In order for companies, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to stay in the game we have to stay active in our marketing department. This is equally important for well established enterprises and/or individuals as well as those currently in the start-up process. Today not only are we being reached via the television, phone, and mail; but also the internet. And big or small, setting up fan pages via social networking pages is a must. Let’s face it—social media is here to stay! So why not embrace it?

At the top of the list of most popular social networking sites you’ll find Facebook. Throw in FREE, user friendly and accessible from anywhere (there’s a FB app for almost any mobile device you can think of) and you’ve found your first stop in launching your social media campaign.

But first let’s take a quick look at Fan Pages vs. Profiles.
This is from a section on Facebooks official policy (on difference between profile and pages)

Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization. We have created Facebook Pages to allow organizations to have a presence on Facebook. These Pages are distinct presences, separate from user profiles, and optimized for an organization’s needs to communicate, distribute information/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fan’s recommendations to their friends. Facebook Pages are designed to be a media rich, valuable presence for any artist, business or brand.

If you create a profile for your business, your account may be disabled for violating our Terms of Use. If you have questions about how to best leverage your Facebook Page, please check out our Insider’s Guide or FAQ.

Facebook’s policy in terms of how businesses can use their pages:

All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled.

Now, let’s get started…

1. Pick a category and name for your page. There are several categories to choose from; your businesses and/or interest may not fit perfectly into one of the categories but choosing one that matches closely is important because you won’t be able to change this again. The name of your page should be the exact same as the name of your business, organization, etc.
2.  Add a profile picture. Choose a picture or image that is clear and best represents you and your business. All of your fans and friends will see this picture.
3. Add information! This part is crucial. Underneath your profile picture is a box where you can add your company info; name, contact information and web address. Tell your audience who you are, what you do and where to find you. The more information you add the more successful you will be.
4. Make it rich & engaging. Just like profile pages there are tab options available to add content. A few are built in like a Wall tab, Info tab and Notes tab. Engage with your fans on your wall, post your businesses news, articles, etc and let your fans comment on them. Add information about your business-what you do-in the info tab. Add a note about upcoming promotions or events in your notes tab. And don’t be a stranger to your fans–add photos.
5. PUBLISH your page. Click the “publish this Page” link to share your page with the world!
6. Update regularly. Another crucial part of successful social media is updating on a regular basis. Don’t get lost in the newsfeeds by neglecting your status updates. Post fresh photos, events and promotions. Engage with your audience!

Hahaha! Nice play on words eh? (Insert cheesy grin here)

Yes, I’m here to tell you about Xmarks, a company recently acquired by my beloved LastPass. Xmarks is an easy to use bookmark and sync tool now offered completely free from LastPass. You can install Xmarks on each of your computers and it will integrate your web browser and keep your bookmarks safely backed up and in sync. They also offer backup and sync your passwords too. Xmarks supports Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

Of course there’s more to Xmarks than just what meets the eye, here are some more perks:

• Site Rankings and Reviews

Xmarks will highlight the top sites in your search results based on how other users have bookmarked and rated them. Sites that are ranked in an Xmarks Topic will show a ‘Rank in Topic’ flag next to the result. Sites that have user-submitted reviews will show an average rating. Simply click the stars to see all the ratings and read the reviews.

• Click through to Xmarks.com and discover more!

Clicking on the ‘Rank in Topic’ flag will take you to Xmarks.com to view the Top 10 sites about that topic. Discover similar sites, read user reviews, and even write your own.

• Site Info built into your browser

Click on the Xmarks info icon in your location bar to see detailed information about the site you are on, and discover other great sites just like it.

• Click through to Xmarks.com and discover more!

Clicking on GET SITE INFO shows you lots more on Xmarks.com. Discover similar sites, read user reviews, and even write your own.

• See suggested tags when you bookmark

The next time you add a bookmark, Xmarks will automatically suggest a list of bookmark tags. These suggestions are based on the tags other Xmarks users chose for the same site.

• Quickly find tagged bookmarks

Type a tag name into the Firefox 3 location bar (also known as the Awesome Bar) to quickly find sites with that tag.

[This feature is only available in Firefox 3+. You can easily turn this feature on or off from the Xmarks settings dialog.]

Definitely an add-on worth checking out!

So many free apps, add-ons, and plug-ins—OH MY!

I love the fact that there are so many options out there to help build your business or to assist in your day-to-day activities. I’ve seen everything from color picking tools to free design tools. But I’ve found myself a bit overwhelmed in trying to figure out what’s what and which ones are best for what I’m looking for. That was until yesterday! While reading another VA’s blog I came across one about catchfree. After doing a little bit of research I realized this was the answer to my questions about which free services are best.

Check out the screen shot of just a few of the popular searches out there and their ratings!

Definitely something to look into! I’m currently playing around with PageModo‘s services, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Readers meet my new best friend, BackupCreator.

I’m not sure if you can consider it a miracle or just a great coincidence, but either way I’m the luckiest girl in the whole world for purchasing and installing this when I did. Let me take you back to the weekend of October 15^th…

I’m sitting in my office working on a website for a nonprofit organization I had just recently signed on to create a website for. The organization is so wonderful and important to its creator and the people’s lives it will touch and benefit so I’m really excited to be a part of it and doing one of my favorite things – website design! Anyways, I’m sitting there playing with codes and themes, conjuring up ideas when I remember reading a post about a WordPress Plugin that backs up your work just in case the unthinkable happens and you’re stuck at square one again. So now I’ve navigated my way to BackupCreator.com and purchased the plugin and go back to creating the website. The following Monday I hear from the creator of the organization and she informs me that although she’s purchased the .com, .org, and .net URL’s she wants .org to be the primary URL. Um…I’ve already created the entire site—info, pictures, and all—at the .com URL. But instead of panicking I’m able to use BackupCreator to back up the .com version to my computer, call the hosting company and ask them to make the URL change, then I restored the back up to the .org URL and VOILA! Now, is that considered a miracle or a coincidence? I’m going to go with pure genius!

Since BackupCreator saved my life once with my clients work, I decided to go ahead and purchase it for two of my own sites. Having two purchases must have thrown up a flag for the team at BackupCreator because I received an email shortly after informing me that I only need one license to cover every site that I personally own and I was promptly refunded the second purchase.

Whether you’re creating websites for your business, clients, or just a personal website or blog for family and friends, it’s such a good idea to back it up after making any changes and BackupCreator.com is a great way to do it.

I want to stress the importance of keeping your computer healthy, and tell you a little about some of the products/software that I use to keep my PC running smoothly and my sanity in check.

First I want to start with the CCleaner by Piriform. The cleaner is something I run at least once a week. It removes unused files from your Windows PC, allowing Windows to run faster and clearing up valuable hard-disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities, contains a fully featured registry cleaner and usually takes less than a second to run. And bonus contains No Spyware or Adware!

Quick overview:

• Internet Explorer
  Temporary files, history, cookies, Auto-complete form history, index.dat.
• Firefox
  Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
• Google Chrome
  Temporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.
• Opera
  Temporary files, history, cookies.
• Safari
  Temporary files, history, cookies, form history.
• Windows
  Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
• Registry Cleaner
  Advanced features to remove unused and old registry entries.

Malwarebytes is the next best thing since sliced bread, no joke. Once downloaded, this one can be set up on a schedule to scan daily, every other day, weekly, whatever floats your boat. I recommend daily because of the risk with malware. Here are some features I pulled directly from the Malwarebytes website:

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO Features include:

• Flash – Lightning fast scan speeds
• Thorough – Full scans for all drives
• Works Well With Others – Cooperative functionality
• Puts YOU first! – Priority database updates
• Puts Malware in the Slammer – Quarantine function holds threats and lets you restore at your convenience
• Talk to the hand – Ignore list for both the scanner and Protection Module
• For Your Pleasure – Customizable settings enhance performance
• Toolbox – Extra utilities to help remove malware manually
• Nitty Gritty – Command line support for quick scanning
• RPP, Yeah You Know Me – Real-time Proactive Protection Module
• Hablamos Everything! – Multi-lingual support (Klingon still in beta)
• Support for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

And although Malwarebytes is a super hero in protecting your computer from malware, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important it is to keep an anti-virus protection service also? I didn’t think so. Whichever service you decide to go with, they are all set up to do regular scans to keep your computer protected and like all other computer protection software it will inform you on potential threats and zap them away.

Another huge problem that can dramatically slow down your computers performance is a severely fragmented disk drive. Defragmenting your hard disk regularly is important in ensuring the efficiency of your computer. It’s a way to allow your computer to clean up and re-organize itself for a system that runs better and faster. I downloaded a free version of Auslogics Disk Defrag over a year ago and run it weekly with no problems.

I also went ahead and purchased Auslogics BoostSpeed a few months ago and although I have minimal experience with it right now here are a few features I’ve come across.

• Registry Cleaner – Repairs thousands of registry errors to increase PC stability.
• Disk Cleaner – Removes junk files that slow down a computer.
• Disk Defrag – Defragments disk drives and optimizes system files placement. Our assessment is that this is better than the Windows Defrag tool.
• Registry Defrag – Compacts the registry eliminating memory-consuming gaps.
• Disk Doctor -Finds bad sectors, lost clusters and directory errors and fixes them.
• Internet Optimizer – Tailors the one-size-fits-all settings to a specific Internet connection.
• Duplicate File Finder – Helps to find and remove duplicate files that waste disk space.
• Startup Manager – Allows users to manage programs that start automatically on PC boot.
• Tweak Manager – Allows users to tune hundreds of hidden Windows settings.
• Services Manager – Disables unnecessary services that slow down a computer.
• Uninstall Manager – Completely uninstalls applications that a user no longer needs.

I’m basically in love with my monthly system maintenance tools. I keep a file folder on my desktop as a reminder that for the ones that are not scheduled to run, I need to do it myself Friday evenings and my computer works as smoothly and as fast as the day I pulled it out of the box.

Screen shot of my weekly reminder, system maintenance folder

Sitting down in front of my computer this morning I go to log into my online email account, my Facebook, and I need to check my online banking real quick. Between my personal accounts and my client’s accounts I’ve got a treasure trove of user names and passwords for at least two dozen different websites, social-networks, online banking, and so many, many more. In the past I’ve built spreadsheets to keep track of all the different passwords I use every day. I’ve also tried using the contacts section in Outlook to keep track but I need something more, something better, and something that will not only remember all these user names and passwords but do it securely while allowing my day to continue to move smoothly. So my hunt begins and I quickly come across LastPass and just as quickly fall head-over-heels for it, and this is why:

• It’s easy: Never forget a password again and lot into your sites with one mouse click.

• It’s everywhere: Automatically synchronize your data: access it from anywhere at any time.

• It’s safe: Protect yourself against phishing, scams, online fraud, and malware.

• It’s secure: All your data is encrypted locally on your PC-only YOU can unlock it.

• It’s Multi-platform: Using Mac, Windows, or Linux? LastPass works everywhere.

• It’s FREE: No catches or gimmicks. It’s free to use on all your computers.

LastPass says it best…

Enjoy!

Today I want to touch on something that benefits us here at the YVA team professionally and personally. When my daughters were young and growing out of their clothes, shoes, toys, etc every couple of months I hauled all the outgrown things to the local Goodwill store. And during the holiday season we like to grab the tags hanging from the Christmas trees in stores (i.e. Walmart, Kmart) with children’s names or entire family names on them. These families aren’t as fortunate as a lot of us and are asking for help with the things they need along with a few small fun things for their kids.  Not only does it cost very little and sometimes nothing at all to participate in either case, it also contributes to the community and the soul.

The YVA team is also proud to say that we enjoy donating our time to create and maintain website designs for local nonprofit organizations, along with donating our old cell phones and laptops to Goodwill and shelters.

For those of you who haven’t had the chance to give a little back, it’s something I highly recommend. And with the holidays quickly approaching it’s a great time to start, but remember the need is year ‘round.

I want to tell you about Doodle. Not doodling, but Doodle.com. It’s an online scheduling service used for both personal and professional reasons. This little tool allows you to schedule a lunch with clients or friends, proposing several dates and times and lets the recipients indicate their availability.

It took me about 3 minutes to set up MyDoodle; a free account for regular users. After setting this account up I was able to install a plug-in to link to my Outlook account. In attempt to be organized many people live by our Calendar and this nifty little tool allows us to quickly set up meetings from a quicklaunch button right on your Outlook toolbar. Another helpful function I quickly signed up for is the MeetMe page. This gives you your own www.doodle.com/yournamehere address so that your friends, clients, family members, etc can reach out to you and suggest a meeting or lunch date.

Doodle also offers Premium Doodle (which is the only charged serviced), Doodle mobile to keep you connected while on the go, along with Doodle from anywhere.

I love all the free help the internet is offering to us, whether it is for personal or professional. If you need a calendaring system I would encourage you to give Doodle a try and take advantage of what’s out there.

Too often we go to print something from the web and get the most ridiculous looking set of pages you’ve ever seen. Everything is choppy, sentences broken up and even cut in half, and nothing looks like it’s supposed to.

Recently I found something to make this phenomenon simply just disappear. Readers meet Joliprint! Joliprint is a web app as well as a mobile app; it allows you to save as a pdf for reading later. Joliprint reformats the page and its contents to make it 100% easier to read, and to be totally honest, it looks much prettier also.

Here’s an example of a print out of YourVirtualAdvantage.com services page before using Joliprint.

Ok…so that looks…umm…good.

Let’s see how it would look after using to Joliprint.

Voila!

I’m not kidding; this is the exact same page. The first one is a print preview of the services page and the second is the pdf formatted version. It’s so easy to download and even easier to use. Once downloaded all you need to do is drag the Joliprint icon up to your book marks toolbar and any time you need a better formatted print out of a webpage just hit Joliprint and let it do all the work for you.

Did you think that was all? Oh no, no, there’s more! I’ve shown you how the download works but let’s look at what else you can do.

You can save in your Google Docs or my favorite share on your Facebook or Twitter accounts. And last but not least emailing or copying and sharing the link to friends, family, clients, teammates, etc.

Check out the options below and enjoy!

There are many ways to share information whether its photos or documents, personal or professional, sensitive or not. We’ve use email, ‘whale mail’, ‘sendthisfile’, and share on a social website. With all these options there are drawbacks. Email doesn’t allow us to send enormous files, and let’s be honest, file are getting bigger all the time. A viable solution…

HELLO DROPBOX!

Let me start by just highlighting a few of the features Dropbox offers that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

• 2GB of Dropbox for FREE. Yes, a subscriber can get up to 100GB. (We’ll get back to this)
• Your files are always available from the secure Dropbox website. Dropbox keeps a one-month history of your work.
• Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Bring your files when you’re on the go. Edit your files in your Dropbox from your phone! Easy to upload to Dropbox and just as easy to share with whomever you choose.
• Works even when offline. You’ll always have your files, whether or not you have a connection.
• Dropbox transfers just parts of the file that change. When someone makes a change to an item in a shared folder, you can see the changes immediately.
• Manually set bandwidth limits-Dropbox won’t hog your connection.
• Invite friends, family, teammates, clients (ANYONE) to a folder. It’s as if you saved a folder to their computers.
• Send a link to any file in your Dropbox using your Public folder. The Public Folder lets you easily share single files in your Dropbox. Any file you put in this folder gets its own Internet link so that you can share it with others—even non-Dropbox users! These links work even if your computer is turned off.

Now back to this 2GB of Dropbox free stuff. It’s true!  Some might think this is a lot, some maybe not so much. But the way Dropbox works is once you put a file into a shared folder the recipient can move that file out of the folder and put it wherever they choose to on their computer freeing up that space again. Maintaining the space is key to keeping those 2GB free. Not everything needs to be moved out because 2GB is still a lot of room and when working with clients and/or co-workers some files will always need to be shared. As your business grows or if you’re thinking you might need more space the option is out there. With all the amazing features and security Dropbox offers it’s definitely a service to check out and I’m pretty sure once downloaded and learned this is something you’ll learn to appreciate. Check it out for yourself.