Today’s Guest Blogger is Dianne McDonald who specializes in Event Planning.  Here are 10 tips to make your bash go fabulously:

Whether you are a seasoned Event Planner or planning an event for the first time, the strategies needed to make your event memorable and profitable are much the same and extremely important.  There is no doubt that a successful event requires a large amount of planning plus a great deal of commitment to achieve the ultimate goal: Having a Great Event people will remember and talk about long after the event has passed.

The ultimate reward of a successful event leads to more knowledge, more business, and most likely more people eager to work with you on the next function.

Now…there are many different types of events.  Corporate events could be a meeting involving a few executives, a ‘thank you’ event for several treasured clients, an awards ceremony for dedicated employees, a very large conference or even a trade-show.

Personal events could be celebrating a birthday party, anniversary, showers for brides or new babies, and weddings.  Some events may be one-time productions or even once a year celebrations that people anticipate and plan for.

Here are my 10 Strategies for Success:

1. Be honest and upfront with the company or host.  If you are being considered to hire to organize the event, the business or family have already determined that the event is important enough to warrant the expense and time necessary to make it a success. Once you have gathered all the information of what they are expecting, do not be afraid to tell them right away if this is above your head.

2. Involve volunteers. If you have been assigned a team to work with you by the company or family, let them help.  It is only fair if they are giving their time, that they be involved in some way.  There are always many tasks to do so delegate.

3. Prepare an expense budget. Prepare a list of what will be needed from venue, food, refreshments, décor, door prizes, gratuities etc.

4. Have a signed contract. If you have been selected to run the event, discuss the budget with the “powers that be’ and have them sign a contract that both parties have agreed upon.

5. Prepare a To Do List.  List everything you can think of that will be needed.  If you have planned many events you no doubt have a template to work from.

6. Don’t delay. Even if the event is months away, there are always tasks that must be taken care of in advance such as booking a venue, entertainment, caterer etc.  Ensure you have signed contracts with each vendor listing the date, time and particulars of what they are to provide.

7. Delegate. Assign tasks to your volunteers well in advance so they know what is expected of them and can get started.  Make sure your volunteers have your contact information so they can reach you with questions or concerns.

8. Arrive early.  It is good policy to arrive well before the start of the event to check that everything is ready and they way it should be.  This extra time will allow for any last minute details to be taken care of.  If you are not a guest at the event, make sure you are dressed professionally and stay until the host arrives and gives their approval of your work.

9. After the event. Always arrange a review meeting with the host and volunteers after the event for feedback.  What worked well, what didn’t, what would you do differently the next time.

10. Thank you. ALWAYS send a thank you note or gift to your host and volunteers.  This thoughtfulness will keep you top-of-mind for future events.

I personally invite you to my blog area, as I would love to hear your comments and connect with you!  Please introduce and I will be pleased to respond.  Check back often for my ‘Latest Tips’ on tasks in the VA industry and working with different niches!  www.bookblog.businessrewired.ca/blog

Today’s Guest Blogger is Janet Patten who specializes in video.  Here are 7 tips on how to use video:

A golden opportunity for real estate agents is to create videos to market and promote their business and to showcase listings. Agents may wonder – what should I make my video about? Here is a list of 6 types of video that would be great for a real estate business.

1. Slideshow- Choose your best photos and arrange them into a slideshow. Add some background music and your video is ready to go. The photos could be of your listings, show you doing various real estate tasks, or be a general piece about a neighborhood, town or city. You can create this in PowerPoint, software provided on your computer or you can use the free or paid service at Animoto.

2. Text based video- Start with PowerPoint text slides to create a text slideshow. With this method you can showcase features of your business, add voice and/or background music. Add PowerPoint animations and transitions and you will have a visually stimulating slide show using just text. Keep it simple though and don’t put too much on your slides. You can also download a program called Jing that will allow you to record your screen and talk.

3. Demo Videos- This format works well for answering customer questions. “How To” or “Tips” would  work well. Identify what your customers ask most frequently and create a video that answers those questions.

4. Tour- Consider creating a tour video of your properties. Using a camcorder or your smartphone with video, simply walk through the property and comment on the features. This works well for real estate agents and it will give a simulation of an actual showing.

5. The Interview- Your business success depends a lot on your brand and credibility. Someone can be hired to interview you and shoot your responses. Talk about your philosophy on real estate, your background, your unique qualities and how well you know your area. You can add personal details and other information that you think would appeal to your potential customers.

6. Client Testimonials- Contact some of your satisfied customers and ask them if they would be willing to shoot a short testimonial on video. You can shoot this with a flip camera or smartphone. You can record 30 second videos for each client. Then pick the best testimonials to create a 2-3 minute video collage.

7. Post the Videos- After you have completed your videos, you can add them to your website, social media sites and send the links in your email promotions. Video can give you the edge in today’s competitive real estate market.

Janet Patten is a Virtual Marketing Assistant specializing in video and also offers local marketing solutions. Visit her website at: www.yourlocaleyes.com

I am pleased to feature Kim Letendre founder of KAZ Works LLC, as today’s Guest Blogger.

The quick answer:  NO.     Yes, I’ll be unpopular with this response, but in all honesty, I’ve set up social media for businesses that wanted it and it has done them absolutely no good.  That was partially my fault.  Even though I stressed the importance of being involved in the daily use of social media, I didn’t insist that they sign a contract for continued maintenance.  I basically filled their request – to build the page and the following.  I let them believe they knew what they were talking about.

Now, I will not even consider setting up a social media presence for a business unless there is a plan in place for continued maintenance for at least a one year period – with assessments occurring every two months so we can tweak and adjust the plan.

No – your entire target market will not find you through your Facebook page.  But some of them will.  And when it comes to social media – it’s only a “piece” of your marketing strategy.  It doesn’t replace what you have and what is working

Now you may be surprised to know some of the businesses that are on Facebook and are quite successful.  They have built trusting environments, provided information to their target market, and have become a great source of community.  The market I’m talking about:  Funeral Homes.

No kidding . . . . Obituaries appear in the local newspaper and then possibly they are in the online version of that same paper.  But how often do you check that news source if you have moved across country – or even to the next state.  In fact, I know my sister religiously checks our local Fosters Daily Democrat for the obits – she checks them every morning.  Morbid curiosity?  Maybe.  But someone has to let the family members know what is going on with distant relatives and friends.  My sister happens to be the one who has delegated herself to that position.  Fine with me.

So, forward thinking funeral parlors have created a presence on Facebook.  Check out Pray Funeral Home in Charlotte Michigan.  They have 977 fans and they have a whole page about what you should and shouldn’t say to the family, why you need a funeral director, etc.  The FB pages then can have links back to the original obituaries as well as a guest book.  This avenue makes it easy for the family members and friends to share photos, memories, and comment on crazy things that happened in the family when they were little.  It makes the whole process a lot more real – and easier to accept.

So the next time you wonder if your business should have a Facebook page . . . . think about the people you serve – and ask yourself if you could provide information in a more relaxed format.  Interject some surveys and comedy and create a great information-sharing community.  Remember – it’s “Social” – which means you are creating and building relationships – not selling.

Selling comes naturally when you do social media right.

Kim Letendre is founder of KAZ Works, LLC, an independent marketing firm specializing in online marketing strategies.  Kim is devoted to helping small companies discover the marketing tools that best fit their personality and business model.  She helps strategize and then implement the full marketing plan.  Grab a copy of her free Marketing Pie Blueprint at www.kazworks.com to get more information on the pieces of the marketing pie available and how to strategically use them.  Or Call her for a ‘get acquainted’ session at 603-617-2535.

According to www.checkfacebook.com there are over  700 million active Facebook users.  An active user is someone who has been on the site in the past 30 days.  Given the number of Facebook users more business are looking to Facebook to advertise their products and services.

Facebook launched their advertising program on November 6th 2006 and Zuckerberg announced “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do,”

Facebook ads work much the same way as other Pay Per Click ads, however, there are a few significant differences.

1. Facebook allows you to target your ads so they are seen by your specific demographic (i.e. Age, Sex, Location and often their interests)

2. Targeting with keywords is optional

3. Facebook ads are seen by your target audience right on their profile pages

4. Compared to other media ad options there are fewer advertisers on Facebook, which means less competition for your niche.  This means a better return on your investment as it costs you much less per click.

5. People can “Like” your advertisement, which can produces a snowball effect.  If you are seeking to drive traffic to your Facebook Business Page, Event, Website, then Facebook Advertising may be your ideal solution.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss my next post ”The  five steps required to plan and profit from Facebook Advertising”

LinkedIn may not be as flashy as Facebook or as trendy as Tumblr, but for most people with a business, it’s definitely a must in the social media world. With a solid user base of over 75 million people, LinkedIn is popular among high-level businesspeople; according to the LinkedIn PR page, executives from each of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies belong to the site. LinkedIn focuses more on professional activities and accomplishments, and less on cute games and applications. So if your target market trends a bit to the older, corporate side, LinkedIn may be the place for you.

The first thing to do on LinkedIn is to create a profile that discusses your professional expertise and experience. Currently, businesses cannot create profiles online, so your profile will represent you as an individual. Then you will link up with friends and colleagues.  The site makes that easy by showing you users who have attended the same school or worked for the same companies. Once you have requested to be made a contact and your request is approved, you will be able to see your contacts’ contacts, making it a virtual game of six degrees of separation.

One of the best aspects of LinkedIn is the ability to request an introduction to someone who is not in your immediate network but is a contact of one of your own contacts. If you are looking to partner with a specific person, you can ask to be introduced through a mutual contact, thereby smoothing the way. Another great resource is the large number of “groups,” for everything from sales and marketing professionals to White House staff members. These groups allow you to follow conversations, suggest topics of interest, and find additional contacts.  For small business owners trying to gain visibility, these groups can be invaluable.

Once you have created your LinkedIn profile, search the groups directory for appropriate groups to join. You can currently join up to 50 groups, but be judicious; just as with social media in general, you are better off joining just a few groups that you can really participate in, rather than joining dozens you can barely remember you are part of. Once you have identified your groups, here’s your daily to-do list:

• Post an update to your profile. While profile updates are less critical on LinkedIn as on other sites, they still demonstrate that you’re using the site and are updating regularly. (1 minute)
• Respond to invitations to connect. You can arrange for these requests to be sent directly to your email in-box, too. (1 minute)
• Add additional contacts. Each time you approve a request to connect, you will automatically be shown other people you may know. Spend a few minutes looking for potential new contacts and requesting to add them to your network. (3 minutes)
• Read current updates in your groups, and respond to questions and conversations. (4 minutes)
• Post new threads in your groups with related topics and points of interest. (3 minutes)
• Request introductions. Spend a minute asking for introductions to anyone you may want to “meet.” (1 minute)
• Write a recommendation. LinkedIn allows you to write and receive recommendations from your contacts. Writing one creates good karma, and increases the likelihood someone will write one for you in turn. (2 minutes)

LinkedIn is a much more serious site than most other social media outlets. While you can still express your personality, realize – and respect – that most people are there for professional networking purposes, not to share their latest exploits . As long as you stick with the vibe, your updates and posts will be welcomed and appreciated.

Twitter may seem like a relatively new player on the social media front, but the site is actually nearly five years old, having debuted in 2006. Now, Twitter has over 100 million registered users who are sending out a combined 55 million-plus tweets a day. Many people still see Twitter as a waste of time – but didn’t they think the same thing about the Internet, 15 or so years ago?

If you’re looking for a quick, concise way to reach a wide audience, Twitter may be your answer. Twitter’s strength lies in its openness and its numbers. Of course, those are its drawbacks, too. It is so easy to connect with people on Twitter that it is not much of a commitment – at first, at least.

As a business owner, you should observe what the “average” user does – and then do the opposite! For instance:

• The average user has fewer than 100 contacts. Business owners aim to increase their reach
• The average user’s tweet is “chatty.” Business owners strive to provide value
• The average user hasn’t tweeted in the past week. Business owners want to stay active

If you are ready to commit to Twitter, one of the best things you can do is to enlist the help of one of the numerous third-party Twitter applications, such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Seesmic. These services allow you to track conversations according to numerous keywords, post on different profiles, and create tweets to post at a later time or date. 

Here is what you want to do in your 15 minutes a day:

• Post an update. As with Facebook, make your updates applicable to your audience. Provide a link to your latest blog post or an interesting factoid related to your market. (1 minute)
• Check out your new followers. If they look like appropriate contacts (i.e., not spammers), follow them back. (2 minutes)
• Respond to DMs, i.e., direct messages, and “@” messages. The latter are tweets aimed directly at you, but posted publicly. (2 minutes)
• Check your keywords and hashtags. Through the services suggested above, you can track keywords in your niche. Read what people are talking about and asking about; answer questions where you can, and join in conversations where appropriate. (5 minutes)
• Read your feed and see what people are talking about. Some of your followers will be chatting about your area of specialty; others won’t. Spend a minute or two joining a few conversations, even if it’s about last night’s Red Sox/Yankees game. (2 minutes)
• Retweet useful information. Did someone tweet a useful tool or a great blog post you think your market will love? Retweet it! You will generate good karma while providing great content for your followers. (2 minutes)
• Create a few updates to post to Twitter at a later date. Make it look like you are on Twitter more than you are by creating a tweet or two and scheduling it to post later. (1 minute)

The key to Twitter success is brevity and consistency. Users’ feeds scroll by so quickly that if you are not in the stream consistently, you’re going to fade into the woodwork. Yet if you are out there with useful information frequently, you will build a loyal following.

With over 500 million active users who spend more than 700 billion minutes per month online, Facebook is a natural first stop for marketers looking to reach an online audience. The biggest benefits of Facebook include:

• Reach (Nearly everyone is there!)
• Ease of use (If my aunt can figure it out, anyone can)
• Ability to add numerous media, including audio, images, and video to your page
• Ability to email groups of fans at a time 

If you decide to go the Facebook route, your first step is to create a “Like” page for your business.  This is basically a profile for your business.  Until recently, these pages used to be called “Fan” pages. Personal profiles limit the number of people you can be friends with, while “Like” pages do not. Also, “Like” pages enable you to create an RSS feed and build custom applications. There are a number of tutorials online with step-by-step instructions for creating a “Like” page. 

However, if that’s overwhelming, I do offer a Facebook setup service. Please contact me and I would be glad to discuss your specific requirements. 

Once you have created your Facebook “Like” page, your daily 15-minute to-do list includes the following: 

1. Update your status.  Be sure to make it relevant to your audience.  Skip the “breakfast” posts unless you’re a chef! (1 minute)
2. Add new blog posts, videos, photos, etc. to your wall.  Many other social media sites like Twitter as well as your blog can be set up to add these updates automatically to your wall. (2 minutes)
3. Review comments on your wall and respond to them. (4 minutes)
4. Review your news feed and spend a few minutes commenting on posts and updates from your contacts.  (4 minutes)
5. Respond to invitations and messages in your inbox. (2 minutes)
6. Locate new people to invite to your “Like” page by checking out the friends of current page fans (2 minutes) 

This timeframe may seem ambitious, and it is! You may also need a very fast internet connection to pull it off. Depending on how many messages and posts you actually get, and how quickly you want to add new friends, you might choose to be a bit more flexible. 

Still, the idea is to focus on the most important activities and stop when you’re done.  Sure, you could easily spend the whole day puttering around on Facebook, but your goal is to set a time limit and use it to the max. If you have extra time, you can go back and play Farmville or challenge a friend to a game of Text Twist. Or you could decide to add more friends or get more involved in a conversation. In the meantime, though, get in, get out, and get customers. 

If you would like to connect on Facebook then please push the Facebook icon on the right.   When you land on my page push the “Like” button and as a thank you there is a free Facebook Workbook as my gift to you!

If you were to advertise your business, you wouldn’t start by creating a list of newspapers, Yellow Pages, and magazines, and immediately sign up to place ads in each and every one of them. Instead, you wouldd set a budget and do an assessment of prospective advertising venues in order to determine which would be most effective in reaching your target market.

Even though you can join most social media outlets free of charge, your involvement will cost you something that might be even more valuable than a modest sum of money: your time. As a result, you need to plan where to invest your social media “budget” much like you would plan on spending your advertising budget. 

So don’t go crazy and join 20 different social media sites just because they are there.  Instead, start with just three or possibly four carefully selected sites. You will achieve more if you focus on a handful of outlets and actually use them properly and consistently. Attempting to make a splash on many outlets at once without the proper follow-through will not serve you nearly as well.  So before you create 45 profiles on everything from LinkedIn to Tumblr, ask yourself the following questions:

• Where are my customers?
• Do I prefer to share text, audio, video, or images?
• How much time do I have to invest in social media?
• What are my goals: Connecting with existing customers, reaching new prospects, or establishing relationships with potential partners?
• Am I ready to make a long-term commitment to social media?

The answers to these questions will help drive your choice of where to spend your time. For example if you are into the arts, enjoy taking photographs, and many of your customers are already on Flickr, then Flickr is a natural place to establish yourself.  But if you are an accountant who wants to reach new customers, Flickr might not make much sense.

Balance your natural preferences with logical choices about where you can best reach your desired audience. Yes, you want exposure to the people you need to “meet,” but you also want to pick sites that are appealing and fun for you. If you hate video, don’t commit to YouTube! Instead, select something that you won’t dread doing.

Remember, there are millions and millions of people online, and hundreds of social media sites to choose from. You are sure to find a good match (or three!) between your target market and your individual preferences.

In my upcoming posts, we will discuss many of the top social media sites and how to approach each one with a strategy that will let you create an effective presence in just 15 minutes a day.

Have you taken the plunge into social media or are you on the sidelines wondering if this is the best use of your time!

“Social media” is defined by Wikipedia as “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.” In laymen’s terms, social media helps people connect online. In popular usage, the term “social media” typically refers to social networking and sharing sites, including the following:

• Blogs
• Forums
• Image/Phot-Sharing Sites
• Video-Sharing Sites
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

It has become the battle cry of the Internet revolution that businesses MUST be involved in social media to succeed online. But with new social media outlets emerging and others going in and out of favor at an ever increasing pace, it can be hard to keep up.

Many online entrepreneurs find it a real challenge to know where to invest their time and how to leverage social media effectively.  Many frazzled business owners are asking themselves and others the following questions:

What social media outlets are best for my niche?
How much time do I need to spend online to be successful?
I’m so busy working IN my business – how am I going to Tweet, blog, and spend hours on LinkedIn too?
Do people really care whether or not I’m on Facebook?

Sure, managing your social media efforts can seem frustrating and overwhelming at first glance. But fortunately, you don’t have to invest hours and hours posting tweets about what you ate for breakfast, or uploading videos of your cat to YouTube. In fact, you are better off skipping those things.

Instead, approach social media with a plan, and focus on providing and sharing useful information while also interacting with your fans, friends, and followers. 

If you do that, social media can be an effective and even fun part of your marketing mix.

One of the things that I have found working as a Virtual Assistant with real estate agents and small business owners is that most of us spend most of our time on irrelevant tasks that have little or nothing to do with the attainment of our most important goals.

I hope that the information that I am about to share with you will help you get more organized and thus more productive.

Most of us have heard of the economic principle called the 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, meaning that 80 percent of the value of any group comes from only 20 percent of the members of this group.

This can mean basically that 80% of the effects of anything in your life will come from 20% of the causes.

The 80/20 Rule has been applied to sales forces, wealth distribution, test scores, etc. Actually, it can be applied to parenting, marriage, health and exercise. It’s true in… well 80% of your life, I’d imagine.

When applied to your To Do list, it means that 80 percent of the value of your daily list comes from only 20 percent of the items on it. In other words, if you have 10 items on your list, you could focus on only two tasks and get the vast majority of success just from those two activities – while ignoring the other 8 items entirely.

So, by now you’re probably ready to go after your To-Do list, cutting out those low-payoff items. Before you get out the hatchet, read this short list of suggestions so that you cut the right ones out, and focus on the high-reward tasks:

1. Know what your goals are
You can’t choose your biggest payoff tasks if you don’t know what your goals are. Thoughtful planning is critical so you know what you’re trying to accomplish and how to rank your items accordingly.

2. Write it all down
Write every task down, from the largest to the seemingly least important. If you’re finding yourself getting sidetracked during the day, it may be because you’ve failed to write critical activities on your list. Before you can rank your items, you need a complete view of your work world.

3. Evaluate
With your goals in mind, ask yourself, “What are the top three activities I can complete today that will move me closer to those goals?” Put an asterisk next to those tasks, and start the day there. If you complete any of the other items, it’ll be a bonus.

4. Track your success
At the end of the week, review your daily lists. Have you made significant progress towards your goals? Which tasks turned out to be the most important? Which did you think were important but proved to be less critical?

5. Keep refining
Use your weekly reviews to inform your decisions going forward. If you notice that you often rank your social media efforts as critical, but they don’t seem to be impacting your progress towards your goals, resist putting those as starred items on your daily list. Conversely, if you notice a pattern in your highest impact activities, keep those high on your list.

Not all to-do items are created equal. If you consistently evaluate your activities according to your most important goals, you’ll soon know which tasks to keep high on the To-Do list – and which can be eliminated completely.