How to Maintain an Online Presence Even When You’re Away

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If you run your own business then you’ll know that it’s essential to have an effective profile online, whether that’s via your website, newsletter, blog, and/or social media profiles. However, what happens when you decide to take a break from your business? Just because you’re on holiday, it doesn’t mean that your online presence has to take a holiday too. Let’s face it, you don’t want to lose that traffic to your website or damage your search engine ranking.

So here’s how to maintain an online presence even when you’re away from your business. Click the image to watch the video or read the blog below.

Schedule autoresponders. As I mentioned in my previous blog “3 Ways to Use Autoresponders for Your Business“, autoresponders are a great way of staying in touch with contacts. You can schedule a series of emails to go out while you’re away. Make sure that these emails contain links to your blog posts, article and special offers so that they help to drive traffic to your website.

Schedule blog posts. Don’t forget that you can schedule blog posts too. Just write them before you go and then set a date and time that you want them to be posted. If you’ve automatically linked your blogs to your Twitter profile and Facebook page, then your online contacts will be notified as soon as the blog is posted. You can also set up your email marketing program to send out an email to your contacts whenever you post a new blog.

Use guest bloggers. And if you don’t have the time to write blogs, then use guest bloggers. They not only save you the stress of having to write and schedule content before you go away, but they will share their blogs with their own online audience which will generate additional traffic back to your website.

Schedule your social media updates. Keep your social media profiles up to date by schedules updates using tools such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. However, keep an eye on your profiles in case anyone responds to one of your updates – you can easily do this on your smartphone or tablet device. Alternatively hire a virtual assistant to maintain and monitor your social media profiles while you’re away.

Maintain website. If you use your website to generate leads, communicate with prospects or sell products and services directly, then you will need someone to maintain it during your absence. Many virtual assistants nowadays have the skills to manage and update websites, whether they are ecommerce or membership sites. So hire someone before you go on holiday to ensure that your website users are being looked after.

So now you know how to maintain an online presence while you’re away with a bit of planning and thought. This means that you can continue to promote your business and keep the traffic flowing to your website, no matter where you are in the world.

If you want to maintain an online presence when you’re away from your business, then click on the arrow button to find out more about our online marketing services. We will help you to set up and manage your online marketing activities so that you can raise your profile and credibility with your network.
 

Beware shiny objects

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I was at a networking event the other week, and a couple of people were talking about Pinterest and how they’ve found it useful in their business. One was an interior designer and the other person designed clothes. Now I could see that it would be a really good tool for people like that but personally I haven’t actually been on the site yet.

I know that everyone is talking about Pinterest at the moment and it’s very easy to feel that you need to be part of the “in crowd” and don’t want to feel left out. However, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not something that I think will be relevant to the services that I provide.

I have a clear idea of my marketing activities this year and the tools that I’m going to use to promote my business. And Pinterest isn’t on it! That’s not to say that plans are inflexible and can’t be changed; they obviously need to adapt with changing circumstances and demands. But it’s easy to get distracted by the latest shiny object that everyone is talking about without thinking about whether it’s right for your business.

So before you start using any kind of social media, whether that’s the traditional tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, or the newer kids on the block such as Google+ and Pinterest, do some research on which ones your target market is more likely to use. In fact, I’ve told clients to think hard before deciding to set up a page on Facebook or profile on Twitter. It may have lost me business but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a waste of the client’s time and money to use these tools if their prospective clients aren’t on there.

So beware shiny objects – stay focused on those tools that will bring in the leads you need to grow your business.
 

If you need help with setting up and managing your social media activities, then check out our social media marketing services. We can advise you of the best platform for your business, create profiles and pages on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and post status updates as directed by you. Click the arrow button to find out more about our social media marketing support.
 

How to Create a Profile on LinkedIn

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I have started to use LinkedIn more and more recently as it’s a great tool to connect and engage with other business owners, especially if you’re like me and offering B2B services.  However, as I mentioned in my previous blog “10 Tips on Using LinkedIn”, a lot of people don’t understand how to use LinkedIn effectively.

One of the first things that you need to do is to ensure that you set up your profile correctly. If you want to know how to create a profile on LinkedIn that looks professional and will get found in search results when people are looking for businesses such as yours, then watch the video below which will take you through the different sections of a LinkedIn profile and how to complete them properly.

Feel free to leave any comments or let us know how you use LinkedIn to promote your business.
 
If you need help with creating your profile on LinkedIn, then check out our social media marketing services. We can create a profile and company page on LinkedIn which will promote you and your business professionally as well be found in the search results. Click on the arrow button to find out more about our social media marketing services.
 

Are Your Facebook Fans Not Seeing Your Posts?

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If you’re like me and are running a business by yourself then you know how important it is to streamline as many processes as possible to save you time.  One way of doing this is to manage your social media activities from one place using tools such as HootSuite and TweetDeck.

However, apart from the fact that you shouldn’t post the same content to all your social media accounts (that’s another blog in itself!), it could mean that your Facebook fans are not seeing your posts.

Now I’m someone who had set up their blogs so they were automatically posted on to my Facebook Page when published and used HootSuite to update my Page with other information.  However, I’ve read several articles recently that this is not the best way to add content to your Page as it can affect how it appears in your Fans’ newsfeeds.  How does this happen?

Well as you may or may not know, Facebook prioritises what appears in newsfeeds and this is dictated by something called Edge Rank.  This is an algorithm that uses certain factors such as the numbers of comments or likes, or age of a particular update which affects how likely it will appear.

The Edge Rank of a particular update will also be affected by whether or not it has been posted via a third party application such as Networked Blogs or HootSuite because Facebook will sometimes display these differently to updates posted in Facebook itself.  This is because Facebook will often  group updates from various Pages that have been posted via third party apps, rather than show them individually.

For example, Twitter feeds from various sources will be shown together in a Fan’s newsfeed, as will blogs posted via Networked Blogs.  This means that those updates posted via third party apps will have poorer visibility, or lower Facebook Edge Rank.

So although many small business owners use third party applications to manage the scheduling and management of their social media activities; if you do have the time then I would advise that you try to create status updates in Facebook itself so that you can get the most visibility for your content in your Fans’ newsfeeds.

So what do you think?  Leave a comment below!
 
If you want a Facebook page that will promote your business professionally and effectively to your online contacts, then we can help you. We can design a page to match your company branding, create and add welcome tabs etc, and post updates to your page. Click on the arrow to find out more about our social media marketing services.
 

How a Virtual Assistant Can Help With Local Marketing

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As someone who runs their own virtual assistant business, I know how essential it is to have an online presence.  However, it can sometimes be very difficult to make yourself heard above all the other marketing messages being broadcast whether it’s via Twitter, Facebook or blogs.

So if you’re a business owner like me who wants to reach out to people in your area, how can you do this?  Well this is where the power of local marketing comes in.  By targeting your marketing to people within a specific area, you are able to become more effective in communicating your message.

So if you want to make yourself heard, here is how a virtual assistant can help with local marketing.

Google places. This free local listing service is the quickest and easiest way to get on the first page of Google.  A virtual assistant can set up your profile with all your company details, including information on your services, location and opening hours.  They can also upload any images or videos, and will include specific search terms within your profile so that your place appears when people are looking for your services or products within your area.

Facebook Places.  A VA can create a Facebook Places account for you where they will set up or claim your “place”, ie your business address and then complete your profile with details of your location, services and products.  Once this is set up, then people can “check in” when they visit your business and by doing this, they tell their Facebook friends about you.

Facebook advertising is like Google Adwords where you set a budget and then pay every time someone clicks on your ad.  A virtual assistant can create an ad with images and text and then specify who sees the ad by selecting criteria such as age, gender, interests and location as specified by you.  They can monitor the performance of your ads and manage your budget.

Foursquare is very similar to Facebook Places, and again a VA can create or claim your place, and set up your profile with any exclusive discounts or special offers for people who check in to your location.  When people check in, they share their location via social media which spreads the word about your business.

Google Adwords works in the same way as Facebook advertising where you set a daily budget and then pay every time someone clicks on your ad.  A virtual assistant can create an account on Adwords with criteria specified by you.  This includes where your ads are displayed, eg in a particular country or city, your cost per click budget, and which keywords you want to use – you can use location-based keywords so that your ad appears when people are searching for your services or products within that area.

Now you know how a virtual assistant can help with local marketing.

So if you want to communicate to potential clients within your local area then these tools will help you do this and keep you one step ahead of the competition.  By using a virtual assistant to set these up and monitor them for you, you can focus on following up the leads that have been generated from these marketing activities.

If you want to have a more effective presence online, then we can help you. By having a visible presence online, you can raise your profile and credibility as well as market your business to people who are interested in what you do. Click on the arrow button to find out more about our online marketing services.