From a business standpoint, Facebook is a very effective way of networking, different than Twitter or LinkedIn or some of the others out there, Facebook is easy because it’s so … well … big, for lack of a better word!

It’s easy to browse around and see what people are up to, and it’s easy to connect and network with people, but there are a few tips that you might want to use to improve your business networking so that you can maximize your time online and really use it effectively.

Be selective. It’s important to have quality over quantity for your business contacts. On your wall feed, you will see posts from all of your connections. If you have people who post valuable content once a day, and you have others who post things that don’t interest you much more often, you may miss the things you are really interested in. It’s not a race, and it’s not a contest. Only connect (or stay connected) with people that you really want to be in contact with. And don’t be afraid to try people on for size first. I have friended and unfriended many business people/pages/groups – if they take away from my online experience (or even just don’t add to it), I am not afraid to disconnect with them.

Mix it up. Be sure to have a good balance of personal and business posts going. Business is business, and of course you want to use your social media to expand your business, but the people that will work with you are going to want to connect with you, the person, so it’s important to balance that. Same can be said for the other way – if you are posting only personal content, people may not find that business connection with you that you want them to find.

Build lists. The easiest way to separate the content that comes in over your wall feed is to use lists. You can create lists to segregate all of the people you are friends with – so you can keep your personal contacts and your business ones separate. I also keep a couple of separate business lists, for pages, people and really interesting contacts, so when I view my feed I can select to view only what they have posted. On the Most Recent tab, there is a dropdown menu where you can choose which list of contacts you want to show. This is a great way to get yourself up to date quickly. Pick a list to check out, scan the posts, and comment or share as you wish!

Interact. It is social media after all! Don’t just lurk on people’s walls – comment on their posts and updates. Interaction is the networking part of things. Share things that others have posted to your own wall. You may think that they don’t want to hear what you have to say, but they really do. Everyone likes to have someone comment on something they have ‘put out there’. From a business standpoint, it makes great sense to post interesting things and to comment on other people’s as well. You are trying to establish a reputation as an expert, so share your knowledge and opinion!

Be active. Once you put your social media strategy in place, it’s important to keep up your activity. Check in regularly, and interact regularly. Post your own content regularly too. Share your expertise in your industry. Be interesting. Don’t overload people, but don’t disappear. It can be a fine balance, but using a social media strategy will help you keep on track.

Connecting with potential clients and colleagues alike on Facebook makes good business networking sense. You can do it easily in minutes a day when you follow these simple tips!

When you work on your own, it really helps to get together with people who ‘get’ what you do for a living. I am aware that there are many people who don’t understand what I do for work, and it’s always nice to get together with my colleagues to have a bit of a chat about how work is going.

I have mentioned before that I really value the face time that I can get with my colleagues, and OVA is no exception. We enjoy breakfast while using each other as sounding boards for ideas and issues, and sharing industry stories.  Barbara Best (Virtual Works)and Raymonde Lemire (Documents Etc.)are the founders of OVA and together they provide support and direction for new and aspiring VAs, as well as great advice and insight for those of us who have been in the business for a while.

We have just set up a Facebook Page for Ottawa Virtual Alliance. Check it out here, and please feel free to contact us if you are a VA in the Ottawa area. Our next breakfast meeting is December 11 and there is always space at the table!

And if you are not in the Ottawa area, seek out your Virtual Assistant association in your area – you will be able to share and network with people who truly understand our industry.

Facebook fan pages can be used as a great marketing tool for your product or service, because so many people are connected to social networking sites these days.

Fan pages integrate with your other marketing tools, such as your blog, and can help you reach a bigger audience. By getting increased exposure, you can increase traffic to your website or blog, and connect with more potential clients and generate more income opportunities.

Visit VAClassroom to learn more about the course, and to register!

Although I network online all the time using Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, I have not done too much business networking in person in recent years.

Oh, I have my elevator speech, and I talk to everyone about what I do for a living, but I don’t actively seek clients in my own area. In fact, as a virtual assistant, I have purposely built a clientele that is located away from my hometown.

There are reasons that I have done that, of course. Prior to being an internet marketing virtual assistant, I was focused on the hospitality industry, working mainly with variable costs in restaurants and bars.

I worked from my own home office, and could compile, analyze and report on the data from my own office, I found that the clients I was working with preferred that I was on their site more than I thought I needed to be.

So, for many years I still travelled back and forth from my office to restaurants … and also needed to be available at some crazy times of day, being that the restaurant industry is not open ‘regular office hours’. I worked many holidays and weekends, and although I was very good at what I did, sometimes it just didn’t seem like it was worth it.

When I decided to swap my hospitality clients for online clients, I made a conscious decision to work with people whose offices or businesses I could not possibly drive to. Harsh? Probably. But it wouldn’t have worked for me otherwise.

Now I have established myself over the last three or so years, and am comfortable with setting my own work boundaries … and so I am finally getting out there in my own city!

Needless to say, the breakfast was great, and I enjoyed meeting many women who are running their own businesses like I am.

I learned from going to FoVA last year that getting together with people who understand my line of work is an invaluable source of support for me. That’s what this breakfast did as well, and I am sorry that it took me so long to realize the benefits I could gain by networking locally.

I will definitely look forward to the next networking meeting, wherever it is!