BUCKEYE V.A.

Archive for the ‘Social Media Management’ Category

Press releases are a great way to get plenty of free exposure for your business. Simply put:

1. You write a newsworthy story about your business into a certain format
2. Send the story to various media outlets.
3. If they’re interested, they may publish your press release or interview you.

A story that the media picks up will be far more valuable than a paid advertising spot. Having the media do a story about you is like a personal endorsement of your website and business. You can tell them about the launch of your new website or business; your expert opinions on a topic in the news; fundraisers or anything else the media might be interested in.

That sounds easy enough, but how do you put a press release together? Here are some tips to get you started:

Appropriate Press Release Format

Your press release should have six basic components and they are:

1. Release Instructions

“For Immediate Release”;
“For Release Before [date]” or
“For Release After [date]”

Use one of the latter two if your press release is of a time sensitive nature. For example, if you are holding a public speaking event, you will want to use the “For Release Before [date]” and make sure you input the final date for registrations. If you are using the “For Release Before [date]” ensure you are sensitive to media deadlines. Send your release out well in advance.

2. Headline

Write an attention-grabbing headline. Make it benefits-oriented (why would it be of interest to people?) and descriptive. Avoid hype and promotional language ~ remember, this is a news story.

3. Contact Information

Include as much information as possible here. Make it easy for the media to contact you. Include your phone number, address, company name, fax number, email and website URL. Include the hours you are available at the listed phone number and add an after hours phone number, if applicable.

4. Summary

Before you get into the body of the release, write a sentence or two to summarize your press release. Make it interesting, you want the recipient to keep reading.

5. Content

This is the meat of your press release. Again, write a benefits-oriented story. Think of the target audience as you are writing. Your target audience is partly the editor or reporter who will be reading the release. Ultimately, however, your target audience is that editor or reporter’s readers or audience. You need to write a story that will be of interest to them.

The first paragraph should answer all the important questions – Who, What, Where, When, Why & How?

Add some quotations to add credibility and to break up the story. Quotations can be from you about the topic. Testimonials or commentary from your customers are very effective as well.6.

6. Signify the End of Your Release

The end of your press release is shown by a few simple characters. Place ### at the end of your release.

For more ideas on when to send a press release and how to write one that’s sure to demand the media’s attention, grab your free Mom’s Talk Biz Guide to Press Releases. http://www.momstalkbiz.com/press-release-ebook.html

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Stephanie Fish, owner of Buckeye V.A. enjoys assisting online business owners with their social media and article marketing business tasks. If you’re looking for a virtual marketing assistant, please contact Stephanie at Buckeye V.A.

A Social Media Manager (a.k.a Social Network Manager) is a niche Virtual Assistant who specializes in managing their clients social networking accounts. No matter what business you own, if you are an internet marketer then you know how important it is to stay active on your social networks with other  business owners and your target market. Social Media outlets, such as: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Squidoo and Ning, have opened the door for you to reach more of your target market than ever before.

With this great networking opportunity also came more tasks added to your to-do list, more responsibility for running your business  in order to stay afloat with today’s fast-paced business world.

Here is a list of 5 Specific Tasks your Social Media Manager can do to promote you and your business:

1. Create and Update your Social Account Profiles
2. Broadcast your article, press release, teleseminar and /or classes
3. Research  Followers
4. Accept invitations
5. Connect your website to your social networking accounts

The idea behind outsourcing your marketing and social network account management is to save you time on the “busy work” of working your business, but to also free up your time so you can focus in on the actual connecting of your target market. As your social media manager works behind the scenes of your social networking, they can bring to your attention possible business building opportunities such as:

• Joint Ventures
• Speaking
• Blog Tours

When you decide to outsource your social media marketing, you’ll get a sense of a new freedom that you’re not used to!

To Your Success!!

I’d love to hear from you, either leave a comment below or contact me!

Stephanie Fish, Social Media Manager and Marketing Assistant. Outsourcing your social media marketing gives you more time in your schedule to focus on networking.

PLR vs. Free Reprint Articles: Which is Best?
by Nicole Dean

Content is always in high demand. Right now the focus seems to be on Private Label Rights (or PLR) articles. PLR articles are pre-written and sold in packages to online businesses looking for content. The big selling points of PLR articles are that you may edit the articles and that there is no author bio required (so they don’t have any outbound links).

Compare PLR articles to free reprint articles. Free reprint articles from places like ezinearticles.com or freeaffiliatearticles.com are written by people who have something they’d like to share. (Or, they are sometimes written by people just publishing junk, in the hopes that they’ll get some incoming links. But, good article directories will delete those, so we’ll focus on the good ones here.)

So, which is better? Honestly, each has its place. Sometimes you’ll find an excellent free reprint article that you’ll want to share with your readers and you won’t mind a bit having an outbound link, especially if there is an affiliate program associated with it. The free reprint article added value to your readers, and you didn’t have to write the article. That’s what free reprint articles are all about.

Other times you’ll already have an idea in mind for a topic and you’ll just want a boost getting that section of your website done. If you run across a high quality PLR package on that niche, you’re set to go.

So, how do you know which PLR service or membership to choose? Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Some PLR sites offer a monthly membership where you receive a grab-bag of articles – on any topic. If you already know what you need, this may be a waste of money. Other PLR sites will list topics and you can buy the articles in a shopping cart. That ensures you receive the articles you need when you need them.

2. Are the articles written by professional writers with experience? Or are they outsourced to the cheapest overseas help they can find – no matter the quality? If the articles are going to be a reflection of your business, you’ll want to ensure that the articles are well-written.

3. Who’s running this thing? Is the PLR site run by someone who knows about content or someone who thinks they can ride the content wave and make a quick buck? Make sure you’re hitching your wagon to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Those are just a few tips to keep you from wasting money on a PLR site that you can’t use. Continue to use free reprint articles, but look into PLR articles as well. They can both benefit your website and your business.

Nicole Dean invites you to check out EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles on niches sold in very limited quantities.

I, personally, recommend this site for all your PLR article needs.
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Stephanie Fish, owner of Buckeye V.A. enjoys assisting online business owners with their social media and article marketing business tasks. If you’re looking for a virtual marketing assistant, please contact Stephanie at Buckeye V.A.

First off, let me say “HAPPY NEW YEAR“! Did you make any business resolutions? Instead of resolutions, how about making a business goal with action steps? One of the most important business goals an internet marketer (like yourself) should include is article marketing. Article Marketing can be a challenge when you look at it as an “extra” business chore, but it doesn’t need to be seen that way. Instead of making article marketing a challenging business task, why not outsource it to your virtual marketing assistant?

There are basically 4 steps you could take this new year that will help you with your article marketing challenge:

1. Write your own articles.
2. Find a Ghost Writer who knows you and your business, who will help you come up with a article writing plan. Once you determine  how many articles per week or month you want to have written.
3. Send those written articles to your virtual marketing assistant, who will create a marketing plan that fits with your business goals.
4. Request that your ghost writer send the articles directly to your virtual marketing assistant, so they can immediately begin your article marketing campaign.

You may be asking “how many articles should I be submitting”? I’m glad you asked! As a virtual marketing assistant, I would recommend a minimum of 1 article every week, to a minimum of 10 article directories that your target market frequents. On a consistent, monthly basis, you should see a ROI (return on investment) either by increased webvisitors, ezine sign-ups, product sales, speaking opportunities or even blog comments (think SEO).

You are not limited to article directories only, oh no, you also can mix some social network marketing also. By spending a minimum of 1.5 hours a week on your article marketing business campaign, for Article marketing shouldn’t be seen as “challenging”, instead it should be seen as a positive business “challenge”, one that will help increase your business exposure and help you become the expert in  your chosen business field.

Let’s work together by making 2010 the year that your business sees the success in growth that you desire!

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Stephanie Fish, owner of Buckeye V.A. helps business internet marketers create a social media and article marketing plan that fits their business goals. You are invited to connect with Stephanie by visiting her website http://www.buckeyeva.com to sign-up for her marketing ezine and social networking groups.

You can Grab this free 2010 blogging calendar from Lynette Chandler. It’s full of tips and ideas to help you blog through the upcoming new year. This is a great way to keep your blog fresh and inviting to your target market.

Question: How Much Is Winging Your Blog Posts Costing You?

It’s the end of the year. Many people are planning and plotting for 2010.For others, planning is not something that comes naturally and neither is coming up with a ton of blog posts. Which is why, despite the resistance, it is even more important to at least have a rough idea what you will write about ahead of time.

Grab this free 2010 blogging calendar

When you have something laid out, you don't have to worry about having a blog that is stale
and more importantly, you can see clearly where you slip in a promotion to market your blog,
a spot to promote your own products or affiliate products. 

-->This small action is the beginnings of a profitable blog or an even more profitable blog
than you have now. 

When are YOU going to plan your 2010 blog posts? How about right now?

Here's a great blogging calendar to help you with that. Grab this free 2010 blogging calendar

It's a calendar that you can also use as a planner and it includes some pretty strange,
funny and interesting holidays and events. This is a big help to work out all your posts
through the year. 

Download it, print it, stick it in a binder and start planning. You could literally come up
with months of blogging material by the end of the day.

Grab this free 2010 blogging calendar
Please use my affiliate link above!

Why Should I Market with Articles?

I used to ask this same question, at first it just seemed to be another business task on my weekly to-do list. It was also the one task that got pushed to the bottom of the list every week. It wasn’t until my virtual assistant coach explained the benefits of article marketing to me during one of our coaching sessions.

She said that article marketing is a must-do for any online business that wants to:

1. Increase website traffic
2. Grow their subscriber list
3. Been seen as an expert in your field

Well, I know that I as a business owner, you want all of the above! Don’t you?

If you could use more web traffic, newsletter subscribers and paying clients, then article marketing may be just what you need to do on a consistent basis. If you don’t have the time to submit your articles, please contact me today.

If you are struggling to find the time to write articles, how about recording your articles using audio or video, then have me transcribe them for you?

To Your Success!

Stephanie

Article marketing is a great way to share your expertise, educate your readers and bring in some search engine love.  The problem with article marketing is that it takes time. If you’re already over-booked, the last thing you want to do is add another task to your schedule, which means you’re either going to chose not to market your business with articles or you’re going to outsource the task.

If you chose to outsource your article marketing then you want to be sure to have all of your information gathered so you can forward it to your marketing assistant. (Don’t worry if your article marketing information is not organized, you can ask your VA to allocate some of the time purchased to organize your information.)

Gathered information may include:

• articles written that aren’t submitted
• articles that have been submitted
• current article directories that you use
• preferred article directories that you want to submit
• username and passwords associated with your article directory accounts
• your bio in plain text and html
• your choice of email and password for new directory accounts

When you first begin to outsource your article marketing, you may want to meet with your virtual marketing assistant via phone (or Skype). Doing this will allow you both to ask and answer questions in real time, without having to play email tag.

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Until next time!

If you’re looking to outsource your article marketing please contact me, Stephanie, today!

Article marketing is a great way to get your website seen by the search engines and by your target market, but there is a fear that seems to be going around. Its the fear that centers around “duplicate content” and being penalized by google.

It seems that business owners worry that if they submit the same article to many directories, that google would see that as duplicate content and some how, penalize them for this.  There’s a post by Lynn Terry of  ClickNewz.com where she has outlined what google sees as duplicate content.

You can also visit Google.com and learn directly from them what they view as duplicate content, you’ll soon see that article marketing is still a tried and true way to bring in the search results you need,  help build incoming links to your website, and educate your target market about your business.

Enjoy your day and if you’re looking to outsource your article and/or press release submissions please contact me today!

Thanks!

Stephanie Fish, Buckeye V.A.

I’m on Lynette Chandler’s mailing list, owner of Tech Based Marketing.com in today’s mailing she was addressing the  PCI Security Standards Council guidelines. If you sell anything online, I suggest you read both, Lynette’s post and the PCI Security Standards Council’s website to make sure you keep your business safe and running.

God Bless!

Stephanie Fish

Buckeye V.A.

Article and Press Release submission services for business owners that have something to say!

I recently had to go to www.youtube.com to look up some technical issues. After searching the support website and forum I still did not have the answer I was in needing. So off to youtube.com I went, there is where I found Robb Luther (a.k.a geekepic). I saw Robb’s video url and went to his website, from there I saw his twitter name, so I logged into twitter and followed him, from there I sent him a “direct message”. He replied immediately!
Robb not only helped me with my current issue but answered the questions I had regarding another tech issue.

Needless to say, if you are NOT using youtube.com and twitter for your business marketing then you are missing out!