Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

Facebook SPAM: I HATE IT

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

I HATE SPAM!

I HATE Facebook SPAM

According to Wikipedia Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising and file sharing network spam.

SPAM is annoying. Sure, we have gotten used to SPAM in our email and on the Fax machine but on Facebook? Facebook has become the home away from home for millions of people. We spend almost an hour per day on the website. It has become a great place to catch up with old friends, meet new ones and to a certain extent, conduct business. When I log into facebook I expect to see what my friends are up to, what I don’t expect is SPAM. I hate SPAM. I detest SPAM but I hold a special place in my heart for those that SPAM me of facebook. I am a marketing representative for a national title insurance company in Phoenix Arizona, I help real estate professionals “get found” on the Internet.

SPAM on facebook comes in the form of unsolicited fan page requests, fan page recommendations, event recommendations, petitions, Farmville and Mafia Wars updates even friend requests of people, services or products I have not tried and often times have no desire to try. Marketing companies have figured out that the easiest way to get “friends” or fans for their clients is to indiscriminately SPAM everyone. And its annoying. Sometimes I have to spend 10 minutes per day ignoring or denying requests from people or services I have never even heard of. As a real estate professional SPAM can get you more friends or fans but it can also cost you friends and fans. Some people are down right annoying with their requests. It’s comical and disturbing at the same time that some people obviously believe we are somehow more likely to accept a friend or fan request the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or even 7th time. Unbelievable.

Not only is Facebook SPAM annoying but as an added benefit, it also puts the security of you and your legitimate friends at risk. The risk comes in the form of scams. This month alone there are 2 new facebook scams

Facebook Chat Scam
Spammers are gaining access to your Facebook chat accounts. A message reads, “LOL… is that you?” And is followed with a link. If you follow the link it will lead you to what appears to be a Facebook video. A new web page will open with the message, “404. Page Not Found.” By then, it’s too late. Your facebook account has been infected, and it’ll send the same chat pop-up to all of your friends and their friends and so on and so on.

Facebook Coin Scam
There’s another scam targeting Facebook and its new “credits” program. Facebook credits are like a virtual currency. You can use coins to buy gifts and virtual goods in many online games and applications on the website. You can also purchase coins with your credit card or PayPal account. Spammers are setting up fake ads on Facebook, making them look like they come from Facebook with a logo and a yellow credit coin. The fake ads will tell you to follow explicit instructions in order to “cash in.” The coin scam is a popular target for the online games like……. “Farmville. “If you think you’ve been scammed, change your password. You should also keep an eye on your online bank accounts.

Here’s some ways to protect yourself from Facebook spam:

Don’t install an application for something that you never needed an application for before – the “Who’s Looking At Your Profile?” app an example
Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know and who do not share any common friends with you. (This will be a tough one for some real estate professionals so use your best judgment)
Don’t install an application into your Facebook profile that you don’t fully understand.
If you absolutely must install an application, make sure you visit the application’s page and read what other people are saying about in the discussions tab, and on their wall. Google is your friend, use it.

I know of some real estate professionals with 5000 friends, the maximum. While it is impressive it can also be a waste of time. As you may have noticed when you look at your news feed, the facebook algorithm will show you the updates from fanpages and friends that you INTERACT with on a regular basis, it will also make recommendations for those you have not talked to in a while, it’s a daunting task to touch or build a relationship with all of those people. Sure, now that you have 5000 “friends” you can send them regular updates about real estate or loans, whatever, but any messages you send to someone you really dont know would be looked at with skepticism and probably be considered……SPAM!

It appears that Facebook hates SPAM as well. The Facebook Official Blog says “Using information from your reports and what we know about how the average person uses Facebook, we’ve identified certain common patterns of unacceptable behavior. For example, we’ve learned that if someone sends the same message to 50 people not on his or her friend list in the span of an hour, it’s usually spam. Similarly, if 75 percent of the friend requests a person sends are ignored, it’s very likely that that person is annoying others he or she doesn’t actually know………In extreme cases where the behavior continues despite our warnings, we may disable the person’s account.”

I help real estate professionals get "found" on the Internet

Tags: Facebook SPAM
Posted in Facebook, Rant | No Comments »

Facebook Ads For Real Estate Professionals

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, who doesn’t love facebook. If you are like me, facebook has changed your life (hopefully in a good way). I have been able to connect with people that I have not talked to in 20 years, and better yet, stay in touch with them. Aside from all the personal uses of facebook there is also a business use and a great one at that.

In earlier posts we discussed placing your marketing message where the masses are and with over 500 million people (oh wait, its been 10 minutes, 501 Million) on facebook it certainly is a place where the masses hang out. I don’t use the term “hang out” loosely, Facebook is sticky, meaning while facebook and google trade back and forth as the webs #1 destination, I spend much more time on facebook than Google. I use Google to find something and then I am gone to the next website, Facebook on the other hand has become mine and millions of others home on the net. The average person spends well over 50 minutes a day on facebook, which gives you as a real estate professional an awesome opportunity to target and capture potential buyers and sellers. How? With Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads allows you to target a specific group based on age, sex, geographic location, marital status, birth date, language, education, workplace and interests. If you wanted to you could target all single females in Arizona that work for Intel between the ages of 29-31 (the average 1st home buyer age is 31 according to NAR.)

Extremely easy to use
Choose to target based upon CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Impression)
Your ad can have up to 135 characters which is nearly twice as much as Google.
Cheap. Compared to Google anyway. Impressions can cost you as little as .10
Daily budget can be set at say $50 to limit the amount you pay daily (no surprises).

CPC, you pay only for Clicks. CPM you pay based upon the number of people that are exposed to your ad. Notice I didn’t say SEE your ad.

Cost-per-impression or CPM ad will charge you a certain amount of money for every thousand ad impressions you receive, which can actually work out better than a CPC in some instances depending on your objective.

NOTE: A good practice for facebook ads is to convert every visitor in to an email subscriber. GET THEIR EMAIL! You will need some kind of conversion form or landing page to do this. Don’t just send them to your website to search around, you need to take them directly to the information you have promised them. Then you can market them indefinitely with a creative email strategy.

For real estate professionals looking for more ways to increase their sales, Facebook ads is a must try system. It’s a great time to give it a whirl as it will undoubtedly become very popular over the next few years, and thus more expensive.

Posted in Facebook | No Comments »

Facebook Places-Facebook Goes Where?

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Where Are You?

What will facebook think of next? Normally I would start a post by talking about a product or service, but its becoming harder and harder to do in regards to facebook. Why? Because everyone is on it, well, at least 500 million of us are. It almost seems like facebook knows what we want before we even want it. I am a title rep for a national title insurance company in Phoenix, Arizona. I help me clients “get found” on the internet, which is right up my alley for Facebook’s latest offering-Places.

What’s Places? Places is a feature Facebook launched today, Wednesday August 18th 2010 that lets you share your location with your online “friends”. For example, Yesterday you could go to my office to open escrow and update your facbook with “I am opening escrow at “Stephen “MyTitleGuy” Garner’s office.” Today you will be able to say Opening escrow and select Places to show the exact location. You can also use places to see if any of your other friends are at my office and which ones were there before you. Pretty cool huh? No more, “what did you do today?” “Well I went shopping and then I went to Stephen’s office to open escrow”, only to hear your friend say, “OMG-I opened escrow at Stephen’s office today too!”. It will be pretty cool to see all the other fantastic Realtors that were at my office opening escrow before you on that particular day.

Facebook Places

As a real estate tool, you can encourage everyone that shows one of your listings to “check-in” on Places, so you or your seller can see who came to the property. You will be able to tap the “Check In” option to announce your presence at a location to your Facebook friends. Your check-in will then appear on that location’s “place page,” on your profile and in your friend’s News Feeds. Now, if I was a business owner, I would get enough of my “friends” or employees to “check-in” at my place of business, that’s because, when enough people “check-in” it creates a hot spot visible by other facebook users in the area-friends or not.

There are other programs that allow users to “check-in”, most notably foursquare. Foursquare allows users to check-in” at physical locations to collect points and badges

Badges

Foursquare History

Facebook Places does not allow points or badges but the sheer number of people on Facebook should give foursquare a run for its money. We will have to see. As of now Places is only available to iPhone users, so na na na na to all you Droooooooid users. What do you think? Will you try Places?

For All Your Arizona Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Posted in Facebook | No Comments »

Caution: Social Media Experts Ahead

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Recently I attended a class about Facebook in Mesa, Arizona by a local social media company. I had heard of them from other Real Estate agents and have seen some of their activity on Facebook so I wanted to see what they and their products are all about. In this economy it is very hard to fill a room with Realtors but I have to admit that I am surprised to see this room filled to capacity, in fact its standing room only. Now let me be 100% honest. This class was sponsored by another title company, a competitor in the same general area as me. She was gracious enough to let me stay as long as I didn’t “market myself”. What she didn’t know was that my business as a title rep is less and less reliant on shaking hands and handing out business cards……more and more of my clients are finding me. More and more consumers-buyers and sellers are finding me.

Why I came.

Well to be honest, I was hoping that they are the real deal. Social Media is here to stay, it’s only going to get bigger and bigger and I believe that it will play a huge role in your business as a Realtor or Loan officer. My 1st surprise…..there are roughly 90 people in attendance and from a quick question posed by one of the sponsors, “How many people here are in the real estate industry?” only 20 hands raised, the rest are small business owners! A testimonial to the validity of social media in business. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see the big picture for your business, especially after you see Facebook’s Statistics. There are 2 million people on Facebook here in Arizona alone. It’s the real deal!

This company spent 45 minutes talking about Facebook and why we should be on it. OK, I honestly don’t know anyone that is not on Facebook, in fact, when I meet someone that isn’t on it my 1st response is “they still make you?” It soon became evident that the company’s whole message was going to be about the power of facebook and why WE should be on it. I was a little disappointed to tell you the truth. My biggest problem with companies, title people, loan officers, appraisers, homeless, home builders etc. that teach social media classes is that an overwhelming majority spend their time talking about WHY you need to be on Facbook. I and everyone else already knows WHY, what people need to know is HOW!

In case I didn’t cover it above, I am a title rep for a national title insurance company based in Phoenix, Arizona. I help my clients get found on the internet, where more and more of their customers are. It’s called inbound marketing, and (shhh don’t tell anyone this but,) I am quite good at it.

There are a few things that this company talked about that I question, I am hoping that I heard them wrong, or that I misunderstood. One of the things they said is “YouTube will eventually be put out of business by Facebook, as it supports video”. (I disagree by the way)….

Why? Well, Youtube is owned by Google. Let me say that again. Youtube is owned by Google. Google is going to own the world. I mean who doesn’t have a Gmail account? But seriously, Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the entire world behind…….Yep, Google.

The 2nd thing he said is “you don’t need a website, facebook is all you need”. OK, STOP. This is where I have a problem. Remember, there are almost 100 people in the room, and they are paying close attention to the advice this gentlemen is giving, and its BAD ADVICE. Why? Well for many reasons but let’s address a few here.

You don’t own facebook
If Facebook changes their terms of service to any other model including pay, you are stuck. Remember all of your business is on Facebook
What if you violate the terms of service and facebook shuts you down? You are effectively out of business.
Search Engines. Websites are indexed in search engines. Yes, Facebook Fan pages are too but I have never seen a facebook fanpage indexed on the 1st, hell, even the 2nd or 3rd page of Google and certainly not for anything competitive. But who cares about the 2nd or 3rd because you are invisible unless you are on the 1st.
Keywords. How can you really optimize a facebook fan page with keywords? yourself?

These are just a few that I thought of, I am sure there are many more. Feel free to share what I didn’t think about.

I also have a big problem with the way this company suggests you grow your business. Spamming. Yep, Spamming. They talked about ways to identify people that you might want to do business with and “friend them”, once again, I have a problem with Spamming.

Because it’s annoying, and invasive and it doesn’t work. I get people I don’t know that send me friend requests all the time, you know what I do with them? The same thing you do…..IGNORE. Why? Because Facebook is still about friends. I have pictures of my children and my wife and I (when I was skinnier), I don’t want to give access to just anyone, specifically someone who is clearly spamming.

Because it’s against Facebook’s terms of service. Remember how the company said that all you needed was facebook? Well if you only have facebook and facebook thinks you are spamming, then you are. There is no judge and jury, they will shut you down! And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. I mean you can’t tell your friends…….they are all on Facebook!

I attended this event back in June of 2010 and am just now getting around to publishing this post, and I am glad that I waited. Why? Well an interesting thing has happened. Remember when I referenced that the company said that all you need is facebook? Well last month there was a gentlemen that had his Realtor Referral Page shut down by facebook because of “Improper Use Of The Realtor Mark”. Facebook didn’t care that he had 47,000 fans or that his fanpage was responsible for sending referrals across the country, they shut his page DOWN. He was effectively OUT OF BUSINESS. This gentleman was lucky, because of the media attention, Facebook allowed him to keep his page if he changed his Facebook URL. You can be sure that there won’t be any reporters waiting to tell your story if your page is shut down.

So what is the moral of this story post? That you need to be careful of the social media expert. Because in my experience there really isnt any. Did I mention that this company was charging ridiculous, exorbitant amounts of money for custom facebook fanpages? I mean like $1500! I had my custom facebook fan page done when they first came out for $400! Not that I am accusing anyone of anything wrong but in my experience and from what I heard by these social media experts, its nothing that you can not do on your own-for a lot less money. AND, you can probably do it better than them. Why? Because the point is to be SOCIAL.. How can someone else successfully build your social media better than you?

I figure that I should at least point you in the right direction so you can identify what a social media expert actually looks like

For All Your Arizona Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Tags: Social Media Experts
Posted in Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages | 15 Comments »

Facebook For Realtors: 8 Ways To Lose Friends and Not Influence People

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

8 ways to lose friends and not influence people

Facebook is awesome. I have connected with so many people that frankly, I forgot all about and the times that we have had. It’s because of Facebook that we were able to connect all over again. With 500 million people on Facebook its a huge resource for your real estate business as well. Facebook extends your reach as a person, realtor, business, brand etc. if you know how to use it.

I am a title rep for a national title insurance company based in Phoenix, Arizona. I help my clients (real estate professionals) get more business. (I’m quite good at it too-shhhhh). One of the ways that I help them grow their business is with Facebook. Why Facebook? According to facebook’s own statistics, the average person spends 55 minutes per day on the site. Do the math, that’s 30 hours per month!

Statistics from Facebook

People on Facebook

More than 500 million active users
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Activity on Facebook

There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

Mobile

There are more than 150 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Facebook is a phenomenal resource for real estate professionals. Bottom line: people do business with people that the like and trust. Facebook is a great place to meet new people, build relationships and cultivate new ones. That’s IF you know how to use it correctly. I speak to many Real estate professionals that say “Dude, facebook doesn’t work”, which tells me that they don’t know how to use it or (even worse) are doing something to annoy or lose friends. Lets face it: no one likes to be sold but everyone likes to buy. I have seen many things on Facebook that come from real estate professionals that make me cringe. It’s like watching a train crash in slow motion, you already know what the result is going to be but you can’t look away. So, I compiled a list of 8 things I see real estate professionals do on Facebook that costs them friends which inevitably costs them business. I call it 8 Ways to Lose Friends and NOT Influence People.

If you are an Arizona Real Estate Professional that would like help growing your business, call, email, text, fb chat, tweet, smoke signal, bat light, morse code , semaphore, IM me, to talk about how I can help you grow your business

For All Your Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Tags: 8 ways to lose friends ad not influence people
Posted in Facebook | 1 Comment »

Facebook shuts down REALTOR referral page over Vanity URL issue

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

With all the “experts” in social media, it’s really easy to take what an “expert ” says to the bank. But be careful. Just because your best friends, sisters-cousin says that so and so is an expert in social media doesn’t make it so.

3 weeks ago I went to a seminar here in Mesa, AZ by the latest “flavor of the month-social media experts” that said in a room of over 100 people, (80 of which being small business owners) .……”you don’t need a website anymore, Facebook is all you need”. I personally think that this gentleman gave some horrible advice to the attendees.

Why? Great question!

1) I don’t know about you, but I have never actually seen a Facebook fan page (business page) indexed on the 1st or even second page of a Google search. Have you? Not really a good idea when we have already established that over 90% of buyers go to the internet when looking for real estate. (Keywords….)

2) Read this!

Facebook Shuts Down Page with over 47,000 Fans over Vanity URL

Note to self: Don’t under any circumstances rely on one business source for business. Especially if its something like Facebook. Why? Because you don’t own Facebook. If they change their terms of service tomorrow and you rely only on Facebook for business…..you are effectively shut down! As this gentleman learned first hand.

Click HERE to go to MyTitleGuy’s Facebook Business Page.

So what should you do? If you are a Realtor or lender in Arizona, call me.Lets meet for coffee to discuss how to use Facebook in your real estate business.

So, what do you think? Is Facebook all you need to grow your real estate business?

For All Your Arizona Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Posted in Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages | No Comments »

How Do I create Facebook Fan Page for My Real Estate business?

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

You have been told time and time again that you should have a facebook fanpage, you should already know the benefits, you know the improved SEO, brand building etc…. Now is the time to just do it!

For All Your Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Tags: Facebook Fan Pages
Posted in Facebook | No Comments »

How Do I Use A Fan Page To Build My Real Estate Business?

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Great you have a facebook account-so do 400 million other people. Do you know how to use it for your real estate business? We talked earlier about how to lose friends and NOT influence people on Facebook, now lets talk about what to do or rather HOW to use a Facebook Fan Page to Build Your Real Estate Business.

As a REALTOR, you will be tempted to post your listings on your personal page. DON’T DO IT-too much! I Repeat….Don’t Do IT-all the time. That is what a business or FAN Page is better suited for. So, how do you use a fan page to grow your real estate business? Great question! I can almost guarantee that your page wont grow if you do nothing more than post listings. This might be hard for you to believe but most people don’t think of real estate 99.9% of the time. I know I don’t-and I’m in the business. So to start a great fan page you first need to identify who its for. Think about this:

Who are you trying to attract to your page? It doesn’t really benefit you or your business to have 200 fans of your page from Minnesota if you sell real estate in Arizona. Who are you trying to attract-1st time home buyers, investors, homeowners in a subdivision, a city? Name your page according to its topic and include a geographic location. First Time Home Buyer, Chandler, Arizona. Unlike your personal page, your fan page is public and thus indexed in search engines. Keywords like the name of your page and location will help your page get found.

What’s the benefit of joining your page? Sure, it looks great but what is the value of being a fan of your page? Think about giving away coupons or insider tips. How to’s. Do Realtors have knowledge that those outside of the business don’t? Sure. Use it to your advantage. One of my favorite coupons is from Einsteins Bagels…I stop there every Friday. They are currently running a “Shmear Campaign” Where you can give a friend a FREE Bagel. Realtors and Lenders that are fans of MyTitleGuy get marketing ideas, support, classes, interesting perspectives on social media and AMAZING Escrow and Title service of course . Whats the value of your page? The more value, the more people will want to be fans of your page.

Use your Fanpage to strengthen your relationships and brand. Who do you invite to be a fan of your page? Everyone? I hope not. As a REALTOR, the perfect fans for your personal fan page-Rita REALTOR, Chander Arizona (if you have one) are those that have worked with you in the past AND Potential clients. Why? 3rd party appreciation. You can say how wonderful you are all day but so does every Realtor. Having potential clients interact with past clients that were happy with their experience with you will show your prospects what a rock star you are. Your fan page is a great place to recognize birthdays, anniversaries, children’s birthdays and home sale anniversaries. Use the @ symbol so your message is posted on your wall and the person you are talking to, it will help your message travel farther than you could ever imagine.

Middle school. Speak on a level that your entire audience will understand. It doesn’t benefit you to speak about Lessee vs lessor, amortization schedules, or easements. That’s just not something that your average fan understands- or would even want to. Tips to improve your property value, how to conserve energy, Going GREEN…that’s another story. Remember, the best REALTORS will not use their fan pages as bill boards to market their listings. Ask questions…..even ones you know the answers to. Think Tennis. Serve up a great question or statement and let your fans hit it back.

Marketing Collateral: Your fan page URL like mine, Facebook.com/MyTitleGuyStephen should be on all of your market collateral related to your page. Business cards, letter head, email signatures, for sale signs (if applicable), websites and blogs. Because you can have multiple fan pages, you can have numerous subjects. I would keep them separate. One might be Germann Country Estates, Chandler Arizona while another might be Las Sendas, Mesa Arizona or Condo Life, Arizona. Keep your marketing separate to avoid confusion.

Create an add. In my opinion, Facebook is a better option that Google for a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign. To use me and my business as an example, I can easily identify REALTOR’s in Arizona, specifically the Southeast Valley, with a college education, that are from back east, between the ages of 30-45 and only display an add to them. You can do the same. You can target age ranges of 1st time home buyers or those age groups just coming out of college. When it comes to a PPC marketing campaign on FB, the only thing that limits you is your imagination. TIP: Make your add UGLY-with a phone number or web address. If someone can get the information to contact you without clicking on the add, then it won’t cost any money for that lead. Better hurry though, I hear FB is wise to our little secret and that it will be changing soon. Once again, If I was a REALTOR the ultimate goal would be to get people on my blog searching for property so If you do choose to run an add on FB, the web address should be for your website/blog not your Fan Page. You can always engage them on your blog/website through a widget and get them to become a fan.

Leverage Real Time Search-Back in December 2009, Google started indexing updates from Fan pages, Twitter, Myspace. These updates are called “Real Time Search”. Unlike your personal facebook page, your fan page updates are indexable in real time search. Using keywords like “short sale Chandler ,Arizona” or “Short Sale, Val Vista Lakes” in your updates will help your updates be seen in the scrolling window pane inside Google.

Send “updates to fans”. One of the best features of a fan page is that you can send “updates” to fans whenever you want. It’s a nice way of keeping your fans engaged and informed about changes related to your page. Send messages about new products or services, updated website, etc.

Monitor. Facebook recently started sending weekly page updates that provide information like # of fans +/- for the week, number of visits, comments. Monitor the activity, if you start losing fans, you may be doing something that your fans don’t find value in or worse-annoying.

Here is this week’s summary for the Facebook Page: MyTitleGuyStephen
+5 Fans this week (247 total Fans)
53 Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (77 last week)
601 visits to your page this week(529 visits last week)

Insights. Insights measure activity on your page. There is a wealth of information from comments, to demographic info like sex, age group and physical location. Know your numbers-monitor your page and make changes accordingly to keep your fans engaged.

MyTitleGuyStephen Page Insights

What is your ultimate goal? Is it to have a specific number of fans? Having a fan page is great, its also fun. But the goal of a fan page, atleast one that I own is to increase my business. To do that you will need to get your fans on your website or blog. I heard someone say “The key with Facebook Marketing is getting your friends to come to your house, which is your website. Your website must be ready for your guests.” and I absolutely agree. Regardless of what vehicle you use, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc…. the goal should be to get your fans on your website/blog-searching for property.

Custom Fan pages: If you take Facebook as serious as I do, you may want to upgrade to a custom fan page. Custom pages don’t have the same limitations that traditional fan pages have. You can change the color, style, add links, Logos, pictures even videos. There are more and more vendors popping up that do custom fan pages. Mike Mueller did mine, and it was the best $400 I ever spent. You can see some of the pages Mike has designed HERE Tell him you work with me, maybe you will get a discount? Of course-if you don’t work with me, the cost is $5000. Joke.

My Model. You need a plan. As we discussed, you can have 200 fans, even 10,000. Without a way to get them to do something, its all for not. Fan pages are awesome but there is only so much you can do on them. Besides, a fan page is not something you own, remember that. If you violate the terms of service for Facebook you run the risk of having your page shut down. Yes, there is a way to allow your fans to search for property on your fan page but you need them to search for property on your website/blog. Below is my model. There is no right or wrong, just what works or doesn’t. This one works for me. Now, I don’t market to the general public although most of the traffic I get is from the general public. I get my business from Realtors and Loan Officers like you, so that is who I write for. I pull REALTORS and Loan Officers that follow me from Linkedin, Facebook, ActiveRain, YouTube, Twitter and Yelp through my WordPress Blog-MyTitleGuy.net. I learned early on from Brian Buffini that if I “Give it away in slices, it will come back in loaves”. I hope that after seeing what I am doing in comparison to other title reps that it will lead to a face to face meeting. It usually does.

MyTitleGuy Model

Let it go. Your page, once its up and going will take on a life of its own. Especially if its a community page like for a subdivision or city. This is a good thing. Once that happens, its natural to try and bring the page’s focus back to you-the page administrator-Don’t. Resist the urge to insert yourself into conversations that don’t effect you. Example: Some of your fans talking about a great restaurant or show, don’t try and direct the focus back to the page topic or you. If you wouldn’t cut into a conversation in real life, then don’t do it on facebook.

Having a fan page isn’t like “field of dreams”, just because you build it doesn’t mean-they will come. Be consistent and add value.

If you are a Realtor or Loan Officer in Arizona looking for someone to help you build your business-lets talk.

For All Your Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Tags: Facebook Fan pages for Realtors, Facebook fan pages in real estate
Posted in Facebook | 4 Comments »

Facebook For REALTORS: 10 Ways To Lose Friends and NOT Influence People

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

As of this post, there are over 400 million people on facebook. With all those people in one place there is bound to be someone that just really annoys you to the point that you “un-friend” them. Here are some of the most irritating things a Realtor can do.

Business, business, business. If every time your friends log into their facebook account, your “friends” see you talking about your business, you will most likely be “un-friended”-quickly. They accepted you as a friend because they want to hear about you, your recommendations, your suggestions, your day; not your business. To make it easier, they want to be friends with a person, not a salesman or a company.

Suggest they become a fan of you or your business over and over and over again. Here is a hint….If they didn’t become a fan the first time you asked them to, they are even less likely to become a fan the second or the third or the…you get the point.

Suggest they become a fan of a product or service they have never used. Look, I understand that you are excited about your new fanpage, but you cant expect someone to become a fan of your real estate services, if they have never used your services. So, if you are going to ask someone to be come a fan of you, please make sure they have worked with you. And if they don’t become a fan the first time,…see #2.

Talk at them. I remember what it was like to be in boot camp , I had plenty of company commanders that talked at me. They accepted you as a friend so you both could talk, not just you. Your clients want to be engaged on facebook. Think Tennis. They hit the “ball”, (a question or statement) and now the ball is in your court. Hit it back.

Events. I get invited to all kinds of events, I bet your clients or potential clients do too. What’s annoying about that you ask? If you are doing an open house in Chandler, Arizona…don’t invite everyone on your friends list, especially the ones that live out of state. I cant tell you how many events I have been invited to in New York. Yes, I am from New York, but I live in Arizona. Its a really easy way to see that you are clearly inviting everyone….people like to feel special, not like sheep.

Your Listings. Do yourself a favor, Don’t post all of your listings on your wall. Why? Well for starters, if all you are doing is posting your listings, you will get tuned out very fast immediately. We talked about this one in a previous post with the guy selling “tires”. I would reserve your wall for those “special” listings, you know the ones that are amazing deals or are very interesting. This way your “friends” will take notice of your listing because it’s not something you usually do. Remember…..the fact that you listed a home is not interesting, the fact that you listed Brad Pitt’s house-Is. For the most part, you would be better served putting your listings on a fan page.

Farmville, Fishville, Mafia Wars. I have even gone as far as joining a group called “I don’t care about your farm, or your fish or your mafia!!”and guess what? As of today, there are 6,011,509 members and growing! I don’t care if you play those games, but posting it on your wall for your clients to see in their news feed could easily tell them that you have too much time on your hands. I don’t think I would be too happy if my house was listed with you and you are always playing Farmville. ‘Farmville’ and ‘Mafia Wars’ might be fun for some people, but if you don’t want to play them-and I don’t, the constant invites are aggravating. Some Facebook games are like Ponzi schemes; the way to succeed and get more points is to get more people playing-your “friends”.

Link Twitter to Facebook. Twitter is a micro-blogging site, it is acceptable to post 10,20 even 30 times per day in some instances. Liking your twitter to your facebook account will overwhelm and alienate your “friends”. If you are going to link facebook and twitter, you should have your status updates on facebook going to twitter, not the other way around.

Your beliefs. My dad once told me that there are 3 things that have no place in business-Religion, Politics and Abortion. Regardless of what you believe in, there are plenty of others that disagree with you. Your little remark about the President-even though you meant it in fun-could easily infuriate someone that doesn’t share your sense of humor. When you post something, think Switzerland. Is it neutral, far left or far right. Unless of course you aim to stir up a beehive.

Tagging. As cool as I am right now, I was not always this way. Believe it or not, there was a time in my life that I was insecure, chubby and awkward. Ok, so I’m still chubby. The last thing I would want my “friends” or clients to see is a picture of me “tagged” from the 80′s doing a keg-stand with a reverse mohawk. I mean come-on I have a professional reputation to uphold.

Yes, I know I promised 10 but here is another as a bonus. Trying to “jack” one of your friends potential clients. It never fails, at some point a potential client will reach out to one of your “friends” that happens to be a REALTOR and write on their wall something like “We are considering buying a home in Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale, where would you suggest we look?” That comment is for your friend, not you-dont try and jack that lead by replying with a link to your website. I have seen it happen before and it’s one of the reasons I don’t suggest having other Realtors on your facebook page unless they are in outside markets. My opinion-having 300 friends where 80 of them are other Realtors is like taking those 80 Realtors on every buyer or seller presentation you ever make.

Are a Realtor or Loan Officer in the Phoenix Metro area that wants help with their marketing? Call me.

For All Your Marketing, Escrow and Title Needs

Tags: Facebook Ettiquette For Realtors
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For Realtors, there is a lesson to be learned from Betty White and Facebook

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

6 more days. 6 more days until Betty White hosts Saturday Night Live. I can’t remember the last time the masses got excited about a guest host, (excluding Tina Fey) especially one like Betty White. Yes, this is the same Betty White from the Golden Girls.

You may have noticed that Betty White has been in a lot of different places on your favorite shows as of late. Have you asked yourself why that might be? There is no doubt that Betty White is hot right now, hot like everyone wants her not hot like…well never mind. It’s pretty rare for an actor/actress to disappear and make a come back in the way that she has, John Travolta aside.

So why does everyone want a piece of Betty White and why am I and hundreds of thousands of others so excited about her hosting Saturday Night Live? Well you would need to go back to the Superbowl. Saints vs Colts. Regardless of which team you were rooting for, there one one clear winner-Betty White. That’s because Betty starred in a Snickers commercial that will certainly go down as one of the best super bowl commercials of all time which has received over 1.6 Million views on YouTube as of today.

Ok so, funny commercial. Whats the big fuss about Betty White? Well after this commercial, a Facebook Page sprung up called

Betty White to Host SNL (please?)! , which as of today has 509,232 Fans Likes. The description page says:

“This is a page to encourage both Betty White AND Saturday Night Live that Betty would be a FANTASTIC choice to host SNL.

Betty White will turn 88 years old on January 17, 2010. She is universally known and admired.

in 2010, Betty will be entering her EIGHTH DECADE in show-business. What a way to honor her, as well as entertain countless millions of people the world over who adore her as an actress, as a tireless animal rights advocate, and as a fantastic comedian!

PLEASE BECOME A FAN!!!”

So what happened next? Yep, the page went viral. So much so that SNL could no longer ignore what the people wanted. This proves that not even a huge conglomerate like NBC or a show business legend like Lorne Michaels are immune to the power of Facebook.It was soon after the facebook fan page dedicated to Betty White garnered 400,000 fans that that show biz magazines began reporting “SNL is considering doing a “Women of Comedy” special that would include women like Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey in addition to White.

Ok, so you may be asking “what is the point?’ Why would a title rep write a post about Betty White when he is clearly not a reporter nor is he in show business? Because the fact that White is hosting SNL this weekend demonstrates the huge power of social media. It also proves that anyone and I do mean anyone can have just as much power and leverage as a huge company like NBC. You have the power to make your real estate business viral with a simple video or fan page. All you need to do is embrace and learn about social media tools to help your business grow. Because, make no mistake about it, Betty White would not be hosting Saturday Night Live if it wasn’t for a Facebook Fan Page. Remember, Fan Pages are a phenomenal asset to your real estate business. If you build it, they will come!

If you are a Realtor or Lender in the Phoenix Metro area that would like help growing your business, call me.

And don’t forget to watch Betty White host SNL on May 8th 2010 and watch history in the making.

Oh, and check out my Facebook Fan Page too.