Facebook and Social Media: The New Water Cooler

It used to be if you worked in an office the water cooler was the place to rant, rave, gossip and dish out the latest scoop on any topic out there. While traditional work places still have the water cooler, and you will still find a few people hanging out there, facebook and social media have risen up as the new way to get the word out, speak your mind and basically make a fool of yourself.

Thousands of people login everyday to air their dirty laundry and tell us everything we want (or don't want) to know about them. Reports of employers using social media activity to monitor employees are starting to emerge. Consequences of misbehavior could be anything from:
* losing a job offer
* not getting a promotion
* general lack of moving forward
* and in extreme cases, job loss.

What about free speech you ask? Aren't I allowed to say anything I want?

Well yes, and no.

You wouldn't tell everyone at the water cooler about the strange blemish on your bum, or that you really do hate your boss or that you sat around all day on Facebook and purposely skipped a training. My advice, don't do it on Facebook either.

Treat your social media accounts like you would the water cooler. Use your brain and discretion in equal parts.

Let's assume you want to give all your "Friends" a well rounded view of yourself. Follow these simple rules and you will be fine and your social media status will rise as well.

Mix it up- Don't always talk about sports or work exclusively. Many people who promote their businesses on social media do it to the exclusion of their personal life and vice versa. That is a mistake. You aren't all work and no play. Go ahead post pictures of your kids in their Halloween costumes, talk about your dog, show pictures of your office buddies, or celebrate figuring out a problem at work. These things connect you with your audience. They can more quickly come to know, like and trust you. Then when you need to make a business proposition they are ready to listen.

Use Integrity- Pretend like your boss, your clients, and your grandma will be reading what you post. If you wouldn't say it in front of them, don't say it on Twitter.

Watch the time- If you aren't supposed to be on Facebook at work, don't post during work hours, especially a hundred times. A couple times from your Blackberry maybe but again, use discretion.

Promote Away- If you are using social media to promote your business, do it. Give everyone a true vision of your work and your life and do it daily. Don't expect to put "Buy my stuff" on your status once a month and expect results. Don't abuse it and annoy people but you can network effectively and get great discussions started. Just like at the real water cooler.

One last thing- Please don't tell me about the blemish on your bum...enough said.

Susan Snyder
Founder/CEO

BuildYourVASkills.com

http://www.pcstraining.net

Go to http://www.buildyourvaskills.com and look at our current schedule of training. Find one that's right for you and bring a friend!

Sign up for one of our coaching programs and grow your business or learn to work with or on virtual teams.

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Working Virtually: Avoid the Pitfalls of the Communication Blackhole

The advantages of working with a virtual team and having virtual clients are many. Among those advantages are less idle chatter, no annoying co-worker popping by just when you are in a zone, and in general the quiet. That is also a disadvantage.

It is much harder to build a relationship with a team member and pick up on each other's silent cues and non-verbal communication. The only solution is to use virtual tools and to probably in your mind over communicate.

Here's some tools to avoid things being missed and to get everyone on the same page.

In the beginning- Setup and communicate with your team and with clients your best means of communication. Do you like email? Do you prefer the phone? Can you be reached only at certain hours? Make sure everyone knows how they are expected to communicate, how often, and when.

Email- While not perfect email is still the best method of communicating and documenting the work process. Make sure everyone "whitelists" you and adds you to their contact list. Make sure you add them to your contact list. Sometimes file size for attachments is an issue. Make sure you know if their service will block large files and find ways of dealing with it.

Telephone-Sometimes it is just easier to pick up the phone. I find it much easier to work out a complex question or if you feel you are not getting it. Frustration comes from not having all the information or not getting the emotions behind the written communication. Schedule periodic phone check-ins, preferrably weekly, so you can get that personal interaction and just clear the air.

Instant Messenger, Chat, Texts- These are great resources to talk out situations as well if one or more of you can't be on the phone for whatever reason. It is still hard to get a handle on true feelings if it is a sticky situation but the communication is real time and may be better than a disconnected email conversation. There are several programs out there. Make sure you know which ones everyone uses and try to get a concensus on what everyone uses.

Snail mail and fax- While very "old school" it still is necessary at times. Check into online faxing tools like efax and it will save you a ton of time and resources, but will give you a professional look with a real fax number.

Now that you have the tools in place, communicate with clients whenever you work on their projects. In the email include:

• What tasks you worked on
• If needed the hours spent
• What you still need to do
• Any questions you have
• Any suggestions you have

When dealing with your team virtually consider these communication tips:

• Consider a weekly team meeting, via conference call or skype.
• Get a project planning software that everyone can update and have access to Basecamp, Microsoft Project, or another program will do the trick. This will foster greater communication and anyone can look at the project and know where it is at.
• Treat your team like clients. Make sure you are communicating with them regularly to make sure they know your piece of the puzzle is being worked on and moving forward.
• Let them know when you will be available, unreachable, and in general what your working hours will be.

Communicating virtually provides freedom and flexibility. It can cause problems if not done consistently, effectively and in a manner that really speaks to your team and your clients. Without the advantage of the spoken word and being present to pick up on non-verbal cues, you really have to make an effort to over communicate. What feels to you like over the top may be just right for the person you are keeping in the loop.

Susan Snyder
Founder/CEO buildyourvaskills.com

http://www.pcstraining.net

Go to http://www.buildyourvaskills.com and look at our current schedule of training. Find one that's right for you and bring a friend!

OK, I'm an Affiliate. Now What?

Affiliate marketing is an on line marketing tool that you can use in tandem with other marketing tools to increase your exposure. Affiliate marketing is when you promote other's products to your customers and get a commission off any sales that you generate.

Sounds easy? Well it is and it isn't. Just because you are an affiliate of a great product won't make you the big bucks. It has to be a good fit with your customers, you still have to promote it and you are still responsible to your clients to bring them reputable products.

Here are some tips to making your affiliate marketing into the best it can be for you and your customers.

1) Know your market. If you are selling fishing lures and you put up an affiliate link for a travel adventure to the desert, you better have a good reason and tie in or you won't have any results. You must be tuned in to what your clients want and need.

2) Know the product. It is not enough to go find a product with a high sales rate, high commission offering and that sounds good. You must have knowledge of the product so you know if it is a good fit to your niche market. You must know you are offering your clients something that will deliver. If you aren't going to use it, why would they? If it ends up being a dud and you recommended it, your credibility will go down.

3) Know how to promote the items. It is not enough to put the links on your site, mention them once in and email and hope the checks start rolling in. Affiliate marketing has to be part of your overall marketing plan.

-How will these products be part of your product line?

-How long should I promote these items?

-How will I track the success/failure of these offers to my clients?

4) Have realistic expectations. I have clients all the time that are disillusioned with affiliate marketing. They have heard all the hype that someone put up a product and it has been generating $10,000 a month for them ever since. Well that simply is not the norm. It takes time to build a base of customers. If you are just doing affiliate marketing you have to build a great amount of content offerings, just like anything else, it takes work, it takes a plan, and it takes time.

5) Make sure you understand your part of the deal. You should not have to do any order fulfillment, tracking etc. That is the beauty about being an affiliate, you are their marketing arm. There are a few pseudo-affiliate programs that require you to do it all. Make sure you know what you are getting into and that your responsibility to the affiliate program is simply to drive customers their way.

6) Know that you are building your reputation. Don't just put anything on your site as an affiliate. Your customers know, like and trust you. They are looking to you to weed through the bad stuff and deliver the good to them. Have high standards and only recommend the best. If you don't know a lot about it be honest and say something like it was a recommendation to you, you are checking it out and would appreciate feedback from them as well. You are responsible for your recommendations. Take it seriously.

If you keep those things in mind you will be able to have a successful affiliate marketing program. You can generate income promoting other people's products. You can get the best of both worlds for your customers and create joint ventures with some other great business owners like yourself.

Susan Snyder
Founder/CEO buildyourvaskills.com

Go to http://www.buildyourvaskills.com and look at our current schedule of training. Find one that's right for you and bring a friend!

Whoa! It's 10:00 and I haven't showered! Time Management Tips for the Home Office

Where does it go? Like Sand through the hour glass, so are the Days...

Have you ever been in this situation? You are typing feverishly on your computer getting ready for a presentation, the phone is ringing, the dog is barking, you have to get the kids to your mom's so she can watch them for the presentation...you look up...10:00! What! I haven't even showered!

If you are a work at home professional I am sure you have been right there. Some of us more times than we would care to admit.

First let me assure you I am no time management guru. What with kids, my business, client projects, phones, Facebook, kids, laundry, kids... you know the drill. So what is a busy Work From Home Pro supposed to do?

I also know many of you may not have kids, but we all have distractions. There is no one looking over our shoulder to make sure we are on task. No clock to punch in and out. It is easy to look up and the time be much later than you expected and the to do list to still be much longer than you hoped.

While I still have sometimes major issues in this area, I have found some strategies that work for me. Here are some tips to making your work from home time as productive as it can be.

1) Schedule your time. I know, you work from home for the freedom of time it provides. You can make your schedule look like whatever you want. THAT'S the freedom, no one will tell you how to schedule your time. Nor will you have to have a committee meeting to decide what to put on the agenda. You don't have to have it signed by your supervisor or any of the mundane hoops that contributed to your exodus from the traditional work place. But just like your money, if you don't budget your time, it will be gone and you will wonder where it went!

2) Build in breaks. Gone are the days of your mandatory 15 minute breaks. However, they are still important. They can serve as a reset for your brain, get your muscles loosened up, and keep your tummy from grumbling. Take a walk, call a friend, play with kids, whatever makes it feel like a break for you.

3) Schedule "POWER" Sessions. Whether they are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 5 minutes long, schedule chunks of time that you focus with intensity on a SINGLE task. You will be shocked at what you can accomplish in little spurts of time. Here's the rules:

* Turn off all distractions- No phone, no email, no twitter deck, no facebook, nothing that will interrupt your flow.

* Pick a single task and a single goal. You may not complete an entire project in a 15 or 30 minute slot but you can complete a task toward the project.

* Make it a length of time you can stay undistracted, short and concise. Two hours is not a power session.

* Set a timer and do nothing but work on that task until the timer goes off.

* Take a quick break

* Rinse and Repeat

4) Have realistic expectations. It will take some time to work out what works for you. In time you will determine how many power sessions in a day, how long they need to be for the tasks you do, and how many breaks you need. Don't try to save the world and build the new stadium in one day. Break apart your tasks, schedule them out in the day, and pat yourself on the back when you get them done.

5) Be Consistent- When you do discover strategies that work for you, practice them consistently, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.

6) Be Persistent- When you fall off the wagon, get back up. You must evaluate what is working, what is not, and if you are being too hard or too soft on yourself. Ask for outside perspective if you are having a block in this area. Just keep trying.

7) Re-evaluate often- You don't have a manager giving you performance reviews. Give yourself one. Ask yourself the questions a manager would ask. See what works, what needs improving and set things up so you have success and not failure.

If you keep these ideas in mind you will be able to get a better handle on your schedule. You work from home for many reasons. Primarily you are working to make money and to build a business. If your time is not productive, you will be frustrated, your clients will be irritated and your business will grow slower than you want. Manage your time wisely.

To your success!

Susan Snyder
Founder/CEO buildyourvaskills.com

Go to http://www.buildyourvaskills.com and look at our current schedule of training. Find one that's right for you and bring a friend!