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It’s Monday morning. You sign into your Facebook profile to update your status and start browsing through your friends’ profiles. You’re looking at their photos from the weekend when you see a friend was tagged in an album of someone you don’t know. You click around a few more times and before you know it, you’re looking at wedding photos of total strangers. Does this seem all too familiar to you? If you have a social networking profile, it probably does. While many job seekers heed advice on joining social media sites to use them as networking tools, they are also warned not to invest too much time — especially at work — in these all-consuming, often-addictive online vehicles. But times are changing. Social media have become a place where people communicate and interact with each other. This makes it a place where companies, businesses and brands shouldn’t be missing. Consequently, a lot of jobs in online marketing all now require some level of social media expertise. Social media on the rise more companies are utilising social networking efforts by Twittering, blogging and creating profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to gain exposure and increase customer service. Many companies see their presence in social network as an opportunity to communicate better with its associates and candidates on topics like employment, market issues and internal events. Plus, having an active Facebook page helps candidates find them and increase visibility. For example, NHS Professionals Special Health Authority, the leader of temporary staffing provision to the NHS, and the world’s biggest online betting community Betfair are very successful with Facebook. The pages allow them to connect with potential candidates and increase their brand recognition. While these organisations clearly figured out an effective strategy, not every company is in the same boat. Many firms know they need to get in the space, but once they’re there, they have no idea how to leverage their existence. As a result, employers need people with social networking skills — like Secretary4hire — to come on board and take over.

Contact us TODAY and let us create and maintain your online social networking presence without all the added distractions.

www.secretary4hire.co.uk
Tel: 0844 884 2818

 

 

 

article source: www.careerbuilder.co.uk

www.secretary4hire.co.uk
Tel: 0844 884 2818

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Depending on your usage, you could save HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of pounds per month by signing up NOW.  This is a never-been-offered-previously discounted rate for new monthly clients only.  Check the Video Newsflash for details and contact us IMMEDIATELY.

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Secretary4hire’s Marj Beattie is travelling back and forth between UK and the continent over the summer.  Have a sneaky peek here of her “virtual office” whilst travelling on the boat.

In an effort to keep an admin handle on both blogs, VA-Guru.com has been moved to its own webspace.  It’s still accessible by typing in the URL http:www.va-guru.com

See you over there!

Marj

You shouldn’t be asking yourself how a blog can help your business but more importantly when you will be launching a blog for your business. We talk to many people who can’t seem to understand the value of a blog for their business which I find just fascinating. If you are going to be serious about driving an online business you will have to be serious about incorporating every aspect of online marketing into your strategy, including blog marketing.

One thing you have to realise is that a blog is more than just a journal, it is a communication tool between your company and the outside world. There are many different ways you can really optimise the use of your blog posts to drive in new traffic and create much needed business for yourself. By simply incorporating keywords into your blog posts you can quickly see your blog posts ranking for many different targeted keywords. It is important to always write blog posts for humans but there should always be elements of blog marketing and search engine optimization in all your posts. A blog can be used in many ways to pull new traffic and business in. You could use it as a how to guide, new products or simply just a way to give your audience any new information on your industry or your business.

Make sure your blog are interesting and inviting. Cater your blog so that you stand out from your audience a bit. Blogs don’t have rules, it is OK to go against the grain and put anything you want in them.

 For help with Blogging, Online Marketing in general or setting up/keeping up your online Social Networking presence, get in touch.

www.secretary4hire.co.uk
Tel: 0844 884 2818

 

Article Source: http://blogmarketingjournal.com/

Ten tips for facilitating a conference and ensuring a clear recording which will maximise the chances of an accurate, complete transcription of your conference proceedings.

 

1. Minimise the effect of any noisy environment - if chatter from the audience, panel members or interference from air conditioning or laptops is loud enough, it will be captured on the recording. Nearing lunchtime, noise from the neighbouring room as the venue staff set up lunch may also be intrusive, so check with the conference venue beforehand that they’ll take measures to minimise this. Try not to leave windows open – however hot the day may be, windows need to be closed. Noise from traffic, roadworks and planes will all impact on the recording. Most microphones are not as selective as the human ear and can’t filter out extraneous noise in the same way we can.
2. Be firm in ‘controlling’ the participants, including questions from the audience. You may need to brief any inexperienced speakers that they should wait for the audience hubbub to die down before beginning their presentations. Even with lectern or lapel microphones, the background noise can often be more intrusive on recordings than we realise at the time. Voices can easily be swamped by extraneous noise, especially when speakers are softly spoken. Although it may be difficult to interrupt, if delegates (or panel members) begin to go off at a tangent, you may have to steer them back on course.
3. A restless audience should give you a clue as to whether a speaker is audible or not. On some recordings we’ve heard, the keynote speaker was speaking barely above a whisper and the facilitator was afraid to interrupt as they were a VIP. Invariably, people don’t realise they’re speaking softly – we rarely ‘hear’ our own voices. If a guest speaker regards taking part in a conference as important enough to set aside time, the chances are they will want their contribution heard. If you or the audience can’t hear what they’re saying, the chances are that the transcriber can’t either on the finished recording.
4. Ask delegates to introduce themselves – during the Q&A sessions, ask the delegates to introduce themselves with their name and company. If you provide the transcriber with a delegate list, it’ll then be possible to accurately ascribe any questions to a speaker. Remember that transcribers can’t identify voices they’ve never heard before.
5. Ensure that any questions or comments from the audience can be heard. Some delegates start speaking before the roving microphone arrives. If a speaker has a quiet voice, that may be difficult to hear and won’t be picked up by the recording equipment, however sophisticated it might be.
6. Ensure that all speakers and delegates have turned off mobile phones. This may be difficult to enforce with a large audience but if you can at least ask the speakers to do so, that will help enormously. Text messages or voice mails emit a radio frequency which is inaudible to the human ear but the recording equipment will pick up this buzzing noise. Turning mobile phones to ’silent’ or ‘vibrate’ mode is not enough – they’ll still ‘buzz’!
7. Brief the transcriber on exactly what needs to be transcribed, whether you need a complete verbatim transcript or if an edited version will suffice. Your transcriber will be able to clarify what transcript options are commonly used for conferences. Provide the transcriber with an agenda, a list of speakers and delegates, as well as any presentations or handouts supplied by the speakers. It’s also useful to provide any supporting material on the conference, as this will help to establish ‘key words’ that may not be in common usage but are particularly relevant to the conference topic.
8. Assist with clarification – if any speaker or delegate shows the audience photographs or documents, (anything that isn’t on a Powerpoint presentation and, therefore, unlikely to be available for reference later on), it would be a good idea to say what ‘IT’ is for the benefit of the recording, or make a note of it. You may remember what ‘it’ is at the time but will you later on when it comes to analysing the transcript?
9. Consider the top table ‘environment’. These tips may sound obvious but there are certain things to consider about the recording environment which can be forgotten during the atmosphere of conference itself. As well as common sense things such as preventing the microphones from being knocked, there are other issues which can interfere with the clarity of a recording. Try not to allow crockery near the microphones. It’s tempting to have tea or coffee on the top table or to allow panel members to bring cups back after any coffee breaks. If these are too near the microphones, the ‘clattering’ may drown out any voices. Similarly, don’t shuffle papers or write near any mics if it can be avoided. As this may be the source of the nearest noise, that’s what the microphone will pick up.
10. Encourage panel members not to speak over each other. In an animated discussion, particularly with a large panel of speakers, there can be a tendency for several people to speak at once. It may be useful to point out that, if they do this, then both their contributions will be lost. And if they persist in the heat of debate, you may have to diplomatically ask each speaker to repeat themselves for the benefit of the recording. Such a gentle reminder is often all that’s needed.

 

Secretary4hire offers transcription services as well as a whole host of other secretarial services. Outsourced admin help as ad when you need it on a Pay As You Go, affordable hourly rate.

www.secretary4hire.co.uk
Tel: 0844 884 2818

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Irene_Boston

Outsourcing for Businesses

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On 1st May 2009, Marj Beattie of virtual assistance company Secretary4hire (www.secretary4hire.co.uk) launched VA-Guru.com, the UK’s online virtual assistant Question and Answer spot.  The sessions will be run by Marj Beattie from Secretary4hire, with guest gurus participating on a regular basis.  It’s aimed primarily at UK-based VAs and so will have a very British/UK feel about it.  Don’t worry though if you’re US or Canada based, we’ll still welcome your questions.

We’ll be collating the questions asked and the answers will be given on regular “VA Guru” spots as either a vlog (video blog) or podcast (audio).

So, UK virtual assistants, if you have any burning questions you would like to have answered, email your questions to us here at questions@va-guru.com.

Don’t be shy and no question is stupid. Sharing knowledge is the key. Spread the word to all VAs.

Looking forward to vlogging the answers.

Marj

www.va-guru.com
Tel: 0844 884 2818