About two-thirds of the population are visual learners, who like to see pictures that illustrate what they’re reading about. That in itself is a good reason to use photos in your blog posts, but the growing popularity of Pinterest makes it more important than ever.

©Depositphotos / Aleksandr Lychagin

Although it’s not impossible to find free pictures you can use legally, it can be quite time-consuming. In most cases, you’re better off purchasing reasonably priced stock photos from a site with a well-indexed database, freeing up your time for client work, writing more blog posts, or some other activity.

I’ve recently discovered a fabulous site called Depositphotos which offers an excellent selection. I signed up for a free trial and am thrilled that their advanced search allows me to view only horizontal images that fit the format I’ve chosen for this blog, which is a huge time-saver. If you look back at my last few posts, you’ll see some of the great free pictures I was able to download. Their prices are a lot better than some of the other sites I’ve used too!

I’m so pleased with this company that I got in touch with them and asked if they’d be willing to sponsor a contest for my readers. Today I’m happy to report that they agreed to provide not one but two prizes, each consisting of a free 15-day subscription with 10 stock photos, illustrations or vector images per day. That’s 150 images you can use on your blog, website, newsletter, or other projects! How amazing is that?

To enter the contest, simply post a comment below. For additional entries you can:

1. Join our mailing list and leave a comment here to let me know
2. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment here to let me know
3. Follow me on Pinterest and leave a comment here to let me know
4. Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment here to let me know (please include the URL to your blog post)
5. Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment here to let me know (please include @JanetBarclay in your tweet)

You’re allowed to tweet about the giveaway once per day, so you have up to 15 chances to win!

The giveaway closes at 11:59 PM (Eastern Daylight time) on Thursday, May 31. The winner will be selected using a random number generator and announced on June 1. Good luck!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on 150 Free Images for Your Blog [Giveaway].

Most organizers are solopreneurs who handle every aspect of their business, bringing in colleagues on a subcontract basis as needed, or perhaps engaging the services of a virtual assistant or other professional. My guest today has some great tips for you if this is no longer enough and you need to hire a regular employee.

©Depositphotos / Chris Lamphear

As a small business owner, there are two areas that can cause the most headaches: staffing and accounts.  While large businesses are able to employ whole departments dedicated to both areas, the small business owner faces the unique and un-enviable position of having to be expert in all areas of business management.  For those running their own Human Resources or Accountancy Business, these problems are probably not so great, but for professional organizers they can mean hours of additional work once the day job is over.  Taking on staff for the first time is exciting – it’s a sign that your business is growing – but it can also be daunting and making the right selection is essential.  So how do you set about finding your very first employee?

Character Traits

• Personal qualities are sometimes more important than qualifications.  Individuals who have a “can and will do” attitude, or a “can’t yet but am happy to learn” attitude, are often more valuable to a small business than those who have a list of excellent qualifications or work history.
• Always question why a prospective employee is leaving Goldman Sachs to work for your organizing business.  There may be a perfectly legitimate answer, or there may be a dark secret lurking behind this sudden and unusual career move.
• Don’t discount people from schools with ‘poor’ reputations, over those with ‘good’ schools.  Younger people from more dubious backgrounds with good qualifications have already proved they can succeed against the odds, while those from privileged backgrounds may not even know what an obstacle is, or how to deal with one.
• Experience is sometimes over-rated.  Remember that an individual who is bright and keen is usually fairly easy to train and can be more flexible.  While relevant experience in your sector is certainly important, it shouldn’t be the only factor you use to make your judgement.

Selecting, Interviewing and Aftercare

• Many small business owners find that the demands on their time are many, and the hours in the day are few.  However, it can’t be over-stressed enough how important it is to make time for interviewing potential employees and making your decision.  One rushed, bad choice now, can lead to months of frustration and additional work.  Get it right at this stage and life may become significantly easier.
• Try to screen candidates prior to interview by ringing them in advance.  Phone interviews are not always the best way to get an impression of people, but they can help.  They are particularly important if you’re selecting customer facing staff or reception staff.  You can normally discount people who say “Wot” when they answer the phone, at this stage.
• Again, as we are all pressed for time it can be tempting to just select a friend or your wife’s ex-mother-in-laws sister’s step-daughter to do the job.  It can be a big mistake.  If you’ve got the wrong person you stand the chance of damaging your business and ruining a relationship.  Friends and families can make far more difficult colleagues than complete strangers.  Always interview several candidates – most experts recommend at least three.
• When it comes to the interview itself you shouldn’t be doing most of the talking.  You’ll need to ask the questions, but let the candidates talk.  Most people will be keen to fill a silence, and may well give more away about themselves than they’d planned – for both good and bad.  Essentially you are there to listen and learn, they’re there to tell you about themselves.  Those all-important personal qualities tend to show best at this stage, so ensure you give them time to demonstrate them.
• Aftercare is important, and that may involve a little advance planning.  There is a wide range of payroll software in Canada, and taking some time to select an appropriate system and getting it in place before you take on that first employee is worthwhile.  Once you’ve found your perfect candidate you’ll be keen to have them on the team as soon as possible.

Carlo Pandian is a freelance writer and blogs about business, entrepreneurs and technology covering everything from QuickBooks essentials to social media management tools. He loves reading great entrepreneurs biographies and speaking at conferences about how the internet can help small businesses.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on How to Hire Your First Employee.

Earlier this year, we looked at a few ways to find blogs who welcome submissions from others, as well as the benefits you can receive by writing guest posts. But what about the other way around? Is there any advantage to inviting others to write for your blog?

©Johan Hedengran / Depositphotos

Fortunately, this is one of those situations that’s beneficial no matter which side of the table you’re sitting on!

For starters, hosting guest bloggers allows you to offer your readers a different viewpoint from your own as well as information over and above your own expertise.

When you’re too busy to write, guest bloggers can help you to keep your blog active and free up your time to work on your other projects. Even if time is not an issue for you, hosting guest bloggers will allow you to update your blog more often, which is great for driving traffic to your site and search engine optimization.

In addition, inviting other bloggers to guest post for you allows you to build mutually beneficial relationships. Most guest bloggers are eager to share their posts with their own networks, which exposes your blog to a lot of people who might never have known about it, many of whom may become regular readers or even clients!

I’ve hosted one or two guest bloggers per month for the last three years, and have experienced all of the above benefits.

There are a number of ways to find suitable guest bloggers:

• Ask bloggers from within your own network.
• Approach other bloggers whose work you admire.
• Do an online search for experts in a particular topic you’d like to cover in your blog.

Less labour-intensive approaches include:

• Post a notice on your site inviting readers to contribute to your blog
• Sign up for My Blog Guest and post a request in the forum. (You’ll also have access to a database of available articles and if you see one that’s a good fit, you can request to use it. Unlike publishing content from an article directory like EzineArticles, once you’ve accepted a particular article, it will not be available to others, so you don’t have to worry about the same material appearing on other blogs.)

Of course, you’ll still need to devote some time to corresponding with your guest bloggers and screening their posts to ensure they meet your standards of quality.

No matter how you find your potential guest bloggers, clearly communicating your wants and needs will make it easier for the blogger to decide whether they can fulfill your requirements. This may include:

• Description of your blog and its target audience
• Suggested topics
• Minimum and/or maximum post length
• Timelines
• Whether the author should supply images and, if so, how many
• How many links the author may include in their post and/or bio

Providing the above information up front will also reduce the number of emails back and forth as you hash out the details.

Organized Assistant® provides a range of blogging services to professional organizers, including the coordination of guest bloggers. Please contact me if you’d like more information about this service.

If you’re looking for a guest blogger, please feel free to post your request in the Comments section!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Guest Bloggers: Who, Why and How.

Welcome to the 36th edition of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! Evan Esar defined family as “a social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space,”  and we’ve got lots of great tips this month to help families be organized not only in their spaces, but in their activities.

© See Tsay Yiap / Depositphotos

Congratulations to Tracy Hoth on achieving Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Blogger status, with her post Got Kids? Got Memorabilia!

We have two new participants this month, Stacey Agin Murray with her post Best Products for Organizing Your Car, and Pam Wedig-Kirsch with Beginning of Summer “To Do” List. Please join me in welcoming Stacey and Pam to the Blog Carnival!

Returning this month, we have:

Marlene Devine – Organizing is a Family Affair

Ramona Creel – Frugal Living 101: Raising Children

Sue West – Kids & Organizing: Teach Them What You Know

Audrey Cupo – Blended Organization

Margaret Lukens – Making a Family Communications Plan – Four Steps For Faster Reuniting

Linda Samuels – Share the Load

Janice Russell – Cluttered or Clutterless Legacy

Hazel Thornton – Six Organizing Sytems Everyone Needs

Leslie Josel – Have You Hatched It?

Deanne Kelleher – Kitchens, Kids and Keepsakes

Nancy Borg – Do Your Kids Have Too Many Toys?

Cena Block – Productivity Tip – Simplify Your Meals

Natalie Conrad – Packing Kids for Summer Camp

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your expertise. As always, I encourage you to take time to read your colleagues’ posts, leave comments, and follow each other on Twitter.

Next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival will be dedicated to Product Reviews, and you’re welcome to submit your post any time from now up until 10 EDT on Monday, June 11.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for May 2012: Organizing for Families.

As my guest today, I’m happy to welcome back Moreen Torpy. I’m actually quite pleased to be today’s stop on her virtual book tour for her new book, Going Forward: Downsizing, Moving and Settling In.

If we don’t have to downsize our home or our stuff, where do we look for a downsizing challenge? Paper. Office paper. Files.

As organizers, we’re always on top of our clearing out—aren’t we? Well, I’m guessing that some of us aren’t quite on top of it. Or should I just admit I’m not there yet?

What really bothers me is my client files. Because of retention rules, we must keep them for six to seven years, and that takes a lot of space when space is at a premium. So this year, I’ve decided to digitize all my new files. Many of you probably thought of this ages ago, so I’m just catching up. Why didn’t I think of it sooner? It’s the logical place to downsize office paper. So it will take me six years to clear the backlog.

In the spirit of full disclosure—I’m an information junkie. Downsizing my collection of books is an emotional minefield for me. So I’ve stopped buying books. Almost. I have Kindle for PC so have started a business library there and don’t feel guilty about it. I haven’t collected many titles so I’m not using up my entire hard drive.

Then there are the files that puff up with importance whenever I decide to purge. They take on a life of their own, telling me that they’re important and must be kept, for posterity if nothing else. I’ve committed to downsizing seven file drawers to four and that’s a lot of work!

Again, as organizers, we counsel our clients to tear out pages from magazines and toss the magazines. Those tear sheets add up too. All those tips and tricks to help those same clients become organized and stay that way. Information on working with the ADHD client, the hoarder, etc. What if I can’t find what I want on-line when the time comes? Will the world end? No. But it does take quite a bit of self-talk to let it all go. And I’m working on that.

What happened to the paperless office, you ask. Well, it simply didn’t happen. I’ve killed more trees than I want to admit to. And I rationalize that by saying I have difficulty reading from my monitor. The print is too small, my eyes are dry, I can’t focus. I’ve found a solution to this too. I’ve learned how to zoom and increase the font size of most things, so I really don’t have to print everything any more. Maybe just a couple of things…

Going forward, it’s my sincere intention to at least decrease the amount of paper in my office before the fire marshal arrives to shut me down.

What’s your commitment?

© Moreen Torpy

We would be honored for you to reprint this article. If you do, please include the resource box below with the hyperlinks intact.

Moreen Torpy is the De-Clutter Coach, a Trained Professional Organizer, Author, and Speaker. Her new book is Going Forward: Downsizing, Moving and Settling In. See www.goforwarddownsize.com for more about the book including where to purchase it, and www.decluttercoach.ca to learn about her organizing services.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Downsizing Office Paper: A Simple How-To.

Last week I posted my answers to the social media questions that members of the Halton-Peel Chapter of Professional Organizers in Canada recently asked me. As promised, this week I’m posting the rest of their questions, along with my answers.

©Depositphotos / Vladislav Kochelaevskiy

Blogging

What would be the #1 Social Media tool you would suggest to start with?

The best social media platform for you is the one most used by the people in your target market. Regardless of which one you choose, I strongly believe that a blog should be the hub of all your social media activity. If you devote a lot of time and energy to developing great content for your Facebook page, but all of a sudden Facebook is no longer popular, or your page gets deleted due to some technical glitch, it’s of no value to you. Instead, put all your best content on your blog, where it can remain permanently, and post links to it on your social media accounts.

Is WordPress the best place to blog?

I am a huge fan of WordPress.

Do you post photos onto your blog as well?

Absolutely! Photos not only add visual appeal to your posts, but they make them pinnable on Pinterest. In addition, if there’s an image in your post, a thumbnail will appear when you share a link to your blog posts on Facebook, making it more likely that people will notice it and click on it.

Would you separate your blog from your website? For example, have your business website with your domain and then your blog on WordPress.com?

You can do that, but I highly recommend that you incorporate your blog into a WordPress site on your own hosting account. Because your blog is going to be updated more frequently than your website, that’s what’s going to generate the most traffic. Don’t you want those readers to be as close to the information about your services as possible?

Do you have to pay for using WordPress?

Not exactly. WordPress.com is a free service, but you are limited to the design themes and features they offer. If you want to customize a theme or use your own domain name, you have to pay for a premium account.

Self-hosted WordPress (often referred to as WordPress.org) is free software, but it needs to be installed on a hosting account, which you have to pay for. It is much more powerful, allowing you to choose from a much broader selection of design themes, or even to have your own custom theme designed, and offers a lot more bells and whistles.

For a more detailed explanation, refer to my Website Owner’s Guide for Non-Techies.

What do you blog about?

The possibilities are endless, but here are a few suggestions:

• The organizing products you use most often
• Organizing books you’ve read
• Answers to questions people have asked you in workshops, emails, or consultations

For additional content ideas, check out:

• Blog Energizer’s Blogging Calendar & Planner (free download)
• Professional Organizers Blog Carnival monthly themes
• Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress (free with any WordPress Package from Organized Assistant®

I don’t want to give away too much of my knowledge. What would stop people from using the information and  organizing themselves?

Don’t be afraid to demonstrate your expertise! Yes, people hire you because of what you know, but it’s not the only reason. Many people lack the time, energy, or interest to carry out a major organizing project on their own.

Michelle Shaeffer wrote an excellent post about this very topic: Overcoming Secret Blogging Fears: If I Give Away My Secrets and No One Will Hire Me

Email Marketing

Do you send out Newsletters?

I don’t do a traditional newsletter, but I do have a mailing list through which people can receive my blog posts by email.

What tool do you suggest?

I really like MailChimp. It’s free if you have less than 2000 subscribers, and you can email them as often as you like at no extra charge. It’s also one of the easiest email systems I’ve ever used.

How does  MailChimp make money?

They charge for people with 2000 or more subscribers. If you use the free service, you have to put the MailChimp branding in it, but if you get a paid account, you can remove it. There are also other features available for a small fee.

Can you set up both Newsletters and a blog through MailChimp?

Yes, you can. I have one client who sends out a quarterly newsletter in addition to a monthly summary of her blog posts.

How do you get people sign up for your Newsletter?

You can put a sign-up box on your website and on your Facebook page.

Do you help others to create newsletters?

Yes, I do. In fact, I started offering VA services when I was a professional organizer and another POC member asked me to set up a newsletter for her. I help by designing templates, setting up mailing lists, editing and formatting content, and setting up RSS-to-email campaigns.

Virtual Assistants

What do Virtual Assistants do?

This virtual assistant focuses mainly on blogging – including everything from WordPress installation and theme design (for both websites and blogs), developing an editorial calendar, proofreading and formatting posts, sourcing images, ghost writing – anything to help you promote your business through your blog!

How do you charge for your services?

For new blogs and websites, I charge by the project. For other services, I offer hourly packages which are good for up to a year.

Websites

Would you use Go Daddy for building a website?

I don’t recommend using any site building software that is offered by a hosting company. Aside from the limitations, if you decide to change web hosts, there is no way to transfer your site to the new service, so you basically have to start over again from scratch.

Do you know anyone who can help your website to be on the top in web searches?

I am very skeptical of anyone who claims they can get you top ranking in the search engines, as there are just too many factors. Furthermore, with personalization of search results, different sites come up for different users, depending on their browsing history. The best thing to do is keep adding new content to your site, using the keywords that your target market is most likely to enter in the search box.

Other

Do you find QR Codes useful?

I have very little experience with QR codes, but I follow Stephanie True Moss on Twitter, and that’s all she tweets about.

Would you have any comments of benefits and ways of using YouTube?

That’s also beyond my area of expertise, but I know that video is becoming more and more important as a marketing strategy. If you’re interested in speaking engagements, it’s a good way to let people see you in action. Many organizers use it to demonstrate specific organizing products or techniques.

Big thank you to Chapter Secretary Blanka Smetana of Tidy Corners for diligently writing down all of the questions, and to Program Coordinator Michelle O’Sullivan of Saving Spaces for inviting me to speak.

If you have anything to add to my answers, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment! And if you have a question of your own you’d like me to answer in a future blog post, I’d love to hear from you as well.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on More Online Marketing Q&A.

It was such an honor to be invited to speak at POC’s Halton-Peel Chapter Meeting last week! Since the Q&A portion of a presentation is often the most valuable, I decided to devote the entire session to answering the group’s questions about social media. I’ve posted those questions, along with my answers, here today.

Facebook:

What changes were done to Facebook pages?

On March 30, Facebook pages were converted to the Timeline layout which has been available for personal profiles for several months now. This new layout has a spot for a large “cover photo” at the top and places the page content in two columns with the posts arranged in reverse chronological order.

Why were these changes made?

Who knows why Facebook does anything?

Should we have a cover picture on our Facebook Page?

I recommend it, because it’s a good way to brand your page. And if you don’t, there will be a big empty white space at the top.

How do you add a cover picture on your Facebook Page?

When you are on your page, you’ll see an Add a Cover button near the top. Just click on it to upload an image and position it so that it displays nicely.

Is there a website/service that can help us to create the cover picture?

If you Google facebook cover photo you’ll find lots of sites that offer tips for creating a cover image.

Do you think the Facebook improvements are for better?

I think so. As I mentioned earlier, the cover image offers more opportunity to promote your brand than the original page style, and Timeline organizes your content very nicely.

How do you create a business page on Facebook?

Go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/pages, and at the top you’ll see a Create a Page button.

Is there a way to separate your business friends and your personal friends on Facebook?

What you need to do is go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists. At the top you should see “Close Friends.” When you click on the link, you’ll be able to add anyone that fits into that category.

Once you’ve created a list of your Close Friends, you’ll want to edit your Privacy Settings, which you’ll find in the drop-down menu under Home, at the top right side of your screen. Where it says Control Your Default Privacy, choose Custom.

Next, set your default privacy so that only people on your Close Friends list can view the items you post (see below).

When you post something you’d like everyone to see, set the privacy on that item to Public. Be sure to check the privacy setting before you post something personal again, as you may need to change it back.

If you don’t want your personal contacts to see business-related items you post, you can create a second list for Business Friends, and set the privacy setting on those posts accordingly, but that’s a lot of extra work. I think it’s good for our personal contacts to understand what we do in our businesses – you never know who might know someone who can use your services!

Someone I know who uses Facebook exclusively for business decided to unfriend all of her Facebook friends and ask them instead to connect with her through her business page, so that’s another option.

How do I make sure that my Facebook friends don’t see my other friends’ posts?

This is also controlled in your Privacy Settings. Under Timeline and Tagging there are a number of settings available, including one to control who can see what others post on your timeline.

Be sure to check your privacy settings from time to time, as they often revert back to the default settings when Facebook rolls out updates.

Can you schedule Facebook posts?

Yes, you can!

One way is by using Hootsuite. When you post something, you can choose for it to go up right away or schedule it for the future. You can even use it to access your other social media accounts, including LinkedIn and Twitter. For each post, you can choose which network(s) you want to send it to.

Lately, I’ve been using a service called Buffer, which also works with all three of the major social networks. Rather than setting your posts for a particular time, you just add posts to your “buffer” and they’ll go out according to a schedule you’ve created.

Keep in mind, however, that your posts have a better chance of appearing in your friends’ news feed if you create them manually.

LinkedIn:

Do you think there is a benefit of having a business LinkedIn profile along with your personal one?

I don’t really see a big benefit to solopreneurs having a business page on LinkedIn.

Where should I do my LinkedIn posts from, my personal or business profile?

You can’t post status updates on a LinkedIn business page, but you can set it up to automatically display links to your blog posts.

How else can we promote our businesses on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn  has a very powerful feature that a lot of people aren’t aware of, called Answers. Users post questions, and you can search for those you can post an answer to and get rated on your answer.

Because LinkedIn is strongly oriented towards business-to-business, this tool will be more useful if you do business organizing. If you work strictly in the residential sector, you might want to check out Quora, which features questions on a much broader range of topics.

Pinterest:

Is it good, businesswise, to be on Pinterest?

Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites, and it’s a great tool for organizers because you can give visual links to organizing products, as well as showcasing your own work.

How do you pin?

You can add a bookmarklet to your browser which makes it easy to pin pictures from nearly any website. You can also click on the Add link at the top of the Pinterest screen to either upload a picture from your hard drive or enter the URL for the page where the picture appears.

Can you pin?

That is a very good question! There are major concerns about whether pinning an image from a website is a violation of copyright. On the one hand, you’re linking back to the source, but is that sufficient? I know of people who were really into Pinterest but have deleted their accounts just to be on the safe side.

If there is a Pin It button on a website, does it mean I’m allowed to pin anything I want from there?

I would say that someone who puts Pin It buttons on their site wants you to pin their content. It would be wise, however, to make sure that they have the rights to use the images which appear on their site!

Can you pin web images only? Is there a way to add magazine clippings?

You would have to scan the clippings and upload them, but that would most likely violate copyright. I suggest going to the magazine’s website and looking for the content there.

Would you agree that Pinterest is designed for younger audience (18-35)?

Yes, that is my understanding, though of course that can change at any time.

Twitter:

I found that Twitter is lots of talking about nothing. How do you find people that are worth following?

When deciding whether or not to follow someone, the first thing I check is their bio to see whether they’re likely to be of interest. I also look at their recent tweets to see what they tweet about, and whether they engage with their followers. I’ve seen bios that made me think someone would be a great source of valuable information, only to find that their tweets were trivial.

Do you know the people you follow?

I’m following more than 1600 people, and I definitely don’t know all of them. That doesn’t mean that I read every tweet posted by every person I follow either! I have them organized into lists such as women-helping-women, organizers-cda and Blog/Social Media/Mktg and I decide which list I want to view at any given time.

What is Tweetstock? Have you been there?

Tweetstock was a social media conference which was held in Brantford on April 12, 2012. Unfortunately, I didn’t go, but I heard it was really good!

To supplement this information, everyone who attended was offered a free copy of my Basic Guide to Networking on Twitter as a gift for joining my mailing list.

Since the other speaker was unable to make it, there was time for plenty more questions! Be sure to catch next week’s post when I’ll share those related to blogging, email marketing, virtual assistants, and more.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Social Media Q&A.

When it comes to social media, I’ve noticed that some professional organizers avoid it like the plague, others embrace it wholeheartedly, and most fall somewhere in between. Helena Alkhas views social media as an important tool for her organizing business, and I’ve invited her here today to explain why.

I have truly fallen in love with social media. I enjoy the learning, the understanding of how society has changed, the relationships that develop from it, and the connections I’ve created with fans that follow my posts on the channels I use.

When many of my colleagues approach me, two of their biggest concerns in regards to social media relate to time and if I get clients from it. They fear that using social media is very time- consuming and doesn’t bring them any tangible return in the form of clients/work.

Our society has undergone a major transformation and there are some impressive numbers to prove how social media permeates society’s daily life.

One area that has been greatly affected by the use of the web and social media was marketing and how companies communicate their message to the public, hoping to convert them into consumers.

In the past, Marketing would be something only larger companies would be able to afford, and they would use a model where a need was created and they’d make us aware of the product (new need) where we buy/consume it.

Entire campaigns would be developed and we would be “bombarded” by it in several forms:

• printed in our monthly magazine subscriptions
• aired during the commercial breaks of our favorite TV shows and radio programs
• placed in the supermarket aisles
• samples in stores

However, with the growth of social media, among other things, consumers started publicly sharing their likes and dislikes and this develops two-fold:

1. A testimonial from a friend/real person is much more powerful than a paid message brought out by the company itself, and
2. As we tend to hang out with like-minded people, our friends will see what we like and be more inclined to try it and hopefully like it. Just as we often make friends through friends, the same applies to brands we like.

This may seem like a new scenario, but in fact is just a replication of how we build our relationships: through time and in several forms of contact. And this is exactly what social media is all about: relationships being built through time. So, when we think of social media, we should in reality think about relationships with those that like our services.

This brings me to a very important part of relationship-building, which is authenticity. Like in all relationships, in social media channels where you represent your service, the more authentic you are, the more successful you’ll be, because you will be attracting the “perfect match” to your service and it will resonate with those following you. Using your authentic voice will create a genuine relationship with your public and this can lead to conversion from fans into customers down the road.

With this new perspective we can see that investing the time on creating relationships with the public through social media is actually a way of marketing yourself, and truth be said, marketing yourself and your company has never been as accessible as it is now, because all you need is the investment of your (precious) time and your social media and blogging accounts! And I believe this is wonderful news for small business owners like us; don’t you agree?

By now, I hope I’ve been able to briefly show you the changes in the scenario and how it favors you as a small business owner, but you may still be asking yourself “What’s in it for me? Why should I bother spending time, giving my best tips away if this doesn’t bring me paying clients?”

Well, the use of social media channels brings exposure to your company, to you and your products – this is free advertising. Secondly, by sharing your knowledge, you are in fact educating the public about it and, most importantly, you are establishing yourself as an authority in your area to a much broader audience than just your clients and your local community.

So, how can you make use of these tools to create exposure for your business, to promote your expertise and establish yourself as an authority in your area without spending hours a day on it?

1. By selecting which one(s) best apply to you, or you feel most comfortable with
2. By learning to use each of them
3. By planning a social media calendar that is relevant to your type of organizing business – and of course,
4. By scheduling time in your working hours to do it

It’s also important to keep in mind is that social media is not a magic potion; it does not happen overnight and, like anything we do successfully in life, requires lots of TLC. You didn’t build your friendships, relationships and business overnight, and the same applies here, because on the other end of the blog post there is a human being, just like us!

In my next posts we can see how each channel works and how to organize to make the best of each of them!

Helena Alkhas is a San Diego based Professional Organizer and she specializes in residential organizing. She offers hands on organizing as well as virtual organizing services to clients across the globe. Helena is a lifelong learner and is a member of NAPO and a subscriber to the ICD. Here is how you can contact her: www.apersonalorganizer.com, helena@apersonalorganizer.com or 858.564.8500.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Why Social Media?.

Many new professional organizers choose one of our Starter WordPress Packages for their first website or blog, because it allows them to have a professional design at a very reasonable cost. One of the benefits of WordPress is that you can update to a different theme, even a custom design, any time you’d like a new look, without having to recreate your site from scratch.

When Lois Kennedy established 3 Step Solution by lk in 2010, her main focus was on residential organizing. We created her original website, shown above, using the Flexx Theme, with a little customization to match her logo.

As happens very often, the shape of Lois’ business evolved very quickly during the first year. After becoming GO System certified, she started offering workshops and other business services, and needed her website updated to reflect her new services and her new branding. She also wanted a more polished look to better attract the corporate market. We decided to redesign her site using the iThemes Builder Theme, which allows for complete customization, not only of the design, but of the layout of different sections of the website.

We’re all very excited about Lois’ new website:

Here are some of the other new professional organizer websites we’ve created recently:

• SeniorDownsizing.ca
• Very Organized
• Jean Linder Organizing

If you’re in the market for a new blog or website, or a new look for your existing WordPress site, let’s talk!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Another Website Makeover.

These days everyone is overwhelmed with information, and it’s coming at us from every direction! This month I’ve invited organizing experts to share their advice for managing the deluge of communication we send and receive via email, snail mail, the telephone, and other media. Read on for some great tips, and please feel free to share your own ideas in the comments section.

© Maksym Yemelyanov - Fotolia.com

We have three people joining the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for the first time this month! Please welcome them by checking out their posts, leaving a comment, and following them on Twitter!

Cena Block – Doing Email Doesn’t Mean You’re Productive

Sue Becker – Digging Out from an Email Avalanche

Marlene Devine – How to Organize Your Electronic Data

Returning this month, we have:

Janice Russell – Email Jail

Janine Adams – Inbox Zero – how I do it

Ellen Delap – Email and other Technology

Leslie Josel – Small Steps to Being Productive

Sheri Bruneau – Our 3 Favorite Productivity Apps

Jonda Beattie – Toxic Inbox

Ramona Creel – Getting Off The Telemarketing Lists

Paul Burton – Three Ways to Direct Conversations in Multiple Recipient E-mails

Lisa Montanaro – How to Survive the Daily E-Mail Attack

Natalie Conrad – Taming the Paper Bill Monster

Audrey Cupo – Weeding Out Your Computer

Deb Lee – Monogamy and The Modern Gadget: 3 Ways to Improve Your Relationship With E-Mail

Julie Bestry – From Desktop to Mailbox (Part 1): Send Real Mail Without Paper or Stamps

Clare Kumar – Organizing Your Office – Mastering email efficiency

Hazel Thornton – Email Inbox Zero – Really?

Margarita Ibbott – 4M – Margarita’s Manic Monday Minutes – Email

I’d like to thank everyone for their wonderful submissions. I picked up quite a few tips I can use, and I’m sure you will too!

We are now accepting submissions for next month’s Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Organizing for Families. The submission deadline is 10 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, May 7.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for April 2012: Organizing Email and Other Communications.