Virtual Assistance Business Briefs » Marketing Plans

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

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.

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

Brand, Sales, and Balance: Are You Including Social Media with Other Online Marketing?

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:33:37 +0000

The 1980s are remembered for their developments in business and technology, particularly computing. The 1990s for their advances in technology, particularly the growth of the internet and online business opportunities. If the 2000s are to be remembered for anything (although it may still be too early to tell), it will be their developments in communications and online communities, particularly the incredible power of social media.

Social media gives major brands and companies as well as small business, some seriously big power, but it is rarely used as it should be. Commitments to quality are sometimes overlooked, and opportunities for branding, direct sales, or indirect marketing are often passed over. These missing opportunities do cost businesses.

Social Media for Branding:

A dollar unearned is a dollar lost. Businesses are often questioning the value of social media for their branding efforts, but few take action when they should. Billions of dollars are being left on the table, particularly as major brands move onto social media services, and the value of a social media-friendly brand still is not being recognized.

An experiment is always worth more than not even trying. Discussion on social media’s branding abilities will only take companies so far. With the low cost of social media efforts, an experiment with social media branding can generate huge returns, all with a relatively minimal level of risk. Develop a simple plan and test your ability to grow and expand your brand.

Social Media for SEO:

SEO consultancy (and in-house efforts) were once the domain of spammy content and low quality link generation efforts. Poorly planned information was setup on low-cost websites, and marketers shot out as many links as were possible. Despite being somewhat effective, the old world of SEO is packed with inefficient models and outright unethical business models.

However, social media has given SEO new life. The old "SEO is spam" cliche is no more thanks to the development of social media. Each new social media asset is another opportunity for high quality outbound and inbound linking, and every social media conversation is another opportunity to spread links that actually add value.

With Twitter tweets and Youtube videos now regularly appearing in Google’s standard search results, the divide between search and social media is likely to become even smaller. Marketers accustomed to spam-style SEO tactics are in for a new surprise, while businesses that embrace social media receive a well-deserved SEO boost.

Social Media for Sales:

Social media is not a good sales platform, but it is a good resource for generating future sales. Social media’s ability to generate prospects is one of the most important aspect to the sales process. Marketers that were once dependent on direct lead generation have a new platform available to them, particularly in open social media platforms like Twitter or Myspace.

The greatest news is that social media is still in its infancy. Businesses that are built on lead-based sales have good things to look forward to. As social media develops further, sales models will be refined, micro-networks offering great sales potential will grow greater, and marketers can look forward to a platform that is refined, sales-friendly, and willing to be marketed to.

Brand, Sales, and Balance: Are You Including Social Media with Other Online Marketing? is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: brand, branding, branding tips, Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing Tips, sales, sales tips, social media, social media marketin tips, social media marketing, social media tips

Five Reasons to Give Up On Your Goals

Jeannine Clontz — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:22:58 +0000

Giving up sounds so negative. But can you make room for the possibility that you can release your goals without being a failure? Yes, you can! Sometimes the goals themselves are unreachable, for reasons outside your control. There are times to let your goal go – or at least set it aside for a while. Here are five of those times:

Not motivated to achieve the goal.

Have you ever made plans to go to a movie with a friend or attend a party, but when it came time to get ready to go, you just couldn’t get moving? Maybe you decided you didn’t really want to see that show, or you’re having a grand old time just sitting on the couch in your sweats with your significant other. Whatever the reason, the motivation is just not there.

If you’ve tried all the suggestions in my previous posts, and you keep missing deadlines, or taking the next step, or simply not acting on your goal, it may be time to let that goal go, at least for now.

Sometimes it’s a disconnect you haven’t been able to pinpoint, or sometimes the timing’s just not right. It’s okay to just set the goal aside and move on to something more attractive. No one’s keeping score – I promise.

You don’t know what’s next.

If you are lost, unsure which direction to go in next, which path to take, or what you really want, it may be time to stop hitting that wall. Instead of feeling like you HAVE to have a goal, take some time to reflect and figure out what you’re really trying to achieve with your business or your life.

Though I’m all in favor of action, I think it’s much smarter to make sure you’re choosing the right goal and the right strategies to achieve them, rather than just acting for the sake of acting. You can’t get where you want to go until you know where it is you want to go! Simple enough.

You are exhausted.

Type-A, ultra-motivated goal-setters can burn themselves out pretty quickly. It’s hard to stay motivated if you don’t have any recovery time, instead bouncing from one huge project to the next. It won’t matter how successful you are if you don’t have the energy, or give yourself the time, to enjoy your achievements.

If you’re bordering on burnout, give yourself a break. Set all your goals aside for a while and just relax. It’ll pay off in the long run.

You don’t feel as positive about the goal any longer.

Contrary to popular belief, it is okay to change your mind. You may be halfway to a goal, or even closer, and decide it’s a bad idea or it’s just not a goal that you long for anymore. That’s okay. Really.

If you think you’ve changed your mind about a goal, take time to ask yourself “why.” Is it a higher-level objective issue? A strategy issue? Or are you just not sure? Figure out how you feel about your goal before you decide to let it go. If after you’ve explored your “why” and your feelings about your goal, you decide letting go of your goal is the right thing for you right now, release it and move on. No regrets – just lessons learned.

As a final thought on this topic, I can’t resist putting in this quote for obvious reasons:

“The only thing you live to regret are the risks you didn’t take.”

~Anonymous~

Five Reasons to Give Up On Your Goals is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: achieve your goals, attainable goals, goal setting, goal setting tips, Goals

Three Reasons Your Goal May “Fail”!

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:11:56 +0000

I put the word “fail” in quotes in the title because I strongly believe that you never REALLY fail if you’ve learned something from having tried. There’s a difference between a good goal and a good outcome – sometimes, despite your best efforts, you can’t make it work.

In my experience, there are three main reasons for this.

Your goal was bad for the outcome you wanted to achieve.

You did all the right things, but you were aiming at the wrong target. For instance, let’s say you wanted to do something to help people (your objective) so you decided to go to law school (the goal).

Unfortunately, you find you hate to study, read, or write. And you don’t like being in conflict with people! There’s an inherent mismatch between your personality and the goal you chose.

Have you “failed?” No. Your goal was wrong. You may have spent time and money that you wish you hadn’t, but think about what you learned: You are a doer, not a studier. Yes, you still want to help people, but now you know you need to look at other ways that focus more on your own personality and style.

That’s great information to know about yourself. Many people don’t find out what they really want to do with their lives until they’re in the corner suite, and miserable! Treat this setback as a valuable learning experience. Then, as the song goes, “pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”

Your process to achieve the goal was wrong.

Sometimes you have a great goal, but you just pick the wrong path for getting there. That’s like knowing where you want to go on the other side of town, but picking the road that’s under construction, full of detours, and jammed with bumper-to-bumper traffic. There’s nothing wrong with your goal; you just picked the wrong road.

To bring this into the business world, it would be like knowing what result you want (let’s say, more sales) but choosing a strategy that doesn’t pay off (advertising at bus stops when your target customer has a chauffeur).

Sometimes you don’t know you’ve chosen the wrong path until you’re halfway down the road. You’ve invested a lot of time and money and suddenly there’s that detour sign. You then have a choice to make – do you suck it up and keep going, hoping it will get better? Or do you cut your losses, backtrack, and start over again?

As much as you hate to hear it, you’re usually better off heading back to a fresh start. If this makes you cringe, let me tell you a story.

Maxine Hong Kingston, the fabulous novelist, had almost finished a manuscript for a new book, “The Fourth Book of Peace.” It was completely destroyed in the Oakland fires of 1991. Kingston went on to write a new book, “The Fifth Book of Peace,” which included a rewritten version of the destroyed book. Now that is “rising from the ashes”… literally.

If you need to start over, glean the best of what went right before and add it to your knowledge banks. Then set the past aside and move forward!

Your execution was wrong.

The goal was right. The path was right. But, your execution? Not so much. Maybe your motivation started faltering. Maybe you started cutting corners. Or maybe you just gave up. Whatever the reason, the result was the same: Your goal remains out of reach.

If the reason for your “failure” lies at your feet, take a look at your why. Why did it drop? Did you try all the strategies we’ve already discussed? Are you still committed to this goal? Do you need additional resources? Figure out where the disconnect is, then try, try again.

“Failure” to me is just another word for “Things didn’t turn out quite like I had planned.” There are still plenty of lessons to be learned – sometimes more so than if everything had panned out just right.

Next week, we’ll look at why sometimes it may be best to just let your goal go – and for good reason.

Three Reasons Your Goal May “Fail”! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: achieving goals. achieving your goals, goal setting, goal setting tips, setting goals, tips for setting goals

12 Technology Tips to Support Your Goals (Part One)

Jeannine Clontz — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:57:23 +0000

Technology – everything from our computer to our cell phone – seems to have invaded every area of our modern lives. But we often do not take full advantage of the features and benefits that can really make our lives easier. Use these technology tips to help you achieve your goals:

Set alarms.

Use the alarms on your computer or cell phones to keep you on task and concentrating for specific blocks of time you’d like to set aside to work on your goals. Search for free online software programs that allow you to set alarms and timers right on your computer. Or keep it simple go get the trusty kitchen timer and get back to work!

Track your hours.

Want to know how much time you’re REALLY utilizing on activities like email, online shopping, and Farmville? Use an online service like RescueTime.com to track time on different activities. You’ll be surprised at the end of the day how much time you spend on non-productive activities when you’re not paying attention.

Aside from keeping you honest about this wasted time you can flip between two or three real projects and be able to see where your focus has been on those projects. So even time well-spent can be tracked for the purpose of staying ON track.

Join a group.

Join a forum or email list of people who are working on similar goals as you are. I’ll be starting one for my Virtual Assistant Coaching clients in a month or so, stay tuned. Do a search at Groups.Google.com or Groups.Yahoo.com to find email lists on literally every topic you can imagine Whether you’re starting a company, founding a non-profit, trying to lose weight, or writing a book, you’ll find a group that’s right for you.

Keep in mind, you don’t want these groups or forums to take your focus away from your daily tasks and goals, but the information and support of a group of like-minded individuals can be invaluable.

Track your progress.

Use Excel’s charting option to create an ongoing chart or graph of your progress. Print it out or use it as your screen-saver for extra motivation. If we maintain accurate measurements as we move along toward our goals, simply jotting down this measured progress in notebooks is fine, but why not use technology to expand your knowledge, tweaking data to give you even more information that can be helpful in the future.

Set reminders.

You can set reminder emails on your computer or calls on your cell phone. When the email or call comes in, you know it’s time to break away for a planning session, or perform the next step on your list. Don’t try to keep your schedule in your brain. Let technology do it for you and free up your brain for the real work… achieving your goals!

Brainstorm.

Mind mapping software like FreeMind, MindGenius, MindManager, VisualMind, and VUE allow you to brainstorm and capture your ideas in a visual format. Mind mapping is a great way to figure out steps towards a goal, determine priorities, and even write blog posts, books, and more. There are plenty of brain-flexing capabilities programmed into this software, so have fun with it. Explore your thoughts right there on your computer screen.

Check back next week for our final six tips!

12 Technology Tips to Support Your Goals (Part One) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: goal setting tips, Goals, set goals, setting goals, technology tips, technology tips to support goals

5 Tried-and-True Methods to Stay Focused on Your Goals. (Part Two)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:48:14 +0000

Last week we looked at committing to our goals, slowing down the pace, and not expecting an immediate pay off. This week, our final two methods to stay focused will help us finish what we started, and encourages us to reward our successes.

Set aside some time each day.

If you tend to be a “starter” rather than a “finisher,” you may need more structure to your time. One technique for staying the course is to set aside a specific block of time each day to focus on your goals - AND ONLY your goals. That means no checking email, no combing the dog, and no phone calls.

Time set aside for your goals could be as little as fifteen minutes or as long as an hour. What matters is making this time a habit; this is the time you “punch in” each and every day to work on your long-term projects. This discipline will move you forward, bit by bit, if you are consistent.

Reward yourself for focus, not just for accomplishments.

While it’s great to have rewards in place for when you achieve your goals, it’s important for those of us who tend to lose focus to reward ourselves for the effort and focus, not just accomplishing our goals.

Rewards for focusing on our goals could be as simple as allowing yourself to check email, or, going for coffee with a friend.

It really works! I know because I use this technique all the time. In fact, I’m going to go relax and watch “The Office” right after I finish this section. Good job, me!

Next week we’ll look at how you can use technology to help achieve your goals.

5 Tried-and-True Methods to Stay Focused on Your Goals. (Part Two) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: goal setting, goal setting tips, Goals, setting goals, stay focused on goals

Five Strategies to Achieve Your Goals (Part One)

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:21:54 +0000

Even when you’ve set a “good” goal – one that adheres to your higher objective and is specific and measurable – you can run into some issues along the way… namely, staying motivated. Without motivation, even the most ambitious person will get sidetracked. Here are the strategies that I feel will keep you on track to achieving your goals:

Get an accountability friend.

Life can be lonely when you are making changes to your behavior. Your family, and work colleagues may not support “the new you.” For instance, if you’re trying to start a new business, your spouse may not “get” it and may question the time that you devote towards your goal. Having a friend or accountability partner to constantly check in with and rely on for support can be invaluable.

The best partners are those who are undertaking the same process, or have walked the same trail before. Find someone who will help you identify obstacles, provide advice, and cheer you on through the process of achieving your goal. Support is vital to your goal’s success.

Focus on successfully achieving your goal.

Getting waylaid by negative thoughts or “what if” scenarios can spell disaster to your goals. When you start out by finding a hundred ways why your plans won’t work, your energy is getting diverted to dealing with failure that hasn’t even happened!

Instead of funneling your time and resources into negative thoughts and processes, make the decision that you’re not going to entertain any ideas of failure. If it happens, it happens. You don’t have to spend your precious resources worrying about it now.

Donald Trump is famous for his positive attitude. Even when he was in debt to the tune of billions (yes, BILLIONS!) of dollars, he rallied his team with pictures of the deals they would make in the future. His energy was contagious, and he was able to pull himself and his company out of bankruptcy by focusing on forthcoming success.

Make it public.

You know why shows like “Biggest Loser” work? Because no one wants to admit they wimped out on their diet or skipped their 6 AM gym appointment in front of millions of viewers! The “Biggest Loser” contestants have the ultimate motivation – a camera in their face 24/7.

While you may not want to keep a camera on you ’round the clock, you will want to make your goal public. Tell your friends, family, colleagues, and even the internet on forums, websites, or your blog. It works!

Next week we’ll discuss our final two strategies – charting our goal’s progress, and getting expert advice.

Now that your motivation is revved up, share some of your goal setting successes, or challenges by leaving a comment below.

Five Strategies to Achieve Your Goals (Part One) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: achieve goals, achieve your goals, goal setting tips, set goals

Why Set Goals? Do Goals Matter?

Jeannine Clontz — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:40:57 +0000

Do goals matter? OF COURSE goals matter! That’s the easy answer, but let’s look at specific reasons why goals matter.

How will you develop a marketing plan to promote your latest product or service if you don’t know how many you need to sell to be profitable? How will you know whether you need new software for your network if you’re not sure what you’re trying to accomplish? How can you evaluate two possible courses of action if you don’t know what the end goal is?

As it’s been said in math classes since the beginning of time (almost), the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But before you can create that line, you need the two points – a beginning (where you are now) and an end (your goal). Put simply, goals give you an endpoint. And once you have an endpoint, you can figure out how to get there – and evaluate the different plans and options before you.

Specifically, the benefits of goals include:

·Greater focus: Knowing your goals allows you to concentrate on your highest priorities. When you’re aware of your goals, you can move forward and stop worrying about the little things.

·Efficient allocation of resources: When you know what you’re aiming for, you are less likely to waste time, money, or effort.

·Ability to measure progress: Goals make it easy to know if you’re on the right path or not. You can easily measure your progress and determine where you are in the process. That’s invaluable for making changes and adjustments along the way.

·Lower stress: Stress and anxiety often result from not knowing what you’re supposed to be doing or where you should be concentrating your efforts. Goals lead to clarity of purpose, which leads to lower stress.

·Feelings of accomplishment: If you don’t know where you’re headed, you never know when you’ve arrived, and you can never celebrate your success! Setting goals first allows you to know when you’ve done what you intended to do.

Now that you know why goals are important, next week we’ll discuss some of the biggest goal-setting mistakes people make.

Why Set Goals? Do Goals Matter? is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: Business Tips, Goals, setting goals, why set goals

Top Ten Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (Part Two)

Jeannine Clontz — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:28:26 +0000

Last time we discussed the top five mistakes to avoid when marketing your business, here are the final five!

6. Your message isn’t clear. Always test it out on current clients, peers, or family/friends to be sure it’s not confusing or misses the point you’re trying to make.

7. Untimely message. If you’re looking to build some business during the holiday season, make sure you’re giving prospects enough time to respond. Don’t release your holiday special two weeks before the holiday, start building momentum at least two months in advance.

8. No call to action. If you’re not giving the prospect a reason to contact you, you’re missing the mark. Create a sense of urgency with a deadline, or something extra if they respond by this date; anything that engages them and asks them to do something more.

9. Not marketing to your current clients. We sometimes forget that our current clients may not know about new services or products we have available, or, perhaps they have someone to refer. Don’t leave them out of your regular marketing efforts.

10. Not managing/collecting results. How can you know if something you’re using is yielding a return on investment? You need to ask every single prospect how they found you; or build in something in your call to action that will tell you exactly how you connected. Keep track on a simple spreadsheet and check in periodically to get the biggest ROI for your marketing dollars.

So how many of my ten mistakes resonated with you? Two, four, none? Take steps now to correct these mistakes and you’ll start seeing more, better qualified, leads, connecting to your business.

Have a few challenges I missed – share them by leaving a comment below!

Top Ten Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (Part Two) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Tags: marketing mistakes, Marketing Tips, marketing your business