Infographics – The Future of Marketing?

First let me define infographics for you — they are graphic visual representations of  information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. With an information graphic, businesses can develop and communicate concepts using a single symbol to process information.

We’ve taken this trend to mind…and figured why not make some for REALTORS®! Below is one of MANY infographics we will begin to spread throughout our blog and social networking sites. If you have any idea for an infographic that would help with your internet marketing – let us know!

Click Me for the Full Picture!

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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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Facebook Joins Location-Based Social Networking

One of the newer spins on social networking is location-based Social Network. There are a few companies such as Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla that have a long-established stronghold in this area. But Facebook has a tremendous user base and has the potential to overtake it’s competitors if they do it right. And last week, they launched their version of location-based social networking called Facebook Places.

How Do I Get It?

Currently, Places is only supported on the iPhone, or any other touchscreen mobile device that can access touch.facebook.com.   Sorry all non-touch screen phones need to wait until FB releases a version to support you.  Places will appear on the main menu of the Facebook iPhone app. if you are using touch.facebook.com, just tap the PLACES tab.

The Basics

The most important feature of location-based Social Networking in the “checking-in” feature, which uses the GPS feature of your mobile device to assist you with identifying your location and checking-in, which publishes your location so others know where you are. But other than letting others know where you, what’s in it for you? Well, Forequare has an added feature called Badges. The more you check-in, the more badges you collect. If you are the person to check-in at a location most frequently, you are declared the “mayor” of that location, making it like a game. Some business even reward their mayors and other frequent visits for their frequent check-ins

The Facebook Twist

Facebook Places will also revolve around check-ins. What’s different is that you most likely already have a large friend following on Facebook, so you don’t have to re-establish those friends in order to check-in. And thankfully, it looks like Facebook may have learned from their previous mishaps with security. You are in complete control of  what you share the and the people you share it with. When a friend tags you through Places, you are given the choice as to whether or not your friends can check you into places. You can even disable this feature completely. Unfortunately all of these security settings are un-configured when you start using Places — you must manually configure them yourself.

How Can The Agent Leverage This?

Facebook has always been such a great way for an Agent to make contact with people.  Facebook is a very efficient way to gather a following based on the community.  Build a Facebook following built on a Fan Page or targeted posts and you will begin to have people interested in you for your in depth local knowledge.  Now let people follow you around via community places and even your listings.

Playing Nice

Rather than trying to destroy it’s competition, Facebook appears to be cooperating and even encouraging 2-way communication with the leaders. Through their Graph API, they are enabling Foursquare, Yelp and others to share check-ins in both directions. All of these features are still in beta with select partners. Time will tell if the information-sharing pays off.

I suppose Facebook is banking on making location-based Social Networking more popular by making it a native feature within Facebook, as well as cooperating with those who invented it in the first place. Time will tell if this effort pays off. These services were no where nearly as popular as Facebook. Maybe that will change now that Facebook has entered the game and is providing 2-way check-ins with the other players in the market.

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Whats does it take for an Agent to succeed?

As with many of my posts, I often talk about the need to engage in Social Networking as part of your overall marketing efforts. Many real estate agents and brokers still have one underlying issue. That is, their existing website.

Here are some of the questions I still receive.

• Do I need a website?
• Can I just work the social networking scene in lieu of having a website?
• If I have a website does it make sense to spend my time and money revamping it? Or is my time and money best spent on developing a social media plan of action?

To answer these questions one-by-one:

I firmly believe that it is imperative that agents and brokers should have a strong Web site as a base to supplement their marketing efforts. I have occasionally met a few agents that boggled my mind as they had no Internet presence but they still were very successful. One agent in particular, works with Remax Property Center in Paramus, NJ. His name is Avner Zvulun. I had the pleasure of speaking with Avner. He is not only a great agent, he also possesses a strong drive to succeed.  In 2009, Avner closed $17 million ( 55 transactions). After meeting with Avner, he realized that he can take his sales to another level above his outstanding numbers if  he can develop a Web site and a social networking plan of action.

The idea of having a social networking  plan of action will help, but you should have a Web site as well. The idea is to drive traffic to your site from the various social networking platforms. If done correctly, your site will blossom as a tool for Web visitors looking to get information.

There are many social networking platforms that can propel your marketing efforts. If done so correctly, they can help you engage with new clients. Social Networking also allows you to tap in to new markets. I would recommend that and agent or broker seek the help of a marketing professional when using social networking as it must be setup properly and maintained to gain the most value. The biggest incentive to Social Networking is that it may also drive traffic to your Website. The goal is to link your site back from the various social platforms.  Our team can assist you develop a marketing strategy that will meet your needs. We also emphasize the need to constantly maintain these social platforms. One of biggest problems we see is that agents and brokers stop updating their sites which is counter productive to their marketing efforts. That is another reason why our team can help you succeed. RE/Advantage will work with you continually to ensure you are updating your Social networking platforms as well as your main Web site. Continually adding fresh and unique content is the best way to keep visitors locked into you .

When developing your online presence  we focus on the following:

• Are you pinpointing your target market?
• How you will find your online audience?
• How you will attract your audience?
• How your will engage with your audience
• How you will  bond with your online audience
• How you will build a  community of  loyal followers
• How you will turn your online audience into clients

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RE/Advantage specializes in Social Networking, Blogging, Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

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Ready to Give Up on Social Networking? Don’t Quit Just Yet!

Many times I hear from our clients that they are posting on their Facebook pages, on fan pages, responding to Tweets and blog posts, updating their YouTube and Flickr galleries but have not gotten any ‘valuable’ leads. I can understand their frustration because I know how time consuming keeping up with the internet world can be but please, PLEASE keep in mind the impact your constant and focused updating is having on the SEO of your social networking platforms and website – if linked/syndicated to your social networking sites.

And like anything good results take time.  In previous posts my colleague Mark spoke about becoming an authority in your area.  When you socialize long enough and become a resource people will use you.  Real Estate is all about being social so keep it up!

Search engines use Bots, also known as Spiders, which is the method search engines utilize to ‘crawl’ web pages in search for new and updated content. So for you as a REALTOR®, this means that every Tweet, wall post, blog post, update, and anything else you post on a social media network will more than likely be crawled by numerous search engine spiders – and once those spiders crawl your content, they will index your content in the search engines; boosting your SEO!

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

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Will Facebook become the “new” Google?

The word “Google” has become such a well-known name, synonymous with Internet searching. Up until recently, searching for something on the internet has been very “horizontal”. You entered a term you were interested in, and you got results. But as the internet is changing and growing, so is the way many of us look for information.

Facebook as a search tool

According to a recent study, we use Facebook as source to reach news and entertainment sites more than we use Google. Here’s a typical example… a friend of yours on Facebook posts a link to a Youtube video. You didn’t search for that video, but because it appeared in your Facebook news feed, you clicked on the video. You liked it so much, that you clicked the Facebook SHARE icon, so now it appears on YOUR newsfeed for your own friends to see. All without ever searching for something using Google. What better way to navigate the wealth of information on the internet — based upon what your friends are watching, reading, or recommending.

Tapping into Friendcasting

As a REALTOR®, you can use Facebook to attract prospective buyers to your web site for relevant property listings and community information. If you then use your Facebook wall to post current topics in the industry, homeowner seminar information, links to videos related to the real estate industry, you are offering your Facebook friends the opportunity to share those posts with THEIR friends. This is key to the Friendcasting concept. In order for this to work, you must post frequently, and make sure it’s information that your Facebook friends would find useful.

Remember – it does take some time and thought into making Social Networking effective for your business. But if you do it right, the rewards are well worth the hard work.

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RE/Advantage specializes in Website Design, Blogging Solutions, and IDX Technology for the Real Estate industry. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. We feel that no one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

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