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…
International Women’s Day 2023
International Women’s Day (IWD) takes place on 8 March each year. It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
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…
The rise and rise of the QR code
Have you noticed? QR codes currently seem to be everywhere. Changing your bank, you might be asked to scan a QR code for information about your new account. Taking part in an online event, you might be provided with a QR code to give feedback. Watching a tv show you can vote using a QR…
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…
Why your business needs a social media calendar
Without a calendar or diary most of us would find ourselves in a bit of a pickle. They provide us with order and structure, stop us duplicating appointments and missing important dates, ensure we turn up to places on time and enable us to review what we have done and achieved. Similarly, if you are…
Employment scams
Earlier this year I saw a freelance position for an internet researcher advertised online. I love a good research project, so I wrote and asked for more details about the role.
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.
Make do and mend: how to repurpose blog posts
Over the summer I decided to stop publishing new content on my blog for a time. For almost two years blog writing has been a big part of my strategy to promote the work I do. I have written about the services I provide as a virtual assistant, things I need to know about for…
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;…
A short history of virtual assistants and remote working
A virtual assistant (VA) is a person who works remotely online. With technological developments virtual assistants are now able to perform all the tasks a secretary or administrator would traditionally handle while working from home but how did virtual assistants come into being?
Understanding the difference between marketing and branding
It is difficult to escape the words marketing and branding in the world today and it is easy to confuse them but marketing and branding are two different concepts and if you want your business to succeed, you need to understand the difference between the two. In this blog post, I will explain what marketing…
How to keep your website looking good
In a previous life, I worked as a web editor on a local government website, so for this blog post, I thought I would write about some of the ways you can keep your website looking good. My role involved writing, editing, proof reading and approving web pages prior to publication and educating people on…
Digitally present
On 6 August 1991, the first website was introduced to the world. It is hard to believe the world wide web is only 30 years old, as today it seems there is little we can do without it.
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.
Read all about it
Newsletters are simple informal publications, usually issued on a regular basis for a specific audience, say business, community, charity or workplace news. Today newsletters are mostly delivered via email and are commonly known as electronic newsletters, email newsletters or e-newsletters. However have you ever wondered about the first newsletters, how long newsletters have been around,…
Making digital technologies accessible to all
The Oxford English dictionary defines accessibility firstly, as how easy something is to reach, enter, use or see and secondly, as how easy something is to reach, enter or use for somebody with a disability. In the second instance, accessibility means people with disabilities are not excluded from using something as a result of their…
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…
UK GDPR and the right to privacy
25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into force, along with the Data Protection Act 2018, modernising the laws that protect the personal information of individuals and replacing European data protection law that was almost twenty years old.
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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