I saw the topic of this and just got extremely tickled lol ...
this is funny to me b/c ditto! but only b/c, as has already been said, every time i get used to FB, they flippin change it. this latest release is super crap! EPIC EPIC FAIL! lol
if you just joined FB, then you really won't miss anything, but they totally took away our ability to control any content at all.
I joined both facebook and twitter. I actually prefer facebook than twitter. The new homepage on facebook is too confusing. I just started to get the hang of it and then they changed it. Oh well.
One thing to remember is, if you don't have a separate business profile...
Just to clarify, having a second profile can get your Facebook account shut down. You are allowed to have 1 main account and that account must be in your real name, not your maiden name or business name. Then you are allowed as many fan pages as you'd like. Fan pages can be in the name of your business.
While I agree that Facebook's platform isn't all that intuitive or user-friendly, there's definitely a benefit to learning to using it for marketing yourself, your business or being able to set up Profiles, Fan Pages or Groups for your clients.
You are NOT alone though. I'm finding that the majority of my clients all want to "be" on Facebook because they heard that they should be but they have very little idea about what to do with it nor do they want to take the time to figure it out...won't complain though since it keeps me busy with clients and client work.
Become friends with other Virtual Assistants on Facebook (ones that you know or have had some connection with at some time) and then watch how they use Facebook. Also, interact on Facebook with other VAs (much like you do here) and that's also gets you seen/heard in the News Feeds.
Find different Business Fan Pages and interact on those pages...get seen, get heard. Post in the discussion sections, post on the walls of these business fan pages, (Dell Small Business has a great one. Watch how they work. Listen to the conversations and PARTICIPATE. Visibility leads to familiarity. This is true for both Twitter and Facebook. People will reach out to those they feel familiar with.
(oh, and don't forget to become a Fan of the VA Forums Fan page on Facebook.)
I think Facebook is great, however, I still need to build up my business profile on there, I only have 3 friends so far. Twitter, I can't get the hang of at all. I am finding it difficult justifying the amount of time needed to get the hang of these sites when I am so busy trying to advertise in the 'real world'. I know it's something that will benefit me in the long run so I suppose I will have to go with the flow.
What sort of "tweets" do you guys include on Twitter regarding your Virtual Administration businesses? I'd love to find out how Twitter can help my business.
I used to be a myspacer but now I am all Facebook. I got my first and only client so far by creating a Facebook page for her business. Because she is a friend of mine I offered to do it for free and before you know it she hired me to do some of her admin work and this is where I got the idea to look into VA.... I have grown her Facebook page to over 400 friends in less than a month and it has created a ton of people inquiring and increasing her business. I have tied her google business calendar of events to the facebook page and I will be adding a poll to see how many of her new friends don't know anything about her business at all.
I would not call myself an expert by any means but if you have questions I will try to answer them.
It was so funny that I saw this thread this morning. I longed into my facebook last night and I was completely lost. I will be checking out Mari Smith to learn more about facebook.
I started out on Myspace and find it very easy to use and love it but alot of people that I know use facebook so I signed up too. And I would have to say that it is not nearly as easy as Myspace. I'm starting to get the hang of it though. My new project is learning how to use Twitter. Is there a Twitter for Dummies? lol. If so I might end up with it before long.
Yeah I am clueless about Twitter as well. I think with Myspace it is all about graphics and when you go to Facebook and there is none well it then seems well not right lol....
I started my FB page for family and friends and as was said you cannot have a separate account for your business -- so I have decided not to use FB for my business.
Loving my family and friends I do not see that they would be posting items that would reflect positively on my business. I have been using Twitter and find it much easier to navigate and you don't have to deal with all those snowballs and stuff that are soooo annoying!
If anyone knows how to limit viewing of your friends so that you can keep your family/friends separate from business I would be interested in understanding how to do and use FB in the end.
I myself used to be a devoted myspace user....until my roommate's brother MADE me get a FB so he would stop whining. Now I have FB and Twitter and I love them both! I am switching my FB profile to a page, I am just tired of having 2 IDs on the same account. I have the ping.fm account and so I can update my status on both and on Linkedin all at one time....I LOVE IT.
On Facebook you can now have a page for your Business. It is a page that you have fans and not friends and this page is different than your profile but is getting more and more like a profile which is cool. The "page" can also show events and people can write reviews about your business which is cool.
I don't find Facebook difficult at all to use. I have both Facebook and MySpace accounts. I actually am on Facebook more. This is mostly because I have found a lot of people from my past on there. I do agree that all the applications and game invites do get annoying, but since it's my personal page I don't mind too much. What problems exactly are you encountering? Not sure I want to do Twitter at this point. I'm not really sure how many of these social networking sites I really need to belong to!
Re: Mastering Facebook (NOT!)
... Help anyone...LOL
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