The worst story I heard recently was a lawyer’s office that suffered a fire, and who had religiously backed up all their data on disc – and then left the discs on top of the computer! Of course all the discs melted and all their client contact details, accounts, and legal documents were destroyed.

Just to show how easily this could have been avoided, we recently had a hardware failure on one of our computers and it was simply a question of pressing restore from our off site data backup to put all the files onto a new computer.

It brings home the importance of forward planning when managing your data. For example, if you work as part of a team how do you manage sharing data and making sure you all have an up to date copy of say a marketing spreadsheet or a list of conference delegates? We found an excellent way of sharing information between the team and we thought we would share it with you along with some of the templates we use with our clients to manage their workload:

• Smartsheet
• iDrive Data Back Up

Or perhaps you work from two (or more) computers and endlessly have the wrong file on the wrong computer. One of our clients occasionally works from home and was finding this a real problem so we sourced this solution for him – he’s thrilled:

• www.logmein.com

When I say marketing I’m talking about a whole concept. My definition of marketing is:

“Every communication you have with your customer or target market.”

This encompasses how you answer the phone, your marketing materials, your website, where you promote yourself, how you follow up with new leads, the accuracy of your invoices – in fact, everything which leaves a lasting impression with your customer.

I’m not advocating blindly putting adverts in the paper or spending a fortune on your new business card design – I always advise clients to look at the return they are getting from their marketing spend. Something as simple as asking leads where they heard about you can be an effective way of tracking where your leads come from.For each £1 you spend you should be getting more business back – so looking at a piece of direct mail:

• £0.27 postage + £0.50 printing A6 postcard + £0.20 mailing list = £0.97 per lead
• Sent to 500 contacts = £485
• Need £485 in business from those 500 contacts to make it worthwhile
• (Top tip: For direct mail savings visit: http://www.cfhdocmail.com/)

This sort of return on investment calculation can be applied to lots of marketing activities – including websites. Our good friends at Contact Multimedia have put together a little calculator to figure out how you can increase your returns:
http://www.cmmc.co.uk/services/roi-calculator.aspx

A couple of months ago we set up your Twitter page – hopefully you’ve had a chance to try it and figure out how it works. Boost your “Twitter Velocity” by tweeting little and often using www.tweetlater.com

 
• Set up an automatic newsfeed of interesting articles, retweets, links and general Tweets which will run in the background without any input from you.
• Vet new followers and make sure they are in your target market.
• Bulk upload pre-written tweets using a .txt file.
• Schedule tweets on special dates – launches, seminars, 1st of the month, Christmas, birthdays etc.

 

Need some help?  CLICK HERE

Building your network of people will rely on following people and having them follow you. It’s been compared to a cocktail party where you know one person and they introduce you to all their friends. Some gurus will suggest following at least 100 other Twitterers as a start in the hope that some of them will follow you. Choose relevant Twitterers so you can learn about them and what they are talking about. So for example, if you sell hotdogs you might follow a tomato ketchup company to get relevant tweets about that industry and strike up an alliance. Remember you need to be able to monitor the people you follow – so don’t follow too many!

If someone is following you, it’s polite to have a look at who they are and to follow them if it is relevant, but don’t feel obliged to follow them in return.

There’s a Twittiquette behind your followers:following ratio. If you have 100s of people you are following and zero following you, you are most probably a spammer! Try and keep it an equal ratio.

• 2. Include some nifty gizmos

Twitter can be used to display weblinks. As Twitter only lets you have 160 characters, shorten web addresses by using www.tinyurl.com. Weblinks can also be used to link to your latest article in full.

You can also feature your Tweets on your website by using their widget http://twitter.com/widgets. Not only will this display your Tweets to the world, but it should also refresh the content on your website and encourage better SEO.

Goodies on your Twitter page will keep people coming back for more. Remember what you give away comes back to you tenfold.

• 3. Keep it personal (-ish)

Twitter is a social networking tool, not a sales pitch! The idea behind it is to build up your personal relationships with people so they see you as an expert in your field, a friendly approachable person to ask advice from and their first choice supplier.

Tweeting constantly about your products/prices/special deals is seen as spamming. Instead aim to build up your Tweets as a reference guide to what you do, who your are and how you conduct business.

• 4. Search Twitter for new clients

www.search.twitter.com – Type in your keywords and off you go. You can directly contact the poster, offering them advice or a link to your site.

• 5. Tweet Little and Often

It kind of goes without saying – you have 160 characters to convey a lot about your company. So make sure you post little and often. This spreads your Tweets across a wider range of people making sure they don’t “clump” together on your followers’ pages.

Avoid writing screeds of text, that’s what a blog is for. Your Twitter account should simply be the taster which draws in great customers.

An excellent resource for explaining how Twitter works and what your input achieves is available here: www.twitalyzer.com – I warn you, it’s addictive!

Happy Tweeting! For more advice on setting up your Social Networking CLICK HERE.

I was lucky enough to come across a website that helped me in the right direction. When I clicked on www.virtuallysorted.com little did I know it was to play a big part in my future. I took a chance and contacted them. They came back with a very positive response and great encouragement and less than a month later, I was set up as a VA.  Me!!!! Registered as self-employed and running my own business! If you had said that to me six weeks previous I would have laughed loudly!

The last two years have been great for me. I have learned new skills (working for yourself is NOT an easy option!) and done things I would never have imagined I could. The help and encouragement from the network of people I have met has been amazing. I couldn’t have done it without them and I know they’ll be there for me whenever I need them.  The VA network is a strong one!

So take it from me – a person who never thought of running her own business – if you are even remotely considering becoming a VA – DO IT!  You won’t regret it!  I certainly didn’t!