LinkedIn has proven to be a great business networking tool for me. It is different from other social networks that I use in that there is no real personal connection being made with people. What I mean by that is that we are connecting for business reasons. Of course I am drawn to people because of their personality, but I am really networking with people who fit into my business as part of my niche or my colleagues. On my other social networks, I often connnect with family, friends, and people who have similar interests as I do.

LinkedIn works differently and I think it’s very effective. People will connect with you based on what you say in the various groups, discussion areas and so on, but they will almost always check out your profile first (at least I do!).

So you should have a look at your profile to be sure that you look as professional as you think you do! LinkedIn has some applications and tools that you should be taking advantage of to help maximize your profile.

Here are my favourite five:

1. Recommendations: Reach out to people you have worked with before and ask them for recommendations. Also offer to give recommendations in return! Having recommendations on your profile establishes you as a real person, and can instill confidence in people who are wondering if they should connect with you.

2. Groups: Get involved after you set up your profile. Your profile will never serve you if you do not get involved in discussions with people who have similar interests. I have made some wonderful connections with people that I would never have met except that we joined the same group. It’s about networking!

3. WordPress: Install this application to pull your blogfeed into your LinkedIn profile. When you publish a post, it will automatically display in your profile, so people don’t have to leave LinkedIn to see what you have written.

4. Twitter: Your twitter feed will display on your profile, and you can even update your Twitter status while surfing on LinkedIn. There is so much great information shared in groups on LinkedIn that you will find this to be a quick sharing tool!

5. Events: I love this application because you can see at a glance the events for all of your connections.  It’s easy to add your own events and invite your connections.

There are plenty of others (and they are adding new ones all the time), but these are my favourite five, and ones that I use all the time with my profile.  Check out the application directory to see what apps you can add to your LinkedIn profile!

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently got a great tip from a LinkedIn connection about how to make my profile look more professional.

It’s such a simple fix and I never really knew it existed until this fellow pointed it out. In your profile section, you can list up to three websites that you can connect your profile to. You probably have this already set up.

When I first joined LinkedIn, you had the option of putting in links for My Website, My Blog and My Company. Well I did not know they had updated this so that you can actually edit the top text for these links so they can say whatever you want them to say.

So now my labels say, ‘Tracey D’Aviero, VA, Your VA Mentor and Your VA Mentor Blog – which is much clearer than the generic labels that were there before.

It only takes a moment to change, but I really think it makes a big difference in how you profile looks. Here’s how to update them: http://linkedintelligence.com/making-the-most-of-website-links-on-your-linkedin-profile/.

I’ll be on the lookout for other cool tools to share with you! (If you haven’t updated your profile in a while, there are some neat new applications you could be taking advantage of!)

So I mentioned in my last post that I had a semi-heated discussion with a LinkedIn connection after we disagreed about my open question.

At first he was concerned that I would log in to my client’s LI profiles to post their information, which he pointed out is a violation of the Terms of Use Agreement that everyone agrees to when they sign up. No problem, I only post things to their profiles by connecting them to a feed system using an application that LI allows. I don’t even write the material that I post, my clients do. I simply do the data entry portion for the application, and the system does the rest. Check.

Then he pointed out that my own profile was not in compliance with the TOU from LinkedIn. WHAT? How could that be? I did everything right … at least I thought I did. He pointed out that I had my email address listed in an area that was not a designated field. That was true. I did. He mentioned that this violated section 10B4 of the TOU agreement … “Include information in your profile or elsewhere, except in designated fields, that reveals your identity or sensitive personal information such as an email address, phone number or address or is confidential in nature”
I had read that to mean that my privacy would not be protected if I posted my email address outside of a designated area. I was fine with this so I left it where it was. It seems that this error could breach my TOU with LinkedIn. Interesting! I removed it and I feel better already! (I am sooo not a rule-breaker!)

This made my connection discussion start to ease up a bit. He was impressed that I cared enough to make the change. It wasn’t that I was trying to break the rules, I had only misunderstood the jargon. Anyway from there we became friends again *haha* and he actually gave me another great tip to make my profile look more professional.

Stay tuned – I’ll let you know what that tip is next time … so you can do it to your profile too!

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I recently took some time away from my busy schedule of client work to focus on my own professional development.

From June 3 to 7, I was in Niagara Falls, Ontario with a number of other virtual assistants at the Forum on Virtual Assistance, or as we call it, FoVA.

The slogan for FoVA is ‘Meet, Learn and Grow’ and we sure did that (and more!).

It is a gathering where we meet others in same line of work (it can be isolating working from home all the time!), and where we learn (seminars and workshops) and where we grow from our experiences at the conference (whether they are work-related or personal experiences!).

Wesnesday, June 3, I made my way to Niagara Falls and got in quite late. I was lucky enough to locate a gang of VAs – some of whom I had met before, but some of whom I had not. They had finished dinner and were just hanging out relaxing after dinner, and luckily I was able to join them to unwind after a long day of driving. I also met my roommates that I would be staying with for the week (more on them in another post!). There is nothing like meeting people in person who you ‘know’ online. Great fun!

Thursday, June 4,  I had the very good fortune to be able to attend a workshop on blogging and social media by an industry great, Kathie Thomas. Kathie came all the way from Australia to speak at FoVA this year, and I was thrilled to meet her and to learn from her.

Thursday night was the official meet n greet for FoVA, and everyone else arrived for dinner and drinks. Somehow after our great dinner at the Marriott, we ended up at the Casino, where we had fun dancing to the band, and we even spotted a celebrity or two (check out Facebook photos for our much-discussed missed photo op!).

Well, it so happened that Friday, June 5 was my birthday, so when the clock struck 12 in the Casino that night, I received quite the celebration (with my friend Pat @cletch who was also born June 5). There aren’t many better places to celebrate your birthday than with a gang of crazy friends in Niagara Falls (but I digress!).

Friday brought more seminars, and I was happy to see my favourite FoVA 2008 speaker again, Mary Lou Ashton, who talked about how to set professional and personal foundations and how to eliminate tolerations. Friday lunch was a Lunch n Learn session about different personality types with Janet Barclay. Friday afternoon we learned all about Wordpress from Frances Palaschuk (one of my awesome roomies). Friday night the whole gang went for dinner with Alex and Julie from Solvate. Very full schedule, so Friday night was a welcome relaxing evening with plenty of laughs!

Saturday morning we had an amazing panel of professionals available for a panel discussion: representatives from various VA groups and associations around the world  (Yvonne Weld, Kristi Pavlik, MaryLou Ashton, Jeannine Clontz, Stacy Brice, Dawn Goldberg, Kathie Thomas, Sharon Williams, Pam Ivey .. have I missed anyone? If I got your link wrong, please let me know and I’ll edit it!).  We missed seeing Tawnya Sutherland and Elayne Whitfield on the panel, but it was amazing to have such a group of highly respected people all on the same panel!

Saturday afternoon we spent with Pam Ivey who discussed defining your niche, and creating passive streams of revenue within your niche.

In between we had loads of fun, but the sessions were extremely informative by all – (there were many more sessions available - the above list are the seminars I attended).

It’s truly professional development (amid the fun) for virtual assistants anywhere. I would highly recommend attending FoVA to any virtual assistant, whether you are starting out or have been in business for while.

There is nothing like getting together with colleagues and even mentors, to discuss the finer points of our industry. And there is definitely nothing like meeting the people that you are in contact with every day online, up close and in person!

I know for myself that I came home from this year’s conference with a renewed excitement for my business, some great networking opportunities, and some fantastic new friendships. I am looking forward to using all of my newly-acquired knowledge to forge ahead in my business for 2009.

Thanks to Barb Lang for all her hard work this year, pulling FoVA 2009 together. Thanks also to all of those who helped in any small (or large!) way, to make the conference such a memorable event for all of us.

I can’t wait for FoVA 2010 (wherever it is!) …

Wow is it possible that I haven’t posted since mid-May? I guess so! June kinda got away on me … attending FoVA in Niagara Falls the first week of June certainly had a lot to do with that for me. (Next post will be about my experiences at FoVA!)

I’ve never been off work for a week for a conference before. It was great, but it took planning the two weeks before and catching up the two weeks after just to be able to do it.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a list-maker and a details person. I always try to approach each situation (work or personal) by assessing the necessary steps and then planning the best route to the result.

Lately I have been starting to work with the social marketing needs of my clients, and we always begin with a checklist that we turn into an action plan, just to be sure we start off on the right track.

The extra attention that we put into the planning phase pays off in the end, when we know exactly what we are going to include in our strategy, and how we can best pull it all together. The setup for social marketing can be very daunting, and it is easy to get lost in the maze of it all. Good planning is essential to streamlining your strategy and saving valuable hours of setup time.

After the proper setup is done, the maintenance is much easier to manage. It’s like anything … plan it well and then execute to the best of your ability. It may not go perfectly every time, but you’ll be better prepared to handle any bumps along the road if you plan accordingly.

Take the time with your VA to figure out what you want to do with your social marketing, and then plan your implementation strategy to get there the right way. You’ll be glad you did