Saturday, February 19, 2011

Taking cues from the weather…..for business

Today’s beautiful Spring- like weather gave me the itch to open some windows and think thoughts of spring. To me, spring means flowers, warmer weather, and longer days enjoying fresh outdoor air.

Oh, and spring cleaning too. Yuck. Cleaning. Who enjoys that??

I’ve noticed a trend recently of colleagues discussing computer issues, and how after a few unfortunate crashes they fess up to admit the last thing they “clean” is the very tool in which their livelihood is based. Myself included. A few weeks ago, my laptop was running really HOT, even though it was really really cold here in NJ, I knew that was not supposed to be a source for heat in my home (ha ha). My brilliant husband very gently vacuumed out the fans, applied an air compressor, ran a couple diagnostics, a quick restart and voila! She’s running just the way she should. Ahhh….

As a Virtual Assistant, a lot of the projects I work on for my clients are stored in cloud technology, but there are the occasional brainstorming notes, and behind the scene docs that don’t get shared. These things have to be protected, so whether I backup with my Seagate external hard drive or a flash drive, I know our work is safe & sound.

So, let’s all listen to the signals Mother Nature is giving us. Spring is around the corner, but please don’t wait any longer to spring into cleaning your pc!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

How A SuperBowl Dinner Party Inspired Me

Last Sunday during the Super Bowl; an evening traditionally spent hanging with your friends around the TV and rooting for your team, we invited some colleagues over for dinner. We’re not exactly what you’d call football fanatics in our house, but, to stay connected I watched the game hoping I’d learn a thing or two.

During dinner my friend was attached to her Droid, checking her twitterfeeds & trending topics. Considering she’s works in social media I didn’t mind, I actually appreciated the sidebar conversation :-) This made me think of how connected some of us have become to our online friends, and how having an online presence can makes us feel that we have to share “what’s on your mind” so to speak.

This all came rushing back to me when I sat down with a client and we discussed implementing social media into her marketing plan. I got that deer in the headlights look. After discussing her online marketing strategy for facebook & twitter & the importance of Linkedin (in her industry) she “got it” and was so excited to see results, she immediately downloaded all the apps to her Droid. (LOVE it! )

So the next time you “Google” something, and a blog, facebook page, twitter @name or any 1 of a myriad of social media show up in the results, chances are one of us Virtual Assistants are cyber-connected.

** a little factoid…we are avid techies (iPhone, ipod, Droid…)users in our family. Our 8 yr old gave her grandfather a tutorial (over the phone) on how to navigate his iPhone recently. Proud Mama!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Embracing Social Media for our Kids

Surprise surprise… A couple weeks ago I volunteered to handle the social media for our local nonprofit baseball/softball league. For no reason besides, helping them to attract players & build their buzz. Now mind you, I don’t solicit my virtual assistant biz as being an expert with social media, but I can manage to get my message out.

Just recently I’ve decided to ask my online friends Jessica Levin and Hilary Morris to share my message to their networks. I’m so glad I did!

Now, if I can just reach those middle school kids with cell phones to “like” their favorite baseball/softball league on Facebook I’d be ecstatic! By the way, the league is North Edison Baseball & Softball(NEBS) if you feel like being neighborly, stop by on Facebook & twitter (@NorthEdBBSB).

Social Media NEBS

PLUS

Makes for LOTS of happy ballplayers!

 
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