Virtual Assistance Business Briefs » Business Tips

Pioneer Speaks to Women Business Owners About Imbalance of the Sexes

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:48:21 +0000

This is going to be a great NAWBO St. Louis meeting – and you get a FREE book with your registration – hope to see you there!

The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), St. Louis Chapter, is pleased to announce their January program featuring Susan Elliott, one of the first female programmers at IBM and later founder and chairman of SSE, a national firm recognized globally for application development, education and network infrastructure work.

Being held at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park on January 11, 2012, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Elliott will share personal anecdotes and insights drawn from her 50-year career in the technology industry. Her just-published book, “Across the Divide: Navigating the Digital Revolution as a Woman, Entrepreneur, and CEO,” offers her global perspective of the ever-changing computing industry and the stark imbalance of the sexes still present in the technology workforce today.

Her story is of a woman who got in on the ground floor of the digital revolution and became one of its leaders. Her firm, SSE, is considered one of the fastest growing technology and education firms in America today. Elliott will share her compelling story with NAWBO St. Louis’ members and guests and there will be a book signing immediately following the event.

The National Association of Women Business Owners® (NAWBO®) is the voice of America’s 10.6 million women-owned businesses. Since 1975, NAWBO has helped women evolve their businesses by sharing resources and providing a single voice to shape economic and public policy.

On a local level, NAWBO Greater St. Louis members can access a variety of opportunities, products and services that will help their business achieve greater visibility, credibility, and profitability while building a strong network of other women-owned businesses in the region.

Admission is $40 for members and $50 for guests, which includes a catered lunch as well as a copy of Elliott’s book, compliments of the Greater St. Louis NAWBO Chapter. A $10 late fee will be added for registrations received after January 8, 2012.

For more information about Elliott and SSE, visit www.susanselliott.com. For further information or to register for the event, visit the NAWBO website at www.nawbostl.org, or contact them at (314) 954-8344, or info@nawbostl.org.

Pioneer Speaks to Women Business Owners About Imbalance of the Sexes is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: imbalance of the sexes, Missouri history museum, nawbo, nawbo st louis, susan elliott, woman business owners

Get Marketing and Social Media Support to Increase Your Business Success

Jeannine Clontz — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:46:11 +0000

Check out my new awesome video created by Andrea Kalli!

Get Marketing and Social Media Support to Increase Your Business Success is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: business support services, grow your business, market your business, marketing support, social media support, Virtual Assistant

Five Affordable Ways to Create Video Marketing Content

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:17:49 +0000

There are many ways to create video marketing content that will make you stand out without access to a production studio or require spending thousands of dollars. Take a look at some of my five easy, affordable steps you can take to show your viewers you’re worth their time and money:

1. Create a Video Yourself

This is, of course, the most obvious option. You don’t need professional equipment. You can easily start out with a computer webcam, mobile phone, or any video recorder that you have access to. What matters the most is not the technology you use but your concept and how well you present it to viewers.

2. Outsource Your Video Creation

You may already be familiar with the process of outsourcing other aspects of your business like web design or writing and editing services. Video creation is no different and is often extremely well produced at very affordable prices. Check into outsourcing portals like IVAA.org or VANetwork.com, post a job listing, and check out the freelancers that contact you. Keep in mind that outsourcing video production will be easier if you already have an idea in mind before you seek support. In your job postings, detail exactly what you need the service provider to do for you and choose the provider that you feel will give you the best results.

3. Utilize User-Generated Content or Testimonials

This one is especially great if your online business already has a loyal following. Simply contact one of your previous clients and tell them that you’d like them to participate in a short video testimonial. You will most likely have more success if you sweeten the deal by offering them a discount on their next purchase, offer to include a link to their website or some other kind of reward. After proposing the idea to several of your past clients or customers, you will not only have excellent video content, but you will have also strengthened your relationship with your existing customers – and that discount or reward could potentially net you a few extra sales as well!

4. Use Public Domain Footage Already Available

There are literally hundreds of video clips in the public domain, and many are readily available for download online. Take a look at a few and use them to create your own video content. Don’t forget that there is plenty of music in the public domain, too. With these public domain assets, you can easily put together your own online video for the purpose of marketing your brand, your products, or your services.

5. Purchase Pre-made or Stock Video Content

Slightly different than outsourcing, there are various marketplaces online where you can find high quality, pre-made video content for sale. You may have experience in buying website templates or graphics, and this is no different. You can buy what you need to create an entire video, or just get the footage you need to add on to your current creation and make it fit your specific need.

These are just a few of the most popular ways to develop low-budget yet effective video marketing content. You can choose one or a combination of all of these options. What matters is, through any of these five ways, you can develop content that is unique to your business without breaking the bank and create video content that will help promote and grow your business.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan request her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvcs.com

Five Affordable Ways to Create Video Marketing Content is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: create video, high quality pre made video, loyal following, online business, public domain video, video creation, video marketing, video testimonials

Recent Interview for WE Magazine (Women in eCommerce)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:34:27 +0000

I was recently interviewed for WE Magazine (Women in eCommerce) – take a peek!

Woman in Business Helps Solopreneurs

Meet Jeannine Clontz, President ~ Accurate Business Services

Tell us about your business. We provide marketing and social media support, training and consulting on an as needed basis as a Multi-VA
practice. Although we service clients in many industries our main expertise is in the support of solopreneurs, like REALTORS, coaches, speakers, and consultants.

Please tell us what being a business owner means to you and why you became an entrepreneur in the first place? I became an entrepreneur by accident. I had received a small inheritance when my Aunt passed away and was looking for a business opportunity for my husband since I was the main bread winner and had access to benefits, including healthcare. I ended up finding the virtual assistance industry and started the business myself for ‘fun money’ so my husband and I could travel. Five years later he was laid off and I needed to expand and grow my business to be the main bread winner again. I never imagined that I could be a business…

More here…http://bit.ly/l5nSv3

Recent Interview for WE Magazine (Women in eCommerce) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: accurate business services, business opportunity, business owner, Business Tips, jeannine clontz, WE Magazine, women in ecommerce

How to Get Your Podcast Sponsored

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:35:27 +0000

As a podcast creator, you already know that the costs to produce a high-quality podcast can add up, if not right away, certainly over time. To cut down or eliminate costs, you may consider sponsorships.

A common practice in traditional radio programming, getting sponsors is also for podcasts. Usually, in return for financing your podcasting efforts, sponsors will require you to endorse their products or services on your show or provide them with advertisement spots. Sometimes, broadcasting a simple sponsorship notice is enough – it all depends on the deal you make.

First Impressions Matter

Before seeking out sponsors for your podcast, it would be wise to make sure you are fully prepared. Take some time and create a list of tasks you should perform before expecting someone to shell out their hard-earned money to support your show. If your website needs updating or repairs to functionality, get them done. If you don’t have a webpage discussing your show, make one. Furthermore, update your archives and ensure past shows are available for downloading.

Once you feel everything is in good shape, it’s time to put together information about you and your podcast. The goal is to make it easy for your potential sponsors to find out whatever they need to know about you and your podcast in a single, concise resource.

Think of obtaining a sponsor as being very similar to making a sale. Your ultimate goal is essentially to sell your podcast. So, other than the obvious information like genre and topics covered, let the potential sponsor know important details such as how many listeners you have (with concrete, actual data), what demographic they fall into (age, gender, profession, etc), and whether or not you currently have any other advertisers or sponsors for the show.

Imagine yourself in the sponsor’s position. If you were going to sponsor a podcast, what kind of information would you want to know beforehand? Make a list of all the possible questions you might have and answer them to the best of your ability in this informational report.

Where to Look for Sponsors

There are a number of services that can connect podcast producers with potential advertisers and sponsors. Some of these services include Podtrac and Radiotail. However, often the best way to find sponsors is to simply research other business owners that target the same market as you do. They could be bloggers, service providers, or even local small businesses. Contacting these kinds of organizations can often yield more stable and lucrative sponsorship deals.

Obtaining sponsorships for your podcast may take some extra time and effort. However, you’ll find that the added recognition and financial stability is well worth it, not to mention making your program appear to be far more desirable for other advertisers.

How to Get Your Podcast Sponsored is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: finding a potcast sponsor, podcast sponsor, podcast sponsorship, podcast tips

Four SEO Tips for Your WordPress Blog!

Jeannine Clontz — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:12:48 +0000

WordPress has become the most popular self-hosted blogging platform around, with over ten million different users utilizing the platform as their blog back-end of choice. Offering a huge range of features, customization options, plug-ins and controls, it is no wonder the platform has achieved such immense popularity amongst bloggers, web developers, and serious Internet professionals.

Marketers are especially fond of WordPress, for a number of reasons. WordPress is easily customizable, giving marketers the power to create text-heavy sales pages, multimedia website intros, and call-to-action service pages on a single platform. Alongside the customization is another powerful marketing aspect, its incredible SEO benefits.

As blogging platforms go, WordPress is the reigning champion of SEO. From extended page URLs to pingback links and header tags, these four SEO tips can help you turn your WordPress blog into a powerful SEO resource.

1) Use keyword-heavy titles.

Keyword density was once thought of as the ultimate measure of a website’s search potential. Marketers would stuff their content with keywords, often until the point where it resembled machine-style nonsense.

Now, most marketers know that keyword density is not the ultimate measure of SEO value. Websites that rank typically do not use keyword-heavy content, but keyword-heavy post titles. Whenever you are writing a blog post, research keywords first to get an idea of what your market is searching for.

2) Use the All-in-One WordPress SEO plug-in.

Simply put, no other WordPress plug-in is as valuable to online marketers as the All-in-One SEO Pack. Offering a buffet of SEO options for marketers, this plug-in allows its users to optimize their post URLs and categories for maximum SEO power, override default meta and title tags, and even highlight potential keywords to target. Simple, quick, and powerful — this plug-in is a must for internet marketers using WordPress.

3) Enable comments.

Comments add great things to your website: fresh content, and outbound links. The first is a godsend in the eyes of search engines. While other marketers slave to produce fresh content for their websites manually, a relatively popular WordPress blog can live off the SEO-friendly content produced by the comments it receives.

4) Be visible.

Sometimes the most basic mistakes are also the most devastating. Almost all modern versions of WordPress include a range of visibility options. Users can select to make their blog visible to all, block it from any viewing, or simply block search engines from indexing the content.

Of course, no marketer would want to block their blog from search engines. However, some automated WordPress installers — particularly Fantastico and cPanel installers — block WordPress from search engines by default. To reverse this, simply use your WordPress dashboard to change privacy options back to "visible by anyone".

Try these four SEO tips on your WordPress blog and watch your analytics to see how well you’ve done. What other challenges are you facing with your blog platform? Leave your comments and/or questions below!

Four SEO Tips for Your WordPress Blog! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: blog SEO tips, search engine optimization tips, SEO tips, wordpress blog, Worpress Blog SEO tips

3 Tactics for Responding to Social Media Criticism

Jeannine Clontz — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:16:25 +0000

As social media continues to evolve so do those who participate, and how they respond is changing, too. Responding to social media criticism is difficult at best – creating a short, punchy response can make you look too aggressive, while a reasoned response is often lost on someone out for blood. The process of analyzing feedback has become more important to major organizations, so much so that the U.S. Air Force has created a process for responding to bloggers, encouraging PR experts to only respond to comments in certain situations.

These three tactics can assist you with a social media criticism problem, particularly one that stands to damage your organization’s reputation. If you’ve spent the last day staring at an angry blog post, a snarky column, or a rude comment, apply these tactics and judge its negative value before you submit a reply.

1) Ignorance is bliss, at least in the eyes of Google.

As tempting as it may be to put a biased blogger in their place, doing so many cause more damage than good. Blog posts, like other dynamic pages, tend to gain Page Rank and search visibility through the work of their readers. Inbound links, comments, and activity can all contribute to high search placements, often for terms that you’d rather not see attached to your company’s name.

2) Some people just aren’t rational or ethical. Resist the temptation to use reason.

A reasoned response should be enough, right? Often it’s not, particularly on blogs that generate (and capitalize on) controversy. If you’re being picked on by a blogger or questionable online publisher, leave the event to die out on its own. A response, however reasoned and valuable, might just provide more fuel for the hungry critics.

3) Think in terms of value. Will a response help your business?

Some marketers think that more is always better. They’re wrong, especially when it comes to content that’s steeped in controversy. You should only respond to public criticism when it could change your business, especially for the worst. If the audience appears to have made up their minds without any input from your business, leave them be and focus on developing value elsewhere.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvcscom

3 Tactics for Responding to Social Media Criticism is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: managing social media criticism, social media criticism, social media marketing, social media marketing tips

Three Tips for Crafting an Effective, Tweetable Message

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:24:47 +0000

Few social networks sum up public discourse more effectively than Twitter. Thanks to its short-form nature and enormous audience, a single topic of discussion can often evolve into a completely natural case study for marketers. Be it immense disapproval or the immense success of a single principle, Twitter offers a unique look into conversation.

But how can you make that conversation happen? While it’s very difficult to create conversation out of nothing, particularly for a product or service that’s just uninteresting, it’s very easy to optimize a discussion so that it spreads throughout the social media landscape like wildfire.

Apply these three tactics to your next Twitter promotion, and learn what a bit of creative copywriting can do to your social media ROI.

1) Learn to love the ‘…’

Add an ellipsis to the end of your tweets and you stand to experience a twenty percent increase in click-through traffic. This timeless tweak has been used by performance marketers for decades, both online and off.

2) Use numbers, instructions, and summaries.

Numbers catch the eye. Instructions can increase involvement. Summaries attract users looking for information, particularly those that want to understand more about a particular topic. These Twitter tricks were all mastered by copywriters years ago, and they’re still just as effective as ever. Use them and you’ll see an increase in traffic.

3) Get people scared, even if there’s nothing to be afraid of.

In order to increase the amount of time that readers spend thinking about your product, it’s important to project a situation in which it isn’t present. If you want to increase sales of your pest removal product, remind readers about the dangers of bed bugs – all at 11:30PM.

Got an investment to pitch? Scare people by reminding them that others could get ahead of them if they choose not to leap at the opportunity. People respond to fear, even if it’s minute and fairly inconsequential. Use ‘fear words’ in your tweets to draw in readers, and use your additional content to make them familiar with your brand, your company, and your product’s advantages.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvsc.com

Three Tips for Crafting an Effective, Tweetable Message is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing Tips, twitter for business, Twitter tips

Facebook Marketing Fun: Spreading the Word Without Annoying Users

Jeannine Clontz — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:18:03 +0000

When it comes to viral marketing, Twitter is very much the flavor of the month. This popular service has all the signs of a promotion-friendly medium – it’s public, easy to use, and boasts one of the largest userbases of any social media platform. A single tweet can easily swell into a thousand-strong meme, with users flooding the website and generating huge amounts of instant notoriety.

But is that really what your business wants and needs? A flood of traffic that, if not for a thin connection, most likely wouldn’t be interested in your product or service. Each of Twitter’s promotional strong points has one or more disadvantages too – public promotions can often hurt a brand, memes can occasionally lead to subsequent marketing disappearances, and messages can be misinterpreted as spam.

It’s for that reason – or anti-reason, if you prefer – that thousands of marketers are using Facebook in place of Twitter for their promotional efforts. The service is, in many ways, less than ideal, some profiles are private, others are inactive, and most belong to groups that are rarely, if ever, updated regularly.

But that’s not all bad. With privacy comes a greater level of information sharing, and an even more valuable level of participation. The website’s grouping system can help small businesses find exposure in the ‘like’ list of popular users. In short, Facebook’s rather private and network-based nature can make it a greater tool for viral growth than its ‘open’ rivals.

I’m not at all saying you should discontinue utilizing Twitter or LinkedIn for that matter, as a part of your overall social media presence, but instead, make a more focused use of Facebook, while still using the others as secondary marketing opportunities.

Finally, it’s Facebook’s relatively more private nature that makes it the perfect service for optimizing and promoting your brand, all without fear of being labeled a ‘spammer’. Twitter’s public nature has made it a haven for automation and link spam – an annoyance that’s hurt hundreds of real marketers in the process.

With privacy comes a level of trust that’s otherwise missing. Design a Facebook promotion and you could find your company’s message between updates from close friends. If that doesn’t sound more appealing than a mass produced tweet, then it may be worth trying out a different social marketing strategy altogether.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvsc.com

Facebook Marketing Fun: Spreading the Word Without Annoying Users is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: Facebook Tips, marketing with Facebook, twitter, twitter for business, Twitter tips

Two Ways to Optimize Social Media for Maximum Sales

Jeannine Clontz — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:48:56 +0000

There are hundreds of case studies highlighting social media’s strength as a traffic generating platform. There are hundreds more touting its ability to increase participation and inspire users to complete specific actions. What the industry is missing is a case study on one of the most important success metrics out there: its value for sales-driven businesses.

Sure, there are pieces of information out there, maybe even a rough outline or two. What’s missing isn’t the potential for sales to happen – any social media marketer knows how worthwhile the medium is as a sales tool – but a scientific look at the improvements that can help it increase the bottom line of small, independent, everyday businesses.

These two tips can help you do just that, whether for your own independent operation or as part of a larger organization. Don’t worry – none require technical wizardry or complex coding skills – just a basic understanding of social media and enough time to carry out some basic A/B testing.

1) Exclude more people from your community.

At its heart, social media is about community. Seth Godin highlighted the value of a leader-guided online community in Tribes, explaining that a dedicated and enthusiastic online group can create more than the sum of its parts with the right leadership. But that group can’t thrive without a goal that’s shared, and sometimes creating that common goal requires eliminating some members.

Don’t fence off your group after you’ve spent years building it – instead, set up some light rules for participation before you make it public. Excluding people based on their membership or customer status may not seem particularly social, but it can lead to a community experience that’s often lost on larger social networking groups and open forums.

2) Add sales-driven elements to all of your social media presences, and start testing.

For marketers, social media is about both community and commerce. There’s little value in web traffic that simply isn’t interested in buying. Adding sales-driven elements into your social media pages may scare away a collection of uninterested users, but it comes with a surge in the proportion of sales-friendly users.

By guiding your users through sales-driven actions, collecting data, and generating test sales, you can quickly and easily grow to understand the commercial makeup of your audience. Some users may be the buying type, interested in quick results, while others may show an interest in products, services, and offers that you previously never expected to discover.

Work on developing a sales-driven community and test the results to enjoy the maximum sales possible through your social media efforts.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvsc.com

Two Ways to Optimize Social Media for Maximum Sales is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: get sales from social media, social media community, social media marketing, social media marketing tips