Virtual Assistance and You

Categorizing and marketing

When it comes to your relationships, your clients, your colleagues, contacts, and suppliers, it’s tempting to categorize them and set up automated systems based on assumptions or aggregate descriptives about them.

The possibility of categorizing – i.e., labeling groups of people with certain shared characteristics – has triggered the past century or so in advertising. Some Henry Ford idea of standardization has blinded us to anything else but a mechanized version of human life.

But people are not essentially mechanistic. Our differences are both subtle and enormous.

Do you judge rather than serve?

Are you positively paralyzed by the fracas over the “Ground Zero” Muslim community center? Could we possibly be more splintered, more divided than we are over this issue? (The whole thing makes me sad.)

I realize I have a palpable fear of certain political viewpoints. I am actually afraid of those who espouse certain affiliations. I feel threatened by them.

These realizations cause me to re-assess. To have such extreme responses bodes no good. I am believing in my categories instead of perceiving the individuality of every moment, person, and situation.

Do you agree that there is a difference here?

You can hold to the hard line, insisting that everything can be categorized; or you can open to the reality that there is no categorization, that every instance is unique.

The tools for service

It is, of course, a lot easier to sort things into boxes and deal with them in bulk. But real life, nature, and the environment around us all suggest that it’s a lot more complicated than that. Especially when it comes to other people, shortcuts created by generalizing are costly if not completely destructive.

So thank goodness for social media, giving us the means by which to address our ‘public’ one by one. The technology has an uncanny way of expressing solutions to needs we hardly knew we had! But our need to serve rather than judge surely preceded the internet’s explosion.

That thing you do …

The old ‘billboard’ outbound marketing had to die. People do not want to be categorized, so any system that perpetrates categorization is doomed from the start. People want to be seen in their individuality, and it is the extent to which you can convince them you see them accordingly that you win their trust, and patronage.

Applying this maxim to the continual search for my ideal client, it becomes clear that there’s no final definition of that elusive personality. The person who resonates best with me may actually fit a multitude of ‘profile’ types. I can no more hope to predict the type than I can resolve the “Ground Zero Mosque” question.

Ultimately, que sera, sera, right? If I be what I be, you be what you be, and we meet through the internet or anywhere, then you are my ideal client. At least until proven otherwise.

It’s interesting that the internet is rising to such ascendancy during one of the worst times, economically speaking, that the world has seen. While we are struggling with everyday survival, the internet is taking us to unprecedented heights of thought and societal awareness.

Whether one is the result of the other, I don’t know and won’t attempt to explore here. But because the juxtaposition is so startling, it demands notice. Somehow, the technologies, practices, and cultures of the web are involved in our happy future. The omnipotent and largely free internet suggests possibilities for not only coping but succeeding in major ways despite our material and ecological woes.

But there’s no denying that establishing a strong presence online is an acquired skill, gained through patience and humble learning. The norms of the ‘net aren’t easy to describe to the uninitiated. How often, when discussing social media, have you heard someone sneer, “Reading what kind of sandwich you had for lunch is not interesting to me. What a waste of time!”

Yet, online branding being the multi-faceted dragon that it is, your lunchtime ham on rye can actually be a not-insignificant part of it.  That is,  internet protocols are a new mixture of work and play; and mastering the mix makes artists of us all.

As he so often does, Mitch Joel nails it.

From gossip and soap operas to professional wrestling and reality television, we love following and burrowing ourselves in the lives of others. So, why is it any shock that Facebook has over 500 million accounts?

(You’ll really enjoy Mitch’s post. Go ahead and check it out. I’ll wait.)

Mitch points out that the internet plays well to our natural propensity for being seen. We have a natural need to be recognized by others, and online participation allows that in a big way. Of course, if I’m to be seen, I must also see others; and it’s been observed that success online is proportional to your genuine interest in others. So the 80/20 rules applies here as in so many other places: 80% listening, 20% talking.

Amazingly, the internet takes us back, in a way, more than forward. It demands old-fashioned manners, and it judges a business more by its reputation than by its looks. Its terrain feels like a frontier, and its laws have yet to be created. It seems like an adolescent: lithe, pimply, emotional, self-righteous, hopeful, and ripe with all the glories of young adulthood.

But whatever else it may be, the web lets us share in enormous amounts compared to just 20 years ago. That’s what’s really new about it. And when we share this way, our ideas about work and play and  mission and branding and purpose are profoundly affected. Your ham-on-rye-ness may or may not be attractive to my grilled cheese-ness. Keeping this data in proper perspective and order is the challenge: but it’s data we need (even crave!) and use nonetheless.

If you’re still waffling, not wanting to tackle the internet’s challenges, consider how it is bringing us closer to our true selves. Why deny yourself, or your business, such a pleasurable profit?

Working in inbound marketing can be frustrating because its precepts – which work so well, when applied conscientiously – are foreign to traditional business practices. They’re the opposite of marketing tactics we grew up with. They sound suspiciously soft-hearted, on first encounter. Therefore, very few people know and hold to them.

It’s frustrating when, as  an inbound marketer, you consider warm responsiveness to be basic to good business, for example, but you realize that very few of your vendors and colleagues hold that value.  Unless you serve an immediate need of theirs, you won’t get a response from them at all.

Or when you work hard on good listening skills, and then realize the other person’s awareness doesn’t extend any further than the end of their nose.

Or when you generously give, and then suddenly see that your gifts are taken for granted or even resented.

Or how about this one: you realize the person you’re talking to is completely possessed by fear of identity theft, not to mention AIDS, drugs, crime, terrorists, and Bigfoot, and can’t hear a word you’re saying about sharing and openness on the internet.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I’m involved in an ongoing campaign to spread the good word about inbound marketing in my local area. But sometimes the gap in understanding leaves me gasping.

• Be open about who you are personally?
• Give things away?
• Forget privacy paranoia?
• Mix business and social life?
• Publish my journal in a blog?

These things are anathema in the American South. Still.

So I get disheartened, sometimes, like the Congresswoman yesterday who remarked that philosophical differences between the sides were so great in the immigration discussions that no meeting of the minds seems possible.

On the other hand, I know inbound marketing is here to stay. How do I know that? Because it works, and the old invasive techniques increasingly do not work.

There’s one fellow I know from local networking, whom I have seen at meetings for a couple years now, though we haven’t spoken personally much. I regarded him as a master with the elevator speech, and an accomplished socializer, definitely part of the glue keeping the groups together. Not until today did I learn that he considers himself a student in, as he puts it, “learning how to talk to people.” He’s probably 55 or 60 years old; was a firefighter all his career; only recently turned to selling. There was a look in his eye as he spoke, and the spellbinding clarity of his intention. He is curious about “how to talk to people,” and that means he listens, and gives, and serves, and keeps an open mind. Awe-inspiring.

So there, I’ve now convinced myself that all is not lost, and I can go on preaching the inbound marketing gospel to the insurance agents and realtors in my local groups. If my fireman gets it, maybe many more can and will.

What do you think?

How extraordinarily fortunate I am! Every work day, I interact with people from all over the globe. And every work day, I also interact with local people, in person.

Please pause a moment and consider the awesomeness of that. I’m an everyday person, not a big wheeler-dealer, not a politician or celebrity. Yet my habitual work brings me in contact with the world; while remaining in contact with my immediate sphere. I live in a universe of the macro and micro continuously juxtaposed.

Predictably, the local world is far more personal and powerful in its effect on me than the global world. But it also tends to lag far behind in terms of self-awareness and technological advancement. So it’s with special pleasure that I’ve been observing lately a certain awakening on the local level. After more than two years of campaigning about inbound marketing and social media among networking groups in nearby cities, I’ve been noticing lately a definite, nascent glimmer of understanding. They’re beginning to ask questions, they’re getting this info from more angles than just mine, and they have decided it’s necessary to investigate.

Which results in business for me, of course. Hallelujah.

But more importantly, the same dual experience of daily life which I know as a virtual assistant- an interchange between the globe as a whole and the room in which you happen to ‘geo-locate’  right now – has become the norm for a great many more people than heretofore. Not so long ago, when I mentioned Facebook or Twitter, eyes would roll. As it is now, ears perk.

The technology allows for all the world to see itself in whole, and in part, at any given time.

To see itself both in a space and in space: both at a location and in relevance to all locations.

Whew. This is not to be dismissed as trivial. World view, never before so large as it is today, forms all responses to life, whether physical, metal, spiritual, or whatever.

No epiphany can soar without its symbol. Let this one be a symbol of hope, because we can only hope that the awareness to which we are privileged parties via the internet may be our strength and not our mere indulgence.

No one took exception to my last entry here, though – at least in my little mind – it tested the edges of what it means to be a virtual assistant. But since there seems to be no objection so far, I’m going to push the point a bit further.

It was after I started working as a VA that the phenomenon known as social media began to impinge on my consciousness. Actually, it was a full year later, in late 2008, that the awakening happened: I heard the clarion call of social media as a marketing and branding uber tool. I was dazzled, swept away, and things have not been the same since.

The advent of social media (detestable as the term sounds in ear – can’t we come up with a better name for it?) meant that I could synthesize so many objectives. I work with small businesses as a virtual assistant, centering on planning, can-do admin, and meaningful evaluations – all with the purpose of building brand.

Which is a long way of saying, I am a virtual assistant because I work as a partner to you and your business. I’m invisible but always there; a fellow eye on the big picture as well as a structure for follow through.

As a VA, I want to serve client businesses holistically. As a social media marketing assistant, I use thorough understanding of client objectives and operations to speak their messages faithfully.

A SMM assistant is the one who helps you stay current with your online networking updates of all kinds. The service can be the key to successful internet branding and selling, which is relatively inexpensive as marketing goes, but a hungry monster when it comes to time. Assigning updates of many kinds to an assistant is a no-brainer.

Before your objections flood the comments, let me say that I do not advocate ‘ghost updating’ in any way. Updates that are generic are an entirely different thing from those that reference personal life. The latter can’t be faked online, so don’t even try.

But there are a host of duties that can be shared with a SMM assistant, making life once again both livable and profitable for you as small business owner. Your SMM assist can:

• Edit and upload (or schedule) blog posts, tweets, Facebook, LinkedIn or other network updates;
• edit and distribute articles;
• add tags to media content and upload;
• complete profiles and account information on relevant sites;
• monitor alerts for your keywords and participate appropriately;
• manage social media groups and comments;
• build pages on Facebook, HubPages, etc.;
• optimize your website copy for search engines;
• monitor your traffic, reputation, and other stats and send you reports;
• so much more, I can’t even think of all the possibilities.

Social media is so much about being consistently there. Sort of like the old brick and mortar imperative: the store’s gotta be open 7 to 11. Somebody’s got to be there. In social media, the time requirement is not so strict, but it’s there. Be sporadic in your updates, have long unexplained absences, take an extended vacation and your efforts deflate like an old balloon.

Your social media marketing assistant assures your presence is solid online.

BUT (and this is major) your SMM assistant also represents you. So find one who will eagerly learn the totality of your biz and take you on as a partner. A virtual assistant, for instance, may well be a ready candidate!

I have a free download available on my site, in which I talk about extroverted listening - meaning listening to what’s going on around you, as opposed to listening to your own thoughts. It’s important to make this distinction, because we are so unused to listening as a regular practice. If I suddenly say to you, “Listen!” you’re likely to focus your attention on your ears. But it will be several seconds, if not minutes, before you really start to listen to your surroundings, leaving behind self consciousness.

For the most part, business can’t afford to listen that deeply. Time is money, and that kind of attention takes too long. Doctors and ministers may be funded for such activities, but commerce is not.

Yet isn’t it true that the times when you have listened most attentively are the most informative moments in your experience? And how often, after a business transaction or meeting do you wish you had listened more carefully?

Certainly for me, listening is an ongoing discipline. In initial consults with clients, for example, I can never seem to listen well enough. Though I have gotten heaps better at it over the years, the quiet mirror-mind of an excellent listener ever escapes me.

Still, the learning from listening is the best learning. And the more listening, the more learning.

Are leaders also good listeners? Perhaps long-lasting leaders are. We can be sure they’re keenly hearing the call of some command.

And what about terrible listeners – you’ve encountered them, right? They’re in your face while they talk, and then when you speak they get busy doing something else.

Listening defines reputation in a big way.

Of course, I’m not advocating for keeping mum all the time. I’m way too outspoken for that. But maybe now, especially, when the web lets us all have a voice, pausing to listen before speaking may be more critical than we might naturally think.

And it continues to astound me, despite strong intent and careful preparation, how I fail to listen enough. The required understanding is enormous.

Ah well, no reason to quit trying.

A helpful visual

Created by Online Education

Increasingly, I’m aware that the field of virtual assistance – in its broadest scope – includes anyone who is offering help to others via online channels. We use the web for research, communications, sales, and an enormous number of other business applications.

And the field of virtual assistance – whether you offer transcription, coaching, client-specific software design, or anything in between these extremes – has its own set of rules and requirements,  some of which radically depart from tradition.  Take, for instance, the meaning of time, online.

Not only have computers and the internet made business astronomically faster than it was 50 years ago, but this increase in velocity has carved its effect in the individual’s experience of time as well.

Because this can be a source of confusion for noobs, I list below a few cautions.

• If they don’t respond to your email within 24 hours, they’re not going to respond.
• If they haven’t opened your newsletter within 24 hours, they’re not going to open it.
• If it wasn’t tweeted within the past hour, it’s passé.
• If it’s an article about a social media tool that was published last summer, don’t bother to read it.
• If it’s a blog with no dates displayed, it’s not a blog but rather a collection of articles. No need to read it now: put it in the folder for later. (Along with all the other articles you’re planning to read later.)
• If you like the look of the Twitter background at very first glance, they’re probably someone you want to follow.
• If you do something stupid and it goes viral, you’re a villain overnight: if you do something brilliant and it’s viral, your future may be instantly assured.

It’s a precarious existence; one in which fate can hang a hard left at any given instant. Therefore, the development of a spontaneous relationship with the web is really the best practice. You have to be ready, alert, tuned in. You have to grab ‘em with a glance. You have to be eminently responsive.

It’s is a new and different rhythm of life, to be sure, for anyone over 50 and perhaps for many less aged. But this post’s theme occurred to me because I ‘met’ a client, quite suddenly and serendipitously, online five days ago and immediately we struck up a delightful and rare harmony.  I could easily have missed this opportunity, but I didn’t. I was there and I responded.

In my earliest days of web exploration, I read an article that said internet success involves staying open, being willing to try things, suspending doubt. Way back when I studied theatrical improv, one of the rules was, ‘Say yes!’ That’s how you make interactions work.

The web is sudden, and fast, and improvisational.  Assimilating its rhythm is a big part of finding its treasures.

Next level thoughts on business and the internet

In 2010, my bet is that you’ll improve your social media marketing strategy by being even more transparent than you’ve already been.

Is this possible? You have a website, your profile picture is everywhere and information about you is plastered all over social networking sites. You feel like you’ve never been so out there and exposed in your life. But you must be still more nakedly honest, at least with yourself.

In 2010, you’ll learn how to skillfully manipulate a select few social media channels to achieve real objectives. You’ll be brutally honest about what responses you need from your social networking. You’ll look deep, make no excuses, work fanatically for what you know will succeed.

We’ve had our time in the sandbox. We’ve played with all the toys, tried out all their bells and whistles. Through natural selection, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are on the top of most lists right now (and have been for a year or so); but their complementary and competitive markets are legion. Our whimsy could champion a new channel any given year. It doesn’t matter because these are only the toys, only the tools.

It’s time, in 2010, to return to the fundamentals, and get clear about what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to run a business, right? We want at least to support ourselves and do some good. Many people want riches and fame as well.

How can online marketing efficiently serve your real honest-to-gosh nitty gritty purposes?

The internet can be critically helpful to your business in several very different ways. Knowing which use you are making of it at any given time will vastly increase your sense of forward progress.

1. It can help you to spread a message. In this way, the web is like traditional marketing, though its techniques are new. Instead of billboards, you can use Twitter. You can write articles and distribute them at a hundred sites; you can blog about your message, and share it on Facebook, etc. This method can easily become spam, however, so approach it with caution. Most would call the approach spammy to begin with, and righteously proclaim social media as a place where such behavior is not accepted. But despite their disclaimers, it exists, to be sure, and so is offered here as not only an option but a reality. By participating at all in social media, you advertise your brand.

2.  The internet can help your business if you manage to make it to the first page of a Google search for your keywords; and if your keywords have some popularity. With SEO and fabulous content along with social media marketing, you can make it to Google’s top placements. Indeed, that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Indexing on the first page of Google = customers; this truth motivates most of the work of social media marketers.

3.  The web can also give you a platform, so your expertise can become visible to other people who are interested in your field. Through the usual networks and through specialized online forums as well, your brand can be presented as powerfully as your expressive abilities will allow. On the new proverbial level playing field, you are able to establish your ability to solve potential customers’ problems.

4.  Some companies don’t have an urgent need to advertise, since they have plenty of clients. But they still need to maintain public relations; and they need to be aware of fluctuations – not only in the market, but in their branding. Online reputation management is crucial for well-established companies, who can be caught sleeping if they don’t stay alert to what’s being said about them.

For each of these uses of the internet, an entirely different strategy and selection of tools will apply. The selection of tools and creation of social media strategies will become an increasingly exact science, as you work to achieve very specifically targeted results.

2010 is the year we’ll start to use the internet and social media in more purposeful ways, at least when it comes to marketing for business. We’ll begin to understand the value of consistency over multiplicity. We’ll more attentively select just a few channels, and devote our passions there, rather than flitting and flirting amongst a dozen arenas. We’ll know what our goals are in social media activities, and we’ll measure the outcomes accordingly.

This year, we’ll get real, get down and deep, get the unadorned skinny on how to maximize the internet’s amazing technologies for individual business gain. And we won’t be shy about it, because the web is coming of age!

Image by qthomasbower via Flickr.

Ways to peel the onion

The internet’s tangles recently caught me up in the discovery of Cleavage, a blog by one Kelly Diels. Never mind your twinge at the word (go there and find out all about it, if you haven’t already. I’ll wait. She’s worth it.)

What’s significant here is 1) the title, posts, and author exemplify a delicious height of literary skill; and 2) Kelly urges us, in her home page post, to participate in helping the people of Haiti, even though we may be broke.

Kelly suggests that entrepreneurs offer to donate to a Haiti relief fund the fee or part of the fee for whatever they have to sell to the next whatever number of customers. To those of us who are barely affording rent, making a cash contribution seems out of our range. But when you put it in ‘in-kind’ terms like this, possibilities abound.

Kelly’s logic in conceiving the benefit is slightly flawed. If you’re going to purchase something because your fee will be given to a cause, why not just give to the cause outright? If I’m going to offer to give my fee to the relief effort, why don’t I just give the cash?

But logic is not the whole story when it comes to earthquakes, and poverty, and human rights, and certainly not when it comes to marketing.

I am, therefore, accepting Kelly’s challenge and making you an offer. There are several not-necessarily-rational motivating factors for me:

• I am struggling financially: I can’t give cash, but time is something I can share;
• I remember giving to Haiti from UNICEF collections at Halloween when I was a child: the country had an early importance to me;
• The right thing is for every single one of us to give something, to send real healing in some way to the Haitians; and
• Kelly Diels is one helluva writer.

So. In short:

Starting at the publication of this post, for the first two customers who contract with me to create a Facebook Fan Page, I will donate my full fee ($100) in their name to the Red Cross.

Any questions? Oh, please email me at mary at writingva dot com. Together, we’ll get something done here.