Yep.  I wrote that headline.  ”The Fallacy of Facebook Business Pages.”  Of course, I’m talking about pages created by REALTORS®.  In my opinion, 99% of them need to be deleted.  I’ve been saying that for nearly a year.  Finally, there is some support for my viewpoint. Chris Smith of InmanNext.com wrote the following post last month: You Need To Delete Your Facebook Business Pages Immediately.  It’s a quick read, so check it out.

When fan pages were first introduced, I admit I was firmly aboard the bandwagon.  I helped agents create pages.  Like every other instructor doing workshops, seminars and webinars, I touted the page as the place to do business on Facebook.  The messages went something like this:

Keep all your “business-y” stuff away from your profile and get it onto your page!

Drive people to your page to click “fan” or “like” so they can see the awesome content you post on your page!

Forget your typical website and simply use your Facebook page as your online presence!

Yes, I actually heard speakers (plural) promote that last one.  Use your page as your website.  Yikes.  I hope no one listened.

I will admit there have been some successful Facebook Pages in the real estate space.  Dale Chumbley’s “365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA” is the gold standard.  With over 16,000 likes, Dale has generated business from this page.  He has also spawned a host of “365” strategies.  Some have worked; most have not.  The key to Dale’s success was the extra-ordinary effort he put into his page.  He did not miss a single day, even if it meant dashing back to a hotel room at a conference so he could get his post online.  Do you have the ability to put the time, energy and effort into this strategy?  For most, the answer is no.  For any page strategy to reach this level of success, it requires a near Herculean effort.

So, does this mean Facebook is not an effective tool for agents?  Absolutely not.

I ask every group I present to this question: “Is your business about building relationships?”  The near unanimous response is a resounding YES!  (For a contrarian view on this point, check out this post.)

Let’s examine Facebook pages using the assumption that real estate is a relationship-based business.  First, an astounding statistic about pages:

94% of people that click like on a page never go back to that page.

Why?  Because they assume that the act of clicking like will result in new content posted to that page appearing in their Newsfeed.  Does it?  If the page is McDonalds, with over 11,000,000 likes, it most certainly will. If the page is the typical real estate page with say,  72 likes, it won’t. Or if it does, it will be so far down the Newsfeed, the scroll wheel on your mouse will burst into flames from the friction of trying to get to the post.  From research I’ve read, a page needs in the neighborhood of 3,000 to 5,000 likes, and each post on the page needs multiple comments, shares and likes for Facebook’s algorithm to place it high enough in the Newsfeed of the “likers” to be seen.  I have clicked “like” on nearly 100 local real estate business pages, and I have yet to see a post appear in my Newsfeed. And yes, my settings are properly configured.

To be fair, I have seen a post or two from a real estate business page appear high in my Newsfeed.  This only happens if I switch to “Most Recent” in my feed, and the page owner just happened to post in the minutes prior to me signing in to Facebook.  This is actually just dumb luck, and last time I checked, luck is not really a marketing strategy.

So, keeping our assumption about real estate and relationships in place, how do we use Facebook effectively?

By using Facebook as it was meant to be used.  By using it to create, maintain and grow relationships.  How is this done?  By strategically building custom friend lists that allow us to filter the incoming noise and target the outgoing message.  I have a couple of tutorials that walk you through the process.  It is not difficult, and once in place, you can spend as little as 15 minutes a day implementing a relationship-building strategy that revolves around your clients — past, present and future.

I am not suggesting you post listings on your profile.  I am also not suggesting you tout your successes and your awards on your profile.  I am simply saying use Facebook for the purpose Mark Zuckerberg intended it for:  creating, maintaining and growing relationships.

Stay tuned for a  follow-up post on the effective use of lists on Facebook.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Photo by Dru Bloomfield

I had one of those life-changing, potentially hair-graying experiences  a couple weeks ago.

You see, I thought I deleted my blog. Four years of love, attention, trial & error, sweat.

Worse than deleting the content, I thought I’d overwritten it with a very old copy.

I stood in front of my computer, staring at the screen, pumping my hands at my side, in a state of total disbelief and high anxiety.

Knowing that there was really nothing I could do, watching the little hour glass dance on the screen in a procedure that I couldn’t cancel out of, and knowing it would be at least half an hour before I could see the extent of the damage and my knee-jerk response to resolve it.

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It was early evening. There wasn’t anything positive that I could think to do, except get on my bike and ride. Clear my head. Relax. And see what I found when I returned.

Within ten minutes, I was a new person. Definitely more light-hearted. Feeling the breeze ruffle the hair on my arms.  Enjoying the cooler air that comes as the sun is setting. Breathing more evenly.

I realized that this “catastrophe” was not the end of my life, or my real estate career.

In fact, within seconds, I had this “whoosh” of relief.  A total realization of how I felt my blog owned me, controlled me, and that in some sense, I was a bit obsessed with keeping it happy. Odd thoughts.  That felt really good.

I realized that if I did have to totally start over with my blog, I would do it differently. It would be simpler, more video-oriented. Have a more Zen-like quality to it. Peaceful, informative, a destination to be enjoyed.

Amazingly liberating thoughts, when I’d been in a state of sheer panic earlier.

At that point, my conscious mind took over and started going though all the ways I might be able to recover my blog data. I had a Plan A, B and C to implement by the time I got back to my desk.

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With a calm resolve, I returned home and to my desk. My first step was to bring my blog up and see what condition it was in, so I’d know where to start.

Wonder of all wonders, my blog was back; everything was there. Nothing for me to do, or recover.

I was surprised, but not really.  I’ve discovered that if I can back out of my negative thinking, get more neutral, that solutions can appear ever so quickly. And this resolution was just another example for me.

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My next thought:  “Now what?”

And so over the past days, I’ve played with ideas of how I can incorporate my “ah-ha” of a new web design, with what I have. Sharing content that I find more pleasure in publishing. Thinking about how I can incorporate my joy of photography even more.  It’s been a quiet, creative time for me.

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Part two of the lesson came to me at the SAAR Expo, when I was speaking with one of my favorite social media people, Bill Risser.  Bill does a lot of social media training, and we were discussing Facebook pages. The conversation evolved to something about how hard some people think it is to get started with blogging and creating content for a Facebook business page. Plus, there is a perception that it’s probably too late to get started anyway.

As I pondered this conversation later on, I realized that I really don’t think it’s ever too late to start anything. Not if it’s something you want to do, and you feel is a right fit for you.

Think about it.  We are in the real estate business, and our clients move into new neighborhoods every day.  How do they make friends?

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Blogging and social media are nothing more than new neighborhoods.

What do people do when they want to meet their neighbors? They reach out. They see what they have in common. How they might help each other.

Social networks are exactly the same. Really.

People come and people go.

Look at the rapid rise of Google+.  It’s kind of like the new “hot” ZIP code.

Some people have abandoned Twitter, while others are just joining in.

Facebook is growing. LinkedIn gains more credibility every day.

Blogs will come and blogs will go. Just like your favorite and not-so-favorite neighbors.

Photo by Dru Bloomfield

My advice: Find a place you like, be it a blog or a social network. Spend some time there. Make it feel like home. Be yourself. Have a good time. And know, without a doubt, that it’s never too late to get started.

By nature, I’m a remarkably stubborn person. It’s a trait, sadly, that I see more and more with each passing day in my daughter.

Perhaps it was due to the daily ritual of watching her thinking so hard about how to perform a flip off a diving board that she no longer can do what most kids do for fun, or maybe I’m just becoming mellow in my old age, but I’m coming to realize a lot of the stubbornness had little real point.

And so, with that in mind, I returned to Active Rain last week after a nearly four-year absence.

I already can hear the questions from the cool kids of the re.net … “why would you waste good content there?” … “Isn’t Active Rain for beginners?” … “Didn’t one of their people call you a mean but incredibly accurate name once upon a time?” … “Didn’t you write a post on Agent Genius years ago asking if Active Rain had jumped the shark?”

All are good points but all pale to the larger question that has been in the back of my mind for the past year or so … is there something there that could help my business that I may be missing?

It’s all well and good to have the nature of a critic, to find the flaws in almost anything that comes down the pike, from the latest social media effort that allegedly will revolutionize the business to the utter agony that is this season of “The Bachelorette.” But it’s not necessarily good for business.

If there’s the slightest chance spending a half-hour a day dancing in the rain can improve my online presence, can drive more traffic to my site (even if it’s agent traffic, in Google’s eyes traffic is traffic) and can give me a place to vent in hopes of improving someone’s lot … why wouldn’t I do it?

So, if you happen to have a profile there, don’t look back because something may be gaining on you. And if you don’t, I’ll be happy to send you the invite – oh, and collect 10 percent of whatever points you earn.

In the interim, do your best to not let stubbornness get in the way of your own business success. It’s a lesson well learned.

“People don’t wake up and go to your company website every day.” This is one of my favorite quotes about the growing number of businesses using Facebook to connect with clients. At AAR’s Broker/Manager Conference in May, I had a chance to moderate two roundtable sessions on Facebook for real estate firms. Here are my notes and a few thoughts.

Separate pages and profiles in your mind.

Profile = Person, Page = Business. Profile = Person, Page = Business. A person creates a profile to interact within Facebook. Through your profile, you can create a business page. Your profile becomes the default administrator of the business pages you create. Administrators can edit/delete the page and post updates, links, pictures and videos as the page.

Profiles have friends; pages have likes.

Your personal profile can be friends with other personal profiles.  Two actions are required to accomplish this: friend request and then acceptance. A personal profile cannot be friends with someone who does not accept the friend request.

Profiles can like business pages. One action is required; click the Like button. There is no acceptance that needs to happen on the business’s side.

Remember that once the Like button is clicked, it will no longer be visible on that page.

What happens when I like a page?

Liking a page means you have subscribed to that page’s updates. You have just told Facebook that it’s okay to allow the page’s updates to show in your general news feed. This is the main feed that is displayed when you first log in to Facebook. It shows all the happenings of your friends, family and other pages you like.

How do I get people to like my page?

The million-dollar question! You’ll start with the low-hanging fruit: ask the friends of your personal profile. Then the creative, strategic, consistent work comes into play. It is not an automatic fountain of business. Bottom-line: You want to continuously create content that engages your fans. Do not use Facebook as a megaphone to broadcast your corporate message.

Keep in mind this is social media. You want to be personable with your likers. Ask them questions, help each other out, post pictures and videos. If you have fun with it, people will like it.

Should I post my listings to my page?

Broad-stroke answer: Don’t do it. Are there exceptions? Yes. 

There are a lot of vendors out there that will auto-post your listings to Facebook. This is using it as a megaphone and is not recommended. It’s okay to celebrate successes. It’s okay to be excited about a feature/picture/amenity of a listing. 

Golden Facebook Rule

Treat your likers and/or friends the way you want to be treated. Be the company you want to like.  Be the person you want to friend. If you’re not sure what I mean, then use Facebook for a few more months before creating a page for your business.

Other notes from the session:

• Create Facebook friend lists to easily share information with certain groups of people.
• Google how to do things you see other people doing. (There are lots of tutorials out there!)
• Tag friends and pages in status updates.
• Facebook.com/help is a great resource.

RE BarCamp Phoenix was incredible this year.  Smaller than usual.  But much more potent.  Lot of connecting.  Huge amounts of sharing and learning.

As the day started, I snagged Mike Mueller, who spends a lot of time helping agents with their Facebook pages.  I’ve been exploring the concept of a Facebook landing page, which is the equivalent of a home page on a blog.  I planned to pick Mike’s brain while he was in town and caught him first thing in the morning. As he started talking, I asked if I could record the conversation, so I could go back and listen again, plus I thought there might a few others (like you!) who might want to hear what he said.

If you use Microsoft Outlook for you email, and you haven’t discovered the Outlook Social Connectoradd-in yet, now is the time.  That is, if you want to expand your on-line social network, keep up with what your friends, family, colleagues, and clients are doing on Facebook, LinkedIn and a couple other networking sites.

Here’s an example of what I see when I click on Nick Bastian’s name while I’m in Outlook. Recent emails, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn updates. Almost instantly, I know what Nick has been up to.

Last week, I was responding to an email from an agent who wanted to show one of my short sale listings.  When I clicked on Reply, the lower part of my screen brought up our most recent correspondence, and I was instantly reminded that this agent had submitted an offer on an REO listings last year, and that she’d shown yet another traditional listing a couple years before that.  I loved making the connection in my mind, as I crafted my response to her.

The Outlook Social Connector is easy to install and works with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010. Installation instructions can be found here.

Let me know how it goes for you.

It seems you can hardly pick up a magazine, read a Real Estate blog or news article, go to a Real Estate conference, attend a training class, or just talk with your colleagues, without the topic of Facebook or Twitter coming up.

In fact, it’s not just our Real Estate industry. Facebook and Twitter dominate cultures around the world when it comes to online activity and social media.

The question is raised and discussed over and over – what is the role of Facebook and Twitter for REALTORS®.

There are certainly lots of opinions on this subject. It goes from writers and consultants saying every REALTOR® should be on Facebook or have a Facebook Business Page, to articles which warn REALTORS® to “unfriend” their clients, or the cover article this month in REALTOR® magazine, which says “Are you over-friended – Social networking’s point of diminishing returns”.

What is the typical REALTOR® to do?

I can certainly give you my perspective. As I mentioned in a recent post, after spending almost 25 years in the hi-tech world, for the past 10 years I have been an active full-time residential real estate designated broker and brokerage owner. I supervise, manage and mentor around 60 residential REALTORS® on a day to day basis.

Also, my perspective is that the typical REALTOR® already has a lot on their plate. Sellers, Buyers, Escrows, Spheres, Email, Documents, Contracts, Forms, Digital Signatures, Transaction Management Systems, Photos, Videos, Listing Syndication, Websites, Leads, Lead Management, Advertising, Marketing, Continuing Education, REALTOR® designations, RPAC, local community, state and national issues,Office Meetings, Floor Time, Open Houses, Short Sales, Foreclosures, their broker , and so on.

The last thing REALTORS® need is a diversion that will consume their precious time and money, and not produce results. Anything new introduced into their business must be easy to learn, easy to use, and have a clearly measurable return on investment within a reasonable time frame.

In my experience, 10-15% of REALTORS® have the time, patience and knowledge to deal with the back and forth evaluation, dialogue and discussion about what to do and what not to do with technology and tools. Not only with Facebook, but with the constant barrage of technology being recommend to or pitched to REALTORS® today.

The rest are often times left feeling confused and further behind everyone else. They get that glazed-eye look 5 minutes into the discussion or presentation. I think writers and presenters should be cognizant of this. Mind you, these tools and technologies are impressive in the right hands. But they are not an undiscovered magic potion that every REALTOR® is missing out on. They are like other tools in our business, where if used correctly, and with significant time and expertise invested, can produce results.

So, my first advice to a REALTOR® is to make sure they are up to speed with the 3 Key Technologies for REALTORS®, which I laid out in a previous post. I consider those technologies critical for any REALTOR® today.

Now, what about Facebook and Twitter?

First of all, Twitter.

Twitter is revolutionary. Twitter IS, as we speak, changing our culture in how news and information is published, disseminated and consumed. The information can be breaking news, such as the recent protests in Egypt, public figures, such as celebrities, politicians or athletes, communicating with their fans, organizations  (such as NAR, Google, your local REALTOR® association) publicly communicating on any topic, and traditional news sources using an alternative path to disseminate information. And much more.

Twitter removes ALL publishing procedures and barriers from those with something to say. It is refreshing and liberating, yet dangerous at the same time.

What is it’s role for REALTORS® and their business?

Answer: None

I cannot see any expenditure of time for a REALTOR® to tweet that would produce a good return for their business.

The only exception would be the rare case where a REALTOR® has something unique to say, and an existing audience that wants to hear it. Tweeting about your local real estate market does not cut it. Some are trying, some misuse it. Let them. There are far better things a REALTOR® can spend their time on. IMHO.

[Twitter can be used as an effective way to blog authors to promote their blog, and for readers of the blog to be kept apprised of changes to the blog (instead of RSS). Google "Wordpress Twitter Plugin" for more info on that]

But, that said, you can use Twitter personally. I use it daily. I FOLLOW, not tweet. I use it to keep up with the world around me. A lot of info can be passed in just 140 characters. I don’t need to read a whole article. I follow my local paper, I follow NAR, I follow AAR, I follow Google Apps, I follow WordPress, I follow writers, musicians and artists I like, I follow the Wall Street Journal and Walt Mossberg, I follow software companies I like or use, I follow my local MLS (with updates on new features, downtime, etc), and so on. I follow over 76 people or companies right now.  Yes, I have to wade through some garbage posts, or needless retweets or self promotions, but on the whole, it’s  good use of time. I can check my tweets on my cell phone, iPad, or any computer, so it’s convenient.

If so inclined, Twitter is a very useful and efficient way to keep up with the world around you. You can personalize to just follow the information sources you want to.

So, in summary on Twitter.

1. A very important part of our culture today.
2. For REALTORS®, no value in tweeting.
3. For keeping up with the world around you, following the news sources of interest to you, personalized to what’s important to you, Twitter can be very useful.

Now, on to Facebook

Facebook is a phenomenon, and another revolution. It was even the subject of the recent Oscar-nominated best film, “The Social Network”. I love the response from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO, when asked if “The Social Network” would have any effect on his company, Facebook.  Zuckerberg replied, “We build products that 500 million people see… If 5 million people see a movie, it doesn’t really matter that much.”

Latest statistics (supplied by Facebook) are

1. Launched in 2004, reached 1 million users by the end of that year.
2. Today over 500 million active users
3. 150 million active users in the United States
4. 50% of  active users log on to Facebook in any given day
5. Average user has 130 friends, connected to 80 community pages, groups and events, and creates 90 pieces of content each month

In other words, this is a widely used website, where people create lots of their own content and interact with each other every day.

Should a REALTOR® be on Facebook?

Answer: Absolutely

Good chance people you know are on Facebook – people you went to school with, people you grew up with, people you used to work with, people you once showed homes to or listed their home, and so on.

Being on Facebook would be like being able to stand outside the grocery store, and while everyone in your social network are coming out with their groceries, you have the opportunity to stand there, in one place, and say hi, how was that vacation, congrats on the new grandkids, that was a great game last night, and so on. It makes it easy to connect with these people.

The nice thing about this, is once you get setup on Facebook, Facebook will do a lot of the work for you in establishing or reestablishing these connections.

Look at it this way – we each have our own unique social network. People we worked with in the past, went to school with, grew up with, as well as our friends and acquaintances today. It is not competitive. That social network is yours and yours alone. Facebook helps you connect and stay connected with all those people.

There is another benefit. NAR Research says that on average, every person will know 4 other people in a given year who will buy or sell a home. So using Facebook to connect with your social network can produce additional benefits as those people connect with other people they know, who might need a REALTOR®.

Facebook then allows you, the REALTOR®, to easily connect with people you know, or knew in the past, and make sure they all know that you remain an ACTIVE REALTOR® in your area.

Here are the 4 steps I recommend for doing this;

1. On your Facebook account, and first thing, setup a List called Personal. Go to Account -> Edit Friends -> Create a List to do this. The friends in my personal list are family, relatives, and very close friends. I would also create lists for “ClassMates”, “Business Colleagues”, “Real Estate Associates”,  “Friends”, and so on. It will help you organize your Facebook friends later on.
2. Second, setup your privacy settings under Account -> Privacy Settings.
   1. Pay special attention to who can see photos you upload, status updates, and your different profile sections.
   2. I use the following Customized Privacy Settings;
      1. Bio and Favorite Quotations, Website -> Everyone
      2. Family, Relationships, Interested In, Religious and Personal Views -> Personal List
      3. Posts By Me, Birthday, Places I check in to -> Friends Only
      4. For photos, I have some set to Everyone, some Friends Only, and some to the Personal list. By default, all photos and mobile uploads can only be seen by my Personal list, then later I can decide if I want others to see it.
      5. Note: I would not set any privacy level to “Friends of Friends”. You have no control over who your friends add as friends.
3. Once you have your Security settings set, now edit your profile.
   1. Click on the Profile link in the upper right hand corner, then click on Edit profile.
   2. Put in all the info you feel comfortable with (remember, you control who sees what via your privacy settings). But be sure to put in places you have worked in the past, and places you went to school.
   3. Make sure, in your Bio, that you state you are an ACTIVE REALTOR® in your area, and include a link to your website. That is who you are!
4. Finally, start sending some friend requests. Go to Account -> Edit Friends, and there is a link on the left hand side that says ‘Find Friends”. On this page, Facebook will let you find friends using your email contacts, and also  suggest friends for you based on the number of Mutual Friends. You can also click on “Other Tools”, and find friends based on the schools you attended and the previous places you worked. When you add a friend, you will have the opportunity to specify what list they should go in. Be sure to do this for each friend.

Now you have your Facebook account setup.

After that, I recommend 1 hour a week of Facebook maintenance, part of your “Prospecting Time”, broken up into two 30 minute segments (put it in your calendar – “Facebook Update Time”).

What you are going to do in each of these 30 minute segments is;

1. Respond to new friend requests. I recommend you add everyone that has a mutual friend. But, don’t add people you have no idea who they are, or have no mutual friends. When you add a friend, be sure to put them in the appropriate list (Personal, Business Colleagues, Classmates, etc). That way, based on your security settings, they will only see what you allow them to see. You will also see Friend recommendations that Facebook puts on your home page. This is where Facebook is constantly working FOR YOU, to find you friends.
2. Send out 10-20 new friend requests each time you login, using the “Find Friends” tool mentioned previously. That way you can continue to proactively build your friend list, and hence more people you can connect with and make aware your are still a REALTOR® in your area.
3. Like or Comment on your Friends posts. Each time you do this, you get some mind awareness with your friends. It’s like that example of standing out in front of the grocery store, seeing all your friends walk by. The more you can Like or Comment on a friends post, the more people will be reminded of you.
4. Post some content. No real estate listings please. Post information about what you are doing in your life that you feel comfortable in sharing. It can contain an occasional reference to your work, but should really be about you. Let your friends know a little bit about who you are.

So, my Facebook recommendation.

1. Definitely do it.
2. Take about an hour to setup your account, with the right lists and privacy settings.
3. Then budget two 30 minute segments each week to post something of interest, add new friends, and like and comment on your friends activities.

Many others promote doing your own Business Page more on Facebook. A Business Page is where a REALTOR® can then promote their business, their listings, solds, testimonials, and so forth (which you cannot do on your personal page). Is it worth it? It takes more time, and will likely involve additional expense as well. Will it generate new business? How much more will it do than the plan I’ve outlined above? Worth the additional time and investment? I am not saying no. I just am not sure.

I recommend you start with the plan above. Not a lot of time investment, certainly within most REALTORS® expertise, and has measurable results. After following these steps, you should see results in the form of contacts with people you haven’t contacted before, and maybe better connections with your existing sphere (that are on Facebook). If you are successful with continually adding friends, this will also raise your visibility amongst all your friends, contacts and people in your community. Not a bad thing for a REALTOR® to do. Give it three months – see if it improves your connection with your sphere, adds more people to it, and ultimately brings you more business.

That’s it for my perspective on Facebook and Twitter. I hope you have found it interesting.

Respectfully yours,

– Ed

[Note: One thing about Facebook: they are constantly changing they way they handle privacy, profiles, and lists. So depending on when you read this, something may have changed. For instance, they just introduced “Groups”, which are like Friend Lists, but different. I continue to use Friend Lists by the way. Keep that in mind in case  something is different in Facebook from what is said in this post. It’s a challenge for anyone to keep up.]

[Note: Ed will be speaking this week at the AAR Winter Conference in Prescott on Cloud Computing and Real Estate. ]

WordCamp is coming to Phoenix, and there is a dedicated real estate track.

What’s a WordCamp?

From the “About” page:

The point of WordPress is to provide a powerful, flexible, scalable and easy-to-learn website tool that anyone can access for free.

The point of WordCamps is to celebrate this open tool by teaching people how to use WordPress, how to bend it to their will and even how to leverage it as a business–and to do it all for about the price of lunch.

In other words, it is a chance to learn a whole lot about WordPress, the software behind most of the successful blogs on the Internet. WordCamps have been held across the country, and for the first time ever, there is a track dedicated to real estate!

Come learn from real estate blogging wizards like Teresa Boardman, Mariana Wagner and Todd Carpenter (I don’t know about “wizard”, but I’ll be speaking as well) and other WordPress experts like Tyler Hurst and Cory Miller. In addition to the real estate track, there are also tracks dedicated to design, programming and marketing. There will be an “unconference” segment and a “genius bar.”

It is going to be a day (days, actually) jam-packed with information. And fun.

The real estate track only has room for 60 – 75 people, and I suspect it will fill up fast. But even if you can’t wedge into the real estate arena, there is goodness to be had all about.

Here is the full schedule.

And here is the registration page. It will sell out; get your tickets soon.

If you have any interest in WordPress, or making your existing WordPress site better, stronger and faster, then $35 is a small price to pay.

Image courtesy of Real Estate Trends

Lately, I’ve being inundated with emails offering social media training. As someone who’s been fairly pretty active with social media for the past three years, I know I’ve tried some social media avenues that worked and discovered some that didn’t.  I feel like I have a pretty good sense of what is needed to get started and stay committed to a business plan that includes social media as a major component.

When I downloaded the free copy of Stefan Swanepoel’s “Social Media 10 Day Action Plan”, an extract from the Swanepoel Social Media Report 2010, I was delighted to see a well-thought-out and comprehensive step-by-step plan.  This 16-page how-to is a must-read for any REALTOR® contemplating or struggling with incorporating a social media strategy into their business. I would even recommend it for social media veterans.  There’s always something new to learn!

From Stefan’s preface:

Why do I take the time to use social media like Twitter and Facebook? Because after spending considerable time learning and using social media, I can safely say that we should expect our lives to radically and exponentially be changed by social media and social networks over the next few years. Many traditional forms of media that we have been using for decades are being eclipsed with a growth in membership numbers and adoption rates that we have never experienced before.

He goes on to say that social media is a new way to “initiate conversations, respond to feedback and maintain an active dialogue with customers.” From my experience, I have connected with many, many more people that I could have “In Real Life” (IRL). The number of people who know I’m in real estate has grown exponentially through my use of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn. Plus, the demographics of social media users is changing dramatically.  (For example, my 81-year-old mother just invited me over for dinner via Facebook!)

The trick to being successful with social media, in my opinion (IMO), is to have a plan, be yourself and stay committed.  Be willing to experiment and expand. Know that you can pick one or more social media avenues to focus on.  For example, Jay Thompson uses his blog as his social media focus, D. Patrick Lewis prefers Twitter, Jonathan Dalton spends a fair share of time on Facebook and Phil Sexton does a lot of video. Me, I do a little bit of everything.

Take a look at the Social Media 10 Day Action Plan and get a feel for how you can get started to create, or refine, your own online presence with the checklists that are the core of this document. It will take time, but in the long run, you have a social media base that will carry you forward as you create and grow your own personal strategy.

photo credit: Spencer E Holtaway

Did you catch this article, “Social Media and Older Adults“, that was included in the weekly email from the National Association of REALTORS® last week? The article referenced was actually posted on the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) website and included some interesting statistics, such as:

• Social media usage by those over 50 has almost doubled over the past year, from 22% to 42%.
• Almost half of Internet users ages 50-65 use social media sites. About one quarter of the Internet users over 65 have used social media.
• Usage by both of these age groups increased dramatically from 2009 to 2010, ranging between 88 and 100%.

While the majority of social media users do tend to be younger, you can see that times are changing.  The article goes on to document  the growth of Facebook and Twitter usage for the older crowd, as well as providing stats for email usage and online news gathering.  And while email is still used extensively by older adults, the trend towards social media is notable, and not to be ignored.

You can read the full article here: “Social Media and Older Adults“