Hopefully by now you are getting some visibility as an expert in your industry via your blog and other web resources.

One of my favorite things to do is be a part of someone else’s efforts.  This gets easier as all the other visibility stuff kicks in.

For example, I was invited to submit a contribution to an eBook on growing your business in a recession.

The author made it easy by asking specific questions so that I could hone my message and spend minimal time contributing.  He gets free content, I get buzz, plus he is allowing affiliates to get 65% of the sale.

Note a bad deal for me since it only took a few hours to think about the issues and write my portion.  And since this has gotten rave reviews from business owners, it is selling well and I am getting buzz and visibility.

So how can you do the same thing?  Here are several ways.

• Write a testimonial for something you like and send it to the company or person.
• Write a guest post on someones blog.
• Contribute to an ebook
• Contribute to a book
• Participate in a case study

When I get a testimonial, I love to promote it and the people that give it.  It really is a win/win.

This comes down to asking one simple question:  How can I encourage other people to market me?

It is easier than you think.

When you first started your business, it was simple.  You had a checking account and it had a few expenses every month, and if you were lucky, some deposits.

“Today you are trading in social currency.  You may be rich, or you may be poor, but it is the currency of the future whether you like it or not.”

If the IRS came knocking at your young business, you gave them the shoe box of transactions and brewed them some coffee while they sat at your kitchen table and reviewed a whole year’s worth of transaction.  If you have been in business for a while, you know how quickly that changes.  Multiple checking accounts, automatic transactions left and right, loans, credit cards, balance transfers….

For a more mature company, an audit is a hassle if you have to do it yourself.

Social Networking seems just as confusing and out of control as finances can be.  It all started out easy.  No need to keep lots of records, you are just trying out that new social media tool…

Doing taxes, and auditing your own financials is not fun.  But if you were not forced to do it periodically, imagine what a mess you could have after a few years.

Your Social Media Efforts Need Audited

Your social media efforts produce important things for you, even if you are not taking full advantage of them.

1. Connections – Also known as lists of people
2. Feeds – Avenues to publish information other people see
3. Access – Permission to publish on other websites

Much like scheduling auto-payments for a bill, many of these tools automatically publish information or grow your network.  It is easy to forget it is happening.

Here are recommendations to getting the most out of your social media effort.

1. Have a real strategy – Who would you like to connect with and what do you have to offer them?
2. Have a reason for them to sign up to an email list – Email is still #1 when used correctly.  What can you offer people in your many online groups to entice them to sign up directly with you for email?
3. Track all your accounts – Keep a spreadsheet of accounts, when you signed up, password, etc.
4. Audit your profile and settings at least twice per year.  You will find all kinds of things have changed, but you have not updated them.
5. Look for new integration opportunities – Social media is doing a better job of integrating and standardizing than financial tools are, in my opinion.  (Yes, financial is a bit harder, I know)

Perpetual Beta Social Media

Social media sites are constantly evolving.  If not the tool itself, then some other tool that will take data from a site and display it within another tool.  Crazy!

You have to keep up, or your image will get muddled or stale.  The good news is that there are social media bookkeepers.  A good virtual assistant can help you organize the tools, track progress and outcome, grow your connections and audit your profiles -  often in a few hours per month.  The Virtual Buzz Assistant network was created because of the incredible need for this kind of help.  It helps people develop their own Virtual Buzz Assistant business and help busy professionals that understand the importance of social media to find the help they need.

No sales pitch here – you can do it all yourself right after you update Quickbooks and finish your weekly payroll.

I have to admit, I am still figuring out the best formula for the Virtual Buzz Assistant project posts.  For now they are free.

I originally had them priced $199, but companies were worried they would not like the match and the money would be lost.

Then I dropped it to $19 – mostly to make sure people were serious about buying the service.  The problem with that price is I could not get involved, and if people did not get a quick match then they felt that they did not receive a value.

So now I am trying free.  I know that is going to lead to some requests that are not serious – but for now we are going to see how free works and make adjustments.

That means that if you are interested in having a virtual assistant do internet and Buzz Marketing activities for you, this is an excellent time to request some quotes.  http://virtualbuzzassistant.com

Please note, the virtual assistants are not free.  Only your project submission is – and who knows for how long.

We are launching our Buzzoodle Affiliate Program and our blog readers are the first to learn about it.  I really only want a small group of people initially as we develop more ads, write the affiliate handbook, etc.

If you like affiliate programs that have BIG earning potential and you do not mind getting in while the walls are still being painted (not literally) then sign up here.

If you are unsure, you can read the first (intro) page of our eHandbook for Buzzoodle Affiliate Marketers.

Commissions are 2 levels and include eBooks, Virtual Buzz Assistant Requests and membership sites.

Many of the opportunities have not even been announced yet, so getting in now is truly the ground floor of a great affiliate opportunity.

This blog post and an email to a small group of friends will be the only marketing done for a little while, so be the first to offer these things and make real affiliate money, including monthly membership commissions.  If you act this week, you will be offering some of these products before I have even started promoting them.  – Wow -

The idea that you can contact someone and they will drop everything they are doing to talk to you, write about you or even promote you it not a very realistic goal.

Lets try it.  – Stop reading and promote me to all your friends and family for the next 30 minutes – go ahead – just start calling and emailing….

I will wait….

See, you kept reading instead, didn’t you?

Yet when we start promoting and creating buzz, that is exactly what we hope for.  I sent you an email, why haven’t you blogged about me yet?

The best you can hope for is often to get on someone’s to do list.

That is not as bad as it sounds – we all want repeat exposure, and if someone keeps rewriting your name on the to do list and moving it forward each day or two, it is better than an advertisement.

Here are some tips to stay on someone’s to do list until they finally act.

• Make your request easily actionable (Something they need to do)
• Repeated contacts, but not too frequently.
• Make the person feel appreciated – SuTree made me an expert.
• Have a clear benefit stated.
• Make your request difficult to decline. 
• Assume you are on the to do list of a busy person.  It is not a NO until they say no.
• Follow up after a yes. 

My to do list is always full of technologies to check out, books to review, etc.  I say yes, but the people that keep communicating with me rise to the top while others may never get addressed and may fall off the list eventually.  If you think about the dynamic of the to do list, you will change the way you interact with people.

All too often, you sign up for a free webinar and you get an idea or two, but the majority of the presentation is a sales pitch.  It is actually very effective and as long as you know that going in, that is fine.

Lee Salz wanted to find a place where he could pay for real training instead of suffer through the pitch.  When he could not find the network of business experts he was looking for, he created one.

Business Experts Webinars is a network of specialists giving (for fee) webinars that have real meat.  No sales and pitching to the audience – real training.

I am really pleased to be a member of this group.  I have watched Lee bring this thing to life with boundless energy.  The great thing is I make a little something from the effort and I can feel confident sending people to this network.

Please go check out the list of webinars and look for mine – I have one each month.

For years I have been saying, “You can do this.”  and I stand by that.

You can create buzz yourself, but you can create more buzz faster with an assistant that really focuses on buzz.

I hear from people all the time that tell me they know they CAN create buzz, but they do not have the time or could not stick to it long term.

In the past, we did not really have options for these people because you either had to hire me, and I work on only a few projects at a time, or you had to train people in the organization, which many people did not want to do.

So here it is:  The Virtual Buzz Assistant Network

We find great people that want to work from home and be your buzz-only Virtual Assistant.

To do this successfully, we needed to work out a system where clients work directly with the virtual assistants.  So it is a placement system where we look at your project or need and forward you our best members for your consideration – and you pay them directly.  This keeps the cost low for the client and puts the pressure on the assistant to perform well or lose the client.

We stay involved if someone requests monthly oversite by us (yes, there is an additional fee) and we also do satisfaction surveys frequently to help everyone get the most out of the relationships.

Best Use – Clear Marketing Goals

The best way to use this service is to set a clear marketing goal, like “I want to increase my email newsletter subscription by 3,000 people.”  If you just say “I want buzz.” it is less likely to succeed.

If you already do SEO, Web Design or Traditional Marketing, you can either work with Virtual Buzz Assistants to offer new products, or you can join and add the services to what you offer personally.

Our current biggest need is to get more Virtual Buzz Assistants signed up.  It takes some time to go through the basic certification and we have several clients on waiting lists for when we have a bigger selection of Virtual Buzz Assistants.

If you have questions about either end of the program, feel free to contact me.  Thanks for reading.

Even when you have a strong brand, people do not appreciate being treated like a number:  Seth Godin blog post about Forbes.

Remember when you are contacting people – the more they feel like they are the only person you are talking to that day, the more likely they are to respond in a positive manner. 

Does this mean that the Virtual Buzz Assistant Network we run doing the same thing? 

Sure, Virtual Buzz Assistants are short-cutting the relationship – but the point you need to remember is that companies that hire Virtual Buzz Assistants respect and care about online relationships – so much so that they have an assistant that helps them maintain them. 

Caring about the relationships and full disclosure is what makes the marketing services a Virtual Buzz Assistant offers unique. 

Last night I went to an event where I ran into several people that have seen me speak before.

One told me that after seeing me speak, he and his partner both started blogs.  His has not done much, but she really got into hers and she is now seen as an expert in the Akron area for her specialty.  It resulted in a large bank calling her (after reading the blog) and asking if they could send all their Akron inquiries her way. 

A second person I talked to said they took a while to get LinkedIn going, but once they really started using it they were very plesantly surprised.  They have generated several new clients in a short time.

It is really gratifying to me to know that people are not just walking away happy about the speach, but that they also walk away with tangible benefits that help them.

One great way to get more visibility is to be interviewed.  Sounds hard if you have never done it, but it is not.  In fact, let me help you out a bit.

If you are available to be interviewed by writers, bloggers, etc. – please leave a comment on this post and tell us your website/blog and what topic you can talk about.

If you have a blog, podcast show, etc. and want to interview people, let us know in the comments section where to find you and what topics you are looking for.

Be sure to bookmark this post and check back.  It may become a wealth of opportunities, regardless of which side of the coin you are on.