New Features Just Added to Facebook!

We always try to keep you updated with information on trending items in social media and technology for Real Estate – so here is your end of May update!

Promoted Posts

Before now your reach on Facebook was limited by the scope of Faceook’s EdgeRank algorithm – meaning when you posted an update your content was only visible to a small number of your actual followers based on the interest of a given user (which is decided by this algorithm). Yesterday Facebook launched a new way to reach your followers – Promoted Posts! This is a paid service (like Facebook Ads) but only available in $5 and $10 increments. These Promoted Posts will get shown to users who are already fans of your page in addition to friends of people who interact with the promoted post. The posts are marked as “Sponsored” in news feeds and run for up to 3 days after the post was originally created — catch is you must have at least 400 fans. The statistics of you promoted posts are then logged in your Admin Panel.

What we think qualifies as a ‘promotable’ post:

• Marketing offers that link to a listing landing page within your website or blog
• Open houses, new listing or special offer posts
• Launch of a new internet marketing site (new website, Facebook page, blog)
• Spotlight an affiliate (mortgage broker, inspector, title companies, home staging specialist etc.)

How to use Promoted Posts:

If Facebook has permitted usage on your fan page there will be a ‘Promote’ drop down button visible when you post a status update or picture/video. That will then prompt you to add a budget for your campaign and you’re well on your way! More information on promoted posts.

Schedule Posts

I’ve always heard of agents using third party tools to schedule posts on Facebook – now you can do it right from your Facebook wall!

1. Simply begin to add a post to your wall
2. Click that little blue/grey clock in the bottom left corner or the status update box
3. *You may need to set a year when you created your Facebook business page first*
4. If you had to do step 3, click on that clock again after setting your ‘birth’ year
5. You will be promoted to add a year, then month, then day, then time for your post
6. Then hit the ‘Schedule’ button

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are able to schedule posts up to 6 months in advance at 15 minute intervals.

Has anyone tried to use either of these new features yet? How do they work?

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Facebook IPO – Diamond or Coal?

See we were all so excited when the Facebook IPO was announced. After all, it’s THE premiere social network. How could we NOT make money? This could be just like Google, right?

Well, maybe not.

Speculations aside, there were some very interesting things that happened before, during and after the IPO.

Before

Prior to the official IPO, Facebook raised billions of dollars through private investors using “D-Rounds”. This gives company insiders an opportunity to “cash-out” before the IPO. This potentially sucked a lot of the value out of the company before public investors had the opportunity to make much money

During

Morgan Stanley’s analyst reduced his revenue forecast for the company. It is not clear whether or not this information was shared with all investment firms, or just a select few. This was done right in the middle of the “IPO Roadshow”, an unprecidented event in IPO-land.

After

As the news about pre-IPO devaluation, earnings forecasts reductions in the middle of the IPO, and now possible SEC investigations into the whole mess has emerged, the stock has fallen from its IPO price of $38 a share, down to closing at $31 a share on Tuesday.

The question remains – what does this mean for Facebook, it’s stock value, and the millions of people who gambled money on the IPO in hopes of a big return? And that’s exactly the point – the stock market is ALWAYS a gamble. I suppose the difference is, you count on a legal game. But when those “in the know” potentially took an opportunity to make money and didn’t inform the public about potential earning issues that could effect the upcoming IPO,  I think someone needs to look closely at what happened.

We are, after all, the reason why Facebook exists. The public. WE post our status updates. WE post our pictures. WE share our lives, our feeling and our thoughts, on a web site for most to see. And Facebook uses OUR participation as a means to generate advertising revenue. Without US, Facebook would be what MySpace is now. Should we expect fair and accurate information to be released from the company WE built when we have the opportunity to invest in it? Or, should we just DO-AC ?

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Renting vs Buying your Own House

One of the biggest investments that people make in their lifetime is buying a new home. However, before finalizing the decision to buy a new home, most of them face the dilemma whether to rent a house or buy a house. If you belong to the group of this confusion struck people, it would be good if you read further. This article will help you reduce your confusion between renting and buying a new home.

Now, let us quickly glance through the advantages of renting a house because they are fewer than the benefits offered by buying a home. When you rent a house, the only monthly payments that you will need to make are your rent and utility bills. However, when you buy a new home, apart from mortgage payments, you need to pay bills, repairs, maintenance and the interest rate. Secondly, if you wish to relocate, it is easier when you rent a house. If you own a house and plan to relocate, you will need to advertise your property, pay fees to a realtor and pay stamp duty, which will be an added trouble.

Well, now let us understand the benefits of buying a new home. When you own a house, you have the security that you can stay there as long as you want. However, when you rent a house, this security totally lacks because long-term leases are quite uncommon. Even if you manage to find a homeowner who is ready for a long-term lease, the homeowners increase the rent whenever they want to.

It is most likely that the amount of money you pay as mortgage repayment will be more than monthly rent. However, when you sell your property you will certainly profit which is not the case when you rent a house. Renting a house will offer only short-term flexibility whereas buying a house offers long-term security.

Whether you buy a new home or rent a house, every month you will spend some part of your income to pay the mortgage or rent. However, in the case of rent payment, you will be shelling out money towards something that will never be yours. When you pay mortgage, you know for a fact that the house will be yours eventually. The money spent on rent will provide you with a temporary shelter for a short time span and once the time elapses, the money will be gone forever. However, mortgage repayments will provide you with shelter for a lifetime.

A little hesitation to buy a new home is totally natural because you will start worrying about money woes and the volatility of the real estate market. However, the idea of home ownership is much more profitable as compared to renting a property. If you have a stable job and no plans of relocating in the near future, buying a new home is the best option for you. A rented house can never be a ‘home sweet home’ because you know for a fact that you will need to empty it someday, but when you buy a new home, your memories of a lifetime will stay with you forever.

Stella Jhon, a real estate agent, working as a property manager in different real estate & property management advisor. Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/#!/StellaJhon

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Large Brokerage Pulls Out of REALTOR.com

Minnesota-based Edina Realty Inc. is going to remove its listings from REALTOR.com within the next 10 days.

Edina Realty which is a dominating presence in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market announced back in November that it would stop syndicating listings to REALTOR.com, Trulia and other national, third-party listing portals.

Edina cites concerns about the accuracy of listing data published on the sites, and advertisements and lead forms for other brokers’ agents that sometimes appear next to listings.

Edina will instead rely on its own websites and the power of the Internet Data Exchange to syndicate its listings from now on.

See the complete story on Inman News here.

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75 Real Estate Blogging Topics

Twice a month (if not more) I speak with REALTORS® at local boards and MLSs about using social media networks effectively – one major question I get is “WHAT DO I BLOG ABOUT!”. So I’ve complied a quick list for you. My suggestion would be to export this list into a word doc. and create sub categories under each applicable topic.What I mean by that:

Topic (from below) – Land Lord or Tenant Issues

Sub categories for multiple blog posts: Process of Approving a Tenant (credit check etc.), What Signing a Lease Entails, Explain Broker Fees

Blogging Topics for Real Estate Professionals

1. Architecture or housing styles in your area
2. Historic buildings
3. Market statistics for your area, including average prices and absorption rates
4. 10 most common code violations found by local inspectors
5. Home maintenance
6. Senior housing
7. Pet  friendly housing
8. Staging ideas
9. Local events
10. Top 10 lists
11. Renting vs. buying
12. A lender who did a great job
13. Things that go wrong with real estate sales
14. Home owners insurance
15. Gardening and landscaping
16. Your city council
17. A new development
18. Decorating ideas
19. Real estate industry news – with your own unique commentary
20. Mortgages news
21. Interest Rates
22. Credit scores
23. Consumer hoaxes and scams
24. First time home buyer programs
25. Second homes
26. Investment properties
27. Foreclosure
28. Property flipping
29. Home energy conservation
30. Final walk through
31. Equity stripping scams
32. Transportation & Parking
33. Schools
34. Churches/Houses of worship
35. Day Care
36. Pest control
37. The home buying process
38. The home selling process
39. Moving with children
40. Moving checklist
41. Moving with pets
42. Places to eat
43. Places to shop
44. Commentary on local news stories
45. Commentary on local public policy
46. Environmental issues
47. Land lord or tenant issues
48. How to sell a house
49. How not to sell a house
50. Building trends
51. Parks
52. Property taxes
53. Open houses
54. Active listings/New listings
55. Trends in kitchen design
56. Area events for children
57. The local zoo
58. Where to play golf
59. Coffee shops
60. Women home buyers
61. Advice for FSBO’s
62. Mortgage fraud
63. Types of mortgages
64. Home owners associations
65. Credit repair
66. Fair housing issues
67. Luxury properties
68. Liens
69. Refinancing
70. List of community resource links
71. Explain Good Faith Estimate
72. Tips on organizing a garage sale
73. Cost-of-living comparison for different cities or neighborhoods in your local market (side by side comparison)
74. Bargain hunter’s guide (lunch for under $10, furniture outlets, clothing store sales, cheapest gas stations)
75. Go through your email, is there a question or comment from one of your clients that can be made into a post?

I hope this helps! Create a content grid with these topics and you’ll ALWAYS have something to blog about. Don’t know what a content grid is – just ask! We’re happy to help.

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What to Avoid for Optimal On Page SEO

I spend a lot of time telling my Real Estate clients what they should be doing when thinking about their marketing and SEO effotys.  This post will outline what you should be avoiding when working on your SEO.

1. Flash – Simply stated search engines cannot see the content in any Flash file.  This makes a major part of your website counter productive (if you include a flash graphic/video).  While providing some nice imagery, Flash is really doing nothing for you. A Real Estate website’s basic ‘brick and motor’ foundation should be to provide accurate listing information and valuable real estate and community information.  That is where your time and money should be invested.
2. Frames – While frames are sometimes needed, they should be avoided if the content of the frame is of SEO value.  Search engines cannot read the contents of a Frame.  Think of frames as a web page inside of a web page.  While they will see the outside frame, they cannot see the target frame unless you have a direct link to it.
3. Graphics – Graphics are necessary for any website but be careful! You should not create a graphic on your website that houses text that prevents search engines from ‘reading’ your website content – as they cannot physically look at a graphic on your website to determine the content within it.  If you do you need to restate that text somewhere else in a non graphic format.
4. Keyword Spamming – While keywords are critical on any page, you simply cannot repeat them 100 times to obtain maximum SEO ‘points’.  Doing this will result in your website being filtered out of search results.
5. Black Hat Techniques – Black Hat Techniques refers to less than questionable ways to get ranked.  For example putting white text, on a white background, to only be seen by the search bots.
6. Generic Page Names – If you have a page about Ridgewood Real Estate you do not want to name your page page12.htm.  Instead use descriptive page names like ridgewood-real-estate.htm
7. Copy and Paste -  I know this sometimes seems the easy way out but that will bring you no value as the search engines will see this as duplicate content.

This is only a small handful of tips – but I hope this helped!  I think these are the most common and important ones to remember.  In a future post I will gather more for you.  Have any good tips to add here, let me know.

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