Each year at AAPO’s annual conference, the President bestows an award to recognise outstanding service to AAPO and the organising industry in Australasia. Congratulations to all recipients of the President’s Award. Your contribution is much appreciated.

Take a look at out the About Us page to see previous Award recipients.  Perhaps you'd care to send them an email of congratulations?

Who will receive this year's President's Award?

Do you still need convincing about the value of attending the AAPO conference next month?  Read Sarah Cottman's blog post - Is Your Business Big Enough to go to New Zealand?  Well said, Sarah!

Last month I talked about social media and how AAPO intends to use it. This month I thought I’d talk a little about how you can use it in your business, starting with Twitter*.

Twitter only allows you to post 140 characters at a time, so it’s a great tool to use to point people to your blog or website. For example, you might have a Christmas Special listed on your website and want people to know about it. You’d go to Twitter and post “SPECIAL OFFER: 10% off organising packages until Christmas – click here for more details” and add a link to your website. Or you may have written a blog post on techniques for organising teens. In this case you could tweet “DO YOU HAVE DISORGANISED TEENS? Some tips on how to train them” and post the link. Think of it as a sign posting service. If you were on the street and wanted sign posts to guide people to your business, what would the signs say?

You need to be careful not to spam ie. sending constant sales messages, hassling people to buy your products or generally being selfish. The golden rule of Twitter is that you get back what you give, so make sure you send plenty of non-sales tweets too. Sharing relevant information or articles you come across, ‘talking’ with other people, answering their questions and responding to them. The more you do that, the more respect you’ll build and the more benefits you’ll reap. A good rule of thumb is for every 10 tweets, make sure seven or eight are “giving” tweets and the other two or three are directly about you.

The best way to figure out how to use it is to see it in action by watching what other people do. AAPO will be ‘live tweeting’ from the conference - sending brief updates to let everyone know what’s being discussed. Follow the hash tag** #AAPOConf2010 and you’ll be able to see everything that happens at the conference. If you’re going to the conference, why not send some tweets yourself – let your followers and potential clients know what you’re up to. Remember to use the #AAPOConf2010 hash tag.

Next month: How you can use Facebook for your business.

- Claire Lane, AAPO Social Media Coordinator

* If you’re still unsure about the whole Twitter thing, click here for further explanations.

** If you’re unsure about hash tags, click here.

AAPO member, Narelle Todd, has written a brilliant blog post about investing in yourself and your business at the AAPO 2010 Conference.  I encourage you to read it here.  I franky could not have said it better myself.

I heard a decluttering horror story which should act as a warning to one and all. There's a clear lesson in it.

Someone called a cleaning company to come and declutter.

During the session, the employee kept cherry-picking items she liked and asking if she could have them herself. Alarm bell number 1!

The homeowner was a distributor for a cosmetic company. The employee set aside some product for which she would pay on her return. After she left, she took some of that product with her, without paying. Alarm bell number 2!!

After the session, the homeowner felt uneasy and checked the garbage bags. There she found her son's birth certificate! Alarm bell number 3!!!

That sort of behaviour is highly unethical and something a legitimate Professional Organiser just wouldn't do.  AAPO members are governed by a Code of Ethics, so the public can be protected from this sort of poor service.

There is a happy ending to the story. The homeowner of course lost trust in the process, but has now found a reputable Professional Organiser to help her, and of course they are an AAPO member.

Come September 13th, Christchurch will be abuzz with Professional Organisers flying in from all around the world.  Of course there will be dedicated New Zealand AAPO members, Australians flying from all corners of the country, but also a return visit from a Japanese colleague and top-of-their-field POs from the US.

In particular I want to mention that in addition to our 2 outstanding keynote speakers, Angela Wallace, President Elect of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) will be visiting.  Angela has agreed to be on the panel for the Ask an Organiser session.

If you haven't made your booking to be a part of this wonderful opportunity yet, don't wait any longer.  Click here to book or find out more.

I've been off visiting again.  This time it was to speak with the Mid North Coast Forum members.  I love that technology allows me to drop in on our Forum meetings all over, and I get to sit in my office.

Those Mid North Coast members are an enterprising lot, gearing up for their National Organising Week projects.  The local residents are lucky to have such pro-active people in their midst, with the chance to win not 1 but 5! makeovers.

Good luck to both our members and the lucky winners.

I've just returned from the AAPO Melbourne Forum meeting, and still so buzzed about what we experienced.  We had a visit from the renowned compulsive hoarding Psychology expert, Dr Christopher Mogan, who generously shared his knowledge and experience in this field.  He is genuinely excited about the role Professional Organisers can play in helping those with compulsive hoarding issues, and of course so are we!  It was great to see our members committed to their professional development and learning from the best.

Social media is a new and sometimes scary concept for many of people, so I thought I'd give you a summary of what social media is and why AAPO has decided to embrace it. In future articles I'll talk about how and why you should be using it for your business and give you some tips and tricks to make it easier.

What is social media? 

I like to think of social media as just another medium in which to communicate with people. Traditionally, we communicate face-to-face, on the phone, or using radio, print or TV. Now we can share the same content, but in a new way; instantly and online. Business has embraced social media as a new way of communicating with existing and potential clients – to promote products, get feedback, share information and provide customer service. Read more about the top brands using social media here: http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands/

Why is AAPO going to use it? 

AAPO's overall vision is “To be internationally recognised as Australasia’s premier industry association for leading and developing Professional Organisers”. Social media is just one of many tools AAPO will use to achieve this objective. By regularly 'appearing' in social media sites, the profile of AAPO will be raised and more people will become aware of AAPO's existence. There are three benefits to this:

• aspiring Professional Organisers will be encouraged to join AAPO;
• existing members will be provided with information on the industry and on AAPO’s activities; and
• thousands of disorganised people out there will learn how Professional Organisers can help them. 

What will AAPO talk about? 

AAPO will "talk" about a variety of things related to the world of Professional Organising. Sometimes we'll send out tweets with links to new organising products that might be useful to you in your business. Other times we may send out organising tips aimed at the general public. Often we'll link to articles or research on decluttering, organising or hoarding. We'll send out information about upcoming meetings, seminars and conferences, or a link to minutes from AAPO meetings or the AGM. Basically, we'll "talk" about whatever we would talk about in real life. 

There are a few things we won't "talk" about - we'll avoid sending out messages with any political, religious or otherwise controversial content. We will strive not to promote one of our members more than others. And we won't talk about anything to do with our industry that paints it in a negative light.  

What will AAPO members get out of AAPO using social media? 

There will be two main benefits for AAPO members: 

• As you know, anything that raises the profile of the industry as a whole will have a positive effect on all members, including you. But to be more specific, we hope that you might even get some business from it. Here's an example of how this might happen: 

Disorganised Dennis is an active user of Twitter, and has seen a few tweets from AAPO - mostly sending out useful articles, hints and tips on how to get organised. One day, after having a particularly disorganised day, Dennis decides to find out more about this organisation that keeps giving him these free tips. He navigates to the AAPO website through Twitter. On the front page of the AAPO website, Dennis sees yet more tips on how to get organised, some of them written by Organised Annie. "Annie sounds like she knows what she's talking about," thinks Dennis, and clicks through to Annie's site. Before you know it, Dennis has called Annie and is her newest client. 

The best bit about this is that this kind of marketing is FREE! It just took Annie a few moments to come up with some tips, and send them to AAPO to be added to the site. The key here is that you need to be active on AAPO's new website (you have your profile up there and if possible you regularly add to the content of the site). That way, whenever prospective customers find themselves on the AAPO website, you'll be top of mind. 

• Secondly, AAPO will send out specific information aimed at our members. Some of this information will also be included in the monthly newsletter (although not all of it), but if you're following AAPO’s social media content, you’ll get this information instantly. 

How is AAPO going to use it? 

Twitter and Facebook are the two most popular social media tools in use at the moment, and AAPO has an account with both. AAPO's Twitter handle (that's Twitter name to the rest of us!) is @AAPO_inc. If you're on Twitter and you're not already following AAPO, do it now. And you can find AAPO on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/aapoinc. If you're using Facebook, go and "Like" us now. If you follow us on Twitter and Facebook you'll soon see first hand exactly how AAPO will be use social media to achieve its objective of being internationally recognised as Australasia’s premier industry association for leading and developing Professional Organisers. 

Twitter will be used to update followers with short, concise messages, often with links to other sites of interest, on a daily (or almost-daily) basis. Facebook will be used to interact with followers and to post entries that need a little more space. 

Hopefully that answers some of your questions about AAPO and social media. Watch this space, as I'll be back to talk more about how social media could enhance your business offering. 

Claire Lane, AAPO Social Media Coordinator

Thanks Claire!

Please say hello to the AAPO Committee for 2010-2011.  You can meet them here.  I'm looking forward to our very first meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  We'll be looking ahead, making plans and putting them into action.

Thank you to all those who are setting aside time from running their own businesses to contribute to their industry.