Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

Personal Page vs. Business Page on Facebook

October 19th, 2010

likeA common question I hear is “What’s the difference between a personal page on Facebook and a business page?” The next question I get from business owners is “Do I really have to have a business page? It’s enough work to keep up with my personal page.”

The simple answer: Yes! The benefits outweigh the minimal time commitment it takes to keep your Facebook business page current and engaging.

The benefits include:

  • Visible to Non-Facebook Users – Your whole page will show up even if someone isn’t logged in to Facebook or doesn’t have an account at all. Personal pages only shows basic information and a few of your friends to unregistered visitors.
  • Search Engine Indexing – Google and other search engines will index all of your posts on your business page, meaning better search engine optimization for your company. Try it out by going to Google & searching for “site:facebook.com/gailnottsocialmedia blogging”.
  • Unlimited “Fans” & No Need to Confirm – Personal pages are limited to 5000 friends and each friend must be confirmed by clicking a button. There is no limit to how many people can “like” your business & you do not have to do confirm them. You still have control over removing fans or comments made on your wall.
  • Dual Relationships – Whether your profession or industry requires it or it’s a personal preference, having a Business page allows a separation between your personal & business life. It also gives your clients a choice; not every person you’ve done business with wants to be your Facebook friend. They might want to keep their personal lives private.
  • Easier to Advertise – The “Like” box and the targeted ads on Facebook can only be used for Business pages.
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The Truth About Social Media ROI

October 6th, 2010

mythbusters-shirtEleven Myths About Social Media ROI:

1.     Social Media is Free. While using social media seems free on the outset, it does require time, skill, and money. Remember your time is worth something. But it takes a lot of time and dedication to keep your content fresh.

2.     Getting Viral is Easy. Unless you are a star, becoming a web sensation with your content can only occur if your audience cares about your brand or if you have a truly original product or idea that would excite users to the extent that they would put their reputation on the line and be compelled to share it with their friends. But it takes a lot of time and dedication to keep your content fresh.

3.     It is all about the Popular Social Sites. Some social sites make more sense than others. Myspace for example has a strong music community following and would be more useful for artists than LinkedIn. However, if you are a businesses looking to hire talent, they would find LinkedIn more useful. Do not rely entirely on one social network, but choose the most relevant that would help you succeed.

4.     If it is Amazing, then Users will Find it. While viral content can spread very quickly, it is important to be the first to light the fire and help the virus to spread through better SEO, tweeting, blogs, commenting on other blogs and sharing it with your friends or followers. Do not expect magic to happen by itself. It needs initial momentum.

5.     You Can Not Build Meaningful Relationships Online. This is far from the truth. Social media can help you connect and interact directly with your target audience globally, not just locally. Even if they do not turn into revenue, they could provide you with valuable insight, reaction and constructive criticism that can help you significantly.

6.     Social Media is for Young People. While this might have been true in the initial stages of social networking, the demographics of a social media user varies and crosses all age ranges.

7.     It is a Trend Waiting to End. Social media is not a fad. It has become a part of life and will only grow with the increased use of smart phones that encourage social interactions online.

8.     Giving Products Away for Free means Zero Profits. Not necessarily. By giving products away for free you can gain subscribers, visitors and grow your email list. More importantly, by providing free content, you grow your brand and credibility. The more you give away through social media, the more you receive from your audience.

9.     It is Easy to Master Social Media. While social media can theoretically be easy to understand, there is a learning curve and expertise that only experience can bring. The best social media marketers have a track record in regards to social media activity and interactions on the web. They have a clear understanding of how social media, measurement and what your audience wants using the proper social etiquette to achieve desirable results.

10.  Social Media Does Not Help Branding. Social media can be useful for receiving feedback from customers as well as used as a tool to manage your brand’s reputations. It gives you the unique opportunity to listen to your audience and find out what people are saying about your brand.

11.  Social Media Can Not be Measured. This is the biggest misconception. You can monitor your social media efficiency using Key Performance Indicators that are tied with your overall organizational goals and strategy. Using tracking tools and analytics, all engagement using social media can be measured and be used to make decisions that would affect your organization positively in reaching its objectives.

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A Juggling Act

July 6th, 2010

juggling2There is no doubt that the real estate industry is one of, if not the toughest profession. Not only are there a lot of licensed agents out there, they are motivated. So, when competition is thick, how do you differentiate yourself from the others? One of the easiest, although sometimes overwhelming phases of your marketing strategy is your on line presence. The great thing about your on line marketing campaign is that it works for you 24/7. While you are out showing property, performing a listing presentation, or even sleeping; your on line efforts are at work.

A critical part of your web effort that some agents tend to forget, is that you have to stay on top of it. This is not something you just throw together and then forget about. It is critical that you update your profiles and add new content to your sites, blogs, and on line communities. For example, what do you think when you go to a blog that has not been updated in a couple of weeks? Where did they go? Are they still in the business? You already know how important it is to stay in front of your clients and prospects with e-mail and mailings; it is just as important to do so on line.

A great tool that many blog services offer to assist you with this task is that of post dating your blog entries. Take some time to write a few articles in one sitting, but schedule them to post at a later date. Do this once a week and you have a great pipe line of articles created. Another great tool for Twitter is called tweetlater. Much like post dating you blog posts, tweetlater allows you to post date your tweet updates. Going out of town? Just want to stay ahead of things? These are two great tools to help you. Stay tuned for more helpful hints.

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Marketing Your Blog

June 29th, 2010

So you started a blog, now what? How do you get and retain readers? How do people even find your blog? You will hear a lot about search engine optimization, or SEO, as you get more involved. For those of you not familiar with the term, SEO is the act of taking steps to make your blog or site search engine friendly. We are going to give you some SEO tips, but first off, keep in mind as you write your blog posts, you have two audiences. Your first audience should be your readers and your second audience is the search engines. Like losing the forest for the trees, it is important to remember that if you focus too much on SEO you will miss the point of blogging, which is to provide your readers with information, to network, and create community.

Simple SEO Tips:

~Be specific in your blog topics and page titles. You will rank higher on search engines with “Red Brink House on Mulberry Street” than you will with Anytown Real Estate.

~When loading images, make sure you have named them and are not using the standard camera assigned identification.

~When writing your articles, use key words more often than the word “it”, to improve your ranking opportunity.

Marketing your blog is as important as search engine optimization and does not have to be time consuming. Consider your blog as one more item in your branding toolkit. Prospecting in this business is an on-going effort. Consider your blog one of your tools in your long term investment. Much like your pipeline of prospects, to maintain readers and enjoy return visitors to your blog, you need to offer an incentive. Provide your readers with information that they need. Create a niche market, just like you did when you first got into real estate. You are already a pro at networking, take those skills on line to increase the radius of your circle of influence.

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Go Green with a Virtual Assistant

June 3rd, 2010

green-recycle-imgGo Green! It is a term we hear constantly in the media and on the streets. It is a responsibility of which to be proud!
In today’s society we are hearing more and more about the affect of our actions on the earth and that we must take action now in order to save the earth for future generations.

As research has shown we have a small window to make a difference and we need to act now. We live in a society that does not look into the future, we live in the present. This is a known fact. So, if we are a society that does indeed in live the present, then we need to challenge ourselves to begin looking into the future, if not for us but for our children and our children’s children.

By just making a few changes in our life style we can each make a difference and if each one of us just choose one or two things to help the global warming problem can you imagine what a difference we can make together? HUGE! So, take a few minutes to visit the following links to see how you and your family can begin the process of Going Green.

By teaching the children of today, they will develop compassion to make it a priority to keep our earth safe for future generations.

Interesting fact:

Virtual Assistants are going green everyday! How do we do this?

* We do not pollute our air with carbon monoxide
* Spend less money on gas
* Save trees by using electronic files as opposed to paper files
* Use artificial lighting
* Use recycled materials
* Travel is not expected

The next step you can take in your effort to go green is to go virtual as well!

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6 Key Tips to Maximizing Testimonials on Your Website

April 29th, 2010

Many of us know that testimonials are important to our business, but imagine using your testimonials in creative ways throughout your website to help you with niche marketing and lead generation. Below are six tips to maximize your testimonials in your overall Web presence that will guarantee a return on investment.

1. Change your page name from “Testimonials” to “Raving Fans.” This creates a synergy that you have a connection with your buyers and sellers way beyond the average testimonial letter. Show that you go the extra mile for them! Add that button to your homepage so that people can get to it fast. Remember your potential buyers and sellers are interviewing you online well before you even know it.

2. Take your testimonials to a new level with video. Bring your clients’ experience to life by adding them creatively to your website.

Take a look at http://kathytoth.com/raving_fans and see how engaged you feel about the agent.

3. Create a YouTube Channel with your name where you can feature your testimonials. The benefit of featuring your videos on YouTube is that video has outstanding results for ranking on the search engines.

4. Ask for testimonials that relate to the experience or the farm area you work. If you have helped a homeowner sell their home in a specific neighborhood, have them mention the name of the neighborhood in their actual testimonial. On the neighborhood page of your website, have that specific testimonial on that specific page. What’s another benefit to this strategy? This allows for well-positioned keywords to be on your site for search engine purposes.

5. Sprinkle unique testimonials on different pages throughout. Imagine having a testimonial about how you sold your clients’ house after they had it listed with another agent? Instead of having this buried in a long list of testimonials, add that testimonial in your home-selling section or your CMA response form. Check out http://lindahall.com/home_market_appraisal as an example. This is a powerful strategy that relates to what they are thinking about.

6. Leverage your testimonials by adding a “Raving Fans” category to your real estate blog. If you have the video, link to that as well for maximum effect!

Feel overwhelmed?  Call Crooked Tree Press for assistance!

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Three Tips to Get the Most Out of Twitter

April 26th, 2010

“I have nothing to say.”

I have heard this over and over again, not just by real estate agents, but by many people who are trepidatious about getting involved in Twitter.

To many, Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap into what’s “going on today” than to broadcast their own messages. And once you get acclimated to Twitter, you might just find you have something to say after all.

Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, said, “Naysayers should simply log onto their Twitter home page and search for a topic they are interested in, whether it’s their favorite sports team, the name of their company or a topic in the news.” Within a minute, they understand the appeal, he said.

Here are three ways to make Twitter work for you:

1. Create a custom feed. Find people to follow by searching Twitter directories. My two favorites are WeFollow or Just Tweet It. Remember, to get followers at first you must follow others!

2. Create lists. Lists are fantastic — and a GREAT way to organize people you follow. You could make lists for news sources, fellow (real estate agents), geographic areas, etc. This way you can click on that list to see what those specific people are talking about. I just created the Inman Team list as a place for people to contact the right person at Inman News (i.e., editorial, marketing, advertising, etc.) If you don’t know who the best users are on a favorite topic, look for lists on sites like Listorious or by checking profiles.

3. Check out the most discussed topics in your area. We hear it over and over again, but real estate is truly a local business. Find out who is around you locally and what they are chatting about. Some Twitter apps, like Tweetie and TwitterLocal, let you search posts near you. Check the Web site Happn.in to see the most discussed topics in your area.

BONUS: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Once you’ve gotten your feet wet, use Twitter to ask questions such as the best place to grab a bite to eat in a new city, marketing tips, or anything else you need an answer to!

Some questions Realtors could start asking via Twitter are: “What’s the best marketing tool that is working for you?” or “What is the most effective thing Realtors are doing to convert leads to sales?” These questions open the door to conversation and networking!

What are you doing to make Twitter work for you? Would love your feedback — please leave me a comment below!

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Top 5 Real Estate Social Media Blunders

April 19th, 2010

Top 5 Real Estate Social Media Blunders:

1. Talking about yourself to no end. Enough about me, let’s talk about ME! Yes, social media is social — but at some point, it is NOT all about you. This is tough in real estate, where you learn from every marketing person to “sell yourself” and “you are your brand” — which is true — but many people (especially the Gen X and Gen Y crowd) don’t want to hear all about you. They want to know about the interesting things going on in the community, in their neighborhood, local market stats, and other things that make what you do valuable to them.

2. Only posting your listings. Major faux pas!  Luckily, I have not seen as much of this lately, but it’s still happening. You can post your listings — but make sure you post other great content (see my ideas in No. 1 above).

3. Copying content and claiming it as yours. Big no-no here. There is so much great content out there — it’s fine to use an excerpt of something and then credit the source, but don’t copy someone else’s  material and claim it as your own.

4. TMI. There is a fine line between being social and giving out too much information — no need to tell your social network everything and anything!

5. Speaking the same on Facebook as you do Twitter. Maybe this is my own irritation, but whenever I see hashtags and “@” signs on Facebook I cringe a little. The language on Facebook is different than Twitter. I think it’s fine to duplicate messages on both channels (especially since a lot of people are only on one of the channels and not both), but if you do, take a moment to adjust your language to be more “Facebook-friendly.”

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5 Uses of Twitter for Small Business

October 19th, 2009

I’m often asked about Twitter for small business, and my answer is always the same: if your customers and competitors are on Twitter, you need to be too.

Twitter for small business is more than announcing what you’re eating for lunch or your latest profound insight. Done right, it can be a vital way to communicate and make connections that will help you expand your business. If you’re in an industry related to media or content creation, Twitter is a must.

So how do you get started using Twitter for small business? Signing up for an account is self-explanatory and free. (Upload your logo/headshot and a professional-looking background image.) The real question is how to wring value out of Twitter. Here are 5 ways to get the most out of your time on Twitter.

Follow Competitors and Customers

After you sign up for a Twitter account, the next question is who to follow. These are the people or organizations whose tweets you will see in your timeline. When using Twitter for small business, you’ll want to follow people in four categories:

  • Customers. Find your customers on Twitter using the search function or by looking on their Web sites for a “follow me on Twitter” link. Make sure you have your own Twitter handle prominently displayed on your own site so visitors can follow you — and consider following back anyone who follows you. (This can become overwhelming, though, if you are a retail business with tens of thousands of customers.)
  • Competitors. Follow your major competitors so that you can see how they use Twitter and track their promotions, sales and strategies. Remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If they’re doing something that works, you need to respond in some manner. You may even find ways to partner with competitors once you develop a connection on Twitter.
  • Industry thought leaders. If you’re following the major players in your industry, you can forward their best tweets to your followers, through re-tweeting. As your followers come to rely on you as a useful source of ideas and information, you’ll build credibility and they’ll become more loyal to your brand generally.
  • News outlets. Again, when you follow the major general news outlets — as well as industry publications — you’ll be able to quickly forward information to your network.

Tweet Useful Information — But Not Too Much

So many people are stymied by the question of what to tweet. There seems to be a sense of pressure to come up with five, 10 or even 25 brilliant things to say every day.

Don’t buy into this myth. The most common reason I stop following people is that they tweet TOO much, rather than not enough. After all, the Tweeters who are annoying are the ones who fill your screen with inane tweets, not those who supply two or three useful tweets each day — or even each week.

If you have a blog or regularly create new content on your Web site, you can automatically feed new posts to your Twitter account through any number of services. But make sure that you are active on Twitter in addition to this feed — nobody wants to follow a Twitter account that’s a robot.

Monitor Your Brand

Just because the pressure’s off to be a genius a dozen times a day, don’t think you can ignore Twitter when other work piles up. It’s important to monitor what people are saying about you and your business. You can set up an alert through services such as Social Oomph, TweetDeck or Monittor.

Some of the best examples of sophisticated use of social media occur when companies discover a disgruntled or confused customer through Twitter and quickly address the issue. You can even turn a potentially vocal critic into a fan of the company. People who are using social media like Twitter tend to be public about their feelings toward brands and businesses — so you want those feelings to be positive when it comes to you!

Advertise Events, Discounts and Contests

One terrific way to use Twitter is to advertise promotions or other special events at your small business. It rewards your followers for paying attention to your tweets and encourages them to do so in the future. Moreover, your tweets about contests or discounts are more likely to be re-tweeted, exposing more people to positive vibes about your brand.

Give More Than You Get

Don’t forget the key part of social media: social. You are part of a community on Twitter and it’s important to be a responsible and helpful member. That means giving more than you’re getting on Twitter.

Use Twitter to help industry newcomers network or to provide useful information, and you’ll boost your credibility and reputation. Not to mention that good karma is likely to find its way back around to help your small business — on Twitter and in the real world.

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Social Networking for Realtors

June 30th, 2009

socialnetworking_0Before you jump into Facebook and try to befriend the masses, you need to understand how things are done in this alternative universe.

First and foremost, don’t ask people you don’t know to be your “friend” and bombard them with constant posts about your listings.
If you damage your reputation, you’ll quickly find yourself very lonely in the social networking world, said panelists at Sunday’s REALTORS® Conference & Expo session on using social media.

That’s not to say social networking can’t be a great tool in selling real estate. You just have to do it in a way that doesn’t seem over-promotional.

You can use social media to maintain a presence with people you already know because it allows you to have a constant presence in their lives.

Here is the lowdown on social networking sites:

LinkedIn (linkedin.com): This site is geared to professionals seeking to expand their circle of contacts. Once you’re connected to someone on LinkedIn, you can link with who that person is connected to. Only make “connections” with people you know or you’ve just met.

Facebook (facebook.com): Facebook is a place to for just about everyone—family, friends, past clients, and colleagues of all age groups. It’s OK to say you’re a real estate professional in your profile, but leave it at that. To connect with other real estate junkies, join a specialized real estate group, but “don’t force it”.

Twitter (twitter.com): Twitter is often called “micro-blogging.” You can send short (140 character) messages to people who choose to “follow” you. You can “tweet” from you PDA or the Web.

Your overall business goal of social networking should be to expand your sphere and move conversations offline.  There’s always going to be need for face-to-face communication in real estate; find a way to marry the two worlds.

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