Google+ is the new social network launched by Google. It’s the fastest social network to take off in history, with over ten million members just a couple months after launching. It already has over a billion pageviews per month.

What sets Google+ apart from other social networks? And how can it be used to build a business?

There are two main features that set Google+ apart from Facebook: Circles and Hangouts.

==> Circles: What They Are and How to Use Them

Circles are like friends groups. You choose what groups to put people in without them knowing what group you’ve placed them in.

You can then choose to share things with people in certain circles, without other people in other circles seeing it.

Let’s say you run two businesses, one for PPC coaching and one for SEO coaching.

You’ll be able to put all your students and contacts of each group into their respective groups. You’ll then be able to share course updates to one group without the other seeing.

Circles also solves another problem many professionals have had with Facebook. You want to be able to share photos and status updates with your friends, but not necessarily with your professional contacts.

Circles makes this very easy. You can share just about anything with whoever you want and hide it from whoever you want.

==> Hangouts for Video Conferencing

There are many video conferencing programs online. However, by and large every single one of them is paid and often quite expensive.

Google+ changes all that. Google+ makes video conferences completely free, backed by Google engineered technology.

You can have any number of people join a Google+ hangout. You can invite people one by one, or you can open a hangout to an entire group of people who can join at will.

You can share YouTube videos. You can type text into a chat box. The speed of the service doesn’t slow down no matter how many people you have on it.

In short, the Google+ Hangouts makes it easy to hold video webinars as well as video conferences with co-workers and business partners.

==> Is Google+ Here to Stay?

Of course, if you’re going to adopt a new social network, you want to use one that other people are actually on and one that’s going to be around for a while.

Will Google+ still be here a year or two down the line? There’s no way to know for sure. The uptake was much faster than any other social network in history, but users’ number one complaint today is still that there’s “nobody else on it.”

If your customers or co-workers are already on Google+, then you probably should get yourself on Google+. However, if nobody you know is on the network yet, you might want to wait for a short time first to see how it plays out.

You’ve been realizing lately that you really need to spread the word about your virtual assistant business, website, event, or product. But you don’t have the largest budget on the planet. If you’re looking for ways to advertise for free, you might want to consider making full use of social media.

Most social media platforms offer paid advertising – and if you have the budget, it’s always better to cover all the bases. But there are some free methods and techniques utilizing social media that can really increase your exposure (and even your personal brand).

Here are suggestions that have worked well for many virtual assistants, internet marketers, and entrepreneurs on these 5 social media sites…

1. It’s not enough just spread the word by blogging: You have to also promote your blog if you have one. Do it by using Delicious or Digg. Link to your blog from your Facebook news feed. Send people to your blog by tweeting on Twitter about your latest post; shorten the URL with bit.ly – and then check your stats on the number of clicks.

2. Upload a video to YouTube, and make sure links to your business are placed in the first and last frame of your video (appearing long enough for people to quickly make a note of the link). Have the same URL in as many places on your YouTube channel page as you can manage.

Make sure it either (a) is extremely helpful about one tricky subject for the niche you’re targeting or (b) contains all the elements of a viral video:  Memorable, entertaining, personal, unique – if appropriate, perhaps even funny.  (A Singing Parrot is far more likely to engage people’s attention than a dry “talking head” video where you earnestly explain your bookkeeping VA practice.)

You do have to be careful not to be so irrelevant with your amusing video that you don’t attract your target audience at all. (Perhaps have your Singing Parrot humorously interrupt your earnest explanation of your bookkeeping VA practice.)

Get creative.  One marketing mom was having a particularly hard time with her 3-year-old twins “ruining” every attempt at making a video. Rather than lose her cool and fight the situation, she edited the clip in Windows Movie Maker to leave in only one interruption – one that was particularly funny. Her mostly female work-at-home-mom audience loved the video, and she reported a 50% increase within 2 weeks in her opt-ins.

There are many other social media sites that offer free features, apps, widgets and opportunities. Check them out to see which ones are the best fit for your business!

Want more information about social advertising? Check out my free report: Social Media: How it Changes the Way You Advertise Online at http://www.lisarwells.com/socialmedia/

Do you feel stressed or discouraged at the thought of having to add social media to your virtual assistant business advertising mix?  If you do, then chances are you are one of the secret minority who have vowed never to join Twitter, and you’re sick of hearing about Facebook (that thing your teenager haunts).

Relax.  Social media doesn’t have to mean huge learning curves and wasted hours, all in the name of networking. Once you realize that business networking isn’t wasting time at all, it might make a whole lot more sense. Mind you, you might have to work a little at that shift in mindset… but you can do a few things to cut down on your social media climbing without losing valuable opportunities for free advertising.

Start Small…

You can’t get much faster than Twitter for social media networking. Compare the three hours you spent writing that article; then the frustratingly glitchy load time, uploading it to your marketing directory… and waiting 4 or 5 days for it to be approved… Now write out a sentence like this (in less than 140 characters):

“How to add a video to your website.”

Add to it a shortened link to your blog post.

Voila. You’re done.

The best way to shorten that link?  There’s 2 schools of thought…

Some say it’s better if you used an optimized post title leading directly to your blog, like so: http://www.just-an-example.com/brainstorming.html.  Keyword-wise… yes, it is.

But most people shorten their posts with bit.ly, because it allows you to add a button to your browser bar, and check your click-throughs instantly. (And remember, social networking is driven by sharing, interest and need; not by carefully-optimized keywords.)

In fact, in the time it took to write this post, you could have easily published several tweets to Twitter – each of them like little mini-advertisements. (Just don’t make the marketing too blatant – remember: You’re supposed to be hanging out, sharing and swapping.)

Of course, it’s best if you don’t stop there:  But if you’re truly busy, Twitter is a good place to start. You can post 3 highly-relevant tweets a day, in less time than it takes to water your houseplants. And you can even send your tweet while waiting at the doctor.

Twitter is truly the place for people who hate social networking.

And it’s like having your own personal mini-advertising campaign!

P.S. I purchased a program recenlty to learn the basics of social media management and quickly found that this an AWESOME niche for those who are social by nature. If you want to get trained as a social media manager, then check out this social media manager training program by Ryan Deiss and Kate Buck Jr. called “Let’s Get Social.” (affiliate link)

Most of the other virtual assistants and online professionals that I know have small budgets when it comes to advertising or promotion. I know that I am always on the lookout for free or low-budget alternatives. How about you? Do you want to get a steady stream of traffic without paying exorbitant amounts of money in advertising? Then read on to learn how to build a high traffic website without spending a dime in ad money.

The #1 Secret to Free Traffic: Consistency

Many beginner virtual assistants want to build a successful business overnight. It just doesn’t happen that way.

The most important thing to getting steady (yet free) traffic is consistency. You won’t get a ton of readers by publishing one good article. You won’t get a ton of watchers by releasing just one video. You won’t rank highly in search engines overnight.

The key to consistently getting high traffic is putting out great content on a regular basis. This builds trust in the eyes of your clients, customers, and even the search engines.

The Most Instant Method: Article Marketing

Article marketing has been around for about five years now. The technique is simple: Write an informative article and publish it to an online article directory like EzineArticles.

The keywords you target are important. Try to pick out keywords with a small to medium amount of search volume with low competing keywords. You can search keywords and keyword phrases at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com.

A Great Way to Build a Name: Video Marketing

Another great traffic source is video marketing. You can easily create a content video and distribute it to hundreds of websites – literally in just minutes.

Again, consistency is the name of the game. You probably won’t be able to get a flood of traffic by submitting one video. But if you establish yourself as a well-known expert through video marketing, you can easily build yourself a name, a ton of traffic, and a ton of backlinks.

Currently there are not a lot of virtual assistants who are using video marketing as a way of getting clients, so if this is your “thing,” then you don’t have a lot of competition. Also, if you want to specialize in this area as your specialty or niche, then you can showcase your expertise at the same time.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is perhaps the most powerful method to get free traffic. It’s also the method that takes the most time, is the most competitive, and has a certain amount of randomness factor to it.

There are several key factors that play into getting your website highly ranked. Having great unique content is one. Having a ton of backlinks to your website is another. Finally, selecting the right niche, subniche, and keywords can make a world of difference.

If you have unique and innovative content, other people linking to your website consistently and you choose a market with not too much competition but enough traffic to make it worth your while, then you have a good chance of having your website make it to the top of the search engines when people search for your niche or services that you provide.

Social Media

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon and many others are often overlooked by virtual assistants.

There are two types of social media: Media that will generate traffic, such as Digg or StumbleUpon, or media that will help you get people who are already interested to come back – Such as Facebook fan pages or Twitter accounts.

The key idea behind social media is becoming a part of the conversation of your target market. If you provide services to real estate professionals for example, your goal is to become well-known enough in that community that your name means something. All these social media outlets are tools to help you do that.

How Successful Can You Be With Free Traffic?

There are many examples on the internet of other virtual assistants building popular and sizable businesses online all without paying a dime in advertising.

The secret is producing consistent high quality content and marketing it well. If you apply even just one of the techniques above properly, you’ll get yourself a very nice stream of traffic.