A lot of B2B companies and businesses are beefing up their online marketing by using some LinkedIn Marketing Services.

Related: How to Use LinkedIn to Market and Generate Leads For Your Business

So here are 5 pro tips from “Big Kahunas” that will help you make waves in your niche market and succeed in your thought leadership strategy.

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1.  Create customized messaging as part of a seamless OmniChannel experience

LinkedIn messaging should not simply be copied and pasted from another platform, though. Content should be specifically tailored to the channel.

“If the experiences in each channel are not uniquely helpful, you risk annoying customers.” ~Mark Schaefer
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For best results on LinkedIn, feature distinctive, signature elements that match the aspiration and professional context of the platform.

2. Embrace an audience-first perspective with customer experience maps

To understand what content will engage your audience on LinkedIn, you should have a big-picture view of the buyer journey. When you understand buyer concerns throughout the funnel, you can create relevant messaging for your Company Page, Showcase Pages, Sponsored Updates, and other forms of social media strategy that are personalized for the specific audience you are looking to engage.

Imagine your buyer at each stage of the customer journey: What are they thinking and feeling? Taking this customer-centric approach can help mold strategic branded content you can use throughout the buying cycle on LinkedIn.

3. Implement a balanced social sharing plan to promote your content

Creating blog posts, whitepapers, and other content requires significant resources, and it’s important to get a return on your investment. Generally, you’re not going to achieve maximum reach or visibility with a single mention on LinkedIn. On the other hand, promoting the same content too often can annoy rather than engage.

LinkedIn marketing is a continuous process that involves creating an action plan and schedule. Look for Virtual Assistant Solutions to help you when carrying out your overall marketing strategy.

With a balanced plan to distribute content on LinkedIn, you might use Company Page updates, Sponsored Updates, Sponsored InMails, and leverage your employee profiles to ensure your strategic content finds the right people.

4. Inject storytelling into your content marketing

B2B marketers understand that engaging audiences isn’t about broadcasting product specs or features. Instead, it’s important to convey a compelling brand narrative that highlights the value your brand provides to the marketplace.

Hiring experienced virtual assistants can be one of your assets in promoting your brand online and engaging with your customers or clients. Jeff Bullas provides examples of how GE is serving as a model for making a “boring” business interesting.

Compelling real-life stories add life to any offer, no matter how “boring”.
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5. Establish thought leadership in your industry

As a marketer, you understand how important credibility is to your brand. Establishing yourself as a thought leader can inspire confidence in your company and the solutions you offer. It also helps when you connect to several Linkedin influencers as they can be a mother lode of potential business partners, clients or customers.

LinkedIn consistently ranks as the most-trusted social media platform for B2B professionals researching products and services, making it an ideal venue to establish your industry influence.

So what is really a thought leader? “It is simply about becoming an authority on relevant topics by delivering the answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience.”

To read the more detailed list, please visit this site.

Millions of consumers visit Craigslist each month, thus making this as one of the best free classifieds site online.

How you post a Craigslist ad will define how quickly your items will sell.
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That is, “if” they even sell at all. When you set out to write a Craigslist ad, you can use some simple suggestions that will help you sell what you are trying to unload quickly and to the right prospect.

There are many factors to consider when posting your ad so your listing will not get flagged.

Related: When to hire a virtual assistant

How to advertise on Craigslist:

• Advertise by geographical area
• Advertise
• Sell responsibly
• Check results

Even if you post legitimate ads, there is a possibility that Craigslist will still flag and your ads get ghosted. Why is that? There are a number of reasons why but before we go further let us know what is flagging and ghosting on Craigslist mean.

Flagging – is a system to quickly identify illegal and inappropriate postings. This is an option in which Craigslist users can flag ads of other users.

Ghosting – is the term used when you make a post on Craigslist and the system notifies you that your post has been published but in reality, your post, by no means did not appear on the front page of Craigslist.

Reasons for flagging:

• Wrong category
• Prohibited
• Spam or over post

Reasons for ghosting:

• Many ads before were flagged
• CL staff will decide if the ad is worth posting or not or by automated system
• Overposting

Don’t be complacent about your business’ ad posting just because you think your post went through and nobody is watching your back. Your competitor might be lurking and is there ready to attack anytime and flag your ad down once it is up on the list. A marketing virtual assistant knows exactly what needs to be done in order for your post to get approved on Craigslist.

Basically, Craigslist is trying to avoid marketers spamming the site with unwanted ads and wants to make sure the ads are legitimate and unique and from different people. Unfortunately, Craigslist staff knows how to verify if an ad is appropriate or not.

1. IP Address. According to Craigslist’s terms, ads posted by a specific IP are only allowed to post once in one section in one city. If Craigslist determines one IP address is placing multiple ads or an ad in multiple cities, the ad or all ads will likely be flagged or ghosted.
2. Email Address. There are a limited amount of times a user can post with the same email address or account. If they see that an email account is posting multiple times, especially within 48 hours, the ad or all ads may be flagged or ghosted.
3. Title and Content. Craigslist has software that routinely compares content so that all posts are distinct and unique. If you are posting the same ad time and again, that ad and the other duplicates will possibly be flagged or ghosted.

Additionally, hiring virtual assistant can help you save time because a VA can monitor your ads as well as handle inquiries over the phone or via email. You can then focus on more strategies for your business and your virtual assistant can post and promote an ad or two on Craigslist.

Since Instagram updated their services, business owners are turning to this social media site to promote their businesses as well. The new app – 15-second video has been added to its features and few more tweaks made waves to its follower.

Related: Reasons to Use Social Media Marketing in Your Business

1: Show Your Products

Everyone loves to browse products so let your followers do some mobile window-shopping! Show off a collection of the products you offer, share a photo of a new or lesser-known product or zoom in on a product and engage your Instagram followers by asking them to guess what it is.

2: Show How It’s Made

Let followers in on the origins of their favorite products with snapshots taken at various points in the manufacturing process. If that process is a long one, you might consider making it a multi-part post that follows the process from planning to production to delivery.

3: Go Behind the Scenes

Getting ready to launch or promote products and services is hard work, but presents many opportunities to get some great content for Instagram. Doing a photo shoot for a catalog or ad? Filming a commercial? Getting made-up for a media interview? Or getting ready to step out on the red carpet? These are moments that very few people get to experience in real life.

Instagram is a way to give your followers an exclusive backstage pass!
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4: Show What Your Products Can Do

Sometimes our imagination only takes us so far. Use Instagram to create demand by helping consumers imagine new or novel uses for what you offer.

This is also a perfect opportunity to invite user-generated contents. Have fans submit their own photos demonstrating creative use of your products and pick the best ones to post on Instagram.

5: Give a Sneak Peek

Everyone likes to be the first to know… well… anything. Hire your virtual assistant to help you not only increase your Instagram followers but also engage them. Make your followers feel special and let your VA give them exclusive previews of products and services, or virtual tours of your new stores, production facilities or offices in the making.

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Things never seen before make for particularly shareable content, so be sure to publish the post to Facebook and Twitter as well, since Instagram does not yet have a sharing or reposting function.

6: Show Your Office

People who follow their favorite brands on social media have probably asked at one time or another, “I wonder what it’d be like to work there?” Well, show them!

Post photos that provide a glimpse of a-day-in-the-life at your office—work areas, the corporate gym or play-field, decked-out cubicles, brainstorming meetings in progress, training sessions, employees at lunch, employees at play—the opportunities here are countless.

7: Take Us With You

Going to a trade-show or sponsoring an event? Use that as an opportunity to take your Instagram followers with you wherever you’re going.

Followers in those locations will be tickled to know you’re in their neighborhood. Folks can also get a better feel for your brand by learning about the events or causes you attend, support or sponsor.

8: Introduce Your Employees

Humanize your brand by using Instagram to…

Introduce your fans to the people who make your company what it is.
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Spotlighted employees will enjoy the recognition (and a few seconds of fame) and Instagram followers will get a chance to see the people behind the brand. You might even want to make this profile an ongoing campaign that takes fans around the office to meet staff serving a variety of roles within your company.

Be sure to punch up the post and share a little about each employee in the caption.

9: Share Celebrity Sightings

Let’s face it. We live in a society that is crazy about celebrities—we know who they’re dating, what they’re eating and where they go to vacation.

Cash in on celebrity cachet and share pictures of them interacting with your brand, whether they’re signing autographs at your sponsored event, speaking, visiting your office or even using your products or services. These posts will be sure to get followers talking.

10: Share the Cuteness

There is no denying the appeal of animals in social media. Lolcats, CuteOverload and the countless other awww-inducing blogs out there are proof that there is capital in cuteness.

Whether they’re pets visiting the office, starring in your ads or animals sporting your schwag, never miss an opportunity to get a snapshot to share on Instagram. Our furry friends can be counted on to get likes and comments from followers.

Source: Vanessa Au is a Sr. Analyst at Spring Creek Group (IPG subsidiary), a social media agency in Seattle, Washington.

As a virtual assistant provider, Virtual Assistant Talent has all the services you are looking for and the best Virtual Assistants in town.

Sign up your no obligation request now or CONTACT US at our main number 1-866-596-9041 (510-400-8006 local).

We are proud to be a Better Business Bureau Accredited Company (bbb.org).

In a poll conducted by Smart Insights, they asked readers to give their views on which digital marketing technique gives them the most profits to their businesses in 2016.

This graph shows the results of the survey
(as of 8 February 2016).

We’ve gathered six broad online marketing trends you be watching out for to continue into the rest of 2016.

6 Digital Marketing Trends

1: Mobile Usage Is A Must

For those who are not aware, a “responsive” website is one that adjusts to fit the width of the browser, making the viewing experience optimal for any device it is loaded on.

It’s reported that the number of mobile users worldwide is predicted to exceed 2 billion in 2016.

So, undoubtedly, the use of mobile marketing and responsive websites will continue to increase for the rest of this year and the next year to come.

What this means to your business:

It’s definitely a time to build responsive websites and landing pages, as well as invest into mobile advertising. If mobile-specific content is a thing to mobile users in mind, then more and more websites should take action on becoming responsive.

In all your marketing efforts, you should always ask, “Will this look good on mobile?
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2: Content Marketing Continues to Dominate

Content marketing is a growing force in the online world. Research shows that 80% of decision makers in businesses will most likely get information about a company from articles rather than from advertising.

When Buzzfeed became one of the biggest Internet sites of 2013, it was known that interactive content is one of the most effective marketing strategies. Buzzfeed had a series of quizzes such as a personality quiz. They were able to turn it into a viral activity that whenever someone would take a quiz, it would stimulate them to share their results and encourage their friends to take it as well.

As Amanda Maksymiw of Content Marketing Institute puts it: “Traditional advertising shouts at prospect customers whereas content marketing talks with them.”

What this means to your business:

The demand for more content is hotter than ever. Your move is to create landing pages with keywords and phrases a reader might search for so they know they’re in the right place. Once they’re onboard, continue with a strong marketing message offering useful content like eBooks, demos, free trials, and How-To articles or videos.

3: Social Media and Real-time Engagement

Businesses are going more and more social. In 2015, marketers spent an estimated $8.3 billion on social media advertising alone. The marketing trend now is personalization across all social media channels.

People can deliver targeted messages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, as well as Pinterest. Virtual Reality (VR) technology goes mainstream and everyone starts to connect and engage in real time.

Top 4 social media trends to utilize:

• Live Video – two of the biggest sites are Periscope and Facebook Live
• Real-time Engagement – customers and prospects expect a fast response time
• Go Mobile – people use social media on their phones 82% of the time. Make sure your website, Facebook ads, and posts are interesting on mobile.
• Data Driven Decisions – nowadays people don’t have to guess on what’s working. Let the data guide you. Analytics tools are there to help you out.

What this means to your business:

Maximize the power of real-time engagement on your social networks. Make them contextual and personalized, and always respond to customer inquiries.

Websites can also offer a virtual brand experience from creating virtual stores to guiding visitors through virtual representations of real estate offerings, etc. This will help convert landing page leads and turn them into customers or clients.

4: Live Video Streaming

It is proven that videos are able to engage users at a much higher rate.

Live video is becoming a much bigger content platform. It’s like having your own reality show.
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What this means to your business:

With over 10 million users and 2 million being active, Periscope is just one of the platforms that you can try out. Facebook Live is another. In this way, you can gain more followers and  build trust and loyalty by showing your authentic side.

5: SEO Isn’t Dead

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will continue its shift to content marketing. What was once seen as a shady practice is now evolving into what many marketers are calling “Content Marketing”.

The search engines algorithms become more advanced, and they are constantly filtering what content you have published and what is truly useful for the users.

6: Necessity of Design and Speed

How many times do you have to leave a website and look for another just because it took ‘too long’ to load on your screen?

Yes, design and speed matters. A poorly designed website with heavy graphics and videos can affect the overall user experience. The websites that get more visitors are not just those that provide the best content but also the most effective and efficient way possible.

The way your pages are designed and how quickly they load determine whether the visitor becomes a lead.
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One’s goal should be to provide useful content that is visually attractive and quick to load on the end user’s screen (whether viewed using mobile or desktop).

Online marketing evolves at a rate everyone could hardly keep up. But it happens and will continue to happen so the best time to act is NOW. Let’s do the best we can in the remaining months of 2016 and watch out for the digital marketing trends in the coming year.

Resources:
http://www.inc.com/dan-scalco/5-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-for-in-2016.html
https://instapage.com/blog/3-online-marketing-trends-to-follow-in-2016
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-monster-social-media-trends-you-must-pay-attention-2016-gremaux
http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/marketing-trends-2016/

However, as a business owner, you have a huge role in your SEO efforts especially when it comes to understanding your customers’ “behavior” and how they search for your product online. The goal is to not show the visitors the same old thing, but to present your business in a new, useful, and engaging way.

What is SEO?

In the simplest definition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technical, analytical and creative process to fine-tune a website to increase its visibility in search engines like Google.

The whole process of SEO is to:

• Learn what relevant keywords to include
• Create useful content
• Get the attention of search engines

Its main function is to bring in more visitors to a website that will convert into sales.

Why Use SEO Marketing?

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Internet marketing using SEO is very important. Ranking high on Google is practically ‘free advertising’ on the most popular search engine in the world.

The way you drive traffic to your website can make or break your online business. While others opt for paid advertising, a Google top organic search result is still considered the most valuable traffic to a landing page.

• SEO Helps in Crafting Your Ideal Business Description – right description and meta tags attract attention and entices consumers to stay longer on your website.

• SEO Builds Your Credibility – the primary purpose of your online presence is to provide something of value to people. SEO marketing is one of the most powerful tools for getting attention and establishing rapport.

• SEO Works Well with Other Marketing Strategies – pairing up SEO with your social networking sites can give way to extended customer reach.

• SEO Puts You Alongside Top Competition – higher placement in search results gives your product/service the chance to make a positive impression on comparison with other brands.

Best Online SEO Marketing

The art of SEO marketing lies in understanding how people search for your products and evaluating what type of results Google wants to display to its users.

You can generate highly targeted leads by optimizing your website and developing your content to be as relevant as possible for a prospect looking for your company, product or service.

Brian Dean, a top SEO specialist and a team at Backlinko analyzed 1 million Google results to see which factors are important for SEO. Below is a guide to effective white hat SEO.

Backlinks still bring far-reaching results

Backlinks are still the number one most essential ranking factor that Google uses. The study found that you need backlinks from a lot of different domains. If you get 100 backlinks from 100 different domains, you’re in good position.

Link Building Tools you can utilize:

• LinkMiner Plugin (Free)
• Moz SEO Toolbar & Majestic Backlink Analyzer Extensions (*Freemium)
• Buzzstream (Paid)

*Freemium – combination of the words ‘free’ and ‘premium’. It’s a business model in which a core product is given away for free to a large group of users and premium products is sold to a smaller fraction of this user base.

High bounce rate equals to lower rankings

The study found that sites with more bounces tended to rank lower in Google than sites with a low bounce rate.

If visitors bounce off your site more often, it sends a message to Google that people don’t like reading your content. So this makes Google downrank sites with lots of bounces.

Dean states in the report that in general, great content aids in lowering bounce rates. So, chances are, people are going to stick around longer if they find informative and interesting articles.

Long-form content ranks better in Google

According to Dean’s data, the average first page results in Google contain 1,890 words per article.  Another study by BuzzSumo found that longer content resulted in more shares on social media.

Content effectiveness tools
The tools below will help you find new ideas and optimize your current content.

• Outdated Content Finder (Free)
• Yoast WordPress Plugin (Freemium)
• BuzzSumo (Paid)

In-depth, focused content outperforms content about a variety of topics: They also discovered that an article rated as “topically relevant” ranked above an article with a low content score.

Google prefers fast-loading websites

Site speed makes a difference. Google made it clear that they use site speed as part of their algorithm.

Technical SEO tools you can utilize:
These tools can help you dig around on the ‘back-end’ of your site, getting to know how it functions and any issues with it.

• WooRank Plugin (Free)
• Screaming Frog (Freemium)
• DeepCrawl (Paid)

To sum it all up, SEO success is a long process and doesn’t just happen overnight. You should always ask, “Does my website provide a good user experience?”

If you expect to rank in Google, you’d better offer visitor satisfaction, relevance, quality content, and overall excellent user experience not based on manipulation or old school tactics.

P.S. If you need an SEO advice to help structure your online presence to reach its potential, contact us at our main number 1-866-596-9041 (510-400-8006 local). We have client representatives on standby from 8am to 9pm EST to assist you with any questions.

Resources:
www.smartinsights.com
www.hobo-web.co.uk
www.entrepreneur.com
www.business2community.com

Facebook marketing, being the most popular one, has transformed how business is conducted. But for most businesses and service providers, it seems like the battle for online presence is never-ending. While all the tips you read can be overwhelming, there are several simple yet effective ways to market your brand on Facebook.

It’s time to take your business page to the next level. You can take a look at several social media packages online but here are some of the marketing experts tips on using Facebook for business:

Related: Top 5 Reasons to Use Social Media Marketing in Your Business

1. Your Facebook page should reflect the overall look and feel of your brand

• Make good use of your vanity URL – make your full business name as your Facebook page username so it will be easier for customers and search engines to find you (e.g. www.facebook.com/yourbusiness)
• About section — use keywords that are commonly used by your customers to search for your business and products. Include your website URL in your description
• Set the right category – if you’re a local business and you select it as your business type, Facebook users can “check in” at your business, giving you more exposure

• Cover and profile photo — professional quality of cover photo (851×315 pixels) and profile photo (160×160 pixels)

Jayson DeMers, Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business on Facebook

2. Study your page viewers and post strategically

The best time of day to publish posts can vary from page to page and audience to audience.

Research shows: Posts from 1-4 pm have the highest clickthrough & share rates.
Click To Tweet

HubSpot, Do’s and Don’ts: Facebook for Business

3.Attract more likes by using images

According to Facebook, 75% of content posted by brands are images. Show the human side of your business by featuring customers or clients. Images shared on Facebook tend to attract the most likes, shares and comments.
Marketing Donut, Checklist

 Discover ways to fast-track your online presence! Steal this Facebook Marketing Blueprint for Business – Download for FREE!

4. Brand awareness and positive word-of-mouth

The more you encourage people to click the ‘Like’ button on your Facebook page, the more you boost brand awareness. Friends and extended network of your followers will then get to see your products or services and learn about them too. Hire a VA and assign a task or two to handle your social media campaigns.

5. Always drive traffic to your website

Businesses can use an extra traffic from Facebook. Include a link to your website on your page. Visitors who already know something about your business are likely to be more receptive than the average visitor. Make sure customers who land on your Facebook page will see stronger marketing messages and will be motivated to click the website link.

Benefits of Facebook for business

Business owners and professionals:

6. Why more executives are now on Facebook Live

Facebook’s “Live” video feature, which launched last August are attracting more business execs, such as Loic Le Meur, a cofounder at LeWeb, and an entrepreneur and investor.

Initially, Le Meur created live videos randomly, but quickly noticed an impressive increase in views and audience engagement. He then started doing live videos for one hour each day. Now, his page already has over 160,000 followers and he said he is getting more than one thousand per day.

“My approach with Live was to try to do something original and share the way I am building my startup in an authentic and transparent way,” Le Meur said. “I wanted to come across as a founder telling his friends what I am doing and what I need.”

Le Meur, on PR Week

7. Take a shot with Facebook Ads

It’s important to write clear and concise ads that speak directly to your targeted audience.

Katy Dinner, a top San Francisco-based agent conducted a study of the impact of parking spaces and garages on home prices in San Francisco and used a graph of the data in a successful Facebook Ad campaign.

She recommends setting up Facebook ads to target not only your fans but also their friends — because those who are in your area of influence are more likely to become clients and be in your target demographic.

Also…

Be smart about the image you use. People want to see properties, not your smiling face.
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“They’ll also click on graphs if the information is focused, relevant and not available elsewhere, says Dinner. ”

Katy Dinner, Mashable – Facebook for real estate

Talking about Facebook ads, at VAT LLC, we try to attract more visitors by pinning our most popular ad post to the top of our page’s timeline.

Some Facebook success stories:

8. Write a compelling story with strong CTA’s

To guarantee effective creative ad content, craft a compelling copy with strong calls to action. Top-quality images are also a plus.

FabFurnish.com ran photo ads that showcased its most visually appealing products. Link ads in the News Feed and the right column also drove traffic directly to the company’s website.

“We’ve found Facebook to be one of the key drivers of our growth. While it continues to be great with its reach and targeting capability from a branding and visibility point of view, it has also delivered tangible results in terms of site visits, the number of orders and overall revenue.”

Vikram Chopra, co-founder, FabFurnish

9. Build a community through constant interaction

 “Facebook has played a huge role in turning me into a best-selling author. That fact of my life can’t be overstated. As my books started to take off in late 2011 and early 2012, I began to think about ways I could harness reader excitement about the books and build a community around my stories.

Today, I’m the proud owner of 33 Facebook groups with more than 16,000 members. I love my Facebook groups, and I love the personal interaction with my readers. Thank you, Facebook, for making it possible for me to be “down on the street” with my readers every day!”

Marie Force, How Facebook Helped Me Become A Best-Selling Author

10. Develop trust and loyalty with your fans

When you post status updates, don’t make 100% of your posts just about you and your business. Help out someone in need by providing insights, answering questions, giving advise. Be transparent and let your own stand shine through.

What trending media relate to your audience? Make a post based on that.
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Lori Peterson, an Ambit Energy consultant has a different approach. To gain more clients, she used Facebook’s influence by telling her story in subtle ways.

She once posted a status like: ‘Setting off on a new adventure. Going to be busier than ever.’ Almost immediately, someone contacted her to ask what the new adventure was.

Lori Peterson, How Consultants Can Get Clients on Facebook

Lastly, don’t ignore your page insights. This will help you learn more about the people who are most engaged in your business. Find out what’s working and not so you can maximize all of your efforts.  The key to a successful Facebook marketing for business is to first understand its unique opportunities and then tailor your posts and offers to meet your audience’s needs and interests.

If you have questions or if you need help setting up your Facebook page to market your business, please contact us at 1.866.596.9041 for a free phone consultation.

Learn how Facebook marketing can work for your business.
Download Facebook Marketing Blueprint for FREE!

Why is that? Well, a recent HubSpot survey featured in Forbes indicated 92% of marketers claim that social media marketing was an important part of their business—and 80% indicated their efforts increased traffic to their websites.

A social media virtual assistant can help build your brand reputation, build a following, and increase your market exposure and potential sales and conversions. There’s no time like the present to get your business up to speed and avoid falling behind your competition. Here are five reasons to use social media marketing in your business:

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1. Increase traffic and brand recognition

Your social media presence paves the way for new customers to access your brand and content easier while making you more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. The social media networks you create are new channels for you to build reputation by increasing your visibility online.

For example, a Twitter user could get interested about your company after just seeing your hashtag retweeted by his friend. Or, an online buyer might check out your website after seeing your promo posted on multiple networks. It’s all about making use of every opportunity you can get to broadcast your brand in the internet world.

2. Build a following and brand loyalty

A conclusion from a report published by Texas Tech University stated that a strategically designed social media plan could prove influential in encouraging consumers into being brand loyal. Businesses should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience and building a following.

According to the report, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. Furthermore, another study published by Convince&Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to those brands.

Related: Smart And Creative Ways To Promote A Business

3. Convert visitors to customers

Did you know that every post you make on social media platforms is an opportunity for customers to convert? Whether it’s a video, an image, or a blog post, what you share online is a chance for them to react and/or take action.

You will have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and the great thing is, you’ll be able to interact with all of them simultaneously! Remember that each of their reactions could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion.

However, not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion. But keep in mind that every positive feedback increases the likelihood of an actual conversion. The opportunities you have on social media alone are very valuable.

4. Decrease marketing costs

According to Hubspot…

84% of marketers say that 6 hours/week on social media helps generate traffic.
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In fact, if you hire a virtual assistant (VA) or remote worker to spend just one hour a day developing your content and syndication strategy, you could start seeing the results of your efforts.

You can also go for paid advertising through Facebook and Twitter. It is not that pricey depending on your goals and can be a valuable investment. For example, a VA can go over your page insights and develop a strategy for you and once you get a better feel for what to expect, you can increase your budget or time allocation for the efforts.

Additionally, the VA can consistently monitor your social media account, reviewing and responding to prospective customers and existing customers inquiries, comments, and concerns, escalating important things that come up for you to address and take action as needed. VAs can also create and populate dashboards for you to monitor the traffic and measure the activities and success of your social media.

Using virtual assistants saves you up to 76% in labor costs vs. office-based employees.
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Further, virtual assistants can be a highly cost effective alternative to utilizing PR firms or marketing agencies depending on your business needs and budget.

5.The sooner you start, the better

The sooner you start your social media marketing, the sooner you will reap the benefits. You will see your network grow rapidly as your followers tell their friends, their families, and so on. The earlier you start, the sooner you’ll be able to start establishing your presence and growing your audience. And, with the feedback you get in the social media marketing process, you’ll know if there are issues right away and take steps to resolve them.

Studies have shown that…

Consumers appreciate those who respond to good feedback & also to complaints AND make things right.
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So make sure you are all ears when it comes to this, as social media is the most viral marketing ever—word gets out faster than before.

Now is the time to start growing your network. If you don’t have the time or expertise to do so, you can hire a VA to start inviting connections, creating, writing, and posting content and engaging in conversation and follow up with your audience or customer base.

The important thing is you build your online presence and make it easier for prospective clients/customers to find you, and interact with you. This opens the door and increases your market exposure to create more opportunities in delivering your message and unique selling points for increased sales conversions of your products/services.

References:
www.forbes.com
www.contentfac.com

SEO Strategy 2014

Many people are trying hard to optimize their website and they are left wondering if  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still working or if it is dead. If you are a business  owner who needs to build a strong and solid online presence to be able to connect with  your customers, then you should read this article to help you maintain your online  position.

SEO is changing and you need to adapt with the trend to stay ahead of your  competitors.  If you do not have good content or design, Google can penalize your  website, which affects your site ranking and where it shows up on Google searches.  The algorithm and way that Google ranks sites has changed over time.  So whatever  your method or strategy to rank high on Google in the past may not work anymore  today, and may also hurt your business.

A successful SEO strategy today would mean that you would need to apply different  dynamic SEO methods for you to rank on top. That includes branding, making your  website mobile friendly, content marketing and social media marketing. Here are the 5 tips that can make your SEO effective:

The Key to SEO

1. Effective SEO has three cores

The three cores for a strong and effective SEO strategy is building links, building great quality content and good social media marketing. Your content must be laser targeted to what your customer needs to be able to generate profit. Social Media would help you reach your target. Also, you need to create content that would be useful and helpful to your audience.

2. The Importance of Content

It is important for you to share stories that would move your readers to take action.  When people need certain products or services or need to go somewhere, they would search for it on Google. That is why you need to create a reliable and high quality content to be able to entice your readers to trust your brand and eventually convert into real paying customers.

3. Mobile Optimization is a Must

With the release of the new Google Hummingbird update, it became much harder for websites to rank without having to optimize their mobile website. It is important to create a responsive mobile design and a strategy with the mobile content. It is very important to invest on this since more than 50% of the population own and browse often through the website using their Smartphone.

4. A Strong Branding

Building a strong brand in the internet is crucial to your company’s success. You need to build your company’s profile such as through your customer testimonial, having complete and reliable information and maintaining good communication with customer feedback and needs.

5. Social Media and Google Plus

It is very easy to spread content over social media. The key is to be able to share interesting content that would entice users to share your content. Once you are able to give something valuable to the users you will be able to enjoy this free traffic and be able to generate leads that you can convert to customers in the future.

Implementing SEO would need more patience and hard work on your part but if you will be able to do and implement all of these tips well, then you will surely have an edge to your competition.

Writing and creating content, syndicating content through social media, and staying on top of the latest algorithms by which Google rewards or penalizes websites for searches on keywords can be challenging and time consuming.  Look for company that offers virtual assistants services (home-based workers), who for an affordable cost, can help you write content, research/write articles, maintain your blog and social media accounts, and help you with your search engine optimization to increase your site ranking in Google and other search engines.  To learn more, visit our website and request a free consultation using our online form.

Photos courtesy of Creative Commons

John Davern, Jr., MBA, President and CEO of Virtual Assistant Talent, LLC, (VAT) will be sharing case studies and best practices at a special bonus session on Updating Your Executive Brand for Improved Market Visibility in the Executive Next Practices Institute event on April 4, 2014.  The event, entitled “High Performance, High Compliance: Transforming Regulatory Risks into Increased Company Valuation – A New Approach” will be held at the Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine, California.

In 2012, the Center for Talent Innovation released a study that introduced the term Executive Presence, which set the pace for a new paradigm for leaders and executives.  The study revealed that Executive Presence comprises 26% that senior decision makers consider when it comes to promotions, as well as helping leaders earn respect from their employees and peers.  Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Larry Page are just some examples of leaders who are the embodiment of Executive Presence.

“With Executive Branding, we’re taking the 3 universal dimensions of Executive Presence (Gravitas, Communication & Appearance) into the world wide web through proven personal branding and online marketing strategies.” shared John Davern, Jr., MBA when asked about his upcoming session on Executive Branding.  “The Executive Next Practices Institute events are meant to help to mold the next generation of leaders by transforming them into globally effective leaders – and this is precisely what Executive Branding will help accomplish.  The next generation leader is one who not only exudes an Executive Presence in person, but one that has a presence that reverberates globally.  And what better way to achieve this but through the World Wide Web?”

John and his team of Virtual Assistants at Virtual Assistant Talent, LLC (VAT) have worked with executives, entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes in improving their brand and reputation through online marketing strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Email Marketing and more.  He stressed that “Although the importance of Executive Branding is quite obvious, most executives are not able to execute these strategies, because they simply do not have the time or budget to do so.  This is one of the primary reasons that our clients tell us when they hire a Virtual Assistant.”

The use of Virtual Assistants (VAs) or Virtual Teams is no longer a new concept when it comes to online marketing.  The use of VAs gained popularity in 2007 when it was featured by Tim Ferris in his book “The 4 hour work week”.  Having been a fan of the book himself, John was motivated to use his experience in Human Resources and Recruitment to put together his company, Virtual Assistant Talent in 2009 and he has been helping various executives, entrepreneurs and businesses by providing professional services through the use of Virtual Assistants ever since.

John will be sharing his experience and best practices used by his company on how to execute Executive Branding techniques effectively through the use of Virtual Assistants in the upcoming ENP event.  He will be joined by other reputable business speakers and executives such as John Polson, partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP, a national labor and employment law firm; Donna Ellis- Ziemer, Human Resource Director of Pendragon North America Automotive, Inc.; Debra Squyres, Director of Human Capital Services of Trinet and Scott Tompkins, counsel and Director, Office of Business and Legal Affairs of Concentrus, Inc,. and Phil Molyneux, Chairman of SONY Electronics.

For more information about the event, interested parties may visit the Executive Next Practices Institute events page: www.enpinstitute.com/events.

About Executive Next Practices

Executive Next Practices Forum is a unique organization comprised of mid to large market C-level to functional leaders and trusted advisors (Board members, CEO, CFO, HR, CMO, COO, and ICO). This ongoing collaboration, conducted in a non-traditional format, is focused on the latest “Next Practices” leadership and business strategies. Conducted in major corporate and academic “safe havens” the sessions are non-solicitation and formatted to deliver fresh, innovative and relevant approaches to leaders and their executive teams.

About John Davern, Jr., MBA

John Davern, Jr., MBA is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Virtual Assistant Talent, LLC (VAT), a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company that provides professional services to businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals through the use of Virtual Assistants (remote & home-based workers).

With over 18 years of experience in corporate human resources, working for Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric (GE), Harris Corporation, The Home Depot, and a Toyota/GM Joint Venture, John has acquired extensive knowledge and hands-on experience through the various human resources and recruitment positions he has handled.  In his career, he has recruited and trained thousands of office-based employees and hundreds of home-based/remote workers.

John holds a M.B.A. in Human Resources from Duquesne University, an internet Technology Webmaster Certification from Illinois Institute of Technology, Certificates in Business Practices/Problem Solving & Toyota Production System, and a B.A. in Labor & Industrial Relations from Pennsylvania State University.