Today I want to discuss Facebook. Facebook has changed considerably in the 2+ years I've been using it. At first I thought of it as a program that young people use but over time I could see that businesses were utilising it and it has an important part to play in the game of networking for business. So, you can set up a profile, set up multiple pages, and set up groups. They all do different things. If you set up a profile who do you connect with - close family and friends only or clients … [Read more...]
Virtual Assistant tools you use – Facebook/LinkedIn
Touching on Facebook, and LinkedIn for that matter, I recently installed a useful add-on to Outlook called the Social Connector. It will show you what people have been saying in both Facebook and LinkedIn, while using the program Outlook. I wasn't sure at first how useful it might be and had to play around with where to have it set up in Outlook so it's not using up valuable real estate on my screen. I now only have it showing when I'm reading individual emails and responding to them. It has … [Read more...]
Using networking tools for VAs
At one of the VA forums I belong to a member asked if someone could explain how a small home transcription business can grow their business using Facebook, Linked-in or Twitter or is it more for the merchant business? My answer was brief - there's a lot to cover for each of these tools, but hopefully this will help answer it for others thinking the same thing. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter work quite differently but often with similar results. I'll try to explain briefly here: Facebook helps … [Read more...]
Social networking – good or bad?
We've recently had a very interesting discussion on the VA forum about the use of photos on websites and that then grew into a discussion on social networking. Is SN good or bad? Is it necessary or time wasting? Does it work? And then recently on LinkedIn a question relating to the same thing was asked and I thought I'd share with you my response there and some of my response at the VA forum. "Spam is probably the 'worst' part about it. Geez people/spammers, get a life! But apart from that … [Read more...]
Facebook for networking
I was recently having a discussion on my Virtual Assistant forum about using Facebook for networking. Some thought that it might not have value and others thought it a great tool. Comment had been made about the necessity of using it to advertise how many friends or fans you have. I'll share with you here what my response was about using Facebook. I used to think similarly but I don't anymore. And it's not about 'advertising' who your friends are. It's about keeping in touch. I … [Read more...]
Are You Becoming a Hermit?
I don't know about you, but I'm a homebody - I love being home and I am reluctant to go out. Many who know me will probably wonder if I'm speaking about the same 'Kathie Thomas' as I'm known to be sociable, outgoing, happy and good company (so I believe). But I assure you I am - speaking about the same person, that is. When I make the decision to go out and actually push myself to do it, I do enjoy myself and love meeting new people, but it is really easy to feel comfortable in my chair, and … [Read more...]
Update on my Facebook activity
Many of you know that I've been experimenting with Facebook and have set up a business page, separate to a personal profile. I wrote about this previously in September and have also been sharing about it on another blog. I was discussing Facebook with a guy at my husband's mountain bike race on the weekend and he mentioned something I'd not thought of before. He said it was the new way of developing a mailing list and when he said that, it made me realise he was probably right in that … [Read more...]
Social networking for VAs
The world of networking is forever being redefined, reshaped and reborn online. And it's easy to form opinions about one particular group or another and then change your mind later down the track. That's what's happening for me. Originally I saw Facebook as a tool for family and friends but not for business, however that is changing a great deal now. There are people like Mari Smith with WhyFacebook? and Jason Alba with I'm on Facebook, now what?, along with many articles about using Facebook … [Read more...]