I’ve been honored by being included in the May 2011 issue of OC Family magazine featuring 10 moms from the Orange County area who work and thrive in the digital arena.

It’s a wonderful acknowledgment and I appreciate the inclusion tremendously.

I’m among a wonderfully talented group of women who are tapping technology to start businesses, save money, and connect with others using the power of the Internet.

Click on the photo below to quickly view the mention:

Or ventured over to the online version to view the entire group of tech-savvy mamas.

Special thanks to Debbie Lavdas for including me in the piece.

If you’d like to break away from using Outlook, try setting up your Gmail account to retrieve up to five existing email accounts and drop them into your Gmail inbox.

Simply go to the Accounts and Import tab and enter your account details.

You’ll need to set up the “Import Mail and Contacts” and “Send Mail As:” settings if you want to make it appear to be sending your domain emails with your Gmail email address appearing on all outgoing emails ( e.g.  “sent via xxxx@gmail.com”).

If you’d like to send an email from your domain email address and make it appear like yourname@yourcompany.com without the gmail.com account attached to your outgoing messages, you’ll need to set up the POP3 settings (“Send Mail As:” settings) to do so.

Click on SEND MAIL FROM ANOTHER ADDRESS and a window will pop up and guide you through the process.

You’ll see this pop up window.

When you’ve properly set up both “Import emails and contacts” and “Send mail as:” settings, you’ll be able to send and receive emails without the hint of it coming from your Gmail account.

You’ll be able to pull down a menu bar and select which account you’d like to send an email from before sending the email out.

I’ve been meaning to create a directory of Virtual Assistants (VAs) and their skill sets for a while. I saw @Minervity tweet this link out this morning and it gave me the gentle nudge I needed to get the ball rolling.

I consult with a lot of potential clients (PCs) and when they aren’t the right fit for me, I want to send them in a direction that will help them find their ideal VA.

The concept hasn’t been fully realized yet. There are a few directions I can head into: a RFP center, a membership/forum site where I make all of my templates available… your suggestions are welcomed.

What I do know is that there will never be a cost associated with simply listing your VA business in this directory.

At this stage in the game, if you’d like to be included, all you have to do is provide the following information in a comment.

I will keep you posted on what/when/how, but in the meantime, I’ll be able to reference the VAs on the list so that when a PC doesn’t work with me, they have another resource in their quest to find a VA.

• Full Name
• Website
• Contact Info
• Target Market – (if you have one)
• Skills – (Software)
• Short story about yourself
• Link to a photo of yourself

Thanks for taking the time to submit your information.

Check out this brand new video I created with http://animoto.com. It was fast, easy, and free.

When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages to find a local business?

Nowadays, people are using the Internet to find what they’re looking for; making the phone book almost obsolete.

If you’re a local business owner and you’re trying to figure out how to utilize Social Media, I’ve created this short list of Social Networking accounts you should include in your overall marketing strategy to help potential customers find you.

1. GOOGLE MAPS. With the majority of the people using Google to find what they’re looking for, it would only make sense to list your business on GOOGLE MAPS. Sign up for an account and get your business listed within 24 hours. Take the time to upload a few pictures and, if you have them, a couple of your videos. Spend a few moments to fill out your profile in its entirety.

GET STARTED HERE: http://bit.ly/j7lc7

Here’s a picture of my own listing on Google Maps:

2. YELP. This is the first place I go when looking for highly rated businesses in my area. Yelp is a User Reviews and Recommendations directory. In other words, customers become reviewers.

Their comments and testimonials can become one of the most effective types of marketing your business can generate: word of mouth.

Create an account, list your business, and review your favorite local picks.

Sign up page: http://bit.ly/sGFZy.

3. FACEBOOK PAGE. Your business Page on Facebook gets indexed on Google. This means that, in many cases, your Page will rise up farther on Google than your own website. My Page on Facebook drives almost all of my business.

Go to http://google.com and type in “Virtual Assistant Facebook”.

My Facebook Page—not my website—generates the majority of my inquiries.

Assuming you have a Facebook profile, you can create a Page by clicking through this link while you are logged into your Facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

If you don’t have a Facebook account, you’ll need to create one before you can create a Page. If you need help setting up your profile, check out my QUICK SET UP GUIDE for Facebook Profiles: http://acumenva.com/e-products/. If you already have a Facebook account but need help setting up your Page, check out this link for details: Creating and Optimizing Your Facebook Page.

Pick optimum keywords when naming your Page. You can name it after yourself: First and Last Name. You can name your Page after your product. You can have multiple Pages, if you wish. (I recommend one and focusing all of your attention on it.)

Think about what people will type into a search engine when they attempt to find you. I recommend running a search within Facebook AND on Google to see if any of your competitors show up and what keywords they’re using in their Page titles.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t find any Pages in your search. Business owners are JUST starting to realize the significance of Pages for search engine purposes.

4. TWITTER. If you’re currently using Twitter, than you already know the power of micro-blogging and its ability to connect people from around the world. If you’re not on Twitter and you want to find out what the fuss is about, I recommend jumping on board. Here’s a link to help you do so: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/.

Once you’re set up and ready to go, if you want to use Twitter to help promote your local business, here are some applications that will help you find potential customers in your area: http://twitter.pbworks.com/Apps.

Scroll down to Directories to find these links below. Take a moment to create a few accounts on the applications you like the most.

Once you’ve had a chance to connect with locals on Twitter, eventually, you’ll have an opportunity to meet up with them in person. We call those “TweetUps”. This is a great way to establish a growing connection with other like-minded business owners in your area.

While not everyone will become a customer, they can become, what I lovingly call, “referral machines,” referring you onto people who might need your services.

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Social Networking success comes from consistent maintenance. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for my newsletter at the top of my homepage and you’ll receive my once-a-month newsletter filled with tips and suggestions on how to maintain your online energy.

Stick with it and you’ll see business opportunities increase by engaging others through the use of Social Media. It’s not a fad. It’s here to stay and with more and more people using the Internet to find what they’re looking for, it’s the perfect time to jump on board.

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I’m thrilled and honored to have been awarded AssistU’s Techie of the Year Award.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for me.

I’m thankful to be part of such a wonderful group of smart and savvy professionals.  Special thanks to Stacy Brice, Dawn Goldberg and their dedicated group of VAs who made the award ceremony happen this past weekend in Minneapolis.

Other awards included:

• VA of the Year, Most Supportive Member & Top Portal Poster— Sandra Trca-Black of Alloy Virtual Assistance
• Staff Member of the Year — Laura Allen of WowVA
• Volunteer of the Year and Buddy of the Year — Susan Sullivan of Innovative Concepts Virtual Assistance
• Community Member of the Year — Christina Hills of Website Creation Workshop

I appreciate the recognition and I value my VA community tremendously.

Much love and many thanks!

Thanks to all of you who were able to attend my call yesterday with Ron Hudson, of Immediate Influence Blog.

We discussed my new 15 MINUTES-A-DAY MAINTENANCE FORMULA for Facebook and Twitter.

Click here to download.

Here’s the replay information.

Simply click on the widget for Video Recording and Transcripts.

If you’re viewing this blog post as a NOTE on Facebook, you’ll need to click through to my actual blog to view the widget.

The good news is that the links work.

The bad news is that I forgot to record the phone call.

Yep, you heard me right.

I remembered to hit the video RECORD, but not the audio RECORD. Darn it!

You should still check out the cool and nifty widget from DimDim.

If you attended the call, I would love to hear your thoughts on the entire process.

Again, thanks so much for your interest.

This has been a wonderful learning experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity.

- – -

You can also find Ron Hudson on Twitter.

Thanks to you, Ron, for inspiring me to do this. I appreciate the nudge!

I just finished reading and responding to a great blog post over on StartupNation by Rich Sloan about cybersquatting.

It’s an unfortunate downside to the Social Networking world and I’m seeing more and more of it lately.

But take heart!

There’s something that can be done about it NOW.

Does it surprise me that someone would come along and scoop up the StartupNation Twitter handle?

Nope, not at all.

The good people over on SuN didn’t see a use for Twitter at the time and didn’t register an account in their name.

They can say that their Twitter handle got ripped off, when in reality someone else beat them to the punch.

Yes, yes…in SuN’s particular case, the cybersquatter asked for $15,000.00 in return for the account (CLEARLY in bad taste).

The good news for Rich and SuN is that they had a trademark on their name, enabling them to claim the account legally.

But for the rest of us who don’t have legal trademarks on our business names (or real names) for that matter, it’s important to make sure to sign up (across the board) for the name you want to brand (even if you don’t plan on using that profile right now).

If you’re using Social Networking for professional purposes, I recommend using one account name and one avatar across the board for branding purposes.

**TIP** Use your First Name capitalized and then your Last Name capitalized (i.e., MiaChambers). DON’T use your business name as your profile name or your logo as your avatar. Be a person first and stand in front of your business. **

Take a look at this website to help you determine if your username is being used on other sites: http://knowem.com/.

While each site will have their own guidelines on how to “reclaim” your username, here’s some guidelines to follow if you find that your username has been taken on Twitter: How to Snap Up the Twitter Username You’ve Always Wanted.

Take a Saturday afternoon and register yourself on a few of the more popular Social Networking sites.

If you don’t have the time or interest to do this for yourself, have a Virtual Assistant do this for you.

Ask me how I can help.

I was recently nominated for two Community Recognition Awards from AssistU.

(Yay, Me. *\0/*)

I am grateful and appreciative.

Thank you, my AU Community Sistahs.

Howdy, Campers!

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged about anything.

I got so excited this morning that I had to dust off my neglected WordPress blog and post an update.

I just registered for Ali Brown’s SHINE Event in Vegas November 5-7, 2009.

If you are looking to attend a work/retreat event this year, I can’t recommend this enough.

I attended Ali’s Online Success Blueprint Workshop in Los Angeles last November and got so much out of it.

I am extremely careful about who I endorse. 

I hardly recommend any products for anybody in the Internet Marketing world. *smiles*

With that said, I do have a few disclosures:

• The majority of attendees are women. Some men at the last event loved this and other men did not.
• I am NOT a fan of Vegas but will go with bells on because I think the event is well worth it.
• I am an affiliate of this event which means that I will earn a commission for each purchase that is made through my links. All proceeds from my affiliate commission will buy rounds of drinks.

Click for details: Ali Brown’s Shine Event

Rock on.