Public relations professionals regularly deal with people’s perceptions – how individuals see a particular situation and figuring out how to deal with their reactions.

 

Wow, can you believe we are in 2011 already? Time flys when you're having fun!

So with the new year I'm sure you are sitting down this month, just like I did, and are planning out the year for your business. What a chore that can be, BUT there is help available.

Let me share a short list of items a virtual assistant can help you with this year. I know my VA will be helping me with many of these items this year.

Website Updates
Keeping your website up to date is vital! Not only will your visitors be looking for up to date information but so is Google. Google looks for fresh, relevant content all the time. The more you update your site the more Google notices you (and there are many other factors there, but this is a basic one).

Blog Management and syndication
Keep your blog updated at least weekly. If you don't have the time to log in, post, format and syndicate your blog let your VA handle that for you.

Video Editing, Posting and syndication
Video marketing is huge right now. If you are looking to start this or you're already doing it but not seeing results you want your VA can help. They can do the editing, posting and syndication. All of these are time consuming and most business owners don't have the time to dedicate and have a completely successful campaign. Let the VA layout a plan and schedule then you all you do is record the videos. Sounds great doesn't it?

Website Analytics
Do you know what is working and what's not when it comes to incoming traffic on your website? Setting up AND monitoring analytics for your site will really help you see what marketing efforts are working and where you need to improve. Your virtual assistant can monitor and report all important information to you in an easy to read fashion.

Graphic Design
Need a new graphic for your sidebar or that information product? Look no further! Your VA can get one made up for you quickly and have it ready on your site in no time at all.

I really love my VA's and I know you will grow to rely on yours as I do mine. The time they save us business owners is truly priceless. It allows us to really focus on what we love doing and honestly, what makes us the most money!

Do you have questions about virtual assistants or what they can do for your business? Let us know in the comments below.

Here's to a successful 2011!

Press releases are often considered an old style of public relations, but are actually a very powerful option for online promotion.  I was recently reminded of this while submitting several press releases for a client. A press release is usually not the first thing that comes to mind for announcing or promoting something for your business, especially with the explosion of social media.  However, adding press releases to your online promotion activities can provide incredible exposure.

When a press release is submitted online it is distributed to hundreds of news outlets and search engines, and they are very search engine friendly.  What's powerful about submitting them online is that they appear in search results, and you can submit to unlimited press release sites for more result listings.  Additionally, people search the press release sites for news and articles and re-promote them through social media.

A press release can be submitted for winning an award, announcing a new product or service, launching a new website, or a new location.  Most press release distribution sites are free, although they do offer upgrade options for more visibility.  Some of the more popular sites are 1888pressrelease.com, freeprnow.com, usprwire.com, and pr.com.  These sites have a template that you can simply paste your press release information into.

A couple of tips for the best online exposure:

1)  Include keywords (your name, your business name) in your headline

2)  Select the appropriate category to ensure it is distributed to the right audience

Once your press release has been submitted, show it off!  Most distribution sites provide a choice of graphics that include a link to your press release, so you can easily add it to your website or blog.

Gmail recently added two new Labs that will definitely help with the organization and efficiency of your inbox. These new Labs are a must for your inbox! The first one is called Nested Labels, and it allows you to file your Labels in an organized hierarchy. To enable this Lab, click on Settings in Gmail, click on Labs, find Nested Labels and click on enable. Once enabled, you will need to name your new "child" label with a slash (Mailing-Lists/Disney, Mailing-Lists/Enigma, etc.). This is a great feature for multiple newsletters and family emails, and will save time when searching for a specific email. However, Gmail does note that this Lab does not play nicely with the Hide Read Labels Lab, the collapse/expand icons won't always appear when they should.


The second new Lab is called Message Sneak Peek and is going to be a real timesaver! Instead of actually opening each new email, you can now see a preview of the message. To enable this Lab, click on Settings in Gmail, click on Labs, find Message Sneak Peek and click on enable. Once enabled, simply right click on an email and a preview pane will pop up allowing you to quickly review and determine what to do with that message. Simply hit the Escape key to exit the preview pane. The message will remain in Unread status until it is actually opened.
Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of the new Labs.

Once your inbox is organized with Labels and Filters, there are a few features in Gmail that can be added to further increase your email efficiency. These are all called Labs, and can be found by clicking on Settings, and then Labs. Find each Lab in the list and simply click on the "Enable" radio button.

Custom Label Colors

This Lab will provide an array of colors to code your Labels. For example, you may want to code your Urgent folder red, and your Twitter folder light blue. To assign a color, click on the left arrow in front of the Label name and choose a color. By associating a color with a Label, you can quickly identify the Label you need.

Hide Read Labels

This Lab hides all of the Labels in your inbox until a new message arrives. Once a new message arrives and the filter places it in the designated Label, the Label will appear bold and show the number of messages in that Label. You can always click on “# more” to view all of your Labels if you need to access them. These will keep all of your Labels out of your peripheral vision, which is a distraction.

Superstars

This Lab allows you to code each message with different icons, such as a colored star, checkmark, or information icon. These coded messages will stand out in your inbox or in a Label. To code a message, just click on the empty star in front of the Sender’s name. Continue clicking until you reach the icon you want for that message. You can also search starred messages by clicking on “Starred” at the top of your inbox or in a specific Label. All messages with an icon will be highlighted.

These Labs will help you to quickly identify what type of messages arrive, what needs to be read immediately or later, and star important messages for quick indexing, saving time and increasing your email efficiency.

While everyone is ready to ‘start the new year off right’, they set themselves up with a list of resolutions which they vow to keep... well, for at least a few weeks.
Today, I want us to take a closer look... Go get your resolution list – It’s ok I’ll wait.

Did you get all 3,465 pages? Are you ready?

The following 8 easy steps have been proven efficient for all resolutions alike.

1. Reach for your metal trash bin.
2. Empty it.
3. Set list in bin. Go ahead and be creative.
4. Light match.
5. Let out evil laugh... Come on, I know you can do it!
6. Allow the match to slowly and carefully drop into trash bin.
7. Watch your list burn.
8. Ok you can let another evil laugh out. From the gut this time.

Those 8 steps were easy enough weren’t they?
Feel better? Did you feel a load off your back?
Why do we insist on adding stress to our lives by setting ourselves to fail with unrealistic goals?

On to the real 8 steps...

In last week’s blog post, your homework was to write down a list of goals. These were not ‘resolutions’ but goals you wanted to achieve in 2009 but for some reason or another, it just didn’t happen. Our plan is to make them happen in 2010.

Because your goal in January was to decrease our stress by re-establishing your old routine, we’re going to continue practicing this new found skill by planning our next objective – February’s goal. I promise you it’s easier than it sounds. And because we’re only working on one at a time, you won’t get overwhelmed with a new list of resolutions to maintain... well, for at least a few weeks.

1. Write your February goal down. If you are a visual person, add colour, shapes, stickers, motivation words to your sheet. Make it inviting, exciting, visually noticeable.
2. Place it (more like TACK IT) somewhere you can see it on a daily basis. (Not on your desk where it will get lost in a shuffle of papers)
3. Plan it. Make a bullet list of steps to achieve this goal.
4. Don’t make it complicated – you’ll overwhelm yourself.
5. If you can’t honestly, 100% commit to your new goal, break it down even smaller.
6. Now take your plan and mark each step’s (and deadline) in your agenda, calendar, whatever it is you use (and if you don’t use one... you should. If you still don’t... hire a VA to keep you on track!)
7. Don’t allow yourself to excuse you from this exercise. It’s just ONE GOAL.
8. For personal goals such as I’ll quit smoking or I’ll reduce the amount of caffeine I drink, detailed plans are still quite useful. Take it slow if you have to. You don’t have to accomplish the total goal in a month; you just need to accomplish the steps you planned to reach that goal.
9. Now accomplish the first step in your plan. Don’t wait for a better time... the perfect time is right away. Again, it’s just ONE step... don’t get ahead of yourself either by attempting several steps at once.
10. Don’t stress about the next goal. Focus on your current one and make it successful!

By the third week of February, you can start planning your next goal – the one for March... don’t worry, I’ll send you a reminder.

Happy planning!

Monday, January 4th 2010 – if we could have heard everyone wake up at the same time throughout North America, it would have been a true screeching fingernails-running-down-blackboard sound similar to something like:
No No! … Louder – much much louder!!!! And with more disgust:
Getting back into the swing of things after the holidays is often difficult. Children everywhere suddenly become ill with tummy and head aches. My nephew said it best. After arguing strong points on why he shouldn’t have to go to school, he left the house declaring:

“Fine! But Tuesday is a DAY… OFF!”

Although we look forward to sending those little children over the threshold, for us adults it’s not any easier! We find ourselves yearning to sleep-in for ‘just one more day’ – and this time make it a ME day! What an enticing plan after bewildering holiday stress with dashing here, sprinting there, family and friends demanding our attention all around us. Who wants to get back into the swing of deadlines?


But alas… we have a mountain of debt to recover from so off to work we go, dragging our feet along the way, day dreaming of a million and one other things we’d rather be doing instead.

Re-establish your old routine

In order to get past these me-time-blues, it is critical to focus on maintaining the same routine you were accustomed to prior to the holidays. Re-establish the comfort of your daily schedule and forget adding on more stress with New Year’s resolutions… for now!

We fail in keeping our resolutions because we try to integrate new plans into an already stressful period!

Set Realistic Goals

Plan to succeed. Set some realistic goals for yourself starting with not stressing yourself out in January. Focus on re-establishing your routine, morning, afternoon and evening. (If you must call it a resolution… I’ll forgive you! But don’t plan anything else – promise?)

Mental exercise to get you motivated

HOMEWORK:

Mentally prepare yourself for a great year.

1.    Reflect on what you did accomplish in 2009 and take ownership of it. Be proud of yourself!
Now move forward knowing that 2010 will be even better!

2.    Think back at the goals you did not accomplish in 2009.
Don’t just make a mental note of these and start feeling bad for yourself.
Jot them down and save the file under “2010 Goals”.
But don’t start planning just yet – that’s an entirely new blog to come. We’ll come back to it later.

My #1 goal for 2010 is to write more frequently. I thought about it in 2008, I talked about it in 2009 and I will plan it in 2010!

Organizing your inbox is the single most important task to increase your email efficiency. It can also be the most daunting. It’s a new year, what a better time to stop wasting your time in your inbox!
The key to an organized and effective inbox is to set it up to work for you. Spend some time evaluating your inbox. Who are the emails from? What is important? What is priority? What is information only? What needs to be responded to? What can be unsubscribed to?
After answering these questions, make a category list (called Labels in Gmail) that each email can be filed under. For example: Priority, Twitter, Marketing, Newsletters, Family, etc. It’s important to try and keep your Label list to a minimum, for maximum efficiency.

Once you have determined your Label names, you’re ready to set them up.

• Click on Settings
• Labels
• Scroll down to the second section titled Labels
• In the “Create a New Label” box, type your first Label name and click Create.

Continue this process until all of your Labels are created. Next, add filters to help organize incoming email messages.

• Click on Settings
• Filters
• Create a New Filter
• Enter your criteria for the Filter, such as who the email is from or the subject.
• Click on Next Step, and here you'll enter the action of the Filter.
• Check the "Apply the Label" box and select the designated Folder from the drop down menu.
• I highly recommend checking the box "Skip the Inbox". This will automatically place incoming email into the designated Folder.
• Check the box next to Create the Filter “Also apply filter to conversations below”, and click on Create the Filter.

Repeat this for your remaining Labels. Your new Labels will appear on the left-hand side of your Inbox and when a new email is received, it will be placed into the Label and the Label name will be bolded. Gmail also notifies you of how many unread emails are in each Label, in parentheses next to the name. Your Inbox is now cleaned and organized. You will probably add to your Labels, and it may take some trial error before you get it set up exactly the way you want it.

Next week, Organizing Gmail with Labels & Filters Part 2 will cover more tips to increase your email efficiency.

If you have multiple email accounts (and most of us do) you will love this Gmail feature.  It’s one of my favorites.  Gmail allows you to import up to 5 webmail or POP3 email accounts.You won't have to log in and check emails on multiple locations.  You’ll have one location as a dashboard for all of your email accounts.

To begin pulling your emails into Gmail, click on settings from your inbox:

• Accounts and Import
• Import Mail and Contacts
• Then the feature guides you through the complete setup.

You will also need to set up the Send Mail As feature to send email from these additional accounts.  To utilize this feature, click on settings from your inbox:

• Accounts and Import
• Send Mail from Another Address
• Select the “Reply from the same address the message was sent to” option to automatically send from the address the email was sent to.
• When composing a new email, you will now have a drop down menu in the From field with all the email addresses that you’ve set up and can select which one to send from.

This is a great email management tool and has proven to be a real time-saver for me.  No more sending and receiving from my desktop client or searching multiple accounts trying to find an email.  Let us know how it works for you or if you need help!