Use your avatar (profile picture) as a marketing tool

by Sarah Santacroce

In a previous post I have written about the benefits of commenting on other blogs. If you have been actively doing that, you must have noticed that some people have a nice profile picture (a so called avatar) next to their comment, and some don’t. Which ones did you prefer? Obviously the ones with the picture. A picture gives every comment a human touch, we feel like there is a real person behind the text. A faceless or worse, an anonymous comment, leaves the impression that the person is trying to “hide” something.

A nice avatar actually increases the trust in your person and therefore your brand. So in my opinion, it’s one other little thing that you should add to your Internet Marketing “to do” list. And that’s where Gravatar.com comes in.

What is Gravatar?
Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. It’s basically a little icon, that represents your brand and will be displayed on every blog comment that you write.
Signing up with Gravatar is fast and easy, and most importantly it’s totally free. You can add your blog and website links and social media icons so when a person clicks on your avatar they get the full information about your brand. Below is mine to show you an example.

A few tips on your Gravatar

1. use a good quality photograph
2. don’t use your company logo, it’s too impersonal
3. I recommend you use the same picture as on your other Social Media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc.) This way people easily recognize you and associate you with your brand

That’s all there is to it.
How about this? You register with Gravatar and then show off your new avatar by leaving a comment below? I’m looking forward to it…

3 ways to work without a fax machine

by Sarah Santacroce

If you are like me, you don’t really see the point in owning a fax machine anymore. Faxes are history, right?
But I admit that even in my virtual business, I sometimes work with clients who still prefer to work with faxes.
Did I buy a fax machine? No, I looked for other ways. Here is what I found:

1. Scanr

This is a great application for the iphone. It basically turns your phone into a scanner and fax machine.
You take a picture of the document you would like to send. Your camera turns into a scanner and scans that picture. Then a message asks you if you want to send the document by e-mail or fax. If your client prefers a fax, you just type in the fax number (works in over 90 countries) and off it goes ! Neat, isn’t it? Oh, did I mention that you can also use it to print ? In my opinion worth the price of $29.99.

2. e-Fax

E-fax is an online application which lets you send and receive very cheap faxes. You will get a local number where your customers can send you their faxes.
You then get them by e-mail. I like this option especially to receive faxes.

3. Echosign

This is my favorite one. If you work with contracts, you will love this one! Echosign gets rid of the back and forth between the two parties who need to sign a contract. You draft the contract, upload it to the echosign online interface and then send it to the other party. They will receive an e-mail, inviting them to e-sign the document. It is convenient because they can sign wherever they are, even from their iphone.
They offer a free services for up to 5 signatures per month. The basic services costs $14.95 per month, for unlimited signatures.


Find out more about the legal aspect of electronic signatures.

Now it’s your turn. Do you use any cool and practical ways to avoid fax machines? Share them in the comments !

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How to manage a multilingual Facebook page

by Sarah Santacroce

Even though English is usually the common language for international business people, most non native English speakers still prefer to read their daily information and communication in their mother tongue. The same goes for Facebook. And according to Facebook, 70% of their users are outside the United States. Once a user sets his/her preferred language, he/she will see most of Facebooks site in that language.

Which are the two main reasons to have a multilingual Facebook page ?

1. You live in a country where there is a big majority of people who speak an other language (in America 10.7 % speak Spanish, in Switzerland 63.7% speak French, 20.4% speak French and 6.5% speak Italian, in Canada 21.6% speak French etc. )
   
2. You do business internationally and your target audience is multilingual

If either one of those reasons applies to you, you might want to start managing your Facebook page in multiple languages. You will see that you will get much more return (comments, likes, interactions) from people, if they get to read your content in their own native language. You could even go a step further and personalize the content with country specific information. For example: in the USA a majority of people uses Linkedin, in France Viadeo is more popular and in Germany it is Xing. So if you post an update about this Social Media tool, you would post Linkedin for the Americans, Viadeo for the French and Xing for the German speaking members. For more details on localization you might find this post about website localization and multilingual SEO interesting.

So now that I have convinced you that a multilingual Facebook page is the way to go, I’ll show you quickly how easy it really is to do:

1. Go to your Facebook page, write a status update and click on the custom button

2. Define your audience by choosing the location and the languages

3. Share your update and recognize the customized posts by the little “custom” icon

That’s it, that’s all there is to it. Of course you have to be fluent in the other language, since grammatical mistakes are not very sexy :-) If you’re not, hire a bilingual Virtual Assistant to help you !

If you found this post helpful, consider joining a growing international community on my Facebook page (and let me know by posting a message in your mother tongue on my wall) or signing up for more helpful small business tips by subscribing to my RSS Feed. Thanks for reading!

How can a Bilingual Virtual Assistant help you?

by Claudia Amendola (IT), Sylvie Guiziou (FR) and Sarah Santacroce (CH)

A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is an independent entrepreneur who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.

A virtual assistant can help you with your daily tasks that need to be accomplished in order to run your business successfully. She or he can work on both short-term and long-term projects without becoming your employee. You can save money by hiring a virtual assistant as the costs will not include the usual ones related to having a permanent employee (equipment and rental costs, payroll, taxes, benefits and non-productive hours).
A bilingual VA who speaks and writes at least two languages fluently is highly beneficial for a firm which does business in those languages.

Below you find a non exhaustive list of some tasks that you can delegate to this administrative partner.

Administrative tasks:

A bilingual virtual assistant can organize and manage your correspondence or an email campaign for your business. She can manage your database, updating and entering new information. If you need travel arrangements, calendar management, email data research, date entry, transcription or other administrative services in two languages, a bilingual virtual assistant is the person that can solve all these things, while you focus on more lucrative work. All you need is a computer, a phone and an internet connection to stay in touch with a virtual assistant and delegate the tasks to her or him.

Marketing:

Some virtual assistants are specialized in Internet and/or social media marketing. They can help you set up an article or press release marketing campaign, improve the SEO of your website and give you other helpful tips on how to increase your client base trough Internet marketing. They are also experts in how to use social media to increase your leads: create a business blog, set up an engaging Facebook page, help you how to use Twitter and other trendy social media tools.

Customer Services:

If you are looking for customers worldwide, a bilingual virtual assistant can help you communicate with your clients in countries whose language you do not speak fluently. A bilingual virtual assistant can connect with your prospects or customers in their native language and help you develop your business.

Translations:

Bilingual virtual assistants can translate your website, articles, press releases or Powerpoint presentations to their native language or to another language they are fluent in. Human translations are always better than machine translations and a bilingual or multilingual virtual assistant can offer you a level of translation that will take your business to the next level. A virtual assistant is more involved in your business so the translation can be more accurate and more focused on your needs. Certified translators usually charge more for the same translations.

Internet Marketing and SEO:

A bilingual virtual assistant can also perform SEO for the targeted language, which is more than translating the text word by word. He or she will know which keywords are relevant in the target language so that your translated site will be better ranked in Google or Bing.
The efficient, cost-effective solutions offered by bilingual virtual assistants allow you to devote more time to your core business, increase productivity and save money.

***

Italian and Spanish native speaker, Claudia Amendola of MTvirtualassistant is a multilingual virtual assistant (it-sp-en) specialized in bilingual customer services, website translation and travel concierge. htpp://www.mtvirtualassistant.com

French national, Sylvie Guiziou, of Optim Office is a bilingual (fr-en) virtual assistant dedicated to working with small business owners and individual entrepreneurs to help them focus on strategic activities that require their full attention. Sylvie delivers virtual assistance in general administrative services, bilingual En-Fr services, transcription, copywriting, data entry, Internet research and much more at http://www.optimoffice.fr

Swiss national, Sarah Santacroce runs Simplicity Admin Solutions, a virtual assistance business working with small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to help them dedicate their precious time to their core business. Simplicity Admin Solutions offers tailor made virtual administrative solutions, Internet marketing support, translation service and much more at http://www.simplicityadmins.com. All services are available in English, German and French.

Website localization and multilingual SEO: a bilingual Virtual Assistant can help you

by guest blogger Claudia Amendola of mtvirtualassistant.com

What’s the key of a successful international website?

Over the past year, many of my clients with international websites have been asking me for an easy and fast way to optimize their sites for each country or the European market. That’s the reason why I wanted to make this post and share with you my thoughts. Please feel free to share yours too by leaving your comments ,-) .

You may know already that an “international” website is a website for an international audience. In order to reach an international audience you will need to Translate and Localize your website in other languages. English is the most common language but that doesn’t mean that everyone on this planet speaks and understand perfectly English. Only 37 percent of the world’s online population speaks English as a first language.

Translate your website in other languages such as Spanish, Italian, French, German ect will assure you a niche of market you will never get if your website is only written in English.

But translating your website is not the only thing you will need to do in order to reach multilingual audiences. Your website needs to be localized. WEBSITE LOCALIZATION is the process of modifying an existing website to make it accessible, usable and culturally suitable to a new target audience. It is a multi-layered process needing both programming expertise and linguistic/cultural knowledge as well as marketing knowledge. If a website is only translated to a different language, the chances to reach a new market are lower.

The website localization process comes normally first. Followed up by the website and content translation. At least this is what I normally do as I prefer to search and focus first on the market and audience niche. It is important to study the right words, the target audience age you are communicating with, the society class as well as your competitors in that particular country. In the majority of cases it is the lack of linguistic and cultural input that lets a website localization down.

Last but not least is: INTERNATIONAL or MULTILINGUAL SEO!

Multilingual SEO is an important component to an effective global Internet marketing strategy. Some search engines are better than others and work differently, too. Google results, for instance, may differ from country to country. Just because you’ve achieved a certain rank for targeted keywords for the U.S. doesn’t mean you’ll achieve the same results for Italy or Spain, for instance.

So, these are some tips you may take in consideration for your multilingual marketing:

- Know Your Audience first

- Modify Web Page Code for your new market

- Choose the right Domain or Domain Extensions

- Always use the Native Language

Claudia Amendola, Multilingual and Travel Virtual Assistant successfully provides an outsourcing alternative for clients who typically do not have the time, space or budget for in-house staff, but have the same need for bilingual and travel assistance. Claudia speaks and writes 3 languages fluently: English, Spanish and Italian. She can be reached at info@mtvirtualassistant.com or on Twitter @italianmtva

For French or German services contact the author of the blog, Sarah Santacroce at sarah@simplicityadmins.com or on Twitter @sarahsantacroce

Article Marketing: A Great Free Marketing Tool

Since I’m still in the middle of the big move (for those who are new to my blog: I’m moving from California to Switzerland) I continue my series of guest posts. This one is

by Jodi Crosby (@SmartVAforU)

Doesn’t everybody need more activity on their website? And wouldn’t it be great to find this activity through a free resource? Well, there are several free resources, but one of the best is article submission. You take the time to write a compelling, informative article and post it to the article marketing publisher’s sites. They get free content that can be employed by others looking for great information to post on their websites. The article publisher’s readers are then given the chance to click through to your site and your additional content. This additional traffic to your website should provide you with more opportunities to help out those clients.

Another aspect of article marketing is you get to provide informative content to help “Brand” yourself as an expert in your field, show your style, and provide a foundation for building trust. Most importantly, when writing articles or any other content be you, be consistent, and be authentic. The best way to build loyal followers is by being genuine and trustworthy.

What are some of the ways you can boost traffic and, in turn, revenue?

1) Remember to include a link to your site at the end of every article.

2) Provide the reader a little bit of information about your background and knowledge.

3) Give a short explanation of the benefits of visiting your site.

4) Inquiring minds want to know, so leave them a little curious about what you can do to help.

What if an ezine publisher picks up the article to be published in their newsletter? This provides an opportunity for thousands of the ezine’s readers to view your article and click through to your site. When someone publishes your article, they should include your entire article, including the information about you and your site.

The more click-throughs to your site the higher placement you will receive on the search engines.

If you continue to add to the number of articles submitted and where these articles appear, the number of links back to you and your website increase accordingly.

As you increase the number of links to your site, the search engines will give your site higher rankings. Your click-through rates will soar as you appear higher in people’s searches, and you will receive even more opportunity to help new clients.

The general consensus is, if you can get your website up to the top 6 for your search terms or keywords, you will create a lot more traffic on your site. Article marketing can make the difference and help you reach this goal.

Here are a few of the top article marketing publishers:

http://ezinearticles.com/

http://www.articledashboard.com/

http://www.goarticles.com/

http://www.articlesbase.com/

http://www.articlecity.com/

http://www.articlemark.org/

http://www.articlealley.com/

http://www.isnare.com/

http://searchwarp.com/

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

Each of these sites has different rules. Please take the time to understand their rules prior to submitting any articles so you don’t waste time having to edit your content. Submission to multiple sites is critical to a successful article marketing campaign. A Social Medial Virtual Assistant has the skills and knowledge to submit your article quickly and efficiently to the right sites for the most return on investment.

Jodi Crosby, Smart Virtual Assistant for You, is a mom and an entrepreneur committed to working with small business owners. My goal is to enable you to accomplish your goals while leaving the administrative tasks to a professional. I understand that being in business for yourself, while very rewarding is also very challenging. Smart Virtual Assistant for You can help. Visit http://smartvaforu.com. Follow Jodi on Twitter @SmartVAforU

How to use your e-mail signature as a Marketing tool

by Guest Blogger Michelle Mangen

Wanting to have a fancy email signature for your Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail or AOL email accounts?

Come on – you know you want it! Up until now it’s never really been that easy to add an HTML signature to your Gmail account.

Several weeks ago I did a post on How To Add A Twitter Icon to your email signature for Outlook 2007. Since I wrote that post I came across “WiseStamp” which allows you to create the same type of signature for some of the free email services.

The steps on how to do this were quite easy and I was really pleased with the result.

and then….I realized that it wouldn’t work with Outlook and I don’t want to actually log in to Gmail in order to have my kickin’ new social media icon laden email signature.

So I figured out how to have the best of both worlds. For the ones of you that use the web-based email programs for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and AOL email you will only have to set up Wisestamp and in a few minutes you will be ready to blast off emails to everyone and their mom showing off your rockin’ new signature.

For the ones of us that still use Outlook you will have a few more steps but in the end, trust me, it will all be worth it.

Do you use the web-based email programs? If so, hop to the end and leave a comment.

If you use Outlook 2007 use these steps to add your Twitter, your Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype, etc. icons into your email signature.

1. Set up WiseStamp (they have directions so I won’t bore you with them)
2. Sign into your web-based program and send yourself a blank message
3. Log into your Outlook and open the message you just sent yourself
4. Right Click in the body of the email and chose “view source”
5. This will bring up a text document with all of the HTML of the email signature
6. Copy that into a free HTML editor (I use PageBreeze)
7. View the new “page” in “normal mode” (PageBreeze instructions)
8. Copy the “normal” looking page
9. Open your signature box and create a new signature (see my previous post for instructions on how to do edit your Outlook signature)
10. Go test it….are you now sporting a rockin’ new signature?

Michelle Mangen, Your Virtual Assistant, specializes in Social Media and Bookkeeping and will work with you to take your business to the next level. Find her on Twitter @mmangen