HP's Giveaway!

HP has 50 bloggers participating in a contest to win $6000 in computers & software. Each blogger sets their own rules to pick their winner and only a few start their contest each day. Today, I entered the contest at http://www.liz-henry.blogspot.com/ and later tonight I'll enter at http://morningsidemom.wordpress.com/.

Join in the fun and I'll keep you posted!

Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing

A very timely article from Online Marketing guru Donna Gunter. I'll be talking about this very subject today in a local seminar for business owners. Stay tuned for information on a series of Social Media seminars in the Colorado Springs area!

I'm lazy by nature and like to do as little work as possible. Therefore, when I have the opportunity to automate tasks, I jump at it. As I started getting heavily involved in social networking, I quickly became frustrated with having to update my status at several sites, as well as trying to figure out how to introduce my blog, my articles, and my ezine to my social networking audiences.

After much trial and error, here's how I connect and repurpose all of my social marketing strategies:

1. Set up accounts. Make sure that you have current accounts with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, and any other social networking platforms you regularly use.

2. Open an account at Ping.fm. The Ping.fm service automatically updates your status on all of your social networking sites, 21 of them at the current count. Depending on the number of networks you use, it will take you 10-50 minutes to connect your Ping.fm account to your various social network accounts. However, once everything is set up, you simply log into your Ping account, post your status update (no more than 140 characters), and your status is automatically updated on all of your social networking profiles. Rather than posting updates directly on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace, I instead use Ping.fm as the starting place for my daily status updates.

3. Display Twitters on other accounts. If you go to your Setting tab in your Twitter account and then down to "More Info URL", you will see a link to "Add Twitter to Your Site." By clicking on this link, you'll be taken to a page where you can add your tweets in a separate box (not the Status updates area) in your MySpace and Facebook profiles, on your blogger or Typepad blogs, or get the Flash or HTML widgets to add to other sites like Squidoo lenses or to your website. Just follow the instructions connected to each application. If you use Typepad for your blog, you can also do this through the Widget gallery by finding Twitter widget in the "Publishing Tools" section.

4. Connect your blogposts to Twitter. Twitter Feed enables you to feed your blog posts to your Twitter account. Simply create an account, go to "Create New Twitter Feed", and enter the RSS feed of your blog. You can control the frequency with which Twitter displays your blog post, as well as the text used to preface your blog feed. I use "Blog update" to preface my posts.

5. Connect your blogposts to Facebook. I use Typepad for my blogs, so if you use a Wordpress blog, there are probably plugins that handle this, as well. When you create a new blog post, you can choose to send a link to that post into Facebook. These links will appear in your Mini-Feed on your Facebook profile, and may appear in your friends' News Feeds.

In your Typepad account, go to Weblogs > Configure > Publicity, select "Prompt me to share new posts on Facebook." When this item is selected, TypePad will automatically display a prompt from Facebook when you create and publish a new post on TypePad. The Facebook prompt will only appear if you have selected the option in your weblog's publicity settings, and only when you create and publish a new post. The prompt will not appear when you save a post as draft, when you edit a post, or when you change the status of a post from Draft to Published.

6. Update your EzineArticles.com account. Article marketing is a smart and easy way to drive traffic to your site. If you're submitting articles online to article directories, you definitely want to be using EzineArticles.com, the biggest and most popular article directory online. To connect to Twitter, click on "Profile Manager" in your account, then "Edit Author Bio" in your Author's Area. Add your Twitter account information here. Each time a new article is accepted and published at EzineArticles, a post is automatically made to your Twitter account.

7. Update your aWeber account: I use aWeber as my email marketing service. You can now send an automatic Twitter post to all your followers on Twitter with a link to the HTML version of your ezine. When you create a broadcast in aWeber, select the option to publish a broadcast via RSS feed or to an archive, and then enter your Twitter account info, When your ezine is published, all of your Twitter followers will be notified.

There are probably others ways to connect the social networks and to repurpose content on social networks, but these 7 steps are all I need at the moment. Take 30 minutes out of your day to connect and repurpose your social networking, and watch your traffic and list begin to grow!

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.

So You Want To Be My Friend?

You're on Facebook. You're on LinkedIn. You're on Twitter. Now it seems like everyone wants to be your "Friend". Should you accept them all? Deny them? Aliza Sherman at Web Worker Daily recently posted a great article to help you navigate the waters:

"Like anyone using social networks for my work, I struggle with the friend feature. There are a number of theories of how and why to friend other people and when to accept friend requests. Clearly, having more “friends” on your social networks has its benefits, but if friending is done randomly, how much value are those very random “friends” for your business goals?"Web Worker Daily, Oct 2008

Check out the rest of the article here.

Personally, my policy depends on the platform. On Twitter I do exactly what Aliza suggests in her article. On Facebook, I limit it to those I actually know of or have some sort of existing relationship with. On LinkedIn, I'll accept most anybody.

What's your policy? How are you friending?

Want to be my "Friend"? Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups

Fellow Virtual Assistant Kathie Thomas (from Australia) posted this fantastic article today about etiquette on Yahoo Groups. When participating in any email list or group, these tips are important reminders to us all:

- Use full sentences, not jargon that you would use on IM or while texting.
- Don't assume someone meant to offend - ask them offlist.
- Re-read your message before posting.
- When replying, delete anything not pertaining to your reply.
- If you change the topic, change the subject line.
- Avoid using wallpaper backgrounds.
- Check your grammar!
- Include a signature line

Read her full article here:

soho-life.com » What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups

Employee vs. Virtual Assistant

Employee vs. Virtual Assistant

Now that you've decided you need some help for the administrative and day-to-day aspects of your business, you have a decision to make: Hire an employee or use a Virtual Assistant? Here are some things to consider when making your decision:

Employee (or a "Temp")

Pros:

› You can set their schedule and how they do certain tasks.
› Low(er) hourly rate

› Often able to come into your office to answer phones, file paperwork, etc.

Cons:

› Must pay payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, liability insurance, possibly benefits, bonuses, etc.

› Might need to provide equipment (computer, desk, software, etc.)

› Must provide and pay for training.

› You will be paying for break times and other non-productive time.

› How long will they stay? Are there advancement opportunities?
› You will likely need to promise a certain number of hours per week.

Virtual Assistant

Pros:

› They have advanced skills and experience in a variety of software and programs. If you find a VA specializing in your industry they will already know industry-specific software, trends, and lingo.
› No benefits, taxes, or insurance to pay.

› No equipment needed - they provide their own!

› They are invested in your business and want to work with you long-term.

› You can commit to a lower number of hours (or maybe not commit at all).

› You only pay for actual time spent on your project(s).

Cons:

› They won't come into your office to file or answer the phone (although some offer remote phone answering).

› Higher hourly rate (offset by not paying overhead & taxes).

A Virtual Assistant isn't for everyone. Certain industries need employees and some use both employees and Virtual Assistants. To successfully use a Virtual Assistant be prepared to work virtually (more on that in the next issue!), build a long-term relationship, and be open to new ideas. Now that you're informed, the choice is up to you!

Join The Blog Boost Giveaway!

Novel idea and a way to get subscribers to their newsletter, friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and get their content out there online. Well, a chance to win a bunch of cool stuff is enough for me! :)

Join The Blog Boost Giveaway! | MarketingFactor.com

3rd Annual Online Virtual Assistants Summit