The importance of online social networking seems to be a subject I am preaching about a lot to my real estate clients. But it is also crucial to running a Virtual Assistant business.

By virtue of being “Virtual” the life blood of our business comes from online sources. So we must reach out and market ourselves online in any way possible. And the beauty is that online social networking is has very little to no cost involved with some of the top networking sites. (There are some that have fees, but I have personally found value in many of the free networks and have never had to pay and have had great results).

To start your social networking for you VA business, start with your peers. Join several of the VA networks available out there (many of them on my VA Resources page) and start conversing with other Virtual Assistants. It is a excellent place to get your questions answered about the industry, how to handle certain client situations, how to find more work. But don’t only glean information from them, contribute! Contribute to topics that you have interest in or extensive experience and knowledge in. Doing so will get you noticed, show what you know, and you may get thrown some subcontracting work from other VAs.

Other social networks you should consider joining if you haven’t already are Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. Before, may have felt that these first two of those sites had nothing to do with business and they were only for the kids. But as I posted in my other blog, I was definitely wrong.  In fact I have received many viable leads, and in fact I get more activity and leads, the more involved I am in the Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn worlds.

And perhaps one of the most important places to venture into for social networking is exactly where your target market is.  Like mine, for example, is real estate. Real estate professionals are the “bread and butter” of my business. So I go to places like ActiveRain or Wanna Network, which are places geared specifically for the real estate community. I get to communicate and, in essence, market directly to my target. So find out where you niche or target market socializes, communicates and networks and go network where your money is made.

And if you want to find me and add me as a friend on various networks, find me here:

LinkedIn
Facebook
Myspace
MyBlogLog
Twitter

Happy Networking!