Second Self Virtual Assistance

I just read a great article by Mike McDonald at Web Pro News where he talks about the use of ghost tweeting on Twitter.  What is “ghost tweeting“?  This is where the tweets being tweeted on a person’s account aren’t actually being tweeted by them.  Just like hiring a ghost writer for blogs, articles, copywriting, etc., many Twitter users have taken to using ghost tweeters to handle their Twitter accounts.  Is this moral, ethical, trustworthy?  You have to ask yourself whether you are following someone because they are a “name” or because of the content of their tweets.  If you are following the “name”, then you might be disappointed.  However, if you are following them because you value their tweets and the information they share, does it really matter that much if the tweets are actually tweeted from their very own fingers?  The information is the same, right?

Truth be told, ghost writing has been going on as far back as literature itself.  With all the social media outlets on the internet, it can be hard for busy people to keep up with everything themselves.  The fact that someone sees the value in places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. shows that they understand the importance of social media in modern marketing.  So, don’t be surprised or even disappointed to find that you are following may not have actually formed the words that are being written.  If the information is valuable, the source shouldn’t necessarily matter.

Pamela Cendejas, Real Estate Virtual Assistant – Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn’t Enough of You to Go Around!

Quite often overlooked as an SEO tool, press releases are very valuable for marketing yourself.  Press releases aren’t just for celebrities, government agencies and news forums.  They are amazing ways to market an upcoming company event, open house or any other announcement you may have.  Press releases are crawled by search engines, which, in turn, can help drive traffic to your website and/or blog.

One great place to create a press release via PRWeb.com.  They have several different news release distribution packages ranging from $80 per news release to $360 per news release, depending on how much visibility you wish your news release to have.  PR Web has found that when press releases were used in conjunction with social media (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) by simply adding a link to the press release on their social media sites, their customers experienced on average a 50% increase in web traffic.  In one case, a client experienced as much as a 400% increase from just one press release on two different websites.

PRLog.org is another place to create press releases.  And, they are absolutely free to the public.  PR Log allows you to create your own press room and distributes all releases to Google News, several search engines and RSS feeds all across the world wide web.

Not only are press releases easy to create, they are a great way to drive traffic to your website, creating great potential to increase sales.  Also, journalists are continually scanning press releases for the latest news in their area.  When a journalist sees your press release and writes about it, that increases your web presence and advertises your event, announcement, etc. even more.  So, take a look at any of the online press release companies available.  No matter which way you go, just make sure not to discount the value of a press release to your marketing.

Pamela Cendejas, Real Estate Virtual Assistant – Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn’t Enough of You to Go Around!

A couple of months ago, I spoke about the pros and cons of Google Place pages.  It appears that Yahoo has taken notice of Google Place Pages and is now doing something similar to its local business pages.  There are now new local business page features on Google and Yahoo.  Google recently announced that they will be allowing more details for reviews on businesses as well as letting people rate individual aspects of a business listed on Google Place pages.  They also started to show when a business has been verified with a large checkmark at the top of the page that says “Owner Verified Listing”.  If the business has not been verified by the owner, it can be edited by users.  So, you will want to verify your listing as soon as possible so that you can stop anyone from writing harmful things about your business on your page.

Yahoo! has also made some changes to its local pages.  Users can now search businesses in an area without being too specific in the details.  For example, if I search “doctors in Kingman”, it will bring up the doctors listed on Yahoo! in Kingman, Bullhead City, Needles, Golden Valley, Fort Mohave, Lauglin and Mohave Valley (the areas closest to Kingman AZ).  You can narrow your results by clicking on one of the links of the cities to find more specific information.

Make sure that your Google Place page is up to date and validated so that you can have complete control over what is put on your page and when.  If not, you may not like what you see.

Pamela Cendejas, Real Estate Virtual Assistant – Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn’t Enough of You to Go Around!

Like waistlines, websites can get soft if you don’t keep working on them.  Here are a few tips on how to whip your website into shape for the new year and beyond:

1. Control Your Movements – You need to have a website that has a user-friendly back office.  This means that you can add pages, videos, customize forms and feel comfortable working with it.  You don’t need to have a total knowledge of exactly how a website works.  But, you need to feel comfortable knowing that you have the ability to “get your hands dirty” if you need to instead of relying completely on an I.T. person to get the job done.  Virtual assistants are great in helping with these things as well.  Another thing to look for is that the company you are getting your website from has a real live person you can speak to about any customer service-related issues.
2. Pump up the SEO – Make sure your meta tags, keywords and descriptions for all your pages are optimized to their fullest effect so that search engines and, in turn, potential clients will be able to find your site when looking for their real estate professional.
3. Create the Image You Want and Work It – You can work traditional advertising to fit in with your online marketing by creating a consistent look and brand to both.
4. Become a Social Butterfly – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even Trulia are just a few of the great social media outlets that you should become a member of.  They also allow you to add links to your website and blogs.  You should also add links from your website to your different social media profiles to help create “stickiness” (capturing a reader’s attention and keeping them interested).
5. Just Breathe – As you and your business evolve, so should your website.  At least every six months or so, you should go through your site and look at it from a fresh perspective.  The real estate market can change dramatically in six months.  What was the focus then may have shifted to something else now.  Make sure all links work properly and that your images still appear correctly.  Add new information and delete outdated stuff.

Why wait until the new year to start working on your site’s image?  Contact me now to see how I can help you get your website in the best shape it can be so you can hit the ground running in 2010.

Pamela Cendejas, Real Estate Virtual Assistant – Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn’t Enough of You to Go Around!

Have you ever wondered how you can create a superb email campaign?  It’s not as easy as just sending an email blast out to all your contacts every other day and hope for the best.  Today’s customers are much more savvy than in the past and need to be treated as such.  With that in mind, here are just a few ways you can create a superb email campaign to capture leads and keep them coming back:

1. Allow the Reader a Choice – Don’t use sly “tricks” to try to capture leads, like automatically checking a box on the registration forms on your site.  If someone is filling out a form and doesn’t see that this box has been checked, the emails you send them might be considered an invasion of their privacy, turning them off of using your services.  When a subscriber reaches the 12 month mark, send them a quick email to ask if they wish to continue receiving your emails as a courtesy.
2. High Email Volume = SPAM - An ISP sees a high amount of email as possible SPAM and can penalize you for such by marking them as possible SPAM to the recipient or even blocking your email from being sent altogether.  To avoid looking like SPAM, make sure any “unsubscribe” requests are followed within the 10-day window required by law, monitor any SPAM complaints you may receive and resolve them, use a unique IP address when possible and create a double-opt process for your forms (after someone clicks on the submit button, have a pop-up window ask them to confirm that this is what they really wanted to do).
3. Keep Mailing Lists Up-to-Date – They say that “cleanliness is next to godliness”.  The same is true for mailing lists.  A “dirty list” is one that has several bad, duplicate or out-of-date email addresses on it.  Go through your list at least every few months to clean up your list.  If you send a monthly newsletter, some services will send you a list of emails that were bounced back.  You can use this list to clean up your address book.  This will keep your email campaigns running efficiently.
4. It’s the Quality, Not the Quantity – It doesn’t matter if you have 1,000 names or 100 names on your email list.  If the contacts aren’t of any quality, those 1,000 names don’t mean much.  Focus on who your core demographic is and add those people to your contact list.
5. Respect a Reader’s Privacy – Make sure to include a privacy statement with your opt-in form.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate.  But, a few words can go a long way in reassuring someone that their information will not be shared or sold to anyone, creating a sense of security. 
6. Format the Email for the Recipients Inbox – If the reader can’t find the information they want quickly, they will delete.  So, make sure that you put your company name in the “from” line so the reader can easily recognize it, create a quick subject line that grabs the reader’s attention and gives a quick description of what the email is about in no more than 50 characters, use text and html colors/layout instead of lots of images in the email in case the images are disabled and put all important things at the top of the email instead of at the bottom (such as a call to action or newsletter contents).
7. Use Yourself as a Test Subject - Always make sure to send yourself a test email before you send out the entire campaign.  This will allow you to fix any errors that may arise.

These are only a few tips on how to create a superb email campaign.  There are several more.  If you have any questions about your email campaign, please contact me.

Pamela Cendejas, Real Estate Virtual Assistant - Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn’t Enough of You to Go Around!