Women and Money and the Power of Social Networking

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am slightly obsessed with Twitter and Facebook. Most of those people think I'm strange too. But I digress. The point of this blog post is to share some exiting news! I am the featured fan at the Women and Money group on Facebook this week! One of the reasons I am the featured fan is because of the power of online social networking. I met Cathy Curtis (the owner of Curtis Financial Planning and the founder of the Women and Money group) through Twitter and then Facebook! Networking online can be a very powerful tool in building your business.

And the winner is...

Drumroll...

Instead of bothering Heather with picking a winner. I used www.random.com and the winner is...

Baba from Baba's Farm Life!

Congratulations!

Baba - I will be contacting you so I can send you the book!

5MininuesForMom Thanks for the party!!!

Please Hire Me!

Lately, I've been noticing a lot of new Virtual Assistants looking for work. Virtual Assistant's have been emailing their resumes asking to work for me. They've also been posting on the forums saying things like "Hi, I'm new and I want a job. Please hire me."

The amount of new Virtual Assistants on the scene has been growing like crazy over the last year. I'm guessing this is because of the way the economy is. People are losing their jobs and saying, "hey I could be a virtual assistant". What some people don't understand is that being a virtual assistant means you are a business owner and not an employee.

Like Candy of OffAssist, I've been getting a lot of requests from new Virtual Assistants wanting work or information and I feel I haven't been responding to them as much as I could be. I am thankful for Candy's new vlog: 2 Minutes With a VA. I now direct people here who contact me for information.

2 Minutes With a VA is filled with some great resources for new VAs.

The request I get most often from new VA's is: How can I become a subcontractor? A great way to get started as a VA is to be a subcontractor. However, to be a subcontractor you first need to find a VA willing to try you out. Lanel Taylor has a great answer to the question: How does a Virtual Assistant become a subcontractor? You can listen to the answer here:
http://2minuteswithava.com/2009/03/how-does-a-virtual-assistant-become-a-subcontractor/

Control Your Privacy Settings On Facebook

Thanks to Corine who commented on my last post with this video link and thanks to HappySlip for creating this fun video.

A few weeks ago, I posted this under my notes* in Facebook®.

Facebook is weird!

It's the one place where your past & present collide. Your personal and professional life overlap (well at least mine does). Your friends from middle school suddenly appear and post a ton of pictures of you from when you were 12. Your ex-boyfriends start appearing one at a time and now they are all in one place together. Your clients, employers, co-workers, ex-friends, new friends, kids, kid's friends, ex-husbands, lovers, acquaintances and strangers all together commenting on what you are doing at the moment. Friends from high school, people you don't remember from high school, people that remember too much from high school, your family, your neighbors... They are all there (here) together. People in your life that would never interact now have the opportunity to interact. It's just weird. Normally when you go for a job interview or are negotiating a project with a new client you don't show them your pictures from middle school, talk about your exes, or tell them what you are doing every minute of the day. I'm just wondering what this all means in the big picture of life? It's kind of strange and cool at the same time.

I'm not sure how I feel about having you all here together... so far it's a fun ride.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this big social experiment we are all involved in.

*notes in Facebook® is similar to a blog.

This got me thinking... I update my Facebook® page quite frequently and maybe I don't want every single Facebook® "friend" of mine to always be in-the-know of exactly what I am doing.

Did you know you can change your privacy settings so your "friends" don't get updated every time you comment on a picture, write on someone's wall or update your status? You can even specify certain "friends" to get limited updates from you. (You know those friends who it caused less drama to accept their friend request than to ignore it. If you have friends like that.) *wink*

To change your privacy settings in Facebook®

• Sign in to your account
• Click on the link Settings (located at the top right of your screen, next to your name)
• Click the word manage (next to Privacy)
• Click on the word Profile
• Click on Edit Custom Settings under Status Updates
• Where it says Except These People add in any of those special friends you may not want seeing your every move.

Please post your Facebook® questions here. If I know the answer, I will blog about it in future posts.

Become a fan of Virtual Simplicity on Facebook®!

If you are new to Facebook®, want to set up a Facebook® profile or page for yourself or your business and just don’t have the time or the patience to do it yourself… Virtual Simplicity can help you!