Think about personal networking to build your professional network and web traffic.

Everyone knows Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but those are just the leaders of the social networking pack. When it comes to building connections to drive traffic, exposure and conversion, there are hundreds of options.

Social sites are consistently being added to Google’s real-time search results, which is key for your activity getting picked up and brought to relevant searchers.

Many of these sites and other personal networking sites will be unfamiliar to the masses. But not for long.

It is estimated that “personal networking” generates more than 150 million unique visitors per month, 100 billion page views, and 5 billion overall visits. The time spent on these sites is also drastically climbing, with a 6% increase from March to April 2011.*

The use and definition of “personal networking” will vary from person to person and business to business based on many factors, but it is a hard category to overlook in the world of online exposure.

Here are some recommendations on sites with the highest potential: **

• Pulse.Yahoo.com
• Wikia.com
• Tagged.com
• Yuku.com

Define Your Contacts

From these statistics, it is not a leap to identify that you SHOULD create a personal networking plan, but how do you go about it? Start by identifying your network contacts and creating a process to follow to build your network.

• Keep in mind that asking your current contacts for help, recommendations, and support is a great place to start.
• Break your contacts into two tiers.
• Tier-One Contacts will be your hottest and closest current, past, and present colleagues and friends. These are going to be individuals you have the closest connection to. You can even go as far as to include vendors, consultants, recruiters, bankers, venture capitalists, and others whom you have established a relationship with.
• The goal of the Tier-One Contacts is that this will be your highest point of influence when you want to start utilizing your network. These are people who can help you make new connections, or if you are in the job market, help you find a new job.
• Tier-Two Contacts will be your casual contacts. The people you know through a friend of a friend, or whom you have not had close relationships with. Consider realtors, developers, publishers, attorneys, accountants, investors, professional organization associates, friends of friends, and more.
• The goal of the Tier-Two Contacts is to extend your reach. Make your network more all-inclusive so hopefully you can start to develop relationships outside your normal contact zone and create Tier-Two relationships into Tier-Ones.

Once you have defined and developed your network, use it! Do you need to drum up new business for yourself or a client? Are you looking for a new job? Are you interested in expanding your business? Then personal networking could be one of the keys to success!

References:
* Compete.com
** Website Magazine

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way consumers and businesses alike communicate, but recently a new online community is generating quite a buzz.

Pinterest is an online social community where users “pin” articles, pictures, or links to a virtual bulletin board and can be ordered into categories based on the content or theme.

Before you start a pinning frenzy, consider doing your homework. Is Pinterest the right place to increase the visibility of your business?

The Benefits:

• Pinterest is an informal online community. This makes it a great place to relax and click through an immense amount of content from all types of users.
• If women are your target market, you’ve come to the right place. According to AppData of the nearly 10.4 million registered Pinterest users 97% of them are female.
• Brands can be successful on Pinterest if they feature a product with strong visual appeal and are willing to interact to promote it.
• The Pinterest experience can be customized based upon whom you follow. If you’re all about self-promotion the likelihood of attracting and maintaining a large follower base is slim. You have to be willing to interact and connect with others.
• A few websites have benefited from huge traffic increases from pins shared from their sites. If you position your brand wisely on the Pinterest network it can translate to large amounts of traffic being directed to your site.

The Challenges:

• Be aware that everything posted has the potential to go viral. If it does, your business may not get credit for the image unless you have watermarked it in a way that cannot be cropped.
• Initially all pins shared are linked to either a website or uploaded directly from a computer. As pins are shared and re-shared many of the links are lost in the process. Unfortunately, it’s not a guaranteed way to drive traffic to your site.
• Upon signing up for Pinterest there is an option to integrate your pins with your Facebook Timeline. If you opt for this permission every item you pin will be posted to your Facebook Timeline and will be visible to your friends, family, and colleagues.
• Not all content is family friendly, be mindful of what might show up if you have a young audience.

If you think Pinterest is something you’d like to try out for your business, here’s how to succeed:

• Upload images that draw attention directly to your brand or item you’re promoting. Focus your viewer’s attention right where you want it.
• Name and categorize your pinboards thoughtfully. The boards are searchable, so include SEO friendly keywords to boost traffic.
• Follow big names. This was a proven strategy in Twitter. If you follow popular figures or other leaders in your industry they’re likely to follow you back!
• Describe the benefits your brand can offer, not just the features.
• Share more than just what products you’re selling. Offer tips, short stories, or innovative products from other companies.
• Make sure that you’ve completely filled out all of your pinboards before you start following others. Make sure you’re giving them something they’ll want to follow back!
• Pinterest is all about exploration and connecting. Follow things that interest you and you have fun sharing. That excitement will catch on and further promote your brand.
• Allow time to log in daily to respond to comments, see what has been added, and expand your pinboards.

Happy Pinning!

Here are a few reasons a business owner should consider outsourcing:

• You’re free to focus on the core day-to-day operations of your business. For many businesses, small and large alike, the primary motivation to outsource is that it shifts work from the owners, managers, and employees so they may spend their time on activities that directly generate income.
• Potential to improve growth opportunities. Resource availability is a key component to the expansion of operations and increased profitability.
• Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of your business. In most cases, outsourcing allows access to expert talent. Outsource service firms can offer innovative approaches, the latest technology, and creative, cutting-edge solutions previously unavailable to your business.
• Pad your bottom line by cutting your expenses. A skilled contractor can generally perform work less expensively and more efficiently than a full-time employee can. Best of all the costs associated with hiring, training, and maintaining employees are eliminated, along with taxes and benefits.

Here is what you can outsource to increase profitability and improve efficiency all while maintaining the integrity and structure of your business.

1. Administrative tasks. Everything from scheduling and travel arrangements to data entry and email management can be expertly managed by a virtual assistant. While these tasks are vital to the operation of the business, they are not core business activities.
2. Lead generation and customer service. Making sales calls is a numbers game, the more contacts made the more potential for leads and sales. Once the initial outreach has been made, closing the sale can easily be handled by an internal sales team. A skilled salesperson is better utilized for closing sales and the management of clients, rather than cold calling. It can also be beneficial to outsource customer support rather than maintain a qualified support staff.
3. Accounting and financial responsibilities. Accounting firms or individuals can help with many financial related tasks from bookkeeping to accounts payable and receivable. Outsourcing the processing of payroll can significantly reduce cost, not to mention the accompanying headaches.
4. Marketing. Effective marketing of a business determines how the consumer perceives both the brand and company reputation. A marketing firm or contractor can offer valuable outside perspective that an internal staff cannot.
5. IT operations. It is often extremely expensive to handle IT operations in-house. The average business has limited ability to manage all of the IT needs that are necessary to operate. IT is a maintenance and repair function, not a core business activity.
6. Human Resources. Talent recruitment and human resource tasks can easily be managed by an outside agency. External agencies are often more skilled at advertising, screening applicants, and checking references. Using an HR or employment agency to manage employee benefits is also wise, these professionals stay up to date on all the latest employment laws and standards.

Typically the best way to locate high-quality prospects is through recommendations from your professional network. A referral from someone you know and trust is a much more reliable gauge of quality and is usually based on the level of skill and not simply the cheapest cost.

It is not uncommon to feel lost amongst the terminology and ever changing social media landscape.

Here are some basic terms to get you started…

• “Tweet” – A twitter posting, less than 140 characters.

• “ReTweet” – Reposting what another user has already tweeted.

• “Follower” – A user who is reading your tweets.

• “Follow” – To receive another user’s tweet stream.

• “Tweeps” – Twitter friends and followers that you are constantly in communication with.

• “Twittosphere” – All people who tweet as a collective group.

• “Avatar” – The image used to represent your account and persona.

• “Buttons” or “Goodies” – Use these tools to put links to your Twitter account from your website, blog, e-mail and other websites.

• “Follow Count” – The number of people that follow you and that you follow. Your Twitter “network” size.

• “Handle” – aka “username“. The unique name you have chosen to represent you on Twitter.

• “Follow Friday” – #followfriday is a game in which people suggest who to follow on Twitter. It helps everyone find interesting Twitter users.

• “Hashtags” – aka “#“. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search. Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.

We hope this helps, good luck and have fun on your Twitter journey!

• Localize Yourself – Have you heard of Google Places? If not, you need to. Localized SEO is taking over and Google Places is at the top of the list. Not only is this a great place to identify yourself, your location, and critical information about your business for the world to find, but it is also free to use, and shows up at the top of most search results.

• … & Get Reviews – In addition to Google Places, localized review aggregators like Yelp, Superpages, Yahoo! Local, and Trip Advisor are great places to earn credibility. Go one step further and promote yourself on sites that focus just on your locale, area of the country, or industry. Allowing your business to be found on these sites, and encouraging your customers to post to them, is a great way to get your name out there.

• Social Media – We can’t say it enough. Social Media is key. Not only is it a way to get your voice out there, but sites such as Facebook and Twitter are heavily involved in search rankings.

• Keywords: People, Not Robots – Getting to the top of search results is about making sure you can be found when PEOPLE are searching, not just the robots. Think about what your customers are typing to find you, or even ask them! Knowing how people are finding you and what they tried before finding you is key information in getting more people to get to you. When putting anything on the internet, think of the content in terms of keywords. Don’t go overboard and put it all in one place, but using your keywords in your online content is what gets found by the search engine robots, and allows people to get to you.

• No Fake Content – Don’t try to write content for the sake of content, or duplicate content. Search engine kings like Google are smart enough to distinguish quality content from copied and pasted duplicated content.

As with everything, consistency of information is key. Ensure you are typing in the information (even down to “Blvd.” versus “Boulevard”) the same way on your website, local listings, and review sites.

Think of a Virtual Assistant (VA) like any assistant, but with lower costs, no overhead, and more capabilities. Anything you could wish for an assistant to handle for you, a VA can handle too. Here are some great items that you can easily hand off to a VA.

• Repetitive/Daily Tasks – We all have them. Each business and individual is different, but there are certain tasks each of you do every day for yourself and your business. Think about your day and write down tasks you find yourself doing day in and day out. These tasks are IDEAL for a VA to do for you. With a little direction, you could be saving a few hours each day and maximizing the time you have to work on other tasks.

• Correspondence – All of us correspond with our clients/customers and potential clients/customers daily. Much of this correspondence is basic, template, and very repetitive. We also have many questions to ask our clients/customers each day. This correspondence takes time and can be a process. Both of these types of correspondence can be easily outsourced to a VA. Let the VA know what information you need, who you need to contact, and send them on their way. Some good examples of correspondence are:
• Follow up on billing related issues
• New project start questionnaires
• New client information
• Project or task related questions with clients
• Calendar coordination and planning
• Drafting and formatting letters and emails
• And much more!

• Website Maintenance & Monitoring – Do you have changes to your website pages? Want to post new content and/or images? Need to promote an upcoming event? If you can update your website, so can your VA. Giving your VA insight into your business and interests can help them craft content for you, investigate content areas your audience wants to hear, and ensure content is kept up to date, so you don’t have to! Do you have a contact form on your website? Your VA can monitor that too.

• Social Media – It is hard to find time every day to send out tweets, update your Facebook page, respond to messages and discussion threads, accept or reject LinkedIn invitations, create and post blog articles, and generally interact with your clients/customers online. Keeping all the social media outlets up to date takes time. If this is something you don’t have, or you find yourself falling behind, having a VA control your social media can be key for you. Don’t lose the opportunity to connect, but instead trust someone to manage those connections and keep you informed with what is going on.

• Finances/Billing – Often I hear people complaining that their receipts are in a pile waiting to be sorted, they need to file an expense report, or need to follow up on outstanding payments from customers/clients. These are simple tasks that a VA can do for you.

All of this doesn’t mean you may not be involved in these activities, but often it takes a few simple questions from your VA, some training on what you and your business are all about, and the desire to want assistance. In the end, you’ll save time and make more money by focusing on what you do best, and not focusing on the nominal day to day activities that bog you down.

Read more about the benefits of a Virtual Assistants.

…and how VAs can save you money!

FIRST – Create/Complete/Update your company page

You can’t get started until you have one, and it won’t help you if it is out of date.  If you are looking to enhance your page, keep in mind that you can post images, videos and rich media content to support your on page text.  You can also and build out your products and services pages.

To get started on creating your company page, login to LinkedIn, click on the Companies tab, and click Add a Company on the right hand side.

NEXT – Build a following

This can be current employees, their friends, your friends, your customers, almost anyone.  Let your employees and clients know they can follow your company on LinkedIn, just like they can on other social media outlets.  To get in the mix of other companies and individuals, follow your peers, vendors, and other companies you interact with. If you want to be more direct, send an announcement to request people follow your page and provide them a few good reasons WHY.

SIMULTANEOUSLY – Provide value-add content and interact

People and other companies are not going to follow you unless there is a strong reason to.  Engaging people through job postings or company updates is a great start, but this may not create long-term interest of  your target customers or clients.  To do that, provide them with value-add updates that can help them and/or their business. Remember, social media is about attracting customers, but to attract customers it cannot be all about you and your business.  Instead it must be about them and their needs, and how you can best fulfill them.  Keep this in mind and provide helpful and value-add content to develop yourself as a thought leader and great partner for your followers, clients, and customers (potential or existing). Remember that questions are a great way to start a discussion and engage your audience. Help facilitate interaction with your company and start conversations with your followers.

IN CONCLUSION – Monitor your efforts

There is a great analytics feature to help you monitor who is visiting your page and viewing your information. This is just a straight numbers game, but to get information on who is engaging with your page, you can see this on your company profile. Pair those two pieces of information together and you should get some great insight on your company pages’ success.

Do It On Your Own “Timeline”
This is a big change for your brand page. That means you want to control when it happens and ensure your page will look as you want it to for its launch in the new look and feel.

Keep in mind your time to make the change yourself is limited! If you don’t change your brand page layout by March 30^th (only 3 weeks away!) Facebook will do it for you automatically.

How To Get Started?

1. Put up a fantastic cover photo
This new layout allows you to feature a large header image on your brand page.  Make it count! This is an excellent new feature as it gives you more control of what your page looks like and what users see when they visit your brand page. Here are some ideas on how to utilize that space:

• If your product is very visual, feature it!
• Set the tone for your page with an image that represents the look and feel for your company.
• If your company has great employees or you want to promote company culture, feature your company & its members! (This is a great place to show the company in action, at a fun event, or doing great work.)

Facebook has rules on what you CAN’T use as a cover photo:

• No price, purchase or discount information
• No contact information (that should go in the About section)
• No calls to action or references to Facebook features/actions (e.g. Like, Share)

2. Choose your featured content
Facebook has given you more control of what a user sees when they visit your page, not just with the cover photo but with other content such as apps, featured posts (you can pin them to the top, but keep in mind they will only stay there for 7 days before they are automatically removed/replaced). Use these features!

3. Use milestones for your Timeline
Since the main purpose of this new Timeline layout is to show the history of your company over time, use that feature and fill out key milestones for your business. Ensure that the timeline accurately reflects the past and your story!

4. Use a great new feature: PRIVATE MESSAGES
It is finally allowed for brand pages (companies) to communicate privately with users.  This personal line of communication is something that Facebook for brands had been missing. Now that it is available, use it! This allows you to keep your brand page clean and de-cluttered.    Promote users to communicate with you individually on customer inquiries, and other personal questions so that your brand page can feature content that is supposed to be for all users. Your brand page has a lot going on, keep it de-cluttered and focused.

What does this mean exactly? How can I use it as part of my business’ social media plan? We will answer some of those questions, as well as offer tips on how to use Pinterest for your business.

Pinterest launched in 2010 and is growing rapidly. Think of Pinterest like a digital bulletin board.  A place to capture pictures, cutouts from magazines, swatches of fabrics, things you like, things you want, etc., but in a virtual format.  Maybe you found an online store you like, and you want to post that.  When you “pin” anything to your board, your followers can see it and just like Facebook and Google+, people can comment on it, re-pin it to their board, like it, and much more.  Like Facebook or YouTube, content that is pinned can go viral.

Businesses can use it as a virtual catalog. Place all of your products on your board and link them back to your website. Then post pictures of your customers using your product, or feedback you have received on your products.  If you want visitors to get to know your company as people and not just a brand, try posting things outside of your business scope, and let your followers learn more about your company and employee’s interests. Are you located in a great neighborhood, participate in community outreach, or is there something else about your company that makes it unique? Post that, and interact with others that have the same interests.

Do you have a coupon, special or deal that is running? Post it to a deal board, or reach out to individual followers or groups with that offer.

To keep your followers’ interest, an initial pin to your board is not enough.  Follow your followers’ pins, give feedback, but try to be helpful instead of promotional.  In the end, what you want is to have people follow you, and have your followers interacting with your board and/or directing users to your company by posting your products, service, etc. as their “pinterests”.

As with other social media sites, make sure you are ALWAYS linking people back to your website and your contact information.

Pinterest is not ideal for all businesses.  If you can’t put your product or service in visual form, it will be hard to locate or upload an image to tie back to your company. But even outside of selling your actual products and services, as described above, Pinterest can actually sell your company and your brand, if there is something unique or attractive that you can visually represent and attract others to.

The best way to know if it will work for you is to TRY.  Give it a month or two and see if your website traffic, orders, or client list starts to increase.

Learn more about Pinterest and sign up! – http://pinterest.com/about/

The catch is that it is not optional any longer.  The rollout will take place over the next few weeks, so it’s time to get on board and review your profile page to ensure it will look as you want it to.  It isn’t all bad, and some of us may even learn to like it. Here is what you need to know to transition safely.

• All posts will default to PUBLIC. Review your new and past posts.  During each post, ensure you check the inline audience selector and switch it as needed (to friends, etc.) so only who you want to see that information, can see it. If you are ever concerned you mis-marked previous posts, you can see how your Timeline looks to others by clicking the gear icon below your cover image and selecting “View As”.  You can change past posts globally through your Privacy Settings or individually by clicking the pencil icon next to each post.
• To make sure your past posts are limited to friends, click on the small arrow on the top right corner of your Timeline. Then go to Privacy Settings >Limit the Audience for Past Posts >Manage Past Post Visibility and select Limit Old Posts. Alternately, you can change the audience by clicking on the small pencil icon at the top right of individual posts to edit or hide them from the Timeline.
• You have 7 days to review your new Timeline.  Once you make the switch to Timeline (by choice or Facebook’s rollout), you only have 7 days to make any changes you need before other people see it (e.g. managing post visibility).
• To rollout the Timeline yourself visit Facebook’s Timeline profile page, and click Get Timeline in the lower right corner.
• Facebook wants to know more about you.  Facebook has many suggestions for how you can back fill your Timeline. You can add information from the past in such categories as “Work & Education”, “Family & Relationships”, and so on.  Simply click on the “Life Event” in your status bar and add away.  This actually isn’t all bad, you might enjoy posting life events from your past and allowing others to look at it, sort of like an online scrap book.  Keep in mind, however, the more information you put up, the more information Facebook is collecting on you, and the more information people can find about you.
• Is security a concern? Your personal information is very valuable to you, and to criminals.  Keep that in mind when posting personal information.

Check out Facebook’s information on the new Timeline profile page.

Have additional questions? Contact us or check out the Facebook Help Center.