Facebook Removing REALTOR® Profiles

Hopefully by now, many if not all, Real Estate professionals know and understand the importance of expanding their marketing programs to the internet – specifically utilizing social media networks. Facebook has fast become one of the largest platforms used by REALTORS® to expand their sphere of influence and farm leads – but Facebook accounts have not been used properly!

Facebook Business Pages were created for businesses and business professionals to market their services and products independently of their personal profiles. Facebook Terms of Use clearly states that “You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”. Real Estate agents feel that they have kept their personal page, professional enough that they do not need to waste time on a fan/business page – big mistake! So with that said, do you have a business/fan page setup and how effective is it?

Setting up a business/fan page:

• Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php
• Click the + Create Page button in the top, right hand corner of the page
• Once you’ve updated your business’ location and added your phone number be sure to upload a photo of yourself, your office or your team/company logo. (if you are creating a community or niche page add a photo relevant to that market -  photo of Main Street, beautiful park, or condo building etc.)
• Next step is important: be sure to invite your friends! (this will send a request to all the friends you have on your personal profile – it’s great way to initially get the word out about your new fan page!) You can also import a contact list and send requests via email from a spreadsheet etc.
• Then go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and claim your username (which will become your unique URL). Look in that second box on the username page – use the drop down arrow to find your recently created page. Be careful – this is a URL, not a title. Don’t use spaces, dashes, or long, difficult to remember words. Keep it short and simple and DO NOT add ‘.com’ at the end!

Is you page effectively used:

• Does your business page have a welcome screen (which can double as a lead capture system). RE/Advantage’s Facebook Page doubles as a welcome page and lead capture tool – we offer 3 free Facebook tips to like our page.
• Does it have a call to action
• Are you properly promoting you/your services/your business
• Are you posting appropriate content
• Does your content create feedback

Please stay tuned into RE/Advantage’s Blog – next week we will discuss WHAT and HOW to effectively post to your Facebook Business Page.

RE/Advantage creates custom Facebook Business Pages to brand your business and services. Don’t miss out on our October special!

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What is Good SEO?

Trying to rank your pages on Google or Bing can be a daunting task sometimes and if you ask several SEO experts you are likely to get several different answers.

So what is the best method to achieve some degree of success?  Well I could not tell you in one blog post every way you can better your SEO but what I can tell you is what I tell most of my clients that want to do it themselves.

Content:

By far the best way to have the Search Engines see you is to write good, original and dynamic content.  There is no better way to be forgotten than to copy or write a poorly constructed page.

Keywords:

Its all about the keywords, think of the keyword phrase you want to rank on and then formulate your page around it.  Your keyword phrase should be in the following places;

1. Meta Title
2. H1 tag of your body
3. Preferably the first readable words on your page
4. Repeated 3-5 more times in a 300-500 word post

This is a very simplified approach to keyword placement but for most do it yours-elvers it works well.

Links:

Getting inbound links from authoritative sources is a great way to build a pages reputation.

When you can cite any sources with an outbound link

Finally use internal links to associated your pages. For example an article about Luxury Townhomes in Bergen County, you might link this page to another page on your website or blog that talked about Luxury Home Market Statistics.  Your HREF should also try to carry your keywords.

Useful Content:

Make sure you content is informative, entertaining or interesting.  Not only does the search engines need to read your pages so do humans.  If you are not a good writer than you might consider hiring someone that can.

Authority:

When it comes to search engines they like to ranks sources that are authoritative in nature to the subject matter.  And the best way to do that is to become a content kink of your subject matter by writing good original pages, consistent publication (you cannot just write 2 or 3).

So the next time you sit down to write a blog post of web page think about some of this.  If you have any other simple ideas please share them with us.

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Google Enters the Mobile Handset Business

In a not-so-surprising move, Google announced recently it’s intention to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. This gives Google access to Motorola’s treasured handset technology, and more importantly, their patents.

But what does this mean for Samsung, HTC and other handset manufacturers that have invested billions of dollars into their Android handsets? Will they now be competing with Google itself? Will Google have an unfair advantage? It may seem like a straight-forward opportunity for Google to easily enter the hardware business with a well-established base. But some think otherwise.

Patents, galore.

So what’s the most logical reason Google would pay a 63% premium for Motorola Mobility over it’s current stock value. Most says it’s obvious – Motorola Mobility currently holds over 17,000 patents worldwide. This puts Google into a great position to defend itself against the onslaught of patent infringements suits that have been launched against the Android OS by Apple, Oracle and others. If Google gains access to this arsenal, other companies may not be so quick to sue Google if they know Google might turn around and sue them for some infringement. Google’s CEO Larry Page confirms this in his blog post:

Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

But, is it backfiring on them? Last week, Apple filed motions claiming that Motorola has effective lost it’s patent rights due to it’s pending acquisition by Google.

The Future

It still remains to be seen how the other Android hardware partners will REALLY react if the deal goes through. Right now, they are supporting Google’s move — and rightly so. They certainly don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them. And according to Larry Page,

This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.

There’s also the thinking that Google will spin-off the handset business to keep it separate from the Google name. Only time will tell if this, and other predictions will come true.

How do you think Google’s acquisition will effect the Android product lines, or mobile handset innovation in general?

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I’ve Set Up My Real Estate Blog…Now What?

I’m sure many of our followers have been to seminar after seminar where they are told ‘all real estate professionals MUST have a blog…’ – and that I do agree with, but once your blog is setup and you’re ready to post many REALTORS® run into 2 problems:

1. What the heck do I, as a REALTOR®, blog about?

2. What type of lead capture tools does my blog have to get me business?

These are very common questions and without some direction many REALTORS® get overwhelmed and scrap the whole idea of blogging. When you finally give in and decide to create a blog you should sit down and create a blogging plan. Jot down notes on your target audience (their age, salary, lifestyle etc.), your niche market(s) – and from that information your KEYWORDS! You can think up multiple blogs posts by having a great list of keywords focused around your audience and niche market.

What to blog about (again keep in mind your ideal reader and niche market):

• Answer questions proposed by past or current clients at open houses, showings etc.
• Profiles on local home builders
• ‘25’ unknown facts about your city/town etc.
• ‘10’ steps to home buying/selling
• Pros and cons (renting vs buying, types of mortgages)
• Client success stories or testimonials are great to throw into the mix
• Local school information
• Local Shopping
• Transportation or proximity to major cities or attractions
• Condo complexes
• New construction
• Retirement homes
• Seasonal properties
• Market statistics for those analytically driven buyers/sellers! This will also be helpful is you create local snapshots to send to prospects every month.

So you’ve written your posts and maintain a steady flow of articles, have evergreen topics (meaning topics that are always relevant) as well as more timely article topics…what tools or features does your blog have to capture leads? While the ‘once in awhile’ email question is always great there are far better – easier – ways to capture leads through your blog.

What lead capture tools do I have:

• Email capture form
• Pop over subscription box
• RSS feed subscription
• Comment registration

Let us know if this helps – what lead capture features do you use? Also if you need some tips on writing a blog post, we have those too!

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Here’s a Freebee…Blogging Checklist:

• Have an eye catching title
• Have keywords in title
• Have compelling introduction
• Have keywords in first paragraph
• Have bolded keywords
• Have scannable content
• Have descriptions and tags
• Have photos and/or videos
• Entice closing to create interaction

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Bing’s 18 Tips for Good SEO

Bing recently wrote an interesting article entitled 18 Things You Need to Know About SEO that is suppose to help you with your rankings on Bing. Duane Forrester who runs the public outreach side of the Webmaster program for Bing wrote the article. This list includes some vital pieces of information that are useful, especially to all those who would like to benefit from search engine marketing.

Some of the tips are the basic 101 of SEO marketing while some offer some real insight into how Bing sees content on the Internet

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