360 Admin

VACATION

360admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:55:05 +0000

I was given the task at my last VAs of DFW meeting to speak to them this month on how Virtual Assistants or Freelancers in general (who typically work alone) can take a vacation. I walked out of that meeting thrilled … no giddy with the thought of now having no choice but to take some very much needed ME time. That was a month ago. As of yesterday, no time had been taken off…..no weekend get-a-way scheduled.

So with the realization that I was looming seriously close to my VADFW talk being about how to NOT to take a vacation and just get over it, I instead put my foot down. I scoured the internet last night and found a decent last minute deal at a spa resort and booked it. {insert “GASPS from Audience” sound effect here}

I know I know! I am felt the same way too when I hit that enter button on the online reservation form.

Now this may hardly seems noteworthy to some, but I have found that many Virtual Assistants/Freelancers that work on their own and have been in business for more than a year or so all have two things in common:

1) we all desperately need a vacation
2) the thought of taking time off (while exhilarating), sends us into sheer panic mode

Well I am doing it folks. I am going to be your man on the front line. The first one into the trenches of relaxation. If I make it back with nothing more than a sunburn and a slight hangover, I will provide a full report upon my re-entry into civilian society. Stay tuned in.

PS. Watch my Facebook Page starting Wednesday for updates from my resort. No worries…they will be short. :)

About the Author: Julia Lilly is the Owner of 360 Admin, a virtual assistant company specializing in Social Media and Ecommerce management. She also teaches social media to clients in one-on-one sessions and provides group classes through Knowledge For Success. To learn more about Julia and how she can help your business prosper, please visit her at http://360admin.com

LinkedIn – Groups

360admin — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:37:55 +0000

As stated previously, LinkedIn has been a learning experience for me this month. Since I am not an expert, I have been sharing links to the most useful articles I have come across this month in hopes that it will help you cut through the clutter and go straight to the source. Well, this final post on LinkedIn is no different. I wanted to learn everything there was to know about LinkedIn Groups and how we can use them to improve our business. I found this cut to the chase post in LinkedIn’s Learning Center. Check it out and let us know in the comment section below, one thing you will be applying to your LinkedIn strategy.

http://learn.linkedin.com/groups/

LinkedIn – Strategies

360admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:38:36 +0000

Article originally posted by Hubspot. This is a guest blog post written by Patrick O’Malley, former VP of operations for Google’s top competitor and a LinkedIn expert.

3 Strategies to Get More Sales Referrals With LinkedIn

Are you looking for new ways to get referrals from your best clients? Want to save time for both of you? Here are 3 strategies that you can use with LinkedIn to get more referrals.

To get more sales referrals with LinkedIn, try looking through your best client’s connections to see their connections, searching for your best client’s competitors, and leveraging their recommendations, plus asking your best clients what types of companies they think you should approach.

1) Looking through your best client’s connections to see their connections

Before the advent of social media, you’d go to the clients who loved you most and ask them if they knew anyone who might be interested in buying your product or service. This is always been a great sales technique, but it took time and it was an inconvenience for your best clients.

Worse yet, if all of those prospects called that client and ask for validation, your client would love you a little bit less after every call.

Here’s a new approach, using LinkedIn, that is much faster for you and much less intrusive for them:

• pick a client who loves you

• look at their LinkedIn profile

• a few inches below their name and picture, it will say Connections, followed by their number of connections, like “311 connections”

• click where it says “311 connections” You are now looking at their “online Rolodex” in LinkedIn. They know each of these people, and for each one you will typically see a title and company name. If that person looks like a potential prospect, you can begin to research their profile and possibly contact them.

For example, let’s assume that one client who loves me is Don Corleone. I have a dilemma. I want to call many of his friends, and use him as an honest referral, but I don’t want all of them calling him and bothering him to repeat the same information. It’s not a good idea to anger Don Corleone. Therefore, I want to have him write a recommendation once, and then let everybody read it online. I could ask Mr. Corleone for a LinkedIn recommendation and ask him to make a very clear and honest assessment about my product or service.

Here are my net results:

• I get to contact some legitimate prospects.

• I can initiate a conversation with the new prospect by saying that I am a friend of Don Corleone and that he loves my product or service.

• Don Corleone doesn’t waste his time answering the phone repetitively.

• I get to live Using this technique, you can probably get a lot more referrals in a lot less time, and keep your best friends.

That’s an offer you can’t refuse.

2) Search for your best client’s competitors, and leverage that recommendation

Before LinkedIn existed, you would go to competitors of your current clients and try to get their business because you knew they also need your product. For instance, if you sold insurance to Hewlett-Packard, you would also try to sell insurance to Dell Computer. If you are ready made a sale to Hewlett-Packard and could somehow prove that they liked it, it was much easier to make the sale to Dell.

Let’s see how this gets easier with LinkedIn.

You can use the advanced search capability in LinkedIn to find prospects at Dell that have the exact same title as the prospects that Hewlett-Packard. For instance, if you sold to the Director Of Human Resources at HP, then the Director Of Human Resources at Dell should be a great prospect.

To perform the search:

• From your home page, click Advanced Search in the upper right-hand corner

• Fill in the appropriate fields, including the company name, (Dell), and the title, (Director Of Human Resources)

• Fill in other fields is appropriate

• Click Search In the results list, you should be able to find the name of the appropriate person. Examine their profile to see if there is some way to contact them. If you have a mutual connection you might be able to use that to facilitate an introduction . If not, then with a little Google research you can probably find a phone number for the Director of HR at Dell.

Now you have to get past the gatekeeper. If you have a written recommendation from the Director Of HR at HP, this should be much easier. Of course, you want to be honest with your client at HP to let them know that you are doing this, but since this has always been a pretty standard process in sales they will hopefully be agreeable.

If you are selling insurance, you probably won’t have a problem. However, if you’re trying to sell them some advanced sales training that will give them a huge competitive advantage over their competitors, this will be much more difficult. But don’t worry about me. This isn’t the classical type of referral where you would get a person’s name, but it should accomplish the same goal.

3) Ask your best clients what types of companies they think you should approach.

Before LinkedIn existed, you probably asked current clients what other companies they thought could benefit from your product. Using the example above, you might be talking to your current client, the Director Of Human Resources at HP hopefully during a lunch or a ballgame (where you are picking up the tab).

Ask them what other types of companies might benefit from your product or service. In this case they might say

• any software company

• any network hardware manufacturer.

• any Internet marketing company.

• et cetera

Use Advanced Search in LinkedIn just as you did in the previous example except use the “Industries” category just to search with those that within those industries.

Advanced Search in LinkedIn has a lot of options to allow you to either refine your search or to broaden it to find more potential prospects. Again, this may not be your classical type of referral, but it should help you find good target prospects. Conclusion: LinkedIn can be used to implement a lot of “old school” ideas in “new school” ways. Hopefully, this blog entry will give you some new approaches in leveraging your current clients to help you find new ones. Go forth and prosper.

Bonus LinkedIn Tips:

• When you do an advanced search in LinkedIn, it usually tries to do an “exact match”.

Therefore, it would be a good idea to also try:

o Director Of HR

o Dir Of HR

o Director Of Human Resources

o Hewlett-Packard

o HP

o Et cetera

• Instead of getting a written recommendation, get a recommendation on video make the video available on YouTube and show the client that video. This often looks much more genuine.

Hopefully, this blog post will give you some new approaches in leveraging your current clients to help you find new ones. Go forth and prosper.

LinkedIn – Groups and more…

360admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:49:42 +0000

This month we are talking about LinkedIn, which is one of the top social media (for business) networks. I am learning about LinkedIn along with you because I have always thought of it as a necessary evil in my social media activity. I could not have been more wrong. LinkedIn, much like other networks, is continuing to grow and focus on the business owner. It provides some refreshingly different ways to promote your business and network. In many ways it seems to cut through the noise you see with other networks.

In my search for LinkedIn knowledge I came across an article that really encompasses a lot of information about our topic this week…Groups, but has other useful information as well. Please take a minute to open and read carefully. I think you will be amazed at all the opportunities LinkedIn provides for entrepreneurs. I know I was!

After you read the article, I would love to hear back from you in the comment section below. Tell me how this article inspired you to take a closer look at LinkedIn for you business marketing.

How To Use Linkedin To Generate Business by Michael Gray

If you are looking to get serious about LinkedIn, which is something I definitely advise, Lucinda Ruch with The Alternative Board offers classes in Dallas and Fort Worth. She spoke briefly on LinkedIn at a networking event I attended and I think she will be a great resource to get started if you are in the local area. If you are outside Dallas-Fort Worth, contact your local small business non-profit network for others teaching LinkedIn in your area.

LinkedIn – Company Pages

360admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:50:02 +0000

This month we are going to explore LinkedIn and I will be learning right along with each of you. I do have a LinkedIn account, but have not kept it in the forefront of my online marketing strategy. Shame on me! But I am going to turn that around this month right along with you.

Typically we start off by talking about how to set up an account, but this is pretty basic once you create an account with LinkedIn. Just follow the prompts to creating a great account profile. But I will say that if you are going to be using LinkedIn for marketing your own company service or product, then it is not necessary to have all your past jobs listed as if you were seeking professional career opportunities. Instead focus on talking about your company and its products and/or services in your profile.

Which brings us to another great way LinkedIn lets you focus on your products/services… the new Company Page! Below is an awesome article to tell you why you should set up a Company Page and below that a perfect video explaining how to do it. Again, I didn’t see a need to recreate the wheel. Both of these resources below explain it as well as it could be explained. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. View 360 Admin Company Page

Why set up a LinkedIn Company Page:
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/linkedin-finally-ready-social-media-marketers/

How to set up a LinkedIn Company Page:

Stay tuned in next week for more information about LinkedIn Groups and how you can use them to increase conversation around your brand.

Facebook – Two Lesser Used (but important) Features

360admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:07:56 +0000

This video goes over two of the lesser used features of Facebook – Updates and Lists. There are many other features that I share with my clients in our one-on-one sessions, but these two are a great start to maximizing your business presence on Facebook. Please comment below if you have any questions or if you would like to share one of your Facebook tips with our readers.

NOTE: If your video screen is too small, please select the four arrows in the lower right hand corner of the video to expand to full screen.

Facebook – 4 Ways to GIVE to GET Better Fan Page Results

360admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:00:26 +0000

Looking for ways to improve your Facebook Fan Page results? Check out my latest training video which gives you four beginner strategies tips. Please feel free to comment below to ask questions or to share one of your Facebook strategy tips with us.

NOTE: If your video screen is too small, please select the four arrows in the lower right hand corner of the video to expand to full screen.

Facebook – How to Create a Business Page

360admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:31:10 +0000

After reading my previous post Difference Between a Facebook Page, Group and Profile, I hope you chose to move forward and start your very first Facebook Page for Business. To help you get started, I have created a short video to help walk you through step-by-step to creating your new page.

Next week, check back here for information about how to strategically use your new Facebook Page for business. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below.

NOTE: If your video screen is too small, please hover over the video and chose “full screen” in the lower right corner.

Facebook – Difference Between a Fan Page, Group Page and a Profile

360admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:51:59 +0000

This month we are going to discuss Beginners Facebook for Business and I wanted to start off by explaining the difference between a Page, Group and a Profile since many of my clients have trouble in deciphering the difference. As I was researching the topic for any new information I needed to include, I came across many great articles that explained it perfectly. So this week, I am going to cheat a bit and just share two great links I found instead of re-creating the wheel so to speak.

I will say that you should always have a business page if you are promoting your business. You can use your personal profile as well, but a business page is key to making it all work together, which I will be talking about in more detail all month, so stay tuned in!

What’s the Difference Between Facebook Profiles, Pages and Groups?
By Antriksh Yadav
(NOTE: The links don’t work on his Ezine article, but the message is written clearly with new user friendly terminology.)

Facebook Tips: What’s the Difference between a Facebook Page and Group?
by Nick Pineda
(NOTE: This is written by a Facebook Associate and includes a link to “create your page“)

Please contact me if you have any questions about Facebook Pages, Groups or Profiles and come back each Tuesday this month for more details. If you have already set up your business page, we would love to see your comments about some of the cool ways you have used it for business.

4 Reasons to use Hootsuite for Social Media

360admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:42:40 +0000

As you embark on your journey into social media, I can give you one firm piece of overall advice – use Hootsuite to manage it all. I have been using Hootsuite since the beginning without incident. I have always known how awesome the service is, but now it has been recognized by Mashable as the “Best Social Media Management Tool for 2010” . If you need further convincing , here are the top 4 features to explore …

Manage Multiple Accounts and Profiles

You can manage all the main social media networks, your WordPress blog and a few others. But stay tuned. Hootsuite adds more all the time. Hootsuite is a huge proponent of continued growth and listening to their customer’s needs.

TIP: Adding your networks is easy, but to make it even a bit easier, log into all your accounts on different browser windows before setting them up in Hootsuite to save you and Hootsuite some set up time.

RSS Feed

Hootsuite allows you to add RSS Feeds from your favorite blog sites so their posts automatically post to your followers. It also gives you amazing control options so you are not inundating your followers with too much information.

TIP: Linking to industry specific newsfeeds for your followers provides them with the same inside scoop information you see and helps promotes the blog you follow. I link to Smart Brief Social Media for my followers.

TIP2: You can also add your own blog into your RSS Feed so your blog posts will go out automatically to all your social media profiles.

Preferences

The preferences you are given with through Hootsuite are small but mighty, proving that Hootsuite doesn’t overlook the small details. You can turn off/on Twitter’s Web Retweets and show/hide Twitter’s new Promoted Tweets as well as some other small settings.

TIP: Turn off Twitter’s Web Retweets. Web Retweets don’t allow you to comment on post you want to Retweet.

Analytics

I always tell my clients to check their stats monthly so they can determine if their marketing message is working and if it is not… CHANGE IT. Hootsuite provides good analytics to measure your Twitter message and also allows you to bring in your website Google Analytics and Facebook Insights as well. So not only can you post from one place you can measure from one place as well.

TIP: Hootsuite also allows you to measure your individual Twitter posts. Don’t overlook this important tool especially when working on pointed campaigns.

These are just some of the main features hidden away in the dashboard, but there are many many more to explore and utilize.

Also check out:

Contacts/Lists
Setting up Team Members and Assignments
The Affiliate Program (If you found my article useful please use my affiliate link to sign up HERE)
iPhone App (Super User Friendly / Good Price)