Today, Mashable had a stunning 'how to' post on building your thought capital with Twitter. After soaking up the juicy knowledge shared in this post, I thought it might be nice to share how I think Virtual Assistants specifically can utilize Twitter more effectively to build their own thought capital.

Twitter has planted the magic beans and is growing in massive proportions and for any Virtual Assistant to truly utilize it to the fullest, it will be critical to build your reputation and increase your perceived value with a few simple suggestions. First, go read Mashable's post linked above and then come back.... Go ahead, I'll wait.

If you're anywhere near as bombarded with information, tasks, projects and interactions as I am then you know how difficult it can be to carve out any amount of time each day to stay informed on the latest news and trends. Today, I have the answer for you! A terrific Firefox plugin called Feedly that will change everything about how you read RSS feeds and share with your social network.

No matter what business you're in, you know how critical it is to keep informed on trends in your industry (and the people who most often report them). RSS feeds are a great way to do this, but in the past you were usually stuck with widgets or RSS readers that were clumsy and ugly. I love Google Reader for it's bells and whistles, but even it needed a serious makeover for readability. I found myself ditching my RSS reading in favor of Twitter and FriendFeed. That now is no longer necessary due to the amazing Firefox plugin I've discovered!

I was recently skimming through my FriendFeed and Robert Scoble retweeted a tweet that mentioned Twitterfall. Always curious, I went to check it out and I was really thrilled at this amazing free tool for viewing Twitter trends.