Peggy Murrah | Web design and virtual assistance

What Can A VA (Virtual Assistant) do for a Business in a Hour?

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:41:27 +0000

Have you heard of a virtual assistant but don’t know how hiring one would apply to your business or how you could use their services? A virtual assistant is an entrepreneur who works as an independent contractor alongside individuals and/or businesses providing a variety of different administrative, technical, and creative services. Here are some ideas of what a VA can take off your plate and do in an hour:

Ever wonder how your colleagues have time to write so much social media content? Have a VA write your social media updates for the week and send them to you for approval.

Have a VA create an email campaign so you can keep in touch with your customers and prospects on a regular basis.

Do you need help with the editing and proofreading of a report your writing for your business? Have a VA edit and proof read a 5-page report for you in a hour.

Need a rockin’ PowerPoint presentation created for an upcoming speech, virtual event, or video? Have a VA create it for you!

Do you love shooting videos for your business but don’t want the hassle of having to edit them as well? Have a VA edit 5 to 10 of your short videos.

Have you heard that online article marketing is a great way to improve your SEO and get more traffic to your site but you don’t know where to start or what sites are best for you? Have a VA distribute 2 articles online for your business in an hour and start improving your SEO!

Have a VA setup or analyze your Google Analytics and establish regular reporting for your business.

These are just a few items a virtual assistant can do to help increase the efficiency of your online business and allow you to get back to the work you love doing!

Have you worked with a virtual assistant?

Social Sparks: Does Your Twitter Following Need Some Spring Cleaning?

Erin Tillotson — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:05:57 +0000

There comes a time in all of Twitter lives that we have to do some cleaning. You know when you’ve followed some people that have left the Twitterverse or their messages don’t match your interests anymore, it happens.

I recently went through my Twitter account and did some spring cleaning. Now, I didn’t spend 3 days on Twitter, up to the wee hours of the morning. Nope! I had the help of a nifty tool, ManageFlitter.

I logged into this site with my Twitter account, and let it think for a minute or two. I have several thousand followers so it took the system a minute to process them all. Then I had several options available to help me sort and clean my followers.

Here’s a few steps I recommend in using this tool:
1) No Profile Image – I pretty much unfollow everyone without a profile image, but this will be up to your personal choice. You can quickly review their profile right on this page, making it quick and simple!

2) Inactive - Click this tab, then chose the Last Tweet option. Browser through the list and use your judgement if anyone should be removed from your network.

3) Quite - Click this tab, then chose the Last Tweet option. Anyone who has no tweets or has not tweeted in over 6 months I would consider unfollowing.

There you have it, Twitter spring cleaning in just a few minutes! Let us know how you liked this tool. Did it make this task easier?

4 Benefits Of Article Marketing

Peggy Murrah — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:01:34 +0000

Every wondered how to generate more traffic to your site and increase your reach? Online article marketing offers a variety of benefits to those who implement its strategy. Article marketing involves posting articles with a particular keyword-focus onto article sites. It is important to be particular when it comes to which sites you post your articles to as many of them have a larger reader base than others. You also want to ensure your article matches the variety of categories available on each particular article site to ensure your articles reach will be maximized. Here are 4 benefits of article marketing for you and your business:

Increase targeted traffic to your website. Distributing your articles to online article marketing sites will increase targeted traffic to your site because readers who are interested in what you have to offer will generally click through to your site from your bio box or other relevant links throughout your article(s). Give your readers a reason to click through by including some teaser content in your article bio box or offering them a free giveaway.
Establish yourself as an expert in your field. Consistently writing and distributing valuable content for your readers will establish a level of respect and trust amongst your following over time. They will come to know, like, trust, and believe in you and your opinions.
Increase and establish trust with your potential customers. Sharing valuable information in your articles that your customers are looking for will increase and establish trust. By giving them the information they want they will realize how your products and service will benefit them.
Increase search engine rankings. The majority of article marketing sites allow you to add a resource box at the end of your articles with information about the writer and a URL back to your site.

Social Sparks: Are you Buffering?

Erin Tillotson — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:03:43 +0000

I’ve been using this wonderful tool called Buffer. Have you used it yet?

I have a really strict schedule that I stick to with my social media. Which caused me some issues. Let me explain a bit. So I check the blogs I love every morning and share the best ones with my social networks. I want everyone to read all the great information I do! Here’s where the snag came in. All of my blog shares would come at once and in a big ‘ol lump…needless to say I wasn’t so happy with this part of the routine.

I tried out a few different things then stumbled upon Buffer. I installed in on my browser right away.

Now each morning when I’m combing through my favorite blogs I can schedule posts to go out throughout the day. It’s really simple to do. I highlight the piece of text I’d like to be in my Tweet or Facebook post and then click the small buffer button in my browser. This prompts a pop-up where it inputs the link to the blog post and I can tweak the post from there if I need to. Then I click the Buffer button. That post is now in my queue to get posted through out the day.

I’ve saved my self at least an hour every week with this simple tool. Check out Buffer and see if it’s a tool that can simply your social media. It is an add-on for your browser so you can use it anytime while your browsing the web. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this tool, share just below.

LinkedIn: The Social Network for Generating Business

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:33:27 +0000

LinkedIn has been around since 2003 growing in popularity every year for both personal and business use. As of February 9, 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 150 million members in over 200 countries and territories. Also, LinkedIn currently has more than 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages. With those phenomenal statistics it’s no wonder one needs to be a part of LinkedIn for professional and business reasons. Use these 4 ways to use LinkedIn to generate business:

Include LinkedIn in any social media campaigns your company is currently involved in. Your status updates will impact those you are connected with on LinkedIn and increase your effectiveness.
Grow your network by continually connecting with individuals in your target market. This will not only grow your business network online but it will also grow your network offline. You will be invited to events offline by those who you connect with online.
Using LinkedIn Answers allows you to answer questions by others and solve difficult problems they are having. You have the opportunity to provide them with some insight and information to establish yourself as a credible source. This will showcase your knowledge and expertise to those on LinkedIn.
Join LinkedIn groups where your target market hangs out. This will give you the opportunity to network with various people in your target market in one place. Don’t just join the group and not participate though. Ensure you are an active member and contributing valuable information to the group.

4 Benefits of Starting An Affiliate Program

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:40 +0000

According to Wikipedia, “Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.” Affiliate marketing is a way to earn commissions from other people’s products or services by promoting them to your own audience through various marketing methods. An affiliate program can be a powerful way to expand your reach and increase your sales while giving back to others.

Here are 4 benefits of starting an affiliate program for your business:

It’s Automated – There are a variety of different affiliate software programs you can use to automate your affiliate program. Most affiliate software programs have a unique affiliate log-in area where affiliates can access all their affiliate materials and reports.
No Expenses – The great part about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to pay out any money until you make money. Individuals promote your products and services but you don’t have to pay them until they make a sale!
Advertising – You don’t have to fork out money for advertising as your affiliates are advertising your products and services on their websites, in emails to their lists, throughout the social media channels and wherever else they want to online!
Income Potential – By having others promote your products and services you have the potential to reach a larger audience and increase your income substantially. Also, the more products or services you include in your affiliate marketing program the larger the earnings potential.

Do you have some products or services you think could benefit from affiliate marketing? Increase you potential earnings and grow your business with affiliate marketing!

3 Ways A Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Social Media

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:00:26 +0000

Social media is a powerful marketing tool for your business and is an extremely important piece of your marketing puzzle. Do you even know where to begin when it comes to social media? Do you have extra time in your schedule throughout the day to fit in some social media marketing for your business? It can be overwhelming setting up your social media presence and then trying to stay connected on your social media sites on a regular basis. These are 3 ways a virtual assistant can help you with your social media:

1. Custom Facebook Fan Page – Have you seen all the fancy Facebook pages out there today and wonder how you can get one of your own? A virtual assistant can set one up for you and customize it to your brand. They can also ensure it is optimized to maximize your Facebook presence.
2. Social Media Content – If you do not have the time to write and publish regular social media updates a virtual assistant can do the task for you. Virtual assistants can write your social media content, have you proof the updates, and then schedule them to post to your social networks automatically. This way your social media content is always fresh and you can share your expertise with the world on a regular basis.
3. Connect With Others – It’s hard to regularly connect and stay in touch with individuals on social media networks. You can have a virtual assistant keep in touch for you by having them comment and interact with people on your social media sites. They can also add new friends, new followers or new connections on all your social media networks if you provide a clear description of your target audience!

Having a virtual assistant help with your social media is a great way to maximize your social media presence and minimize the time you spend on your social networks! Virtual assistants can create an entire social media marketing strategy for you and your business to get your social media moving in the right direction!

How To Avoid Inbox Overwhelm

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:29:57 +0000

With more and more companies and individuals turning to the web these days for their preferred method of communication it’s no wonder we often times dread opening up our email inboxes! Not to mention the number of emails one receives throughout the day. So how do you manage your inbox without feeling overwhelmed every time you open it up? Use these 3 tips to get started:

1. Folders – Setting up various folders for your emails and sorting them accordingly can help you avoid inbox overwhelm. Specific folders help to keep your emails straight and also help you to find emails a lot faster than sorting through your entire inbox.
2. Delete – The power of the delete button cannot be understated when it comes to emails! If you do not plan on reading the email, newsletter or update then delete it. Also, if you have read an email and will not need it in the future take the time to delete it right then. This will save you valuable time, as you will not have to go back and re-read the email for the 2nd or 3rd time and then decide to delete it.
3. Notifications – If you receive email notifications from Facebook and your other social networks turn them off. You can do this by adjusting your personal settings. If you still want to receive some notifications set up the summary or digest option that many social networks offer. This way you will receive email notifications once a day or once a week.

Don’t let emails overwhelm you! Take a few hours to set up your email inbox using these tips and notice what a difference it will make in your life!

The Power of Facebook Ads

Peggy Murrah — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:00:11 +0000

Advertising your business can be a powerful way to gain much wanted attention for your products and/or services but are you stuck wondering where to advertise these days? If you want to build a community on Facebook and gain new customers for your business Facebook Ads are a great way to reach Facebook’s 800+ million user’s. Here are 3 things you can do with Facebook Ads:

1. Target – Facebook allows you to target your ads to your specific target market and ideal customer. When creating your ad on Facebook you can add specific locations, demographics, interests, education, and many more. With power of targeting you are able to advertise to specific groups rather than everyone on Facebook.
2. CPC or CPM – Are you worried that you are going to spend a lot of money with Facebook ads but not see any results? Facebook gives two different choices to choose from when it comes to paying for an ad. You can choose to Pay for Impressions (CPM) or Pay for Clicks (CPC). Pay for Impressions on Facebook means you will pay every time your ad appears on the side bar of a Facebook user’s page. Pay for Clicks means that you will pay every time someone clicks your ad on Facebook.
3. Landing Page – With the Facebook Ads option (one of two types of ads) Facebook allows you to promote a Facebook page, event, app, other destination on Facebook or your own website. This feature gives you the flexibility to not only share your page but other destinations that may be appealing to your ideal customer while still inside of Facebook.

If you are still uncertain about advertising on Facebook let one of our PMA experts assist you in deciding which type of campaign is right for you.

Facebook Introduces Timelines for Pages

Peggy Murrah — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:20:16 +0000

More Facebook changes are coming! Facebook began the change to timeline’s with personal profiles over the past few months. They are now making another big change to Facebook Pages with the introduction of Facebook timeline’s for Pages. Your Facebook page will now look a lot more like your personal Facebook profile.

Facebook will be automatically making this big change to Pages on March 30, 2012. To avoid not having your page ready for the big change we suggest you get ready and make the switch before by adding these key elements to your new page design:

1. Add a Cover – Choose a unique photo that will be displayed at the top of your Page timeline. This is the first thing people visiting your page will see so get creative! It is important to note that this area is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements. The Facebook Cover photo should be 851 X 315 pixels.
2. Profile Picture – Change your profile picture image to 180 X 180 pixels. Make sure you choose an image that represents what your page is about as this is what represents your Page on other parts of Facebook. You may consider doing a head shot of yourself if you are a solopreneur or having your logo be your new profile picture.
3. Apps – Make sure you highlight the important apps at the top of your page in the spotlight section. These can include events, photos, Likes, your Welcome page, etc. It’s important to keep in mind that you can showcase 12 apps but only 4 will appear on your main landing page so put them in order of importance.
4. Review – Take a look over your timeline and clean it up if necessary. Also, use the new star feature and pin feature to highlight important posts.
5. Messages – Facebook users can now message your page (you) privately using messages. This was not previously available so use it to your advantage and a chance to increase your interaction with you community.

Have the PMA team create a custom cover photo and optimize the look and feel of your new Facebook Page!