Bridie, no, please don't pull the plug on your Facebook page! Please tell me you were kidding. Your presence really matters to so many of us. I for one find out about your latest blog posts through your Facebook page. And you know I am a fan of your blog posts. Pretty please, no plug pulling .

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Patty

Sorry, I deleted it last night....

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Bridie's Typing Services - specialising in transcription services
The professional's choice

I'm beginning to wonder about the value (return of time investment) of social media. One can spend countless hours looking for content, posting, tweeting and interacting and I don't want to sync it all together as content must be fresh. If you're selling a product, such as a course, then you can spend all your time promoting it in SM but if you're a service you have to have time to do the service work. i.e. if you make and sell widgets and spend all your time promoting in SM where do you have time to make the widgets you're selling?

All my clients have come from my website and word of mouth and I've not had one enquiry through SM despite putting a great deal of study, time and effort into it.

Going forward I will post my blog and articles, along with anything helpful I come across, to FB and Twitter and remain active only on LinkedIn where you can join groups where your potential clients might hang out. As it's my niche I mostly belong to law groups, really enjoy the interaction and keep up with the latest developments within the industry, but there are groups where potential clients might be whatever your niche.

Lynne

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The Wordpro Wizard
www.wordprowizard.com

Social Networking is vital in self promotion and it is also free advertising! Twitter is seen by millions of users each day and using the right #hashtags can definitely bring more viewers or even more clients in! Twitter is great in that it can be searched, so if someone searches for the term Virtual Assistant (or something along those lines) and your post comes up among the others -- AND STANDS OUT, you may get a client.

Facebook is important too since Facebook is the virtual form of "Word Of Mouth". Once you "Like" something, it goes onto your wall for others to see. Basically, by liking, you just recommended that Facebook page, site, company, etc... to everyone on your friends list.

They are VERY important. I did write this short blurb on Why do Businesses Need Social Media. It isn't long,but it's very to the point.

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Kristin, owner KRumian LLC
KRumian LLC Business Website

In my opinion, the value of social media isn't in getting clients directly from the social network but in becoming known and building relationships. Although the majority of my clients have come from my website and referrals, I guarantee if you asked them why they ultimately contacted me it would have something to do with my presence on social media networks. I've also gotten some dynamite referrals from people who know me through Twitter, Facebook, et. al. Sometimes the value in something isn't so much in the clients but in the reputation your building.

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~Tina Marie Hilton of Clerical Advantage
& founder of VA Survival School

Definitely, as I always say -- Twitter & Facebook are virtual "Word of Mouth" referrals. They're great tools to help you network and build a client base in different ways. I love to utilize social networking.

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Kristin, owner KRumian LLC
KRumian LLC Business Website

Sorry, ladies. I've been extremely busy. Have any of you used Google Alerts for content? This is what I use to post relevant and "fresh" content to my social networks on a daily basis and because all of the sites are linked together and have a different following for each, everyone gets the same info at the same time.

With regard to Ning, I setup a RSS feed from my featured blogs to my Notes on FB and they are automatically uploaded to my FB page and simultaneously linked to all of my accounts. The beauty of this is that on my Ning account, I have members who I allow to post relevant information and I choose the best info to feature on my other pages.

Hope this helps!!!

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Shellye L. Lyons, Business/Marketing Manager ~~ The Lyons Group, LLC

Oh, and I've gotten several of our clients from social media networks just by posting useful information and personally responding to comments and questions.

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Shellye L. Lyons, Business/Marketing Manager ~~ The Lyons Group, LLC

As I'm thinking about setting up my business on social media, I was thinking about what info to add and how to update them all on a consistent basis. I didn't know that there was a way to sync them all - wow what a time saver. I will definitely check out this option. Thanks!

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Laraine Montgomery
Expert Virtual Office Services

Hello,
I do not know about others. But I know by experience that Linkedin is very effective.
I think almost everyone in the business world is on it. I even seen many people
get their clients from their, now that I been using it for almost 6 months
I know how effective it really is. However do not know about Twitter

Facebook I think is more for socializing ..

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Providing Offshore Bookkeeping for your Business needs.
Gohar Gulzar