by Kimberly | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog, Featured, Social Media, social media marketing
Social media and the internet make it easier than ever to reach other people, other markets and other businesses anywhere in the world. So sometimes, it seems as though what is most often overlooked is how easy it is to use social media to connect with local people and businesses. As a Virtual Assistant, my business model is built around being able to work with virtually anyone, anywhere. When I first started using social media for marketing, I did not focus too much on networking locally either online or in person. However, when my husband and I started an e-commerce business, OTC Sports, part of our business model for was centrally built around reaching the local market. Around this same time, I made the acquaintance of Gary Powell with ImageWear Solutions on Twitter (@imagewear). Gary and I exchanged a few emails as I helped him figure out some of the inner workings of using Twitter and Facebook for business. He also reached out to my husband, Jeff, on Twitter (@OTCsports), communicating back and forth about different sports related topics. Gary is a great example of what a local business can do with social media. He reached out to other locals on Twitter and Facebook, offered a helping hand, and was always willing to help spread the word about other local businesses. Gary doesn’t use social media to be self-promoting, he uses it for connecting with people. When the time came for us to order promotional apparel for OTC Sports, Gary was the first person we called upon. Completely knowledgeable about promotional products and apparel, Gary made the process easy...
by Kimberly | Feb 19, 2010 | Blog, Facebook, Social Media
Just a short and to the point post that will actually be a list of references for Facebook. You might be surprised how much information you can on Facebook about using Facebook! Facebook Marketing Page: A page run by Facebook which provide tips for using Facebook for marketing and brand loyalty. Facebook Pages Product Guide: Light overview (PDF) document by Facebook about what pages are, how they work and the various elements that make up a fan page. Facebook Promotions Guidelines: Facebook’s guidelines for promoting your Facebook page outside of Facebook. Includes an easily downloadable (Facebook approved) graphic to place on your website to help visitors click through to your Facebook page. Facebook For Non-Profits: A fan page that serves as a resource for non-profits and other organizations on Facebook who work towards social good. Often they highlight other non-profit fan pages or will post news about brands or companies who are using Facebook for social good. Facebook Fan Pages: Another page administered by Facebook where they share news, best practices and examples for administrators of Facebook pages. Facebook’s Official Privacy Policy: Facebook’s official policy regarding your privacy on the platform. Facebook’s Blog: This is another good place to find all the latest announcements and news about Facebook. Facebook often posts about upcoming changes and events there before they happen. Of course, working with an experienced social media virtual assistant who is already aware of these resources and keeps tabs on the latest happenings with Facebook can help you navigate using Facebook efficiently and...
by Kimberly | Nov 18, 2009 | Blog, Facebook
Facebook recently changed not only how news and updates are delivered to users, but they’ve also implemented a formula for deciding which news is delivered. When you log into Facebook, you will most likely first see “News Feed.” (Unless you’ve moved Status Updates to the top of your left side menu, in which case, you will see just the Status Updates from your friends.) What shows up in your News Feed is determined by Facebook based on their own formula. The News Feed typically will include content from your Friends and from the Fan Pages that you belong to. However, unless you click on view “Live Feed,” you are only going to see the content that Facebook has decided you might be interested in. This means Facebook now takes into account what Fan Pages your friends like, or what Fan Page stories they are commenting on, which fan pages you interact with frequently and which fan pages you visit most often. What does this mean for Facebook Fan Page Administrators? It means that engagement and interaction on your Fan Page just became much more important if you expect to get your Fan Page to show up in your fans’ News Feeds. No longer can you just post on your Facebook and expect that it will get seen by your fans by showing up in their News Feed. It will still show up in their Live Feed, but the Live Feed is not the default and we have no idea how many users are actually moving from their News Feed to the Live Feed. Fan Page Administrators will now have...
by Kimberly | Aug 26, 2009 | Blog, social media marketing
If you’ve been thinking at all that maybe, just maybe, you need to figure out if you and your business should be getting involved is this whole “social media” thing, you should watch this video. It really makes the point about how social media is here to stay. What are your thoughts about the necessity of having a strong social media/ social networking...
by Kimberly | Jul 27, 2009 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, social media marketing
A new report out by Wetpaint and the Alitmeter Group showed that companies with the greatest engagement in social media in the past year grew their revenues by 18% while companies that were the least engage showed about a 6% decrease in revenue. The study included the top 100 brands and include such social media channels as blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook and discussion forums. Not surprisingly, the top three brands with the highest levels of engagement included Starbucks, Dell and Google. Where it gets interesting is that the analysis revealed that these companies had dedicated teams of people who were actively engaged in using the variety of social media channels. WebProNews reports that: Basically, it shows that it pays (literally) to have a team working full time on engaging with customers via social media. Even if that team consists of one person, it means they will not be distracted by other tasks and can give the social channel the attention required for it to make a significant impact. What this means for the small business owner who may not be able to afford nor need a “dedicated” staff of employees to help them engage with their customers using social media, but they do have the ability to work with a Social Media Virtual Assistant and make an impact on their overall online visibility and more importantly, their bottom line. Social media becomes an effective marketing channel when it is used as part of a strategy and with continuous and ongoing efforts. The small business owner or entrepreneur who may not have the time or the capacity to get started...
