Promoting our sister website

VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS IN WALES

Our sister website is heaving with good advice for people needing help with Internet Security, Data Protection for SMEs, Social Media.

We promote their Facebook Page below which some might say has been a while in arriving.  We wanted to ensure that we had given sufficient time to the task of researching Facebook before recommending it to our clients to add to their Social Media toolkit.

With adequate attention paid to the permissions and security settings we conclude that it could be a useful tool for some business owners.

Used in conjunction with other Social Media tools it can help to bring a wider audience of potential customers/clients forward and into the sales funnel.

A screenshot of our Facebook Business Page at Virtual Assistants in Wales

Best possible use has been made of the additional Tabs feature. We have added a Welcome Tab which announces “Hello, this is how we can help you’, and an Enquiry Form which encourages people to send us enquiries for various services.

Virtual Assistants in Wales is also well represented on Twitter so we have added a Tab which relays all of the Tweets from our main account at @LadyBizBiz.

There are subsidiary accounts to look out for on Twitter too:

@ParaTecVA          For more technical work

@BizGodmother     For more family/home based assistance

@GowerBizAngel   For locally based assignments in the Swansea/Gower area

There is also a YouTube Tab that utilises the videos from Ladybizbiz’s Channel.

The main considerations in using the Business Page is that you must have ‘Admin’ Rights in order to add extra Tabs to the account.

If you have used the older Facebook Profile account you will only take a short while to adapt to the structure of the Business Page. The main point to remember is you will be switching between them frequently because for some bizarre reason you can only import the Apps while you are within the Personal Profile.

Controls and Permissions

You have total control over what appears in your Business Page Wall. You might have selected to follow a favourite business, or a client’s business but you don’t have to allow ALL their updates into your stream.  You can select to Hide their updates individually or completely.

Sometimes the volume of updates that people make to their Facebook account is astounding. I repeat, you don’t have to allow them all onto your Wall: you can sift through them, allowing only the ones you want to remain there.  You may have ‘LIKED’ them but you don’t have to like the volume.

On the Personal Profiles we have been used to adding Friends, now with the Business Page, we ‘Like’ other business’ and sincerely hope that they will return the compliment. (But, don’t hold your breath).

Curation in Social Media

Facebook, like all other Social Media platforms, needs close moderation in order to run smoothly.  If you choose it as part of your toolkit it will need attending on a daily basis, at the very least. If you are short on time for curating your Social Media accounts then the sensible option is to outsource the task to professional moderators.

Virtual Assistants in Wales offers a Social Media Curation Service. Let our ‘super Social Media sisters‘ help you.

It really doesn’t matter whether you sell computer hardware, fine handmade soaps, luxury fashion items, cars, bathrooms, garden gates, or dog collars, social media is going to help your business brand get traction in the market.

Why is it that some enterprises still don’t ‘GET IT’?

I liked this video - Chris Pirillo talks about a small business in Seattle called Pooper Trooper.  The company has a very clear understanding of social media.  They use the power of social media to pull consumers to their product … a product they know is of enormous value to their potential customers.

If you would actually like to view the Pooper Trooper’s YouTube Video, then click here.

It doesn't take long to get a grasp on Twitter

Within a few weeks of using Twitter it becomes clear how it works and more to the point how you can make it work for you.  However if you are feeling uncomfortable using it and have thoughts in your mind like:

"Why on earth am I exposing myself to this nonsense"?

or

" I really don't have time for this, it isn't working for me".

Then you might be suffering from a mismatch scenario.  The platform is mismatched to you.  What you need to appreciate is that there are lots of other platforms available that might better suit your skills and personality.

Don't give up, instead change platforms and give it another go!

Micro-blogging is fun for personal interaction and for business, it's a very worthwhile addition to your marketing tools.  Remember though it is not a broadcast medium, people do not want to get the business 'hard sell' all the time, they can after all simply unfollow you.  They want to get to know what makes up the brand.

It's called 'pull marketing': when you like something well enough you gravitate towards it.  So when people on Twitter like your message and begin to understand your ethos, they warm to you and will in all probability want to recommend you to others, at the very least, and may even choose to buy your product over another.

Here's a super screencast production by one of my Twitter contacts Su Butcher who uses the Twitter ID @justprofs, she explains the issues very clearly.

She tells us Twitter isn't the best interface for beginners and shows us how it lets us down.  Sometimes the frustrations we feel with a piece of software can deter us from using it, right from the word go.  Other times when we use something that we like from the word go, it often becomes a favourite of ours.

Did watching the video change your mind?  Will you give Twitter another go?  Do let me know if you found more satisfaction using something else – may be Tweetdeck or Hootsuite?

You might like to follow my Twitter account @LadyBizBiz

Slightly longer version of this blog appears here.

PhotoCredit: Fotolia © Destinyvp

Time's Paces

When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I waxed more bold,

Time strolled.

When I become a full-grown man,

Time ran.

When older still I daily grew,

Time flew.

Soon I shall find, in passing on,

Time gone!

(These lines appear on an old clock in Chester Catherdral).

I think all of us can relate to these words.

I'm advocating immediate action by sole proprietors and business owners everywhere who would like to make a difference to the success of their business enterprise.

There is no time like the present to become involved in the world of social media in order to promote your business and yourself.

I am going to cogitate here on just one platform for social media interaction: the one that seems to have taken the whole world by the scruff of the neck … Twitter.

Tweeting isn't for everyone, or is it?  

I didn't think it was for me, really I didn't until I experienced a sudden intuitive leap of understanding.

If you would like to read about that epiphany here's the link.

I think we will all agree that your brand whether personal, professional or commercial, is definitely something that should be protected.   Why would you allow it to be tarnished when you have endured blood, sweat and tears in establishing it over the years? 

You may have sacrificed a huge amount of family life in the making of your business, so protection for your brand is probably top of your list.

Have you considered how Social Media and in particular Twitter can affect your brand? 

People have the notion that if they aren’t interested in engaging in social media, and stay well away from it, then their brand is protected.   So, it’s a nasty wake-up call when they discover that actually whether they are registered on social media platforms or not, their brand, be it personal, professional or commercial, is probably being talked about in their absence.

You simply cannot prevent people from talking about things on Twitter, or even complaining, so let’s hope they aren’t complaining about your products or services?    This isn’t all bad because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you are being talked about it’s better than NOT being talked about.

Here’s why it’s GOOD …..  you can make sure that the moment someone does complain publicly on Twitter that you are brand monitoring and you then nip the problem in the bud.  

You can turn it to your advantage and walk away feeling proud.  You can help someone who in the first instance expressed a negative opinion of your brand, to change that opinion.  Following your efficient response in engaging with them, you can leave them with a glowing impression instead!

This is precisely why you would want to respond efficiently and effectively to that Twitter comment:

Sue is a Broadband customer of Company A and she’s been attempting to query the low download speed through customer service.  She’s angry and frustrated and she tweets that “Company A has dreadful customer service – I can’t get anyone to appreciate my problem, they just ignore the fact that I’m paying good money for an appalling service.”

Now you are Company A’s person monitoring the brand on Twitter.  And you use various search functions to make sure that whenever anyone tweets about Company A you know about the tweet within a reasonable amount of time.

When you see this tweet by Sue, you immediately tweet her publicly: “@username I can help you. Call me at xxxxx and I assure you I will personally attend to your problem.”

Sue calls you, you take care of the problem, and she’s so delighted she then tweets:“Company A just took care of my problem.  That’s good customer service!”

Now imagine if you hadn’t been brand monitoring and Sue’s tweet went unanswered.  Then her complaint escalates.

For example, someone could reply to Sue: “@username I also had crappy customer service from Company A.”

Sue could then reply: “I wish I could switch to another Broadband provider.  I really dislike Company A.”

Before you know what’s happening because of the viral nature of Twitter, and the fact that it is real-time, a whole load of people – people who perhaps don’t even have a complaint with your company, but want to offer their ‘opinion’ – have jumped on the bandwagon.

It might, or it might not be, too late at this stage to undo the damage.  Without a doubt though, this is the way that a brand can suffer damage.  It could probably have been prevented if you had caught it early, taken care of the problem promptly and efficiently, and then you and the satisfied customer, could have tweeted about the successful resolution.

Brand monitoring can take advantage of positive comments, here’s how:

Track your brand on Twitter so that you can also pick up the positive comments.  Until someone can convince me otherwise I will continue to use Tweetdeck for this purpose because it meets all my needs. If, for example, someone tweets a compliment for your brand, you can re-tweet that compliment and potentially send it farther into the ether.

By tweeting worthwhile information in connection to your brand, there is also the added advantage that the perception of your brand can be emboldened in the public mind.   This will enable you to cultivate goodwill so that, should a problem arise your customers or clients will be magnanimous and likely to forgive you.

Finally I urge you to recognise that brand monitoring is a very important marketing activity in the social networking Twittersphere.

In the words of the minstrel in the light-hearted video that follows

" You might as well not have existed".

THE BALLARD OF TWITTER

Would you kindly leave a comment and tell me how Twitter has been successful in endorsing your brand, be it personal, professional or commercial?