Be properly trained on the systems you use

An issue I have been giving much consideration to in recent weeks is the time that a person can save in their business if they have official training on the systems and platforms they are using to run their businesses.

There's no doubt about the fact that the face of marketing a business has changed in recent times. If a business is not on the Big Three - Twitter, Linked In and Facebook - it just isn't keeping up with the times and with the needs of its clients and potential clients, as well as with the activities of its competitors. But let's face it, without proper training from experienced users of these platforms, they can be daunting to the startup business owner or person trying to break into the business world.

You probably know how to use email but you might not know how to write an email in a professional, business like manner - or how to post relevant and business related topics across the many social networks that form a part of today's business world. The way you present yourself in business is directly indicative of the success you are likely to have in your business, and so a professional and courteous manner is essential in all aspects.

In Training SA is a community minded company with an eye to developing individuals and corporates, that provides up to date, relevant training on these as well as other topics in order to help you:

- Improve your skills

- Enter the business world

- Maintain a professional presence in social media

- Upskill your employees in both the domestic and professional arena

You can click here for the current training schedule and contact intrainingsa@gmail.com for further information.

Minute Taker

We are looking for a minute taker for a 2 day conference in Kempton Park on 16 / 17 August. If you can help, please contact me on gaynorpay@gmail.com - urgent.

Thank you!!

Marketing Via Social Networking - Twitter and Facebook

To me it's become very clear that using social networks to market your services is a vital part of marketing in today's world. Two of the most effective social networks to use for this purpose are of course Twitter and Facebook.

This article aims to discuss how to get started on these two networks and how best to use them to market the services you offer.

Let's look at Twitter first.

1. If you do not have a Twitter account, go to http://www.twitter.com/ and create one. I'm TypewriteSA on there, and you can follow me to see how I use my Twitter account to market my business.

2. Choose a username that describes what your business is about. TypewriteSA is my username and it describes the service I provide and where I am located.

3. Twitter allows you to write a short bio on your profile to describe what you are doing. Choose words carefully to tell people what you are about. These words are very important as they can guide potential followers who will look for people providing services similar to what they provide or services that they need.

4. Now you're ready to start tweeting! Twitter is a microblogging system that allows you to write short updates to distribute to your followers. So if your Twitter account is to be mainly about business, ensure that all of your tweets relate directly to what you are doing or pass on some useful information like a useful blog post you have written or new service you are providing. Potential followers will look for this. Tweet on a regular but not too regular basis and ensure that your tweets remain informative to your followers.

5. Look for some followers - in business it's best to follow people who provide a similar service or who you feel could be informative to you or may need your services. I follow transcriptionists, VAs, proofreaders, publishers, and industry leaders in other fields.

6. Promote your account. You can put a Twitter followers button on your blog, on your website, and insert something into your email signature to tell people to follow you on Twitter.

Let's now take a glance at Facebook.

1. Most people already have a personal Facebook account. If you don't, go to http://www.facebook.com/ and create one for yourself.

2. Then, go to my fan page, Typewrite Transcription. Like this page by clicking the Like button on the top of the page.

3. Then scroll down and look at the bottom left of the page. You will find a link that says "create a page like this". Click this link.

4. This takes you to a walk through section whereby you will find instructions to create your own page. Be careful to choose the right category and pick a descriptive name for your fan page. Typewrite Transcription is an abbreviation of my business' name and describes exactly what I do.

5. Fill out the information section carefully. You want to be able to give as much information about your business as possible, but not bore people. It's as well to have at least two administrators of your page, for the simple reason that if something happens to your account, the page will still exist because it's tied to another moderator. But choose carefully who you want to make a moderator of your page as they will have the same rights as you on the page.

6. Publish your page, and you're ready to start finding Facebook likers!! One of the fastest ways of doing this is to suggest to your friends that they become Likers of your page, and ask them to suggest it to their friends. But an often overlooked method of finding Likers is to publish a "Facebook Like Box" on your website or blog.

Once you have accounts set up at both, look in your Facebook account to see how to link the two so that when you update your Facebook fan page status, your Twitter account automatically generates a tweet.

These are just the basics, but I hope they go some way towards clearing up the minefield that can be social networking.

The importance of proofreading.

Proofreading is a service that I offer via the Typewrite Proofreading arm of my business. Here I would like to explain why proofreading is such a vitally important service.

The simple fact of the matter is that, in any written copy, the impression to be made to your reader is of the utmost importance. A good impression can make an immediate sell on what you are trying to present, and conversely, a bad impression can turn the reader off for good.

Let's have a look at the following examples:

- If you're a business person writing a letter to a client, and you make a fundamental error in your letter, the client may begin to doubt your professionalism in other aspects of your work.

- If you're a teacher, and you make a grammatical error in one of the documents you present to your students, the students may lose faith in your professionalism and your teaching abilities.

- If you're a student writing a thesis or an assignment, your professor or lecturer is your client. To get good marks on the assingment, you need to make a good impression and making sure your grammar and spelling are fundamentally correct will go a long way towards ensuring this.

- If you're writing a letter to a friend, you don't want to make basic mistakes and have your friend wonder how educated you really are.

- If you are a business manager or owner setting up a website, the last thing you need is a typo on your front page.

-If you are a magazine editor, and your magazine is full of basic mistakes, the reader will be put off right from the start.

There are many more applications that would require proofreading, and once you've decided your work needs to be proofread, you have a number of options at your disposal:

- Proofread your own work (disadvantage - it's hard to pick up your own mistakes)

- Get a friend or colleague to proofread your work (disadvantage - your friend might not be as thorough or timeous as you would like them to be, and may be no more qualified than you yourself)

- Hire a proofreading service such as Typewrite Proofreading. (advantages: your work will be done quickly and professionally).

Who can use a proofreader? Many people can. The list includes, but is not limited to:

- Students

- Web designers

- Journalists

- Publishers

- Businessmen

- Writers

- Translators

Times to work / blogging

Hi guys,

I met with a very interesting lady today, who also works for herself although not in the field that we work in, and among the many interesting things we discussed was when is the best time to work.

Like me, she likes working at night ... I thought, sometimes, that I'm the only one driven nuts by the entire 8 - 5 thing ... sometimes, I just find those hours so hard to work in because the phone is ringing, (usually clients), email is going mad, skype going mad, or the school decides to shut at an odd hour, ...

ONe of the toughest things is working until 3am when you KNOW the phone is going to go mental from 08:00 onwards or you need to be up to let the maid or gardener in at 07:30 ... but often I still find I get a lot more done at night than I do during the day.

Your thoughts?

We also discussed the importance of the discipline of marketing and having a marketing plan. This doesn't just mean okay Friday I'll write a blog post. It means that for a month before hand, know the different subject blog posts you're going to write about and sit down and prepare them. Know where your target market is going to be, know what type of marketing approaches you want to take.

Minute Taker

TAVASA is looking for a minute taker to work in Pretoria on Monday 31 May. Apply to me gaynorpay@gmail.com. You MUST have minute taking experience and preferably shorthand.

How do you combat loneliness?

Hi everyone. It's been some time since I've blogged and I wanted to come back with a fresh blog post that might make people sit back and think a bit. I didn't want to blog about something that has been blogged about a thousand times before. It crossed my mind that the reason why my blogging has taken a little bit of a back seat lately is because I have been networking in a different way - a way which is very meaningful to me and that is what this blog post will be about.

Making friends, building a community garden.

By the very nature of our businesses, we as virtual assistants have a different work set up to office workers. We don't have a knock off time, we must find our own work, and ... we don't have the social setting of office colleagues around us.

There are several ways which we can combat this if loneliness begins affecting us.
We can join groups such as TAVASA , we can build up our contacts on Skype and other instant messaging systems, or - and it's this third that I want to discuss in further detail - we can join community assistance organisations for the areas where we live such as the I Love Kensington Assocation

I didn't join I Love Kensington for business purposes and that's not why I'm a part of it now. I joined because I could see the area around me, where I live and where my children live, sinking - and I wanted to see what I could do to help. What I found was a band of dedicated, committed people crying out for voluntary help on projects that they were doing - a handful of people working to enrich the living area, and lives, of 5,000.

So I joined them - and I soon found that in between getting stuck into all of the wonderfully rewarding community projects that I Love Kensington are involved in, firm and fast friendships are formed between like minded people. I have been able to assist with the upliftment of our community by assisting newbie Virtual Assistants in our area, using and referring service providers that I would have had to call from miles away in the past ... and I find it's reciprocated, with two transcription jobs having come my way from this source in the last few months. Winner all round!