As you may already know, the official launch of our “Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages” course is officially underway. There has been an overwhelming response to this program, and we’re excited about the next two weeks of learning that are about to begin. As an opportunity to apply some of the skills learned in the course, we will be running a contest – “The Great Facebook Fan Page Makeover Contest,” open to all “fans” of our VAClassroom Facebook Fan Page.

If you would like some practice applying the content learned in VAClassroom’s live Fan Page Course PLUS an opportunity to win a full makeover of your own Fan Page, here’s your chance! All you need to do is submit either a video or audio clip explaining “why a Fantastic Facebook Fan Page would impact your business.” The winner will receive a full makeover of his or her Fan Page, including custom landing page, page formatting, applications and some tips on how to better engage his or her audience. The winner will also receive either a free one-year VAClassroom membership or a one-year credit towards his or her current membership.

Deadline for submission is November 7^th, 2009.

Please post your entry on our VAClassroom Facebook Fan Page wall.
(You must first add yourself as a fan.)

http://www.facebook.com/VAClassroom

For more information, check out our Contest Kickoff video:

Best of luck in the contest!

View our current submissions Fan Page Video Submissions

A quick skill testing question for you....

What do you think are the two hottest pieces of Real Estate in the Social Media Frontier right now?

Any ideas....?

I would have to say that Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages are the "shining stars" among the business community right now!

I have been so amazed at the rapid growth of Facebook Fan Pages since the big changes Facebook made back in February 2009 to make them look like FB Profiles.

Check out this video on "Five Reasons Why I Love the New Facebook Fan Pages."

Also, we have just released a new course that might interest you at VAClassroom called: "Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages" - Check it out!

My oldest daughter is a PLANNER through and through. When we go on family trips or out to run errands, she likes to know the exact plan of what are are going to do, how many stops we're going to make, who we are going see - she wants all the details! I often tell her that she will make a fabulous Event Planner when she gets older!

As I look at the massive growth in Virtual Events and declining participation in offline events and conferences (in part due to the current economic situation), I think I will be directing her to pursue a career as a "Virtual Event Planner or Specialist" instead!

The Virtual Events field is one of those industries that has grown in leaps and bounds despite the economic slowdown we are experiencing! Here are five reasons why Virtual Events are becoming so popular (and why now is the best time for Virtual Assistants to tap into this profitable niche):

1. Virtual Events are VERY Cost Effective.

A few years ago, there was a time where webinar solutions were super expensive and really only designed for big business. Well, times have changed. Take GoToWebinar for example... you can run an unlimited number of web events and have up to 1000 participants for just $99/month. For this reason alone, businesses are naturally shifting to virtual events over the more expensive route of offline events and conferences.

2. Virtual Events Reach a Global Audience.

It is evident that only so many people can fly in to attend an offline conference, but with virtual events, there is a much greater capacity to reach a larger, worldwide audience! This can lead to increased exposure and potentially a greater return on investment for the virtual events.

3. Virtual Events Increase Exposure.

The cool thing about Virtual Events is that they enable you to increase exposure for you and/or your client's business on a consistent basis. Virtual Events are recorded and can be re-listened to by a whole new audience who is accessing your event at a later date. I know I am still receiving feedback from webinars I did almost two years ago - gotta like the long-term exposure of virtual events!

4. Virtual Events Save Time and Maximize Productivity.

By avoiding the travel time required for offline conferences, virtual events can significantly reduce the time commitment involved and allow you to keep on top of your priority tasks. Think of Event Organizers... Can you imagine the time they would save by running events virtually? I am not suggesting there is not a good place for offline events as I certainly like attending some when I can, but the reality is that more businesses are gravitating towards using virtual events as a means to better connect with a larger target audience on a more consistent basis.

5. Virtual Events Can Be Highly Interactive.

Thanks to Social Media and interactive web technology, event participants can socialize and interact with one another in a cool web environment. You gotta love Twitter Hashtags as a great way to join the conversation during a virtual event (as well as an offline event). With the interactive nature of virtual event technology (such as UStream, BlogTalkRadio and GoToWebinar), participants still receive the offline benefit of connecting with others and sharing ideas.

It is evident that more businesses would like to set-up virtual events, but either lack the expertise or time to pull it off. This is where a great opportunity exists for those Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals who would like to position themselves as a "Virtual Event Specialist" - the timing couldn't be better!

Check out this free upcoming event we have going on at VAClassroom with myself and Virtual Event Specialist, Michelle Schoen titled,

"Building a Profitable Niche as a Virtual Event Specialist (Even in a Down Economy)."

Also, please share your comments on this new virtual event niche? What have you heard from your clients? Do you see this as a great opportunity for Virtual Professionals?Also, what types of virtual events do you most enjoy? I would love to get feedback on this!

I must admit that the proliferation of movements and crowd sourcing through Social Media never ceases to amaze me! A "Tribe" as Seth Godin calls it can be formed quickly with Social Network tools like Twitter! Take for example, Twestival. I am not sure if you have heard of this innovative new movement in which Twitter users are going "offline" to participate in local events to support great causes.

Let me give you a bit of history (well less than 12 months to be exact).....

Twestival originally got it's start in London, UK in September of 2008, when a group of London Twitter users hosted an event called Harvest Twestival. The purpose of the event was to connect local twitter users for a good cause and some fun and networking. They collected donations and canned food for a local non-profit organization that addresses the needs of the homeless in London. The event was put together (via Twitter) in less than 2 weeks. They initially expected about 30-40 people to attend, but ended up with over 250 and a waiting list!

After the great success of this event, the group planned the first Twestival Global, which was tweeted about in early January 2009. In just under a month, there were 202 cities around the world committed to hosting a local event to benefit an organization called "CharityWater". Check out the stats for this first global event:

• 1000 volunteers (recruited via Twitter)
• 10,000 participants globally in 202 cities
• $250,000 raised in one day with 100% of proceeds going to support the creation of 55 wells in Uganda, Ethiopia and India..

Isn't that cool?

So Twestival has become a hit and the next global event is taking place sometime between September 10-13th! Just go to the Twestival main site to see if a local event is happening in your city.

As an aside, not only is this a great opportunity to raise money for humantarian efforts, but also an opportunity to connect with others on Twitter and possibly some new clients in need of your services!

So, what do you think about this new phenomenon? Will you be attending? Please share your comments!

Title: Connexions Group

Connexions Learning Group

Last night I was watching a very thought provoking (and potentially controversial) video from the WAHM blog site, YummyMummy! Scott Stratten from un-marketing.com offered a interesting tip and challenge for Work at Home Moms.

He shared that WAHMS should NOT market themselves to their clients as a WAHM, but rather as a skilled and savvy business owner! He felt that promoting your WAHM status on your site would not serve any real purpose in building your business, unless of course your target audience is WAHMS! From a Virtual Assistant perspective, he felt it might not look favorable to a new client to think of kids hanging off of you while you complete his/her pertinent project!!

From my perspective, while I don't think you need to hide the fact that you are a WAHM with your clients, I don't believe it needs to be emphasized on your site or blog. Now your role as a WAHM might come more into play in your interactions with your peers and those moms who aspire to work from home in Twitter and other Social Networks.

Again, this is coming from a WAHD's perspective who understands the freedom and flexbiility of working from home. I can also talk more about it at VAClassroom since a good percentage of my target audience is in fact WAHMs!

The many Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals I know definitely market their skills and experience first and not necessarily their role as a WAHM (or WAHD for that matter).

So, take a watch of this video at the YummyMommy site - I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on this interesting topic!

Just the other day, I was reading some stats on the WordPress site and was blown away by the massive growth of  WordPress Blogs over the last 24 months!

Here are some 2008 stats shared by the WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg:

• Page Views grew from 1.5 million to 6.5 million per month
• 2 million new blogs created for the year
• 35 million new blog posts in 2008

In January 2009 alone there were 372,519 WP blogs created!

It is clear that not only is blogging growing at a rapid rate, but it is also evolving in some new and exciting ways.  This excerpt from WordPress.com puts it best:

Blogging is growing both in the US and especially internationally. Tens of thousands of new WordPress blogs are created every day – by regular bloggers, companies, large media publishers, and many others. In addition, we seeing a trend that’s potentially even bigger than blogging: Publishers are starting to use WordPress as a platform to create all kinds of sites beyond blogs – large and small company sites, online magazines, social networks, travel sites, scrapbooking sites, contact managers, startups, multimedia archives, video sites, sports sites.

Isn't this cool? Ten of thousands of blogs being created DAILY! Businesses are using blogging technology to create company websites, social networks, video sites, membership sites and so much more.

The sad reality is that a good portion of these blog sites won't last more than a year as they are lacking some key success strategies and tools for optimizing and marketing their blogs.

This is ONE of the key reasons we have created our newest mini-course called, Blog Marketing Tips, Tools & Tactics.  We want to provide blogsite owners as well as Virtual Assistants (who operate and manage blog sites) with some advanced marketing and optimization strategies for increasing blog traffic and visibility.

There are excellent opportunities right now for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals to offer "in-demand" blog marketing services to this fast growing base of blogsite owners.

Our newest blog marketing training program starts on August 10th. Check it out!