7 Ways to Use Social Media to promote your offline events

by Sarah Santacroce

Planning an event, whether it is a networking event, public seminar or a personal tea party, can take a lot of time and energy.
In order to make each event an absolute success, there are some great Social Media tools you can use for your Event Marketing.

1. Blog
   
   Write a blog post about your upcoming event. Introduce topics, speakers, prizes etc. This will encourage people to register and
   spread the word about your event.
   
   
2. Facebook
   
   Facebook has it’s own Event application. It’s pretty easy. You just create your event listing and then decide who can see the event.
   
   Make sure you select “Show the guest list”. It’s always easier to participate if a friend of yours is already on the guest list! And don’t
   forget to invite all your friends. Read this post on Mashable for more details on how to post an event on Facebook.
   
   
3. Twitter
   
   
   Prior, during and after your event you can use Twitter to create buzz around your event. I recommend you create a specific hashtag (#). Go to hashtags.org to find out if your specific hashtag is available. Choose a short and easy hashtag. You will have to constantly remind your attendees of the hashtag by mentioning it during the event, on your website, on Facebook etc. You can even create a widget which only displays the comments concerning your hashtag. Create it here.
   
   
4. Email Marketing
   
   Don’t forget to inform your list about your upcoming event ! With Email Marketing tools such as AWeber, Constant Contact or Mail Chimp you can create separate lists for each event and even create a webform where people can RSVP. If you add a “Share this” button at the end of your e-mail you maximize your outreach even more. Read this blog post from AWeber.
   
   
5. Linkedin
   
   Linkedin is another great platform for event marketing. Go to Linkedin.com and you will find the events under the “more” tab on the right.
   From there you click on “add an event” and enter all your info. Make sure you click the “add more details” button. You will then be able to enter your website url, a short description of the event and most importantly some keywords and job titles of people who should attend the event. If it’s a virtual event, check the “this is a virtual event” box. Once you are satisfied, hit the “Preview” button and then hit “Publish Event”. For more details, read this post from “Market Like a Chick”.
   
   
   
   
6. Xing
   This is another option, mostly for my European readers. Same idea as Linkedin, so just login to your xing account and then follow the steps to create your event. Find more info here.
   
   
   
   
7. Evite for personal events
   This one is not really for professional events, but I think it still deserves a spot on this list. From birthday parties to housewarmings, you can easily create an invitation and send your friends and e-mail. You have the options of asking them something to bring, indicate how many kids are attending and even display your personal profile with photo etc. I use this for all my private parties !
   
   

After the event, don’t forget to:

• post pictures on your Facebook page, Flickr, Twitpic and Evite
• send out a Thank you e-mail via Email Marketing
• send out Thank you message to your Twitter hashtag

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Increase Your Online Visibility with Press Release Marketing

by Sarah Santacroce

Before web2.0, press releases were just for journalists and only big company changes were announced to the press. Today press or news releases can be used even by small companies, and the whole wide world has access to them. By distributing your press releases online (for example on pitchengine.com) you will be reaching out to a huge audience and therefore increase your website traffic (and hopefully your sales!)

Below you will find benefits, tips and tricks in a bullet point list.

Benefits of the new web2.0 Press Releases:

As mentioned above, the main benefit of the new approach of sending press releases, is that they don’t only reach a small bunch of journalists, but a vast audience of potential clients.

• people are informed about what’s going on in your business
• when somebody searches for you on Google, they will find your press releases
• press releases are indexed fast on Google
• press releases are a non-static part of your website which increases your chances of getting indexed by Google

What and when to write a news release:

It is key to commit to a regular schedule of press releases. If you decide to send a release every other month, than stick to that schedule. There are many reasons to write a release, including :

• the addition of new services or new products
• the reception of an award
• new staff
• the introduction of a special offer
• a publication of a free e-book or a whitepaper
• the publication of survey results
• a company event
• your point of view of an exposition or a fair you attended
• etc.

Tips:

You can find free samples of press releases on Google. It is important to:

• use your keywords
• include special offers
• post links to your website

Where to post it:

There are many Press Release Distribution Sites (see list below). Don’t forget to also post your releases on the media room on your website. This is a specific page on your website usually entitled “Media Room” or “Press Releases”. You would post the title of the release with a link to a pdf document.

• PR services (such as pitchengine.com or prweb.com ) Check out the full list of free Press Release Distribution Sites in this blog post from nakedpr.com
• Scribd.com
• Slideshare.net (not just for slides anymore!) and it’s linked with Linkedin!
• Your Social Media Accounts (Linkedin, Facebook Page, Twitter etc.)
• Media room on your website

If you found value in this checklist, you might be interested in my free e-book “21 Proven Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic”. You can download it by clicking on the picture below:

Free E-book helps you increase your Website Traffic

by Sarah Santacroce

Dear Fellow Entrepreneurs,

Imagine there is a great party, but nobody knows about it. The organizers spent a lot of money on the venue, the decoration, the hors d’oeuvres and the DJ. With excited anticipation they open the doors at 10pm but – only 23 people show up. The party is a complete flop!

See where I am getting at? A website is like that party. One can have the fanciest website on the market, but if nobody knows about it, it won’t get any traffic.

But don’t panic, I’ve got you covered. I wrote a report that should come in handy. In it you will discover some of the most important tools and tricks to increase your website traffic, attract more potential clients and boost your sales

- with your Blog

- with Link Submissions

- with E-mail, Press release and Article Marketing

- with on page Search Engine Optimization

- and with Social Media!

Are you ready to get this party started? So hurry and click on the picture below and then fill in your name and e-mail and you’ll receive my report immediately.

Send me a tweet @sarahsantacroce and give me your feedback ! Or just leave a comment below.

I appreciate your input !

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.