Opinions needed please!

Everywhere I turn, I see how everybody is on facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, has blogs, a website, etc. So I joined in and created accounts, pages, profiles and all. But now what? How do I get people to look at my tweets, my fan page, my blog, my site, etc.?? I understand that it helps in SEO but I also want to accomplish something with all the time and effort I'm/will be putting into all these different sites. Yes, I'm having fun learning about all these different applications and I really enjoy it but I'm also feeling a little lonely out there. I want to know that I'm writing to people and not to myself.
My questions to you guys are:

1. How do you get people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, become fans, etc?

2. Do you write new material for everything or use some of the same on facebook/twitter/blog, etc.

3. Where do you get fresh ideas so that it’s not just the same as everybody else?

4. Are you getting business out of it?

5. Taking time to update your profile/blog/tweets are unpaid tasks. If you calculate the hours you spend/spent doing it, what $$ return are you getting? Do all your efforts payoff?

6. It's great to have your family and friends to look at your work. It's even better to get your fellow VA's to join in for support but they're not the ones who will pay your bills. How do you get the right people to see your fan page/twitter/blog, etc?

I’m asking all these questions so that perhaps we can all learn something from your experiences and I am very curious to find some answers.

Thank you for taking the time to educate the “green” VA’s.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

Ooh, this is a GOOD one!!

1. How do you get people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, become fans, etc?

Have you ever heard of the term - "Follow me and I'll follow you"? That's how I've gotten followers. I also link all of my networking sites together so the information I upload to one flows to the others so that I'm not having to open every single one of them ALL the time!!

2. Do you write new material for everything or use some of the same on facebook/twitter/blog, etc.

See above. The networking sites have gotten pretty smart. Instead of competing with one another, they've learned to make each site accessible to the other. RSS feeds from your blog can be uploaded to one site and then to others and they all begin to work hand in hand!!

3. Where do you get fresh ideas so that it’s not just the same as everybody else?

Hmmmmmm. I think this has to be up to you and your own imagination!! Find your niche market and take it from there, i.e., if you are a single mom making a living working from home so that you can be there for your kids, tell people of your experience OR ask for others to join in telling them their experience and create a group to encourage one another... Something like that!!

4. Are you getting business out of it?

I am!! I have! I also have a women's business support group and I've been able to get people to connect with me from FB to that site and I've consulted with others and gotten some speaking engagements from it!

5. Taking time to update your profile/blog/tweets are unpaid tasks. If you calculate the hours you spend/spent doing it, what $$ return are you getting? Do all your efforts payoff?

I think I spend about an hour a day - 15-20 in the AM, a little bit more at lunchtime, and then the remainder in the evening. I also prepare some of my posts for the entire week over the weekend so all I have to do is set them to "feature" and that helps. So, all in all, I'd say if I was going to charge someone to do this for me, it's be $20/day?

6. It's great to have your family and friends to look at your work. It's even better to get your fellow VA's to join in for support but they're not the ones who will pay your bills. How do you get the right people to see your fan page/twitter/blog, etc?

Another great question. LinkedIn is the most professional site I've seen out there. Connecting with the groups and then getting them to look at your work or connect with you outside of LinkedIn is what's been helpful for me.

Hope that helps a little! I wrote an eBook on Social Networking for Business and most folks say its helped them tremendously in trying to navigate through the maze of the major social networks.

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

Great answers Shellye. Thanks. I hope others will join in.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

You're welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing others answers as well!!

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

Before I answer your questions Chris Brogan wrote a great article on how much time to spend on Social Marketing, whether you spend 1 hour per day or 4 hours per day he gives you a formula for how much time you should spend on each activity.

Now on to the questions:

1. How do you get people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, become fans, etc?

Importing your blog to your facebook account, automatically forward to your twitter and import to Linkedin really helps to build reader and viewship to your blog. Include your rss feed in your signature (check out Feedburner, which converts your rss feed then allows for you to add the signature widget to your signature) and comment on other's blogs.

2. Do you write new material for everything or use some of the same on facebook/twitter/blog, etc.

No, I have my content feed to the other sites, then I post to twitter through out the day. I use Hootsuite because it allows me to share to multiple sites and pages with one easy click. I don't always save to all of the accounts at the same time, sometimes I might only post to twitter and my fan page, the next time I'll post to my personal facebook page and my twitter account.

3. Where do you get fresh ideas so that it’s not just the same as everybody else?

I use google alerts to manage searches for topics that interest me as well as my clients and then that can help to stimulate my writing.

4. Are you getting business out of it?

Yes, and great connections as well.

5. Taking time to update your profile/blog/tweets are unpaid tasks. If you calculate the hours you spend/spent doing it, what $$ return are you getting? Do all your efforts payoff?

Refer to the beginning of my post re: Chris Brogan, but I look at is as a holistic part of my marketing plan.

6. It's great to have your family and friends to look at your work. It's even better to get your fellow VA's to join in for support but they're not the ones who will pay your bills. How do you get the right people to see your fan page/twitter/blog, etc?

Communicate, communicate, communicate and I find some of the best ways to get people to see my information is interacting on sites and commenting on blogs for my target market.

Great questions....

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Renee Shupe, Become a Techie Virtual Assistant
eMail Marketing & Aweber Training Starts May 15! - Save 50% using VAFAweber

You guys are so smart! That was a really good question, I would not have thought of some of those questions. I am at the point where I don't even know what I don't know. I learned a lot, thank you.

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Charlotte

Genevieve,

Great questions and I am sure you will get some awesome answers from out resident SM gurus. Here are mine:

1. How do you get people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, become fans, etc? You can start by following others and building your network. Determine which networks your contacts are on and connect with them there too. Promote your blog on the different networks. Most of all you need to remember it is about the relationship not the amount of followers/fans.

2. Do you write new material for everything or use some of the same on facebook/twitter/blog, etc.? You can link your networks together and recycle your material but be careful that you do not overuse this. Each media has its own uses and community so be mindful of that

3. Where do you get fresh ideas so that it’s not just the same as everybody else? Comment on articles or topics that you have read, answer questions, share useful information that you have found. What does your niche or target market need? Answer that and you have your ideas.

4. Are you getting business out of it? I am getting some business but more importantly is I am staying in touch with those I already so business with.

5. Taking time to update your profile/blog/tweets are unpaid tasks. If you calculate the hours you spend/spent doing it, what $$ return are you getting? Do all your efforts payoff? I update a few times a day with no more than an hour daily except for my blog and I usually write when an idea comes to me. Keep in mind that the ROI is not all about dollars but also influence. Are you becoming an authority in your field, will people come to you for answers or solutions? That is where you ROI will pay for you.

6. It's great to have your family and friends to look at your work. It's even better to get your fellow VA's to join in for support but they're not the ones who will pay your bills. How do you get the right people to see your fan page/twitter/blog, etc? By carefully building your network. Provide information that others will want and you will soon build an effective network. Don't discount old colleagues and friends. I have gotten some great referrals for people who have reconnected with me.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Thank you for all the great feedback on this subject. I'm sure it will be helpful to many of us. We’re trying to keep up with all the pros but it’s important to know how to do it properly and understand why we do it to benefit from all the efforts we invest into our business.

Most of you have mentioned that you use tools to automatically update all your accounts or synch them. What would be the best tool to use and in which application (facebook, twitter, blog) should I install it in?

Although I realize that I asked a lot of questions, but please keep the comments coming. I really appreciate the time that you are all putting into this topic.

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Genevieve Lachance
VA Simple Services

Thank you Genevieve for asking the questions and thank you everyone else for the answers. These are very very helpful.

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-Jean
Simplify it, delegate it.

Good questions and you've gotten some equally great answers. Here's my two cents:

1. How do you get people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, become fans, etc? Find interesting people to follow on Twitter using Twitter directories such as wefollow.com or twellow.com and then follow them. Use the lists feature to create category lists of people you want to group together and then check those lists and respond to those tweets. For your blog, write good, original content that people will want to read. Ask for feedback from your networks. Post interesting content on your fan page. Ask you twitter followers to become fans, ask other VAs to become fans, add the Facebook widget to you blog. It's all about connecting it all together and getting people to follow you everywhere you are.

2. Do you write new material for everything or use some of the same on facebook/twitter/blog, etc. Both. Mostly original content for my blog and then sometimes I'll cross post items on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. But as someone also mentioned do this with some restraint as you may have the same people following you different ways and they don't want to see the same thing posted over and over. Watch what others are doing and then create your unique take on doing something similar.

3. Where do you get fresh ideas so that it’s not just the same as everybody else? Research what you're interested in or in areas where you are a expert. Follow those sites and check in with them daily for new content or ideas.


4. Are you getting business out of it? Yes. Absolutely. But it's also about putting in the time and effort to network, connect, engage and stand out.

5. Taking time to update your profile/blog/tweets are unpaid tasks. If you calculate the hours you spend/spent doing it, what $$ return are you getting? Do all your efforts payoff? Since social media is what I do, I can update my accounts during the course of the day as I update for my clients. The return I get is clients and referrals. Social media has always paid off for me, but I put in a lot of time researching, watching and learning how to make it work for me. It won't happen overnight.

6. It's great to have your family and friends to look at your work. It's even better to get your fellow VA's to join in for support but they're not the ones who will pay your bills. How do you get the right people to see your fan page/twitter/blog, etc? Don't discount having your fellow VAs for support. Often they will ReTweet your stuff or re-post it with credit to you and that gets you additional exposure. Also, no VA does everything under the sun. So if a VA has a client or a potential client who needs something done that they don't do, then they are going to turn to other VAs who they do know and possibly refer a client to them. I've done this several times but only with VAs who I am familiar with.

The other thing is to find out where your target markets are hanging out and go there. Where are they on Twitter? Where are they on LinkedIn? Where are they on Facebook? Then you GO there and get seen, get heard. Let people get to know you and then in turn they will want to follow you.

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!