Virtual Buzz Assistant

A blog can go a long way promoting itself if you are putting out GREAT articles.  However, it takes a long time to get someone to discover you and building an audience.  So this article is How To Promote a Blog, assuming you already are producing good articles.

If you are a really good writer, I would suggest you hire a Virtual Buzz Assistant to do most of these activities for you.  The reason is that producing great information regularly on your blog is your number one goal.  If you do not do that you can generate traffic but you cannot capture an audience that cares about what you have to say.

Part 1: How to Promote a Blog Online?

There are so many ways to promote your blog online that I can only give you some of the more well known options here.

You can promote your blog with:

1. Article Marketing – Write and submit articles to eZineArticles.com
2. Blog Commenting – Write good comments on some good blogs, not spam lots of blogs.
3. Add your blog in your email signature.
4. Participate in online groups that have the audience that would find your blog interesting.
5. Publish and reference your blog articles as part of broader resources in sites like Work.com, Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, etc.
6. Add clear ways to subscribe with email or RSS.  Getting people to come back is much easier.
7. Do keyword research and write blog article that people are searching for.
8. Add a link from your website to your blog.
9. Syndicate your blog in sites like Tumblr.com, FaceBook, Twitter

Part 2: How to Promote a Blog Offline?

1. Go to local events and meet people.  If they are interested in your blog topic, invite them to read.
2. Have your blog listed on your business card or on its own business card.
3. Send postcards or greeting cards to promote your blog – Targeted, not mass mailing.
4. Promote your blog within invoices and mailings to existing customers
5. Promote your blog with a bumper sticker on your car with your blog URL.
6. Make sure local media knows about your blog so you are seen as a local expert.  This could land you in print.
7. Join or start a local bloggers group, where other bloggers come and share ideas and experience.  They often become readers as well.

If you are wondering how to promote your blog, this is just the most obvious ways.  You want to think in terms of one reader at a time and not get caught up in trying to get thousands.  For example, I frequently get bursts of 100′s of extra visitors via StumbleUpon.com, but they just stumbled upon the blog and are not likely to become a long term reader.  One person that is going to keep coming back has far more value to me.

Lastly, you can see that promoting a blog is a lot of work.  If you are trying to do everything, you have a long hill to climb.  Consider outsourcing some of the writing and some of the promotion.  It is free to submit your project here at this site and get quotes on help.

Why am I writing about Virtual Management when this is a virtual assistant blog?

Well, if you have ever had a really skilled virtual assistant, you know that they can actually manage a big part of your business.  In fact, once you have tried them out, why not call them your virtual management team?

A virtual assistant only becomes part of your virtual management team if they are actually managing an aspect of your company and reporting back to you.  Lets look at a few options where a talented virtual assistant could actually be a virtual manager.

1. Virtual Manager of Google AdWords and Online Advertising
   Manage all ads, keywords and track cost and results for every single expenditure.
2. Virtual Manager of Online Customer Relations
   Management of customer relations.  They see support emails, get info@ requests and search the web for people that are talking about your organization – and respond if appropriate.
3. Virtual Manager of Internet Publishing
   Your Internet Publishing Editor is the management person in charge of getting your articles out on time and following your schedule.
4. Virtual Manager of Virtual Assistant Team
   If you have several virtual assistants doing regular tasks for you, then it is time to hire virtual management to manage your virtual assistants.
5. Accountability Boss
   OK, call me crazy, but maybe you need virtual management to manage you.  They keep your calendar up to date and hold you to your goals.
6. Virtual Marketing Manager
   For many smaller organizations, having a virtual marketing manager is the next best thing to having a full time employee or working with an expensive marketing agency.

The only things that make someone a virtual manager instead of a virtual assistant is the desire to take on more responsibility, be highly organized and clear on outcomes.  A virtual management position can be in the future of any virtual assistant.

A Virtual Buzz Assistant can easily also be called a Social Media Manager.

Here are the differences

1. A Social Media Manager works full time and explores all kinds of avenues for developing relationships and information online.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant focuses on the specific social media tasks as defined by the client.
2. A Social Media Manager can handle complaints, bad reviews or negative comments.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant will point these items out to the client and the client should address them.
3. Social Media Managers are doing many social networking tasks.  Virtual Buzz Assistants focus on a few high value tasks and leave experimentation up to the client.
4. Social Media Managers need to be able to create great original content about the organization.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant might create content, but rarely are they the main messenger of the organization.
5. A Social Media Manager monitors the web for information EVERY DAY.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant can do that, but rarely do clients schedule enough hours to include that service.
6. If you employ a social media manager, they are going to be going to all kinds of conferences and group meetings, because those online relationships actually get stronger when you meet people in person.  A Virtual Buzz Assistant can do that for you, but I am thinking you will not want to send a VA.

This post is not to say that Social Media Managers are better than Virtual Buzz Assistants.  It is simply a budget issue.  If you cannot afford a full time social media manager then a Virtual Buzz Assistant, with some great involvement from you, is the next best thing.

Go here to read a great example of what a Social Media Manager would do?

Virtual assistance with Internet Marketing just makes sense.  Can you get any more virtual than Internet Marketing?

First, how do you request virtual assistance that will be effective?

1. Begin with a limited request.  Don’t make a long term commitment until you have tested out the virtual assistance quality of service.
2. Do not pay a fee to make your request.  There are lots of places to request access for virtual assistance.  For example, here at the virtual Buzz Assistant network you can post your request for free and work directly with the service provider of your choice.
3. Clearly define the assistance you need.  The advantage of working with a virtual assistant is that it is MUCH cheaper than hiring a marketing firm.  But you have to know what you want as far as virtual assistance goes.  The more clear you are on the marketing tasks, the more effective you can be with assessing the value you are getting back.
4. Hire someone that can provide virtual assistance that has the background to help you succeed.  Our virtual assistants get Internet Marketing training in the network, so they can be of the highest value to you.
5. Respect your service provider.  Do not ask for unreasonable things.  They need to make a living too, and if they turn out to give you great assistance, you do not want them to go get a job because the pay was too low.  Find something that works for both of you.

The advantages of virtual assistance are:

• lower cost
• short term commitment
• no equipment, utilities, benefits
• contractors that want to keep you as a client
• less administration

Seeking virtual assistance with Internet marketing, as well as many other business activities will help you keep costs low and build relationships that are more valuable and better focused on outcomes.

Authors with upcoming books or newly released books are a great candidate to hire a Virtual Buzz Assistant.  Here are some tips on how to utilize this great resource to get your book into more hands.

1. A virtual Buzz Assistant can contact influential people and ask them to review the book.
2. A VA can help organize a virtual book tour.
3. A VA can help organize an in-person book tour.
4. A VA can ask bloggers to review sample chapters of books.
5. A Virtual Assistant can solicit reviews on amazon.
6. A Virtual Buzz Assistant can read your book and then help write your blog to keep fresh content out there.
7. A Virtual Assistant can build a squidoo lens about your book.
8. An assistant can help you organize testimonials for your website and markting.
9. If your book gets you consulting, your VBA can help you find people to send a free copy of your book to.
10. Your Virtual Assistant can answer questions about the book.
11. The Virtual Buzz Assistant can help you expand your online profile on sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace and more.
12. Article marketing is a great way to create interest and the “find out more” can point to your website, blog or place to purchase the book.
13. Your virtual marketing assistant can make sure your book is listed in online directories.
14. Many virtual assistants know how to modify a webpage or blog post to get better search engine positioning.
15. Your virtual buzz assistant can participate in forums and create relationships with people that care about your topic.
16. Virtual assistants can market your book directly to book clubs and online reading groups.
17. A virtual assistant can help you write and publish your enewsletter.
18. Virtual Assistants can also help you grow your list of subscribers.
19. VA’s can also help you write white papers or case studies that people must sign up for to get.
20. And most importantly, your Virtual Buzz Assistant can promote this book and help you run your business while you get busy on that next book.

Hiring a virtual assistant is easy, and it is free to submit your project request.  The virtual buzz assistant network has members that have experience promoting books on the internet and they get the training to be effective with internet marketing techniques that work very well with may types of books.

You can create a lot of buzz with your employees via great customer service and great products.  But how do you create virtual buzz on the internet without distracting your employees?

Virtual Assistants can easily be trained to create virtual buzz on the web for you one a regular basis.  Not getting exactly what you want?  Great, move on and try another.  It is not like they are employees – and they know that.  Virtual Buzz Assistants want to keep you happy long term and perform better because of it.

Here are some Virtual Buzz Tasks that a Virtual Assistant can do for you.

1. Blog Writing
2. Blog Commenting
3. Blog Management
4. Website Updates
5. Affiliate Management and Recruiting
6. eBook Writing
7. White Paper Research and Writing
8. Contest Management and Promotion
9. Online Advocacy
10. Profile Management
11. Social Network Management
12. Press Release writing and submission
13. Article Marketing
14. SEO
15. eNewsletter writing and publishing
16. Link Building
17. Video development
18. Directory listings
19. Social Network Expansion
20. email followups
21. CRM Management
22. JV Development

There are more, but if you did all of these, wow, you would be well known on the web.  You can create all the virtual buzz you want with a virtual assistant.  Just don’t expect to have sales leads gushing in after only a few weeks.  These strategies take time.

If your business is experiencing a slow down and you are cutting back, you should know a few things.

1. There will be less competition now for people that were spending a lot on SEO and web development. This is a perfect time to start building a higher web profile.
2. Rates are down – Many new people are becoming virtual assistants because of being downsized. You may be able to get a really great rate on a virtual assistant to write for you while you focus on sales.
3. Downsizing may be good – Even if you do not have to let people go, it may be a good time to cut positions that are not paying for themselves and hire virtual assistants and contractors to fill those positions on an as-needed basis.
4. Don’t just hire virtual assistants. Maybe the economic slowdown means it is time to become a virtual company. Imagine less utilities, no lease and a write off for your home office.
5. Monthly Performance Concerns – A contractor or virtual assistant is going to be concerned each month with demonstrating value because they want to have more work next month, and maybe even some referrals. Many employees expect to have a job until they find out otherwise.

When you hire a virtual assistant, you should pay as much attention defining their tasks and training them as you would an employee in your organization. If you do that, you are going to reap big cost savings and get more work done.

During a time of recession it is also a great time to strengthen your position on the web and gain market share and search engine dominance.

Wondering what marketing jobs a virtual assistant can do for you?

Here is a list of the top 10 marketing jobs a VA can do that will generate web results.

#1 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Content Creation

By creating a steady steam of articles and blog posts, you will create more traffic and more long term search engine hits.

#2 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Email List Development

Helping you create a compeling offer and invite people to sign up for your email list can increase your leads significanltly over time.

#3 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Interviews

Whether you are doing podcast interviews, blog interviews or enewsletter interviews, having your VA contact and organize the interview helps you connect with more people and create great content.

#4 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Online Advocacy

A virtual assistant can contact people in your target audience and solicit links, offer free trials and create awareness that can significantly increase your exposure.

#5 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Forums and Groups

A VA will visit forums and groups on your behalf and develop relationships and sometimes post links to products and services – but with full transparency.

#6 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Profile Management

Having trouble keeping up with growing your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other online accounts?  A VA can help you manage these accounts and use the tools to grow your network.

#7 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Social Bookmarks

A VA can maintain social bookmark accounts for you and your business to use to bookmark industry sites as well as your own sometimes.  If you only bookmark your own, you could get a penalty.

#8 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Web Updates

You can pay a web designer or a marketing firm, but in many cases a VA can do your website updates for you for much less.

#9 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job – Google Adword Management

If you are running Google Adwords, you can quickly train a Virtual Assistant to manage your accounts for you, track results and compile reports for you.

#10 Virtual Assistant Marketing Job -Research and SEO

VA’s can do market research and even look at Google Analytics and enhance pages to get better SEO results.

This is not even the entire list.  They can help you develop communities, manage affiliate programs, write white papers and ebooks, proof read you inhouse materials, etc.  When you need an affordable, English-fluent and internet marketing savvy person, you can submit your marketing job to our Virtual Buzz Assistant network.