My efforts with Social Media for Real Estate total about 15 minutes a day and we are closing deals from Social Media every month. In my last blog post, I went over some of the main points, of using social media in my Temecula Real Estate business.

One of the topics I touched on, is the ease with which you can send useful information – we know this as items of value – to our clients, and through that, increase our touches.

Some of the very simple touches that makes your followers pay attention are things that resonate, I’ll call them Relevant for the sake of simplicity.  

So, by show of hands… What do YOU think is Relevant to your sphere?

• Number of listings you have
• Your sales stats
• Your great features

I think you get my drift, how about things like: How to organize a pantry, or the fact that I love waking up in the morning listening to my kids play downstairs while I smell the bacon (this was a twitter post and got a decent number of retweets and favorites).  

The thing that is now going to earn you gold stars, is figuring out what works.  

To help us with this, we are going to narrow the scope of this article, and focus only on one channel: Facebook.

Let me start this off in a good way, jump over to www.facebook.com/terkel.realtor and LIKE my page, heck, if you really feel up to a challenge – why don’t you SHARE it with your friends? 

Let me ask you this: Did you just do that? Some will say no, they are reading to learn, not to participate in my silly antics, but quite a few did.

This is one of the strongest and simplest ways to drive new eyes to your Facebook page, and it works wonders.

My assistant (who arguably is a Facebook maven), uses this once in a while to get her friends to share her page with their friends. As a result, of this and other actions on Facebook, she has roughly 16 people in pre-approval, 4 active buyers, 3 active listings and a pipeline that many would like to see for a year.

I should note that she is 6 months in the business… She is pushing hard on her sphere, but she is doing it in a way that is making her friends and generating her Temecula Real Estate business.

Have you heard of friend of friend marketing? Great, so we are trying to get to talk to friends of those who are already our friends… Are constantly posting content that revolves around us going to get that done? Nah, not likely, nobody likes a slick sales person at the door.

But, if your content is more useful – say – how to keep your grill clean so the Ribeye tastes great… and people like what you have to say, then “Asking” people for their introduction to their friends is far less intrusive.

How about this.

The Temecula Real Estate market is really heating up, vales are up 20% over last year, if you want to see what is going on in your neighborhood, head over to www.livingintemecula.com/marketinsider

Remember, I am NOT spamming with this, it is an occasional CTA (Call To Action) to  my social community. Sometimes I’ll send this out, but ask them to share it with their friends. Or, ask them to share, and for those who do, they are entered in a drawing for a Starbucks gift card. 

Let’s wrap this up.

1. Use valuable content to touch and connect with your sphere.

2. Occasionally touch with a CTA, a driver to your conversion engine (I know, engineering speak for web site).  

Once again, my effort is just minutes a day and we are closing deals monthly. This week we are listing a house for “A friends, friends boyfriend“… This is someone we would NOT have connected with outside of Facebook. Case in point, if 15 minutes a day is not worth a closing to you…

I’ll leave you with that one.

First define your goals; do you want to get more people to visit your restaurant or local shop? If so, you need to find people who talk about your industry in your local community. For example, if you own a restaurant you should you should begin by searching Google for “good food in Norwalk, CT.” If you own a boutique you can search for “fashion, Norwalk, CT.” Your search results will show online business listings that match that search but there should be URLs that link to relevant online content. Some of these URLs will hopefully be blogs that belong to local bloggers. If you do not find any blogs, there should be a few local news organizations in your area that are publishing this type of information. If you look in the comments section on these sites you can probably find a few people who seem knowledgeable about your industry.

iOS7 has many new, and very cool features. Many critics are saying that the updates reveald are just cosmetic but these cosmetic upgrades greatly inprove productivity, and usability for iPhone, iPad and Mac users.

How will iOS7 impact your business? Here are 3 things to consider:

1. Mobile will rule the world:
In terms of mobile web share alone, iOS has 60% — far and above the competition, and 600 million iOS devices have been sold. If you don’t think your customers are using iOS you’re wrong. Make sure that your website is mobile friendly, and especially your blog. If you are sharing the content you are creating on social networks it needs to be accessible through a mobile device. WordPress is a great platform to use.

On Tuesday at Engage121 we held a company wide meeting to discuss Social Media Management, in its current state and how we predict it will change in the future.

The different perspectives shared on the subject were very interesting. There was myself… the typical user, the sales guy, the client service rep, the software developer, accounting team & our CEO. My takeaways from yesterday’s conversations were not new revelations for me, but it was the first time I realized that people in non-marketing roles share my thoughts and perspectives.

The future as we see it:
1. Social Media Management needs to be fast,  easy and intuitive – including great overall user interface design!

2. Social Media Management absolutely needs to be linked to selling more stuff for a brand or local business.

3. There are now several levels of responsibility with any given organization – and we need to focus on all users and their individual needs. For example, the CMO requires reporting (does this work or not), the publisher wants it to be fast & easy, the sales team wants a social CRM which shows that the social activity contributed to a purchase, and so on.

4.  There is now a need for software that no only allows publishing, engaging and measurement but also curates content for the user. At Engage121 we have built a content curation platform, and it will be interesting to see how others follow suit, and how this process transforms to fit the user’s requests.

Along with my comments, I wanted to share thoughts from my colleagues.  Below are the takeaways from a member of each department within our company. Comment below and tell me what you think the future of Social Media Management looks like.

If we are to truly help Franchises or Corporations that support local commerce, we must provide social business solutions that enable “local business growth.” As an SMMS provider, our future success will be determined by every additional slice of pizza, ice cream cone or dress sold – by local businesses, through social media. —Mark D’Andrea (Marketing)

It’s clear that the Social Landscape is continually evolving, and it’s hard for businesses to keep up with the newest sites or features that appear.  The best SMMS will insulate their customers from these changes so that they can focus on their business. —Dave Whalen (IT)

Our discussion made clear that we now have the technology to connect social media success to the business outcomes. Our challenge today is to package and market that technology to clients in a manner than can be easily understood and deployed. —Jon Victor (CEO)

In selecting a SMMS, companies shouldn’t look at just big brand names or a list of features and functions.  Instead, they should focus on how the SMMS fits their business structure, and work with them to define and track goals and objectives. —Steve Paster (Sales)

My biggest takeaway from yesterday’s exercise was a renewed sense of importance regarding local social media. I am excited to assist in developing an innovative software platform that will ultimately help small business owners leverage social media to their advantage.  —Parthena Aprea (Client Service)

This week Facebook secured both updates, they finally rolled out Verified Pages and Profiles for big brands and celebrities. Good job Facebook, Twitter has had this function forever. You can not request to get verified, Facebook has to reach out to you.

Facebook has a new feature for advertisers, and one that I’m very excited about. You can now allows target your ads to those who have recently interacted with Facebook. For example, you can target ads to those users who recently checked into your shop or restaurant over the weekend. This will be the great way to follow up with attendees after your host an event.

What did hear in the news this week about your favorite social networks? Comment below if you like my sunglasses.

Is Jennifer your next prospect? 

Jennifer moved to San Diego last year.  She just got promoted with a new title and a nice raise. She works hard, so she has few friends outside the office.  Your physical business network doesn’t reach her, but your social media network can.

As Jennifer updates her LinkedIn profile with her cool new title, she recalls her father’s advice: “stop wasting money on rent”.  She searches LinkedIn for “realtor” plus the city and state where she lives.  She finds many agents with limited content, and a few with a nice mix of industry news and community posts. She learns more on Facebook. She checks Tweets. Jennifer is getting to know the agents she will contact. 

Would Jennifer contact you?

Consider why so many agents signed up for Engage121 at the SDAR EXPO…

Engage121 can position you in Social Media as a local real estate expert. Engage121 gives you compelling industry news and local stories you can post in minutes to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. A daily Hot Content email offers five suggested stories to post from your phone or tablet or computer.  And you’ll engage all your social contacts on one convenient page.

Does this describe you?  You know you should do Social Media Marketing, but….

1. you don’t have enough time
2. you don’t know what to post
3. you can’t tell if it’s working

Engage121 solves these three problems for SDAR members.

“Engage121 makes social media marketing simple. It was easy to work this platform into my schedule and I’ll be strongly encouraging all my agents to do the same. This is a Real Estate marketing game‐changer.” –Luke Middleton, Managing Director, Canter Brokerage

“It’s just doable. It just makes using social media very easy!” –Glenn Bennett, Owner/Broker, Cowles Mountain Realty 

Engage121 enable you to become a local expert, find more leads, and help sell more homes! To learn more now, visit: www.engage121.com/realestate

Google steals the show for this week’s Social Media Recap! You can now send money via Gmail, as long as you have Google Wallet.

Google+ just got a fresh new look, watch out Pinterest. Google seems to also be in competition with iTunes because they just launched a music subscription service. But wait a minute, Bing had one big update this week, they added Facebook interaction to their search results.

Click play to learn more. What did you learn this week?

At Engage121, our clients use social media 24/7 like I do and our goal is to make it easier for them with our software, when they’re in the office and when they’re not. Our new iPhone app will make the job of a community manager much easier.

We’ve updated our existing iPhone app to include the same functionality you have when you are using Engage121 on your desktop. Here are a few things you do while you’ re in the office, and that you need to do when you’re on the go as well. This is also a great checklist for you to use, before you download an app that claims to help you with your community management tasks.

Mentions: you need to know immediately if someone mentions your brand online, good or bad. We’ve all seen what happens when you ignore mentions online and the PR crisis hits and spirals out of control. Now you can monitor any time of day, easily on your iPhone.

Manage Scheduled Posts: You read a great article earlier in the day and you scheduled it to go out later that night, but shoot Facebook just took away that functionality. You need to delete that post before it goes out and damages your credibility. The new iPhone app allows you to delete posts that are scheduled in your Planner.

Publish great content, on the fly: While you’re monitoring for brand mentions you dive into your newsfeed to read one last article before you end your day, and it’s GREAT.  You want to publish it to your social networks and you need to do it now since it’s during the evening hours while your community is most engaged . You can now easily share links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups and elsewhere in the iPhone app the same way you do on your desktop through Engage121.

Alert team members: Someone has asked you a question on Twitter and you responded but  you know that it’s definitely something that customer service needs to handle. You can send notifications to  your Connect121 contacts in the iPhone app. There’s no need to open Outlook, tag them in an update so they see the notification as soon as they get into the office.

We’re really excited about our updated iPhone app, and I would be very excited to hear your thoughts. Do you like the app? Do you need more functionality? Let me know, that’s what I’m here for – to make your job easier.

Happy Posting!

It all comes down to one word, targeting. You can run anything as a Facebook Ad and you will get lots of clicks, and even some new page likes, but they won’t be from people who care about your business. They’ll be spammers or people who do not make up your target market. How can you ensure that your Facebook Ads are being seen by the target audience for your business?

First, you need to determine which type of Facebook Ad you would like to use. Below are targeting options that pertain to all 3 types of Facebook Ads, but I’m going to focus on Sponsored Post Ads, in other words, a published post on your timeline converted to an advertisement.

Geographic Location: You can target your advertisement to people who live in a certain country, state, city or zip code. You can also check a box to include cities near that location within a 10, 25 or 50 radius.

Age: There’s no need to show your ad to people who are 13 years old and older if your target audience is retirees. Select the age range that is most appropriate for your business and the content you are promoting.

Gender: Is your target market mostly men or women? Or, is your target market men, but women also contribute to the buying decision? You can select them both or just one.

Interests: This is what I consider the “gold” of Facebook Advertising. You can select certain interests to ensure that your ad is placed in front of the right audience. For example, if your target market is stay-at-home moms, you can target your ad to Parenting, Family, Kids, Kid Activities, etc.

Connections: You can show your ad to anyone, people who already like your page, or people who do not yet like your page.  However, the “platinum,” is friends of connections. By selecting this option your ads will show to friends of your existing fans (those who already like your page). The great thing about this is that your ad will show with the viewer’s friends name in it. For example, my Facebook friends would see “Jenny likes Engage121″ or “Jenny likes New Blog Post by Engage121.” See the potential? We know everyone values their friend’s input, especially when it comes to buying decisions.

Advanced Targeting: If you’re not socially savvy, you can skip this paragraph. I’m just kidding! The one targeting option here that you should select is language. If you’re advertising in the United States select English (US), or if you’re targeting other ethnicities add Spanish to your selections or whichever language reflects your audience.

Budget & Time Frame: Lastly is the budget you set for your ad or campaign. You can run a Facebook Ad for as little as $5/day. You can also say you want to spend$50 on the ad, which wouldn’t require you to set a daily limit. There are other conversion options, but I’m going to keep it simple for now. Comment below if you’d like to get techy with me.

Why do you need to do all of this work? By targeting your ad you will ensure that those clicks you’re receiving aren’t from spammers. How? Because spammers on Facebook do not fill out their profile and so there is no data such as age, gender or interests associated with their profiles.

I previously wrote a blog post on How to Get Results with Facebook Ads for SpinSucks, which outlines the return I received from using Facebook Ads. There are some additional points in that article that I think you would find helpful.

Have you ventured into Social Advertising yet? Or are you still skeptical?

So, the “Content is King” comment, thank you Mr. Gates (Bill Gates, 1996) has been discussed and vetted among marketers for years – and we all agree, that content is VERY important.  Yes, even before Google and Yahoo emerged as content Gods. 

But there’s a better question.  If Content is King, what is “Local Content?”  My take, the be-all and end-all!  As marketers we struggle to connect on a daily basis with the “local” customer.  We spend vast amounts of Ad dollars trying to reach the very individuals who traffic through our stores, which typically produce disappointing results, generating coupon hounds. 

Enter, Local Content. Like the Local Content Engage121 now provides to small businesses and Realtors all over the country.  A recent quote from a WPP study says local social pages “generate approximately three to five times more engagement than global pages,” and others say it’s even higher.  Your customers shop locally, so empower your local stores, agents, centers or dealers to reach and impact local customers, with relevant content that creates loyal fans and followers; the type of fans that can generate local residual revenue.

Local Hot Content Sample

Our good friends at ERA Real Estate provided a quote earlier this year that truly captures why Local Content is so important, when supporting Local Social efforts:

“In our experience, social media can help build brands because of its ability to penetrate at the hyper-local level with market-appropriate content, giving franchisees a chance to strengthen customer relationships, promote themselves as a local resource and establish their expertise. Consumers engage with information they need, on a platform that is accessible on their own time, and that maintains and increases brand loyalty by marrying the cache of a global franchise with the local expertise of our franchisees.
-Charlie Young, CEO, ERA Real Estate

How can Local Content impact your local marketing and sales efforts?