Tag Archives: facebook

Picking A Visual Desktop App for Tracking Your Favorite Social Sites

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

There are all kinds of apps popping up to help you keep in touch with co-workers, friends and, of course, your favorite social sites at a glance. Niche connection sites like Yammer and Socialcast let you connect with people in your organization. Blellow is a new and promising communication and collaboration tool for communities of interest, like entrepreneurs or web developers. It’s getting plenty of buzz at the moment. Guy Kawasaki even Tweeted today about having his own Twitter at http://laconi.ca/trac/; best I could tell, kind of a bare bones, do-it-yourself Twitter. But the epicenter of connection right now is for social sites, apps enabling the second by second buzz or real time news, trendy happenings, mainly on the web, gossip and daily trivia, like, as Guy Kawasaki puts it “my cat rolled over” or, more interestingly, and conveying that you are definitely in the loop, “I’m on the plane from Barcelona.” Duct Tape Marketing, today, even explained how you could set up your own social media dashboard.

The One Page Social Media Dashboard

netvibes

I looked at it, and, although doable it seemed like a bit of a project.  I’m leaning more towards Jennifer Van Grove‘s preferred screen Skimmer: Visual Desktop App for Tracking Your Favorite Social Sites.  Here’s how she sees it:

skimmer-logo“You’ve got Facebook friends, Twitter followers, FlickrFlickr reviewsFlickr reviews photos, and probably plenty of other social sites that you keep your eye on. So how do you keep up and engage with all the new content that’s constantly being added by friends?

You could try social aggregators and lifestreaming options like FriendFeedFriendFeed reviewsFriendFeed reviews or Strands, but if those are just too much, but interacting with Facebook and Twitter updates isn’t quite enough, you can find a happy medium in Skimmer — an Adobe AIR desktop client for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Blogger.

Skimmer, which launches in beta today, is equal parts content aggregator, lifestream, and status updater with a penchant for visual stimuli. The site aims to strip away some of the bloated feature sets of other desktop apps, enhance your overall viewing experience, and keep the content dynamic but limited to five of the most popular social sites.

skimmer

Once you download and install the application, you can connect your TwitterTwitter reviewsTwitter reviews, FacebookFacebook reviewsFacebook reviews, Flickr, YouTubeYouTube reviewsYouTube reviews, and Blogger accounts to start getting a stream-like view of your contacts’ updates. You can even view TwitPics in-line, filter your feed by keyword, service, or contact groups, and cross-post status updates to Facebook and Twitter. Skimmer also offers a few viewing and customization options, so you can alter the size and color scheme of the app to make it fit your personal preferences.

Where Skimmer really shines is via the Flickr and YouTube photo and video viewing experiences. Not only is the application’s design sleek, but it provides a superb, freshly-windexed window into content from both sites.

skimmer-slideshow

With Flickr, you can view you or your friends’ photos (quickly skim through sets or the entire photostream), view counts, and comments, as well as watch slideshows, with an experience is arguably more visually impressive than Flickr itself. With YouTube, users can view videos, comments, tags, views, and ideally do the same for videos from friends.

Skimmer is very obviously a beta service, and even though some of the bugs diminish from the overall experience, it’s still an interesting and entertaining desktop application that doesn’t try to do too much.”

Let me know if you set this up, and how you like it.  I’m off now, I wish to Barcelona, but, more likely, to watch my cat roll over. ( But, come May, to D.C. for web business building, and possibly in June to Barcelona.)

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Why You Should Start Your Own Page On Facebook

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Dan Schawbel makes an  interesting point and one I think might be helpful to all of us about the value of starting your own page on Facebook. Schawbel in HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook notes that with over 200 million active users, Facebook has become a personal, product and corporate branding hub. He presents a very thorough  guide to building your personal brand on Facebook, but the most interesting point he makes, I think, is How To Start Your Own Page.

“Facebook pages are for brands, ranging from Coca Cola to Barack Obama and even you. These pages resemble your Facebook profiles, so only use one if you have a large number of Facebook friends. By having a Facebook page, your brand can go viral, holding a spot on other people’s profiles. The other main advantage is that your page will rank high for your name in Google (Google reviews) (Google reviews) and you can use it for your professional career, while keeping your personal profile private.”

The reason I think this is a really good idea is because I recently read a study showing the most likely prospect for getting new business is from someone you are already doing business with. The next most likely place is from someone who’s heard good things about you from someone you are doing business with.  In other words, credibility — being good at what you do—, attention to clients and colleagues and word of mouth or at the core of building your brand, your reputation and your business. Remember that when you are deciding where to invest your time.  Facebook is a more intimate platform where you can get some of those qualities across.

Since I’ve just come upon this truth myself I haven’t built my Facebook Page yet, but it is now on my priority to do list.  It will be a bit tricky because my Facebook friends come from many different personal camps or tribes, and my page will blend webbiz, social media and entrepreneurship.  The idea will be to gather a small community with interesting thoughts on these subjects. An interesting challenge.  I’ll keep you updated.  In the meantime, if you’ve built a Facebook page or are planning to, please share your thoughts and experience.

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Wave Of The Future: Pizzeria Marketing Itself With Social Media

I was recently at a launch party for Blellow , chatting with Robert Scoble about his joining Rackspace and working with small business on more ways to use social media.  One of the ways he mentioned was having a restaurant employee at the entrance, Twittering about what the restaurant was serving up today, what the specials were, who was passing through the door.

And so I was happy to see the following story to know that this was already being done successfully.

According to Teresa Garcia in South Bay pizzeria marketing itself with social media :
A South Bay business has now found an innovative way to use the hottest trend in social networking to help keep the business growing.

The Pizza Party parlor in Santa Clara has been spinning pizza pies in one shape or another since 1962.

“We have so many different varieties,” said co-owner Bear Silber, who joined the restaurant in the last six months, but is already diving head in to modernize this nearly half century old business.

“You can find us on Facebook; we’re on Twitter,” said Silber.

This is a sign of the next generation of marketing.

“I’m young. I’m only 26, and I use the Internet everyday anyways,” said Silber.

Silber swears by using online social networking tools, like Twitter and Facebook, as a fresh, free, and fast way to market his small business.

“Immediately when I have an idea, I can tweet it,” said Silber.

Pizza Party already has more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and Silber sends them instant messages about different meal deals and other incentives to come in.

“On Super Bowl Sunday, whoever came in wearing their team’s jersey got free pizza,” said Silber. “Sharks games, same thing,. I’ll do the same thing. I’ll put those out on my Twitter.”.

It has become a marketing and advertising tool that is beginning to help increase business, especially critical during this rocky economy.

Silber says social media can be useful for many types of businesses. The challenge is to think, and act, outside-the-box.

“Especially within the traditional mom and pop pizza parlor, they’re so used to Yellow Page ads, doorbell hangers. These old, old marketing things that in my mind aren’t successful,” said Silber.

But it’s not just Twitter and Facebook that has catapulted Pizza Party into the 21st century. Silber has even developed a way for customers to connect by iPhone.

“We actually have an icon here. It’s its own app. It’s an iPhone app,” said Silber.

And if you really want to feel connected with your pizza, visit www.pizzapartyonline.comfrom a computer or a mobile phone, and you can watch your pizza being made live on three different cameras. Now that is one modern way to get your customers drooling.

For more information:

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Have You Updated Your Social Media Toolkit?

Dave Fleet has spent some time thinking about this and has developed a What's your social media toolkit?helpful way to organize your relationship management online.

In What’s In Your Social Media Toolkit? Dave says:

You can think of social media as a set of tools that organizations can use for a variety of purposes – customer service, branding, promotion, relationship-management, etc. Just as with any toolkit, you’re not going to use every tool every time.

Sometimes the hammer fits, but if you’re trying to measure something the hammer is pretty much useless. Similarly, sometimes a blog will fit perfectly, while other times YouTube might be a more suitable tool. Sometimes (say it ain’t so!) social media outreach won’t fit at all.

If social media represents a set of tools – what’s in your toolkit?

Over the last two years my online toolkit has shifted back and forth as tools have come and gone. Recently, however, I’ve noticed a bit more stability in the services I use. Is this a reflection of a slightly maturing marketplace? Or just of a tough economy?

Here’s my current toolkit. I use these tools pretty much every day:

What’s in your toolkit? What’s changed from a year ago?

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How Will The Facebook Vs. Twitter Competition Shake Out?

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

That’s a tough one.  Facebook and Twitter both have a lot of juice, a lot of followers and a ton of good reasons to use them.  I’ve already looked at the similarities and huge difference between them: Twitter or Facebook?  Why you need both for different reasons.

But guru Paul Scoble analyze’s these differences from a business point of view, and picks Facebook as a winner for forming a more intimate relationship with the Facebook user.

Why Rob Diana is right: Twitter gets the hype while Facebook will get the gold:.

“I’m going to skip right down to the meat of what Scoble’s thoughts are:

The “publicness” of Twitter makes a TON of sense for someone like Ronn Owens who wants to reach a world-wide audience with very little work. Facebook makes less sense because it’s not only more work (there’s a lot more to do on Facebook than just write simple text messages from a cell phone) but it isn’t as public so it’s harder to get new followers.

But this is exactly why people tell me they use Facebook instead of Twitter. So, Facebook has the numbers (about 180 million for Facebook vs. about 10 million for Twitter). It is also why Rob Diana is right: people will put more intimate stuff, like having a baby, into Facebook rather than Twitter.

Only weirdos like me like sharing intimate stuff in a public forum and having conversations. Hint: for every weirdo like me, there are 1000 who are like my wife and only want to discuss that stuff with their “true friends.”

Which brings me back to Rob Diana’s point. It’s those intimate details that will bring advertising opportunities. “I’m having a baby shower in San Francisco at the Hyatt” is the type of thing normal people will share in Facebook with their friends but will never think of sharing in Twitter. Yet that’s the kind of information that a brand like the Hyatt needs to engage with you.

When I went to Las Vegas recently and said I was staying in the Luxor, someone got back to me at the Luxor on Twitter and said something like “let me know if I can help you, I can get you show tickets and make reservations for you.”

This kind of customer intimacy will be far more prevalent over on Facebook because WE are far more intimate there.

Rob is right, I wonder how Twitter is going to shift to get us to be more intimate with sharing the intimate details of our lives?

Oh, and I wonder how Facebook is going to keep us sharing the intimate details of our lives as it tries to add businesses to the social graph? The first time some business answers back a Facebooker like the Luxor did to me on Twitter they might get freaked out, so Facebook has to be careful here.

So, why would Facebook get any money from the Luxor? I can see a ton of ways. Can’t you?

Think of the Yellow Pages. Simple listings are free there (or were back when I advertised in the 1980s). But bigger ads that are more impressive cost thousands per month. Use that model on Facebook. Imagine a brand, like Luxor, just wants to say hi. That’s free. But how about post a link? That’ll be $4 please. And on and on.”

Agree?  Disagree?  Share your thoughts!  Come on….. you must all be on Facebook or Twitter or both.  Let us know what you think.

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From The Mouth Of A Guru: 10 Great Social Sites for Resume Building

10 Great Social Sites for Resume Building.

resumeThis is a time many of  us need to broadcast our resume in the smartest and most socially connected way possible.  Luckily, these tools and viral networks are out humming and reaching an ever broader, but very targeted audience, just when we need them most.  And if we need a guide to tell us how to put our best foot forward in the most effective way, Dan Schawbel is just the man to do that. He is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

    Dan says :” Creating the perfect resume is not easy. Luckily, there are a number of online resources dedicated to helping you create outstanding traditional and social media resumes. Here are 10 great social sites with unique features that let you create your own resume-like profile, edit your resume online, get it reviewed by experts, print it, share it on social networks, and much more.Remember, building a strong profile can help serve as a great marketing tool to help you get the job you’re looking for.

    1.  Razume

    Razume is a service that enables job seekers to complete their resumes and polish them up with feedback from reviewers in the community.  The resume you create using this service is exactly like traditional resumes you may have created in the past, but this service allows you to improve your resume so you’re more likely to better your chances at landing your next job. Users are able to search for jobs on Razume and will soon be able to apply for them through the site itself.

    2.  LinkedIn

    LinkedIn seems to be on all of my job lists and for good reason.  LinkedIn is a combination of a resume, cover letter, reference document and a moving database of your contacts. The resume portion is quite standard, with fields asking for your education and work experience.  The cover letter piece is the summary you get to have at the beginning, where you can position yourself for a particular job, based on your qualifications, awards and an explanation of what type of job you’re looking for.

    As you accelerate in your career, your network can easily observe your change in jobs or positions.  You can also update your status bar, just like in FacebookFacebook reviewsFacebook reviews or on TwitterTwitter reviewsTwitter reviews, with the type of job you’re looking for.  Your LinkedIn “resume” will be perceived as noteworthy when you fill it out completely, acquire endorsements for your work, join groups related to your interests, and add applications (such as your blog).

    3.  VisualCV

    VisualCV is a website that provides users with a virtual resume, as well as a database of job openings and networking opportunities.  Whether you’re a job seeker, entrepreneur, consultant, student or manager, VisualCV lets you display all of your credentials in an easy to read format, with multimedia integration.  For example, you can upload or embed a video resume or a podcast of you being interviewed.

    The latest capabilities that they offer allow job seekers to integrate their resume with social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, to share their qualifications with friends and colleagues.  When you update your resume, it can be shared through websites such as DiggDigg reviewsDigg reviews and StumbleUponStumbleUpon reviewsStumbleUpon reviews.  Your resume, or VisualCV, can combine other elements, such as images, charts, awards and recommendations, in addition to traditional resume fields such as “work experience.”

    Disclosure: VisualCV sponsors my blog and magazine.

    4.  Emurse

    Emurse allows you to create, share and store your resume for free online.  Their resume builder is job seeker friendly, allowing you to create and maintain a professional resume which can be downloaded in any format, such as PDF.  Just like LinkedIn, your resume can have a unique URL linked to your name and the ability to view employers who have seen your resume in the past.

    You also get statistics and graphs to aid in resume distribution. In addition, Emurse lets you keep track of your contacts, invite contacts and always access their latest information, similar to LinkedIn.  Just like GoogleGoogle reviewsGoogle reviews does with AdSense, you get job postings in your local area that are relevant to your resume.  There is also a job search area and organizer, similar to Monster.com’s, where you can keep track of the resumes you submit over time.

    5.  Xing

    xing imageXing is a social network with over 7 million business professionals globally, and is read in 16 languages.  Aside from being able to create a profile, the networking part of this site is what shines.  There are over 22,000 groups and networking events from London to Beijing advertised.

    Xing offers many of the same services as LinkedIn, and like LinkedIn, can serve as your online resume and cover letter. The standard service lets you create a professional profile page, search for people by name and industry, and join groups and events.  When you login, you’ll see jobs that might interest you, new members, visitors to your profile and much more.

    6.  ResumeBucket

    ResumeBucket is a service that enables you to post a resume quickly online.  The site provides you with a unique URL for your resume and enables you to promote your resume on your website or blog with embeddable ResumeBucket badges. In addition, resumes are shareable via popular social bookmarking and social networking sites.

    If you’re currently employed and would like to keep your resume private, you can. ResumeBucket also provides you with sample resumes and cover letters as best practices to help you when you build your own.  And if you need assistance, they have a resume writing service where their professional writers can help you along the way.

    7.  ResumeSocial

    resumesocial imageResumeSocial is a social resume community, where you can post your resume online and get feedback, just like Razume.  Registered users can build a resume through feedback and comments from other users who have similar job experience.  You can also be a resume expert and become a valuable member of the community by providing others with resume assistance.

    There is also an area for sharing cover letters and follow-up letters, which are very important as well.  When someone finds your resume on this site, they can print it, quote it, favorite it and email it to other people.  There is also a job search area, a blog and a career area, which gives you advice for putting resumes together.

    8.  Gigtide

    Gigtide is a website that lets you create, publish, manage and track your resumes, contacts and cover letters online.  You can store unlimited resumes, contacts and cover letters and there are professional resume templates to help you.  You also have the option of creating a social media resume, which includes images, video, direct links and sharing functionality. Another interesting feature is a direct employer contact form, where employers can contact you directly through your resume.

    9.  Howtowritearesume

    Howtowritearesume gives you an easy way to build a professional resume, without being an expert.  You get their phrase builder technology, which helps you build compelling headlines, qualifications, achievement statement and more.  Then there is “one-click formatting,” which automatically reformats your resume and makes it easy to choose the best layout.  Your resume is stored online and is accessible by potential employers.  The templates are all predefined, so filling in the blanks is really easy.  You can change the font and margins and preview the changes instantly before printing or saving it.

    10. Ziggs

    Ziggs is designed to help you market yourself and manage your personal brand on the web. The service lets you create a profile and manage your online identity, and alerts you each time a recruiter views your profile and resume. You can discuss topics, ask people for advice or referrals, and search for jobs.
    Image courtesy of iStockphoto, peepo
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Hot Conference Networking Tips From the Gurus

Scott Allen, who writes about entrepreneuring and has just come from SXSW Interactive and picked up some tips from networking expert and author Thom Singernger on how to network a big multi-day conference.

In Top 10 Conference Networking Tips, Scot says “one of the main reasons that people site for attending a conference is the networking opportunities. Yet they often leave the event feeling they made few or no connections. Here are 10 Tips to help you get the most out of connecting with others at a conference:

1. Have a plan. Know in advance whom you want to meet (directly or the type of people), which speakers you want to hear, and what tradeshow booths you want to visit.

2. Set appointments in advance. If you know that there will be people in attendance whom you know that you would like to see, call or email a few weeks in advance to schedule a time to meet for coffee, a meal, or a drink. Do not hope to “run into them”, as your paths might not cross at a time when you can spend quality time together.

3. Do not focus on meeting the celebrity speakers. While meeting famous authors, speakers, and other gurus is fun, you are one of hundreds who will come up to them and shove a card in their hands. Instead, place you focus on meeting other people in attendance at the event. It is the other attendees who you are most likely to bond with and create real long lasting mutually beneficial friendships.

4. Talk to the people sitting next to you. When you walk into a seminar, take the time before the presentation begins to say hello to the people seated around you. I call this the “power of hello”. Once you have said something as simple as “hello”, it will be easier to talk with them later in the week if you see them again.

5. Ask questions of people you meet. Never lead with your “elevator pitch“. People are more interested in themselves than they are in you, so ask them questions to help them get to talking.

6. Put your technology away. Do not run to your phone, BlackBerry, or laptop at every break. When you are working on electronics you send the message that you are unapproachable because you are busy. Utilize the time on breaks to converse with others.

7. Do not automatically send a LinkedIn or Facebook request. So often people immediately send social networking link requests to people they just met. However, different people have different policies about whom they link with. If they believe in only connecting with those whom they have established relationships, you make it awkward if you send them a link too early (which they then ignore). Best is to ask people if they would welcome such a link at this time. Be respectful of the fact that they might use social networking differently than you do.

Immediately following them on Twitter is okay, as Twitter does not require a mutual connection acceptance.

8. Read their stuff. Many people are active bloggers, twitterers, authors, etc… If people create the written word, seek out their work and read it. It is a great way to get to know people by reading their stuff, but they will also be honored when you tell them that you read their blog or follow them on Twitter.

9. Introduce others. When you meet cool people, be the conduit who connects them with others who might be beneficial to them. This includes others at the conference, as well as other people you might know back home. If you ask the right types of questions, you will easily spot connections that can help others. Don’t ever worry about “what’s in it for me”, but instead just be the person who helps others. You will over time that others will help you too.

10. Follow up. If you meet interesting people and you never follow up, it makes no difference. Own the follow up after you meet people and send them an email (or better yet, a handwritten note) telling them how much you enjoyed talking with them, and plan for future discussions.
___________________________________

A few of the attendees at Thom’s session had some great additional tips:

  • When attending evening parties, get there early. That way a cluster of conversation builds up around you and you don’t face the challenge of working your way into other clusters like you do if you arrive late.
  • Another great way to meet people at parties is to play the role of informal host. For example, know where the host or celebrity guests are, where the bathroom is, the name of the waitress/bartender, etc. Stand near the entrance and be of service to people.
  • When you get business cards, jot a brief note on the back – where you met them, what you talked about, etc. That will make it much easier to follow up with them.
  • A great way to follow up with them is not only to follow them on Twitter, but also to make a brief post about your conversation with them. Promoting other people is a great way to create value for them and build the relationship. (If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, see Twitter for Entrepreneurs. If you’re already on Twitter, you can follow @ThomSinger as well as me, @ScottAllen.)

I invite you to follow me as well, @gretchenglas,thanks.

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Twitter Or Facebook ? You Need Both For Different Reasons

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

Sudha Jamthe is a new technologies, product marketing and social media guru.  She has written a very thorough and, I think, insightful analysis that sorts through what your goals and expectations are of both Twitter and Facebook.  Turns out that though there are many similarities there are also some stark differences in what you have able to achieve through these different platforms.  It’s well worth reading, particularly if your goal is to reach out to a specific market.  Here’s an excerpt, but for the entire piece, go to Sudha’s article:
From the Eyes of an Enterpreneur: 15 Similarities between Twitter and Facebook and 5 HUGE differences and what it means for social media.

“My personal take on this is that we are at an early stage in the social media game and this competition is going to create new innovations that will shape the market to the next level. It is not about users on one social networking poking and sharing;we are entering a new level of interaction where realtime interaction, mobile, international and location awareness are going to allow for new ways of interaction for us as consumers and for businesses to engage with us .

Don’t underestimate the power of search

Facebook is closed, you cannot search any of your own feeds or status updates or comments or likes. You have a basic keyword search that allows one to find friends or applications.
Facebook allows google to crawl public profiles and lets google bring it more users.

Twitter absolutely shines here!

Summize was built using twitter api and later bought by twitter and became twitters powerful search tool. It also speaks to how open completely open the twitter API is, but that’s a different discussion!

Twitter search allows you to search to find conversation happening on any keywords and subscribe to it as a RSS feed. It is like having a Google SEM engine sending you customers to your RSS feed every 10 seconds.

This is getting marketers excited because now you have the power to watch your brand conversations, you can do live market research to find the pulse of products, brands and messaging.

Growth Patterns Tells the Real Story of Divergent Paths

Facebook is growing at 1 Million users/month with increased internal users.
Twitter has an organic growth with more companies joining it and experimenting with it.

Twitter is a community or has several communities built into it with its own set of rules and accepted behaviors.

Eg. Adding #tags, #Fridayfollow at end of tweets on Fridays to recommend new friends to follow etc.

So as new users join twitter they enrich their community and become part of it sooner than facebook where the user has to go through the learning curve for each user one user at a time.

So the twitter story is about faster engagement while facebook is about faster user acquisition.”

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Simple Tools To Make Your Web Site Or Blog More Social & Interactive

Meebo
Image via Wikipedia

All of us online are not only in Web 2.0 but in the increasingly powerful social networking era.  Static information still has a place but the tsunami of web use is in the social networking space.  So not only should you incorporate the sharing tools in your new work on the web, but you have the opportunity to go back and add a snippet of code to your static product pages which will make it become alive and interactive and more appealing to your users.

Duct Tape Marketing tells us how in Enhancing Social Funtions on Web Sites. So here’s the game plan:

“The web has become a terribly social place and that raises the expectation of most web site visitors. The ability to add content, comment, rate, review, interact and share information found when surfing the web has become standard fare.

By adding a few simple scripts and widgets you can easily add tremendous social functionality to any web page or blog. Giving your visitors, prospects and customers ways to share and amplify their voice is a great way to enhance their experience of your business online.


JS Kits – This is one of the dead simple easiest ways to add rating, navigation, polling, chat, reviewing and commenting to any web page. You simply copy a line of code and you are in business. Getting customer reviews and reader comments on web page, usually a blog function is great for static product pages.

Social Ad Units – Popular Media recently introduced something they call Influencer Ads. These banner ad type units allow you to place ads that contain an entire social media follow-up system. When someone clicks on an ad for your webinar, they can automatically post it to Facebook or send it to a friend with personalized follow-up. This is a great tool for contests and registration incentive campaigns. (You can see this in action here)

Meebo Me – This simple IM widget can be embedded on your site to allow visitors to initiate an IM chat instantly when they visit your site. This can be a great way to add customer feedback, help and interaction functionality.

Add to Any – These widget allows visitors to easily subscribe to RSS content, share, bookmark or email content using many of the commonly used services.”

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How To Recognize When You Need A Virtual Assistant, What They Can Do

I absolutely believe in delegating.  If you’ve worked hard, been persistent and had just a tad of luck, you will reach the point where your business has grown enough that delegating becomes mandatory.  You’ll know when that point comes.  You won’t be able to handle all the work on your plate.  You are working longer hours, getting tired.  Your family starts grumbling that they don’t see enough of you or get enough of your attention.  Your spouse starts asking about plans for the week-end and you, with a dazed, far away stare, start muttering about a difficult client or a tech system that crashed.

In short, you’re no fun at all and you’re not having any fun either.  Work which was once invigorating is now becoming a series of painful tasks you hope you can complete. The diagnosis is simple. You need help.

And if it takes more convincing, recognize that, sure as the sun will come up in the morning, without help, you will burn out, your business will start a long down hill slide, and somewhere along the way down your family will start wondering if this grumbling workaholic they find themselves living with is worth putting up with at all.

So, you know.  You’ve arrived at that point where help is no long a nice idea.  Help is mandatory.

Here’s what a virtual assistant can do for you. In 10 Ways Web Businesses Can Use Virtual Assistants , Rebecca Zwar, a virtual assistant and owner of Social Web diVA offers this bit of guidance:

“The virtual assistant (VA) industry has literally exploded in the last few years. You may have heard of the very popular book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Richby Timothy Ferris. You might even know of a VA or two. But how do you know when you’re ready to start outsourcing?

Too many small business owners wait until they’re overwhelmed to start outsourcing, either because they feel they’re the only one who can do the job right, or because they fear it’s simply out of their budget.

The truth is that there are many tasks you’ll come across in your web-based business that do not fall within your area of expertise. The right virtual assistant will get you set up, going and on to the next task in the time it will take you to read the FAQ’s! Think of them as your virtual help-desk for developing, implementing and marketing your internet presence. So if you’ve been putting off outsourcing because you weren’t sure where to start, check out this list of 10 Ways Web Businesses can use VAs:

  1. Design and maintain your blog or even website. There are many virtual assistants out there who can get you set up with an attractive and functional blog or website. And unlike traditional web designers, your VA can continue to help you with quick updates and changes, without exorbitant fees or long turn-around times.
  2. Set up your ezine/newsletter. Is your time better spent generating business, or learning how to create and edit an HTML newsletter template? Your VA will set it up and send it out, without needing anything more than a text or Word file from you.
  3. Manage your affiliate program. An affiliate program is a great way to increase sales for your product. But they do require some maintenance. A VA can help with writing promotional copy that draws in good affiliates, as well as manage payment schedules, promotions and more.
  4. Create sales pages or landing pages. Do you have a new product, free report or teleseminar you’re promoting? Have your VA create an attractive landing page that generates lots of sign-ups.
  5. Set up and manage your shopping cart. Shopping cart systems online can range from simplistic to highly complicated. It can be difficult to know which to choose, much less how to set it up for your business. Your VA can help you select the cart that’s best for you, and integrate it with your website.
  6. Develop and maintain your social networking. Social networking was the buzzword online in 2008, and networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter experienced phenomenal growth. The right VA can sit down to create a strategy for your social networking, and help you maintain it so it’s a time-effective, not time-consuming, form of marketing.
  7. Assist with formatting audio or video. If you’re interested in podcasting or producing videos, don’t let lack of technical knowledge stop you. A virtual assistant can take raw audio or video, edit, upload and promote it for you.
  8. Create professional free and paid products. Provide a simple text file to your VA, and they can help you produce a professional product to sell or give away to build your list. Or, work with a VA that offers writing services, and you won’t even have to create the product yourself!
  9. Act as technical support for teleseminars, training calls, webinars, video conferences and more – If you’re not familiar with the systems you’re using, having technical issues can make you look unprofessional or worse, cost you money. Having a VA standing by to help work through any technical issues can be worth the cost just for peace of mind.
  10. Finally, remember that just because you’re a web-based business doesn’t mean that you couldn’t use some administrative help. Let your VA manage your schedule through online calendars, sort through emails, screen voicemails, manage your bookkeeping, or help with whatever task you find is consuming your time and costing you money.

Virtual assistants are more than simply secretaries—they can be business partners that bring essential skills to help you manage and market your business for the best of both worlds. They’ll save you time and help make you money!”

I can tell you, I reached that point in my business and the moment you realize you need help and act on it, your business and your life will change for the better.  You will be able to take downtime to recharge and your business will be able to continue to grow without chewing up the founder in the process.

Just do it!

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