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Questions for web designers

The importance of having a website today is indisputable but if you are not a website designer by trade, creating one from scratch can be a daunting task. In this blog post I draw on my experience of working as a web editor and advise on questions to ask a website designer before you employ…

What’s the buzz: March 2023

Looking for social media content or marketing activity ideas during March? Take a look below. March 2023 sees British Science Week take place. International Women’s Day, No Smoking Day, World Poetry Day and International Day of Happiness take place also. Ever lost files from your computer? World Back-Up day encourages people to back up and…

The future is digital, the future is now

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a webinar on how we can fight the cost of living crisis using digital technology. It was organised by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and the Digital Poverty Alliance, organisations that believe we are all responsible for ensuring technology-led change is safe and positive for everyone in society. I…

Year in review 2022

To end 2022 I have pulled together a round up of blog posts. In my blogs I write about the services I provide as a virtual assistant, things I need to know about for my work and training and development I have undertaken. I also write about topics my clients ask me about, to hopefully…

Balancing act

In 2020 the world at large had their lives unexpectedly shaken up and while this was different for everyone, my own particular snow globe moment was instrumental in me addressing my work life balance and becoming a virtual assistant. To be honest, the whole traditional working thing was beginning to lose its lustre some time…

Managing emails

Do you often feel overwhelmed by emails? An inbox overflowing with old, unopened or unwanted messages can be both frustrating and stressful. While having a completely empty inbox is unrealistic, there are things we can all do to keep our inboxes organised, so here are my tops tips for keeping on top of unruly emails. 

A history of transcription

When I first began working, I was employed as an audio typist in surveyors offices.  My working days were spent listening to audio recordings the surveyors made about the properties they visited and typing up their reports. Alongside my typewriter was a cassette machine, which played mini cassettes, headphones and underneath my desk was a…

Lifelong learning

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a webinar – ‘Learning at work – how being a lifelong learner can make you happy.’ The event was hosted by Laughology an ethical, training and consulting organisation built around the psychology of humour, laughter and happiness and was one of many events held to mark Learning at…

Hashtagging

Think you know everything there is to know about hashtags? From the Romans to social media today, the hash sign has an interesting history. The little symbol that looks like a noughts and crosses board has a multitude of names including hash, pound, number, octothorpe, crosshatch and hex and throughout history has been used as…

Authenticity at work

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about being authentic at work.  The workshop was run by Inclusive Recruiting, an organisation who aim to eradicate bias and inequities from the workplace and was presented by Andreena Leeanne, a lived experience speaker, self-care workshop facilitator, poet and author. This blog post was inspired by that…

The trouble with junk mail

Of recent much has been written about the impact of plastic use on the environment but it is not only plastic that is a cause from concern. There is a growing waste paper mountain too which junk mail contributes to. Some days I receive more junk mail than actual mail, so recently I have been…

Tools of the trade

As a virtual assistant I am called on to use many organisational tools in my work, so for this blog post I thought I would write about some of the tools of my trade that make my work a little easier. Got some favourite ways of being organised and staying on top of things? I…

Online abuse and its impacts

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a workshop about online abuse and it impacts, which formed part of the 17th University of Chester Diversity Festival. Established in 2006, the Diversity Festival gives attendees an opportunity to investigate, question and debate issues around diversity and equality in Britain and in the world at large. Each…

Digital marketing student

In November I once again became a student, enrolling on a twelve week Digital Marketing boot camp with We Are Digital. I attended school before the internet revolution, learning to type on a manual computer and while I think I have kept up quite well with technological developments, I was increasing finding there was much…

How to write a marketing strategy

Investopedia defines a marketing strategy as a business’s overall game plan for reaching prospective leads and turning them into customers. Much like a game of chess, marketing strategy is concerned with evaluation, positioning, control of key areas and setting goals. The word strategy comes from the Greek language (στρατηγία stratēgia) meaning ‘art of troop leader;…

Getting started with social media

Social media enables people and organisations to share information, ideas, personal messages and more via the internet. It is also for any business that wants to gain exposure online, connect with existing or potential customers, build brand awareness, find new leads, generate website traffic, gain an insight into the shopping habits of customers and improve…

Freelancing: what’s it all about

Freelancers can be found in many occupations from writers, photographers, journalists, computer programmers, language translators, website designers and graphic designers … some are even virtual assistants. This post delves into the history of freelancing, discusses the advantages of hiring a freelancer and what things you need to be aware of when hiring a freelancer.

All about blogging

A blog is an online journal written for both personal and business use. They may focus on a single topic or a whole range of topics and may have multiple authors or only one. The articles that appear on a blog are known as blog posts and these can be on any manner of subjects…

Plainly speaking

The English language is spoken around the world from the United States to Tristan da Cunha, a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. English is part of the Indo-European family of languages which are spoken in most of Europe and areas of European settlement and in much of south west and south Asia. The English language uses words…

The importance of copyright

Copyright is the exclusive legal right, given to the creator of a piece of work, to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic or musical material. I have chosen to write a blog post about this subject following experiences in workplaces – in particular a telephone call I received from Getty Images who had…

The lost art of typewriting

Recently while reviewing a document I had written, Microsoft Word admonished me with the warning ‘only one space between words is better’. Oh no, I thought, not you too. The issue had come up in an office I worked in a few years earlier, with younger members of the team happy to inform me what…

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