Hello all,

Just wondering if you could advice me on where to start? I would like to learn to use the Social Media for marketing, not only for my own purposes, but also for my clients.

Where did you learn to blog and to write successful FB pages? Which book would you recommend I read? Any courses you have taken that you loved?

Any advice would be fabulous!

Thanks all,

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Myrthe, Owner | Virtual Assistant
Miss Moneypenny

Hi Myrthe,

I can't say that I learned to blog from a course or a book, however, there are publications I am sure which can help you.

A good place to start is by simply reading other blogger sites. I would suggest you read Seth Godin's blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ but there are many other experts you can read as well.

The style for blogging is less formal and brief than an article. A good place to start is to find a topic of interest to you such as 'how to do something' and then explain in your words how this can get done in a few steps.

I am a contributor on a VA blog called Business Darlings www.BusinessDarlings.com and you can also read the posts we (myself and several other VAs from VAF) have posted there. We each have a section that we cover. See if there is a section such as social media or technology or marketing that is of interest to you and then blog about that topic.

What I find to be important about blogging is that what you write about should be geared toward the audience you want to reach. So if you want to reach accountants, your blog should be mainly about accounting.

So knowing who your audience will be and then writing for that audience is important. Providing solutions to questions that they have will also prove beneficial.

Blogging does not necessarily have to be in the form of writing either. You can have a vlog or a video blog and you can write a post one day and post a slideshow another day. You can mix up the media so it remains interesting.

It is also important to blog about what interests you. It can become tedious to blog about topics which are boring to you.

Some VAs have business blogs while others have personal blogs and others have both.

The key is to be consistent and offer fresh content as often as you can.

On April 1st we will run a blog challenge contest to win a free book and another prize. Testing the blogging waters here on VAF is a great way to get started so do look out for that post and enter the contest if you wish.

Janine

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WRITE FAB RFP PROPOSALS & land THE VA job. WinningRFP unveils soon! SignUp www.WinningRFP.com

Thanks for that Janine, that is great advice. I will start by reading the blogs you mention and see 'how it's done'! I have also downloaded some books (Blogging for Dummies) that I hope will give me more info.

Thanks,

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Myrthe, Owner | Virtual Assistant
Miss Moneypenny

One of my favs to learn from on Social Networking is Mari Smith. Check her out...
http://www.marismith.com/

Being in the industry for so long is what has helped most for me. I also use services like TweetDeck and monitor "keyword" search columns. There are usually lots of great links to follow up on. Great learning tool.

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Matt
ARION Technologies

Originally Posted by shopwihtannieva

One of my favs to learn from on Social Networking is Mari Smith. Check her out... http://www.marismith.com/

That's a great one! Thanks for the tip.

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Myrthe, Owner | Virtual Assistant
Miss Moneypenny

This is all great stuff. Thanks everyone!

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Tiffany Hoeckelman
Avail Virtual, LLC

Of course. She is one of my favs. And the Social Media Examiner is run by her friends...check it out for great tips also.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

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Annette Pedersen/OBM
shopwithannieva.com