’t over-link.

Facebook

You may want to use Apps such as Networked Blogs with your Facebook Page, which automatically posts the blog, or RSS Graffiti.  You can also copy and paste the blog content to the Notes App, with a link to your blog.

LinkedIn

If you activate an application such as Bloglink in LinkedIn, your blog posts are shared toyour profile via the App, located on the right hand side.

Twitter

Tweets cane be shared and scheduled easily with Buffer.  This tool allows you to schedule Tweets every hour or once day, it all depends on your needs.  In between you can Tweet directly from Twitter.  Mix it in with ReTweets and shared content.

Pinterest

Use this visual pinboard to share images from your blog, which when clicked will take the viewer to your blog post.  Use the comment to engage or encourage the viewer the look at the content, by sharing some snippets.    The beauty of this platform is that people can Repin your image which gives more exposure to your blog.

This content can be repurposed, either complete or in summary, with a link to your blog.  It could be used as a newsletter article, or as a podcast or even video where appropriate. You could use the content to create an article for any organisations newsletters that are relevant

If you are interested in a template to manage all this, feel free to access our Free Marketing Plan to use as a template to manage your content sharing.

Have You Over-Linked Your Social Media?

We recently discussed automation in social media, another aspect of automation is cross posting content to various platforms.  While this may be viewed as a good time saver, is it really wise to do this?

Think about your network on each platform.  Are they different dynamics?  Are many the same people?  Think about the style of language used, is it the same given the update limitations?

Twitter vs LinkedIn. 
Anyone can follow you on Twitter, whereas people need to be approve to become a LinkedIn connection, so you may well get a larger mix of demographics on Twitter.  LinkedIn is a professional network therefore be sure to post valuable relevant content to your network.

If all your Tweets are being posted to LinkedIn I would recommend you switch this off and only share those with the #IN tag – so that only hand-picked Tweets will be posted to LinkedIn, rather than all your posts, ReTweets and replys.  A Tweet aimed at a particular person will lose meaning in the LinkedIn pool.

Here is an example of a tweet posted to LinkedIn – it has no value or relevance to your LinkedIn network.

Twitter Vs Facebook
The same applies to linking Tweets to Facebook, or Facebook to Twitter.  Think about the audience – could they be the same people, is the language suitable for each platform?  Will the Tweet with hashtags and only 140 characters make any sense to your Facebook followers?  Will a shortened Facebook post make sense if cut to the first 140 characters?

Be relevant to the network. Those who follow your Tweets will not want to see them twice or more!

So think before you Link!

With the many social media platforms available to us, it can be hard to keep up.  To better manage time you may be advised to automate your social media and get on with business.  Automation can work as part of a strategy, but not as a complete strategy.  Step out of your social media and your network will be able to smell your lack of presence.

So what should we automate?
That depends on your business, it is an individual decision and needs to fit your big picture strategy and plans.  Do what feels right for you, not what you have read by the latest  expert you are following.  Think about your goals and objectives and think about your audience and how they interact.

What is the Automation Formula?
Sadly there isn’t one.  Social media strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but needs to be custom created to fit your business.  You may need create a plan and then just try it and see. I think a good starting place is by applying the Pareto Principle* to your automation. Look at automating about 20% and ‘be there’ for the other 80%.    Look at what type of content could be automated such as blog posts to Facebook via Network Blogs or RSS Graffiti, or email sent and Tweeted via Mailchimp.

How much Automation?
Too much automation using tools such as Hootsuite can affect your rank, which means your posts will not show up in the newsfeed of your network, so be sure not to overdo it.  Just be sure to monitor your posts and respond accordingly.  Find the balance and get help if you need it.

What are your favourite automation and scheduling tools?

* The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule or the law of the vital few) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

When I started my business I was providing virtual business support in the form of marketing, design and event management.  Working about 85% virtual my main outside contact with others was at client events or via online networks. I built some great relationship via news groups and forums and social media, with other virtual business owners.

One of the first events I attended was the Australian Virtual Assistant Conference (AVAC) in Melbourne (and have continued to attend every year) which in addition to the learning, meant I had the chance to meet many of the people I had met online to extend the relationship.  I’m looking forward to the next AVAC in less than 3 weeks.  2 full days of workshops, networking opportunities and usually a dinner, plus any other meet-ups I schedule and my LinkedIn Workshop I am running

Once I started attending professional development events I met more people locally and connected to them online to extend the relationships.  One example is Mel, who I met in a Facebook Strategy workshop almost 2 years ago.  We happened to sit next to each other and kept in touch. Now we work in a similar space, attend business events together, brainstorm and support each other and socialise with our family.  You never know where a relationship with someone you meet will go.

My point is that networking online and off-line are both crucial to your business success and social media is a big part of it.    So be sure to meet your online connections where possible, and connect with your off-line connections, online.   Mix it up and build relationships. Get out to local networking events, industry groups or workshops, as there are so many opportunities to connect with inspiring business owners.

The perfect tool for this is LinkedIn.  It is the ultimate professional networking tool to compliment in-person networking and other online networks.  Make a plan that you can follow when attending events online and off.  Connect without motive, with a desire to share and most importantly be authentic.

Have you invested some time in building relationship and attending networking events this month?  Have you connected with new people from physical events on LinkedIn this month?

Connect with me here.

LinkedIn is often disregarded in conversation about social media.  To dismiss this platform is really missing a huge opportunity.  It is the largest professional network and is continuing to grow.

LinkedIn is not as ‘social’ as the likes of Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.  It is more ‘wordy’ with a more formal language and focus.  Where Facebook is fun, sexy and visual, LinkedIn can be seen as boring, dull and disjointed.

I believe that LinkedIn has a place for all in every stage of their career, from the university student, to the graduate, employee, supervisor to CEO, from those who operate their own business to large corporates’ and government.

It has so many uses, from qualifying job candidates, finding industry experts, showcasing your work history, building your expert status, finding clients, suppliers, trainers and coaches to upcoming events, there are so many benefits from using and having a LinkedIn profile.

Top 7 Tips to Leveraging LinkedIn

1. Make sure you have solid foundations.
   Create your profile using positive but authentic language, convey a clear message while using the relevant keywords in your niche.
2. Use a current professional photo to show you in your ‘business shoes’ , i.e. be you on your best day, rather than a happy snap at the pub.
3. Connect to relevant people in your past, present and future.  Be sure to approach connecting with social etiquette in mind.
4. Join groups where your network and prospects hang out.  Listen first, then help others before trying to sell.  Build relationships to build trust and become the expert in your niche.
5. Monitor your account, respond to Messages and Connection requests and  continue to build your network.  Connect to people you meet at events for example.
6. Post regular updates in line with your strategy.  Your Status Updates may be around current projects you are working on, problems you have encountered, tips with links to your blog or events or articles others may be interested in.  Re-read before posting and put on your ‘Spam Goggles’ to ensure your posts don’t appear ‘spammy’ or ‘salesy’ in your approach. And think about what’s in it for them, what value will your network receive from reading your post.
7. Pay it forward by always giving credit where due and giving authentic recommendations to those who have helped you, as their client, as their student or possibly as their supplier.  Think outside the box and give without expecting anything in return.

Apply the above 7 tips over the next 3 months and see your network and opportunities grow.

If you need any help or have specific questions, please contact us or head to our Facebook page.  And if you just need to get started, here is an offer for you:

And for those in Melbourne, I am running a LinkedIn workshop on Thursday May 3rd from 10 – 12.30am. Venue to be advised.

If you are interested, please book here.  Places are limited to 8. ($97 if you book by 22 April)

Pinterest use has really taken off and with the integration with other social media platforms images have the ability to go viral.

But what is the objective behind this?

What do we really want from Pinterest?

We want to use it to share, connect and drive traffic.

How can we use Pinterest in our marketing strategy?

Here is one way you can use Pinterest to drive traffic;

• Create your blog post
• Include a few vibrant , relevant images
• On your website pin the images to various board on Pinterest
• Add a relevant description including a link

These images will then appear on your boards and will show up on the community board of your network, ready for others to view or repin.

Here is an example of how to use a blog image to drive traffic

This image appears in our blog about the Facebook Timeline.  We have used a screen capture of the Equestricare Facebook Timeline cover, which links back to their Facebook page from our blog post.  We have pinned this image to a Pinterest board, adding a description about Equestricare with a link to their Facebook page.  If you use the full link it will become a clickable link, which is one way to drive traffic. The other way is if viewers click on the image they are taken to our blog, and from there if they click on it they are taken to the Equestricare Facebook page.

In the above image , which is a snapshot of the community board when I log in, you will see that when you mouse over an image, three buttons appear.

• Repin allows the viewer to pin on one of their boards.  Images can be pinned to multiple boards
• Edit is only seen by the original pinner – this allows you to make changes to your pin.
• Like is seen in the middle by viewers, which allows people to Like your pin
• Comment allows viewers to add their own comments to your pinned image

These actions make this a fabulous social networking tool, where we can share images and communicate with our network. When viewers repin our images, their network see the pins and hence the “viralability” of Pinterest.

You can check out what is being pinned from your own website by using the following URL:

http://pinterest.com/source/YourWebsite.com/

Here are some tips from a recent Mashable article to give your site pins more boost;

• Like and comment on your pins from your site to give them better ranking and increase their reach.
• Repin some of the most interesting and unique images.
• Repin user comments.
• Follow your promoters (those who pin your pages), encouraging them return to your site.

Read the article to discover how to create an RSS feed, by Ann Smarty.

To successfully use Pinterest, you do need a strategy and some stunning images to share, due to the dependence on sharing visually stimulating, marketing-free images that cater to the main user group -   female consumers aged 25 – 54.  87% of users are female, so keep this in mind when using and refer to to this infographic.

If you need a hand getting started just ask.

Would love to hear about any creative strategies you have come up with to use Pinterest.

Were you ready for the Timeline Roll Out?

On March 30th Facebook rolled out Timeline for Pages whether you wanted it or not, so my best advice is to embrace it and learn to love it.

Timeline gives us all the same opportunity to create a space that shines.

Main benefits of Timeline

• Give your network a “backstage pass” – via the Private Message option
• Use the cover to brand your page, show your style or creativity
• Customise the look of your apps and reorganise them
• Go back and add history and milestones to your timeline.

How do you leverage Timeline?

First be sure you have a vibrant cover image to support your brand. Create an image 850 pixels wide by 315 pixels high.  Be sure to stick to the Facebook rules around content of your cover image – refer to our previous post covering Cover Image Guidelines.

With the update our network can send a direct message to us, so rather than having to post a question on the page wall, questions can be asked in private.

Customise your profile image

Facebook will use your previous profile image to fit the new square space, which can be dragged around to capture the best bit.  The best solution would be to create a square image to use as the profile, the size is 180 pixels square.   This image will be used as the thumbnail against posts, so ensure it is an image that will be identifiable when reduced in size.

Where is my landing tab?

We can no longer have set up a landing tab, but we can still use apps with specific functions.  Three of these sit below the cover image and basically act as a call to action.  Custom images can be created to represent these apps and match your page.   Use these wisely  to drive traffic  by directing your viewer to take action.

Each app has its own unique URL, use these to drive traffic, or register a domain name which links to the app URL.

Give your brand a story

You can edit the content of your Timeline – wipe some things from your history, or hide from your Timeline plus you can go back and add key events, back date photos etc.
Use the Timeline to tell the story of your brand, share achievements and plans for the future.  You can feature posts which makes them span the page and you can pin key posts to the top of the Timeline so they are seen first.

Image sizes

We have already discussed the Cover image (850 x 315 pixels) and the profile image (180 pixels square), other images to be aware of are the post images.

In regular posts, the image appears as square, so if you want it all to show, make them about 400 pixels square, otherwise feature the image and it spans the page, so then make it about 840 pixels.

Summary

So the main areas to influence and inspire your audience are by;

• Using your cover image to brand your page
• Driving action using the 3 app links as call to actions
• Using direct links to your apps to drive action
• Featuring posts and images across your page
• Pinning posts to the top of your Timeline
• Creating a social media strategy to engage your audience

If you need help getting your head around Timeline, creating custom graphics, or a social media strategy get in touch with us.

Here is a video tour of the new timeline from Social Network Assist;

Would love to hear your thoughts on Timeline.

Pinterest is one of the newest social networking tools on the block, taking off like Wildfire!

What is it?  It is a virtual pin board.  Bring together collections of images by type, theme or associated with a topic.  If you love looking through Google images, you will love Pinterest!

If you are on a website and like an image, just use the Pin It button to pin to a board.  It is that simple.   The beauty is that when you pin an image from a website, the link exists on the pinned image, so you can recall where you got the image and means it is an inbound link to the original web site which is great for web traffic. An image can go viral, where it is constantly repinned by your network and then their network.

There are so many uses for Pinterest, I have heard of people using it to plan their wedding.  Each image links back to the original website, so once you have decided which shoes to purchase for example, you just click on the image and are taken to the site. It is a great tool to find inspiration for so many things, create a visual recipe board, or use as a wish list for birthdays and weddings!

It is social, because you can follow other users, or their specific boards, and they can follow you.  You can comment on each other’s board and interact.  So it is a great extension to existing social networking tools.  It also integrates well with Facebook, so you can update your network when you perform actions on Pinterest.   You can mention Pinterest users by adding the @ symbol and start typing their username, in a similar way to Twitter.

You can add the “Follow” button to your website to increase your network;

<a href=”http://pinterest.com/USERNAME/”><img src=”http://passets-cdn.pinterest.com/images/follow-on-pinterest-button.png” width=”156″ height=”26″ alt=”Follow Me on Pinterest” /></a>

You can also add a Pin It button next to images on your website to make it easy for visitors to share.

Download an app for your iPhone, and the additional functionality includes pinning a photo taken, with location, which could be used to pin restaurants worth visiting, retail stores or tourist destinations.

There are obviously terms and conditions around Pinterest and it isn’t for selling your wares, so be sure to read them on signing up.  That said there is much grey area around what you can promote, so before diving in to using it to market your business, be sure to ensure you comply with terms of use.  I personally can see so much use for Pinterest in business, but we need to ensure the strategy is compliant.  Refer to the etiquette guide: http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/

Use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website

There are three ways to pin an image;

• by pinning an image from a website,
• by uploading a new image or
• repinning an image from someone else’s board.

The new image obviously has no link anywhere, so if you were using an image for exposure, it would be best to use on your website, say in a blog post, and pin from there. So for example if you are a photographer, rather share from your website gallery than uploading the images from your hard drive. Use images with a watermark logo to show they are yours.

Almost use the pins as bait, to drive traffic to your blog or website.  So be sure to use vibrant quality images in your blog posts that will inspire your Pinterest network to repin and click on them.

If you have an image on your website that you don’t want others to pin for whatever reason, just add this code to the page header:   <meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” /> . This means any image on your page cannot be pinned.

80% of pins are repins, so there it is has huge viral potential.

It is an invite only site, which means you have to request to join, rather than sign up on the spot, or be invited by a current user, which I believe increases its appeal. Maybe this strategy works for women, given they make up 80% of Pinterest usage according to recent statistics

Pinterest is currently advertisement free, but I’m sure this will change.

Would love to hear how you use Pinterest and those who haven’t signed up, why not? Personally I love it, it’s visual and fun.  Like any new tool, just be sure not to get carried away!   Check out my boards:  http://pinterest.com/wildfiresm/

“Power of Pinterest”

Read more here:

Terms of use:  http://pinterest.com/about/terms/

Support: http://support.pinterest.com/home

For a laugh check out this video: