As many of you would know, I'm an active networker, both online and offline. I love connecting with people, learning things, sharing my own knowledge and experience and helping others move forward with their businesses. There are times when I come across people who don't really seem to get what networking is about. For some it's about how much business they can get, but they're missing the other half of the equation - developing relationships and building a list of resources for their own … [Read more...]
Growing your connection list at LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a very popular networking tool for people in business these days, but there are still so many who do not seem to know how to use it, or perhaps haven't thought about it a great deal. There was an article published today about how to protect your account at LinkedIn and prevent your account from being restricted. The article was aimed at job-seekers but it very much applies to us all. Basically the writer gives 4 tips for using LinkedIn: Personalise your invitations Go outside … [Read more...]
Starting out as a VA
On one of the LinkedIn groups for VAs a new VA asked about getting started and landing her first client. Some had been giving her advice about her LinkedIn profile. Below is my (edited) response to her. At LinkedIn people prefer to see photos rather than an illustration. So you might want to consider changing your profile pic. Your LinkedIn profile definitely needs adding to. Have you tried Googling your name? If people knew about you and were looking for you, the results that come up should … [Read more...]
Where does all your business come from?
This is a question asked at VA Forum recently and the person posting the question specifically wanted to know if everyone was getting all of their business via LinkedIn (where the forum is). There were a variety of answers that responded with some saying yes and others saying no. I believe the answer is that it would be unusual for ALL your business to come from the one avenue, even if people are using it as a networking tool. Why? Because they should be doing a variety of networking, rather … [Read more...]
Helping clients with Social Media
This was a discussion at a LinkedIn group and below is my response on how I think about helping clients with Social Media. Your comments are most welcome - you may, or may not, agree with me. Then why not let me, and our readers know? "It's hard with social media. It's a networking tool. Networking is about building relationships. It's not about throwing information out there and expecting others to take it up, and not give anything back. It's a two way thing. I happily set up Facebook … [Read more...]
New Virtual Assistant Forum
Over the past month I've been setting up a new board forum for Virtual Assistants. While it has been primarily built with ACS members in mind, there is a portion of the forum that is open to any and all VAs. It is the VA Directory Forum and you are invited to come and check it out. While the membership and number of posts are low there currently, I expect it will grow quite quickly once the word is out. We have an active forum at yahoogroups (with over 1400 members) but there are some who … [Read more...]
Being a VA does not mean working home alone
I saw an interesting 'side' comment from a VA at one of the VA networks this morning. She'd commented about how unselfish and sharing the VA community has been to her and that although she works at home alone, as we all do, she felt she had a number of allies to call upon. And she is right about that. Working at home alone day in and day out does require commitment and a resolve to manage on your own. Many don't succeed at this. They end up suffering from feelings of isolation and depression … [Read more...]
Are you on Google+ yet?
I am, however I'm as yet undecided about the usefulness of it. I know that there are over 20million people on it already even though it's in Beta form. I do understand how the circles work and find that could be a useful tool. But do I need another social media tool? Who am I reaching that I'm not already via Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and do I have the time to really want to play around with it? How about you? Are you using Google+? Would you like to share your highlights (or … [Read more...]
Whatever happened to professionalism?
aaarrghh! I can't believe how many emails I get these days where people do not sign off, or include contact details. What is wrong with people these days? Is email no longer considered a professional way of contacting others? What am I talking about? Signature blocks. I receive emails from Virtual Assistants, from service and product providers, from other organisations where people just sign off with their firstname and nothing else. No surname, no business name, no website address, no phone … [Read more...]
