Are you receiving notifications of everything little thing that happens at Facebook? Do you find yourself overwhelmed with emails notifying you of new friends, group requests, and other notifications from Facebook? It's time to take control back!

Go to Facebook when it's convenient for you and do all your catching up at once. Go to your account and change your account setting notifications so that you are not emailed every single time some little thing happens at Facebook.

I just did this and what a difference it made. Now I am not overwhelmed and distracted with all those notifications. I can go in to my account at my convenience and catch up with everything at once - saving me time.

This tip was just one of several great organizing tips I heard on a CD created by three Professional Organizers in the Sacramento are - Kelli Wilson, Christine Giri and Natalie Conrad. This particular tip was provided by Christine Giri. I strongly recommend visiting their websites and signing up for their newsletters to receive other great time-saving tips. Thank you ladies!

Please share your tips on how you manage your social media.

It's fairly easy now market your business in a passive manner. Just schedule regular Tweets and autoresponders. You never have to lift a finger? But is this really the best way to market? No, it's the lazy way if it's all you do.

You want to be a proactive marketer. That does not mean you want to become a pushy sales person. You do want to really connect with people with a specific purpose in mind. Don't just aimlessly market to everyone.

Proactive marketing includes effective follow up. Instead of waiting for your prospects to call you after they've downloaded your free report or attended your teleclass, send a follow up message by email or even pick up the phone and give them a call. Set up a time to discuss your services with them now that they've had a chance to review your free report or attend your teleclass.

When you follow up you need to do so in a focused, organized manner. To do that you need to take these steps:

1. Assess the current challenges of your prospect
2. Ask your prospect what their desired outcome is if they use your services
3. Present a solution that fits your prospects needs and will give them that desired outcome
4. Provide a clear call to action

Another important way to proactively market your business is to get out there. We often get so busy we never seem to leave our office. There's always just one more thing to do, one more Facebook post to reply to, another Tweet to send out, another email to respond to. When's the last time you got out of the office and attended a live, in-person networking event, meeting, seminar or conference?

Though social media is a lot of fun and can be a great way to network, nothing replaces the face-to-face connections you make when attending networking events. So get out there and network in person!

Once you've connected with someone in person, take time to follow up and stay in touch. Call someone you met to meet for coffee. It's a great way to get ideas and information from your new contact, find out who their ideal client is so you know who to refer to them and then allow them to ask you about your business.

What will you do this week to be proactive (not pushy) in your marketing efforts?

I was looking out my window one day when the wind picked up and the weather suddenly changed from sunny to rainy and gloomy. I immediately thought of the phrase 'winds of change' and thought of how business can be affected by unexpected change.

I believe that change is good and even necessary in business. Many though fear change and don't want to embrace it. I would like to encourage you to prepare for and embrace change. Change means growth and trying new things. It means being adaptable in the ways we do business.

Think about your business as it is now and what's not working. If something is not working, you need to change it. Take steps to make these changes. If the changes don't work, try something else.

In today's market it's becoming more and more difficult to keep doing the same old thing and get through to people - especially when it comes to marketing our business. Many ignore direct mail messages, email messages, and television advertisements. What people do now is look for the information they want. How? By looking on the internet.

So you need to have a web presence - a website, a blog, writing articles, using social media. Make information about your services available and easy to find.

If you want to learn more about embracing change, I strongly encourage you to read Who Moved My Cheese?

Virtual assistants often provide administrative support to small business owners. This can cover a large range of tasks from monitoring email accounts and creating documents to making phone calls and mass mailings and a hundred other things.

However, my focusing on specialized work you can reach a specific target market and this allows your marketing to be much more focused. What are some industries a virtual assistant can specialize in?

1. Real Estate - many real estate agents need work done in areas specific to the real estate industry.

2. Accounting - more solo professionals now use Quick Books online and a virtual assistant may choose to focus solely on bookkeeping tasks.

3. Attorney - attorneys need specialized tasks and if you have the skills needed, this could be a very good market to target.

In addition to specific industries, virtual assistants may specialize in specific types of assistance, such as:

1. Social Media Marketing - using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media tools.

2. Article Writing - editing articles for search engine optimization and then posting on various article submission sites.

3. Blogs - creating and maintaining the solo professional's blog.

4. Websites - updating the client's website as needed.

These are just a few of the areas a virtual assistant can specialize in.

What is your specialty?

Social media can be an effective marketing strategy if used responsibly. You don't want your messages to your prospects to feel 'spammy' or annoy your prospects by flooding them with incessant requests to use your services or buy your book. Of course a measure of self promotion is expected. However, the majority of your social media posts should be aimed at educating your prospects and providing valuable information. What you post should be of benefit to your prospects.

There are many social media tools you can use in your marketing strategy, including a blog, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. These can be used in conjunction with your website and ezine newsletter.

Blogs are very search engine friendly and fairly easy to setup and maintain. Again, the information you post should be mainly educational. Your blog should direct prospects to your website. Short blog entries make great ezine content. Include a paragraph from your blog in your newsletter with a 'read more' link that takes your readers to your blog.

Your social networking profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup.com and any other sites you use should be as complete as possible. Schedule some time to connect personally with a new contact. Arrange to meet for coffee if they are in your area and learn more about what they do so you can know best who to refer to them.

Twitter Tips

Twitter can be used effectively to connect with prospects, educate and inform them and generate leads.

• Post quick tips, quotes or a catchy sentence or phrase from your book or speech. Include a link back to your website.
• The majority of your Tweets should be aimed at educating and providing valuable information to your prospects and clients so that they turn to you as the expert in your business.
• If you have a newsletter or blog, post links to specific blog posts or to your newsletter sign up page.
• Use the tool TweetLater.com to schedule Tweets in advance and to automatically follow anyone who follows you to increase your audience.
• If you have a Facebook account, make sure your Twitter posts automatically feed to it and widen your exposure even more.
• Watch the Direct Messages you receive and any @ messages. Try to connect with these people and start building relationships.

Use Twitter as a starting point to connect with prospects and then graduate the connection to Facebook or email. Focus on providing value and benefit to your prospects so they will want to connect with you.

How do yo use social media responsibly?