by Kimberly | Apr 2, 2009 | Blog, Internet Marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter
The Brooklyn Art Museum has a Twitter account and at last check, they had over 21,000 people following them. The Museum uses the account to tweet about happenings at the Museum such as events, announcements, new blog posts from the Museum blog and to interact with patrons. They also tweet links to their other social media accounts such as Facebook where they have they have a Group with almost 800 members. According to recent Facebook statistics, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, with over 2,500 fans, is one of the fastest growing Facebook fan pages with a weekly growth rate of over 600%. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is also on Twitter with almost 12,000 people following them. They are tweeting about events such as an Art Hunt, the announcing of their website redesign, to answer questions from people and to tweet about Art in the news. Both museum twitter sites indicate the name of the staff who are doing the tweeting. This is important because even though the accounts represent an entity, people prefer to interact on Twitter with a person. A quick search on Twitter for other arts organizations include the Atlanta Symphony, The Chicago Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the San Francisco ballet, while not actively tweeting, has gone in and “reserved” their twitter name for future use. The Smithsonian has also joined the Twitter world. A blog post of an interview with Marc van Bree, the PR coordinator with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about their social media and online efforts. In referring...
by Kimberly | Mar 28, 2009 | Blog, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Virtual Assistant
Social Media is now being used by small business, entrepreneurs, big business, non-profits and a multitude of other organizations. Using Social Media to market and network online is quickly becoming the norm as the number of people using and participating in Social Media grows exponentially. Consider these numbers: • In 2005, 8% of all adults online had a profile on a social networking site. Today, this has increased to 35%. • In December 2008, 76 million people visited MySpace which was a 10% increase over the previous year. • In December 2008, 54.5 million people visited Facebook which was a 57% increase from the previous year and it’s estimated that 22% of all adults online have a profile on Facebook. • Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is among users ages 35-49 in 2008. • In August 2008, 23.7 million people visited YouTube and 1 out of every 3 videos viewed online is on YouTube. • Globally, in 2008, more internet users accessed a social networking community than used email, (67% to 65%). • In December 2008, 4.5 million people visited Twitter which was an astounding 753% increase from the previous year. Five to ten thousand new Twitter accounts are created daily. • The number of active people on Twitter in the past week is over 550,000. • 73% of active online users have read a blog. How Can a Social Media Virtual Assistant Help? Clearly, Social Media is here to stay and it’s obviously become a marketing force to be reckoned with. As small business owners or solo entrepreneurs, many of us have limited time to be focusing on how...
by Kimberly | Feb 10, 2009 | Blog, Internet Marketing
Did you know if you have a Gmail or other Google account, that you also get a “profile”? There are some great benefits to doing this. Not only is this a great way to share any of the content you have posted or created with any of the Google services, but it serves as a one stop and centralized location for any and all links or profiles associated with you. For a Social Media Virtual Assistant like myself, it’s a great place for me to be able to post links to all of the my Social Networking profiles allowing potential clients to get to know me. You can customize the profile to show as much or as little about you as you desire. By making your name public on your profile, you make it that much easier for people (or potential clients) to find you. And of course, it provides you prime a spot for placing a link back to your website…on Google! Google provide you with a wide array of options for posting content about yourself. Also included is a “Send Message” feature so that someone can send you an email directly to your GMail account without having access to the actual email address. Click here for more information on Google Profiles Click here to see how I’ve set up my Google Profile My favorite part of the profile is where I get to list my superpower: Sassy Social Media Virtual Assistant and Savvy Data Chick! If you’d like some help with setting up your Google profile or any other social networking profile, give me a shout out...
by Kimberly | Dec 23, 2008 | Blog, Facebook, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Virtual Assistant, Twitter
Within Facebook you have the ability to add an application which will sync with your Twitter feed and supply all of your tweets to your Facebook Status. There are a couple of benefits to using sending your twitter feed to Facebook. The first is that it will often place you on your friend’s home page so they will see it almost every time they log in. This increases your visibility on Facebook. It may also garner you more twitter followers who like what you tweet and will go choose to follow you. There can be a couple of downsides to consider as well. Being constantly on the homepage with updates from your twitter conversation may be annoying to some people who can then choose ask for “less” about you in their home page feed. If you tend to be a prolific tweeter, your tweets will also fill your Personal Profile page as it will be considered a new “status” every time you tweet. So, it’s best to consider the positives and the possible negatives when adding this application. However, if you do add it and decide that it’s just not for you, then you do have the option to remove it as well. Here’s how to add the application: 1) At the bottom of the Facebook window, click on “Applications” and a small box will pop up. At the top of the box, click on “Find More”. 2) After you’ve clicked on “Find More” a new page will come up and in the upper right hand corner, there is a search box where you can enter “Twitter” and hit...
by Kimberly | Dec 17, 2008 | Blog, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter, Virtual Assistant
Daily you can find me checking out new posts and adding my two cents over at the Virtual Assistant Forums where there is not only a wealth of great information but a great sense of community with all my Virtual Assistant comrades. Recently, an awesome new feature was added which gives all members the opportunity to create their own blog there. So, I decided to try out this new feature and created a blog post titled, “Twitter Tips for Virtual Assistants.” There are many Virtual Assistants who are just getting started on Twitter as well as those who are new to the Virtual Assistant industry. I believe it’s important that Virtual Assistants as an industry help each other out and support one another. With this in mind, I posted what I thought were important tips for my fellow VAs to consider for their tweeting journey. I’m posting the majority of that post here for other Virtual Assistants (and anyone else who needs some good twitter tips) and for other readers of my blog. Many of these tips can easily be applied by any small business entrepreneur who is just getting started on Twitter. I’ve only been using twitter for a couple of months and I will freely admit that I’m thoroughly addicted. When I get up in the morning, I check my email first and then moments later, I log into twitter. All this usually happens before I’ve had coffee or breakfast…(and embarrassingly sometimes even before I’ve made breakfast for my son. Shhh, don’t tell anyone!) In using Twitter I have: 1) received a referral from someone who saw...
by Kimberly | Dec 9, 2008 | Blog, Virtual Assistant
Recently I have been wondering more and more about what are the current thoughts around email etiquette. Not with regards to how do you draft your emails, what you say or how you say it, but what are the current expectations regarding responses, response time, follow-up and basic communication. If I send out an email to someone following up on a conversation, or to check in with someone, there is an expectation for a response. But after a couple of non-responses, I began to wonder if it was just me who was wondering if common courtesy had completely fallen by the wayside. Has the age of electronic made it easier for us to connect or to ignore each other? Am I way out in left field by myself thinking that a response should be forthcoming? Just like anyone else, I’m busy and am not always able to answer right away, but it’s always been my policy to try and respond within 24 hours and no later than 48 hours, even if it’s just to acknowledge receipt of one’s email and to let them know I will provide them with a more detailed response later. Other than spammers or auto-generated responses, I have never felt that it was okay to just completely ignore an email with no response. Given that everyone is busy, I also do not send out unnecesary or lengthy, overly wordy emails. Am I mistakenly under the assumption that email is still a communication tool? As a Virtual Assistant, email is a critical tool for communicating with clients from any location. This is one of the advantages...
by Kimberly | Nov 7, 2008 | Blog, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media
I’m pleased to announce that JK Virtual Office Resources now has an “official” Business Fan Page on Facebook. As a virtual assistant who specializes in social media and internet marketing, it makes perfect sense for me to have a Business Fan Page for the following reasons: I can keep my personal profile separate from my business profile. I can have a targeted group (fans) of people who are interested in my business and who want to receive updates regarding my business. I’ve essentially created a space where I can develop relationships with potential customers and have a “conversation” with them. I’ve made my business accessible to a whole population of people who I might not otherwise ever interact with. Increased visibility- I am able to post a link to my fan page from other social media sites, from my own website and from anywhere else I might be able to post a link. I’ve also made it easier for my friends on Facebook to find a place that explains exactly what it is that I do and what my business offers. Also, I’ve created an alternative to my website to advertise my business for potential customers who may do a search for virtual assistants or social media marketing on Facebook instead of Google. I can post notes or other relevant information on that page and it is immediately sent to my fan’s homepages. If they post back on my page, then all of their friends will see that on their homepage. That’s viral marketing at it’s best. Anyone can join or see my information without having to first send...
by Kimberly | Oct 28, 2008 | Blog, Social Media, social media marketing
A recent blog post by Ari Herzog asks the readers to define social media in 140 characters or less ( a la twitter style.) This is an exceptional idea since social media is exactly what it’s users make it. It’s about so many different ideas, thoughts, relationships and people that I’m not sure that it can be easily defined. I mean isn’t that like trying to define the result or outcome of every single interaction we have with each other online? On the other hand, the beauty of trying to define social media via the style of one of the bigger social media sites almost perfectly epitomizes the whole of concept of what is social media. However, I’ve also been reading other opinions about how social media has been died or been killed or has become the green eyed monster of ME, ME, ME where people know they are “supposed” to be creating relationships and connections but not blatantly selling themselves, but that in reality so many are just pretending to create relationships and be personal while covertly selling themselves. So which is it? Is social media about the users creating these connections and relationships with other users or has it just become another form of media that will be used to sell us something? In my opinion, it’s both. People are still using social media to form relationships and make connections while marketing themselves and their business at the same time. But there’s a right way and a wrong way. Using social media as a social tool first and as a marketing tool second creates more trust in...
by Kimberly | Oct 21, 2008 | Blog, Internet Marketing, small business, Social Media, Social Media Virtual Assistant
Image by against the tide via Flickr Marketing yourself and your business has undergone a complete face lift with the explosion of social networking and Web 2.0. For anyone who is looking to establish an online presence, promote themselves or their business online or sell a product or service, then using the social networks and other Web 2.0 application is quickly become an absolute. A post over on Hiring the Internet about the theory of social media marketing talks about how social media is evolving as a marketing tool but is also a tool that many businesses will fail at using correctly. Statistics from several recent reports show that 60% of Americans are using social media to interact with companies and businesses online and that nearly two-thirds of businesses are establishing their presence on social networks. Social media marketing is a new kind of beast that many do not yet understand how to harness it’s power. Most people are tired and distrustful of the old world marketing tactics. Using social networking for your business is a relational type of marketing where you can gain consumers by gaining their trust and providing them with a sense of knowing who you are or what type of company you are rather than just by your service or product. Setting up social network profiles, updating and maintaining them is a time consuming process. It not only takes knowledge of the many different types of sites that are available but you must also know how to use them (correctly) which also requires that you understand what benefits you will achieve from using a particular...
by Kimberly | Oct 16, 2008 | Blog, Internet Marketing, Marketing, small business, Social Media
While twittering today, I clicked through on a link to where I could download a free version of Seth Godin’s latest and greatest book, “Tribes.” In his blog Seth writes that he originally set out to write a book leadership but it ended up being a marketing book. He describes the basic premise as, “the next frontier of marketing is in leading groups of people who are working together to get somewhere.” It’s a concept that’s been around since the beginning of time. Using the web to create your tribe with a purpose and a goal is much easier now with Web 2.0. Networks like Twitter and Facebook are prime examples of how this is taking place. It’s just a matter of identifying who the leader is or becoming the leader yourself. Twitter is based on who’s following who, but in reality, there are leaders embedded into that whole premise. Inevitably and not surprisingly, there are those within each industry who simply must be followed if you want to know the very latest of what they are saying and doing. Which will you be– are you a leader or a follower? How will you build your tribe to get your message out and your goals...
