While doing some work for a client today, I noticed this new Facebook feature while logged in to her account.
I wanted to check it out for myself, so I logged in to my own account, and it wasn’t there!
So, being the type of guy who needs answers to the questions, I went about searching for them. Here’s what I found out.
Why can’t I see Facebook Questions?
Facebook Questions is still in beta and only available to a small percentage of users. However, we will be rolling it out to all users in the coming weeks. You can fill out an application to become a beta tester here.
I know my client isn’t a beta tester, so I guess she is one of the lucky ones.
If it’s on your page, check it out and let us know what you think.
Has it ever seemed that some of your friends or Fan Pages aren’t showing up on your Facebook feed?
They haven’t just disappeared from cyberspace, you might just be too popular.
There’s a simple setting that may correct that, and allow you to show all your friends and page (or not show one’s you don’t want to see).
Here’s what to do:
1. On your Home Page (News Feed page), click Most Recent.
2. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click Edit Options.
3. Increase the number of friends shown in Live Feed (at the bottom of the box). I chose 500, but you may want more or less to show.
Or, you can elect to Show More posts from some of your friends, or Hide the annoying ones.
This is a good tip to pass along to your friends and fans, to make sure your posts get seen.
If you don’t see the News Feed Settings box when you click on Edit Options, you’re probably in your Top News feed.
And remember, Sharing is Sexy!
You don’t have to spend hours going to every social media site on the web to find out if your name or your brand’s name is available, there’s one stop shopping at namechk.
Click on the image to see full size.
Just go to www.namechk.com, enter your desired username or vanity url, click the chk button and your results are displayed in just a few seconds.
I chose "demo-name" for my search.
The default results are sorted by the name of the social media site, but you can also sort by the rank of the site. You can see that the search for “demo-name” has been taken on 6 of the sites listed. If you have a common name, you can try different versions of your name until you find a unique username that you can reserve for all the relevant sites you want to brand yourself on.
Social Media site search listed by rank
Don’t freak out, you don’t have to register your desired username at every site listed, but the more you have, the better control you have over your brand.
The service is free, so head on over to namechk and get branded!
Reason #2 Why Your Website Sucks
Your website is all about you!
I know that sounds like a contradiction, because of course your website is about you. You’re trying to sell products or services, but….
Your prospect or customer doesn’t care about you (yet).
What they do care about is getting their problem solved.
So, give them some information that helps them. Tell them what to do, give them a free report or video that gets them on the road to their solution. (Note: please don’t title your home page “Welcome to my Website” or “Welcome to my Home Page”. Make it about THEM, your prospect.)
You only have a few seconds to catch their attention, so don’t waste the opportunity by talking about yourself.
Example: You’re at a cocktail party and you see an attractive person across the room. You want to meet them. You head directly toward them, stick out your hand and say “I’m Steve, I’m super cool, do you want to go back to my place?”
That’s the approach most websites take. Think you’ll get shot down? You bet. You just lost your opportunity because they clicked back to their Google search and went to another site to get their question answered, or problem solved. Or, in the cocktail party example, they slapped your face and went to meet the guy who’s been subtly flirting with them for the past 15 minutes.
You can also apply this formula to your social media marketing. Develop a relationship with your ‘friends’ before you offer them what you sell. Get to know them, offer some help and build trust.
So now you need to take a fresh look at your website and view it from the perspective of the consumer. Would you click away, or would you hang around for a few minutes because you found what you were looking for?
I can hear you now, “Oh, my website sucks!”
Anyone can add a little link luv to their business with just a few minutes of effort. It’s not really effort either because it’s all about you, and who know you better than you?
First thing you have to know is: Don’t over think it!
Just follow along, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, some action is always better than no action. You can go back later and tweak things to your heart’s desire.
Oh, and did I mention this is all free? So, no “I can’t afford it” excuses.
First, go to http://www.google.com/local/add
If you already have a Google Account, sign in. If not, sign up with your regular email address or get a Gmail account if you prefer.
Click on “Add new business” and fill out your information.
(Hint: Be sure to follow the instructions for verification of your business.)
Bam! Instant Google Link Luv.
While you’re there…
Create a Google Profile at http://www.google.com/profiles
Click on “Create my profile” and enter your information. Don’t worry if you can’t think of what to put in every box, you can come back later when you’ve had some time to think about it.
Here’s the secret sauce for this recipe, be sure to check the box that says “Display my full name…” or you won’t show up in a search, which of course it the whole point.
Bam, Bam! More Luv for you.
For You Yahoo!’s
I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t throw a bone to Yahoo! Go get yourself a free Local Business listing at http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. Click on the “Sign up” button. Like Google, you’ll need to have a Yahoo account, so if you have one already, great. If not, sign up either with your email address or get a Yahoo! email address.
Once you’re signed in, fill out the form just like you did before, maybe mix it up a little bit just for fun.
Well, maybe it took more that 10 minutes, but don’t you agree it’s pretty easy? Plus, there are plenty of other places you can list your business for free. I suggest you periodically go back to your profiles and update them and add more info. Search engines favor fresh content, so add that to your marketing mix.
Now, if you don’t mind, help me out with a little Link Luv and share this article with your friends, or add your comments below.
Thanks in advance!
The other day one of my mentors told be about Dropbox. It’s a nifty service that allows you to share files with your team members, clients, etc. My first thought was “This will be perfect for me and Dad to use”. My Dad is archiving all his old photos and sending me pics of him when he was young.
It’s been challenging for him to email all these photos because of the size limit his email account imposes on him. He ends up sending multiple emails with zipped folders which takes a lot of time to create and send, plus then I spend a bunch of time unzipping and sorting through the folders and reorganizing them. It’s a PITA.
Along comes Dropbox. It’s a small program you install on your computer (who ever you want to share with does the same) and it creates a ‘virtual’ folder on your desktop. You just drag the files or folders into Dropbox and send and invitation to share it with the other person. Once they accept, voila, the files magically appear in their Dropbox folder. From then on, whenever you put files in your Dropbox, the files are available to the other person in seconds (or minutes if the files are large).
Here’s the good news, you get 2GB of storage FREE!
More good, news. If my Dad has some new pics to share with me, he can drag them into his folder, then I can remove them from the folder leaving all that space for more photos. Cool? Cool!
Also, this will work really well for my clients too. When they have photos or project files they need to get to me, they can skip the same email nightmare my Dad has been going through.
If you have a team, or collaborate with others on projects, you can share files in your Dropbox account and everyone can access the files in ‘real time’, make changes, comments or corrections. Once the files have been saved, the updated version is available to the team.
For those of you who have multiple computers ( I have 3), you can save essential files in your Dropbox folder and access them on your other computers. Oh, and did I mention you can find your files in your account online where ever you are?
Here’s a quick recap:
- Share files with clients, team members and yourself.
- Get 2 GB free (if you need more storage, get 50Gb for $9.99 a month)
- No more emailing files back and forth.
So far, I’m thrilled with Dropbox. Try it out and see if it works for your business. Use this link and we will both get extra storage. https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTUzMTk5NTI5 There is a video to explain more about using Dropbox, and easy to use help files to get you going.
After you give it a go, leave your comments here and let me know what you think.
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Do you know where your business prospects are?
Better question. Do your business prospects know where you are?
Last question. Does the photo on the right reflect your income right now?
OK, I lied. One last question. What are you doing about it?
I was just invited to speak at a Real Estate office in Danville about how to use Facebook and Twitter to get more clients. The good news is that using social media for business is simple. The bad news is that it’s not easy.
No, it requires work.
You don’t just set up an account on Facebook on Monday and close an escrow on Friday. You can’t Tweet about your listing on Tuesday and get a buyer on Wednesday. (I concede that it could happen, probably does happen, but that is not the norm.)
But what you can do, is connect with people in your community and develop relationships that may result in business later on. It’s just like any other type of networking, except you can do it from the comfort of your desk, or at home in your PJ’s.
It does take some planning and calculated implementation to make the most of social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. There are some things you have to learn. If I can do it, you can do it.
I was a Landscape contractor for 17 years. My business was built around digging holes and filling them back in. My point? If I can do Facebook, you can too. Your prospects are on Facebook, or if they’re not now, they most likely will be in the future.
Social media won’t solve all your business problems today, but it is an essential part of your overall marketing plan. Of course, you can always go back to cold calling and door knocking, if you prefer.
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Part 1 of a Series
I recently finished teaching a series of classes for my office, Coldwell Banker Amaral and Associates, on websites, blogging and social media. I decided to share some of that information with you (Real Estate Agents in Brentwood, CA and any other Realtors® who might be interested) because a whole bunch of you are either; a) expecting results from bad websites, or b) have no web presence at all.
As a preface, there are lots of great blogs and websites out there giving lots of great advise and lessons on blogging and social media. But from where I’m sitting, most seem to be geared to the tech savvy agents, so I plan on giving some help to the beginners and the technology challenged.
That’s not to say I won’t throw in some intermediate and advanced posts. Hopefully, you’ll follow along, learn and embrace what I have to offer.
That being said, let’s get to business.
12 Reasons Why Your Website Sucks
- No one can find your website
- Your website is all about you
- You have no target market
- You have a cookie cutter website
- Your website isn’t unique
- Your headlines suck
- Your copy sucks
- Your IDX sucks
- You don’t get the prospect’s contact info
- Your website is static
- Your prospect can’t find what they are looking for
- Your website is old school
No one can find your website
There are many ways your prospects might find you on the web, but most people start looking by doing a search on Google (or some other search engine like Yahoo! or Bing or whatever). They type in a word or phrase like “Brentwood Ca Real Estate” and see what comes up. If you don’t have those words somewhere on your site, you won’t be found. It’s that simple. (It’s actually more complex than that, but let’s start slow, OK?)
So where should those words be? They could be in your domain name, in the title of your page or post, and/or in the text on the page. (I’ll interject some geek speak here, and I’ll cover these words in later posts.) Those words could also be found in your meta tags, like your title tag, page description and meta keywords.
Bottom line. Use descriptive words that help your prospects find your great information.
OK, that’s it for this time. Much more to come.
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There’s little doubt that social media has established itself as a cornerstone in the marketing mix of real estate agents and business owners alike.
Most agree that it complements their other marketing efforts, and will become a standard part of their marketing tactics.
I happen to think that it will gradually replace email as the main way we communicate with clients and friends.
Why? Because as spammers continue to clog up our inboxes and make it more difficult to be sure our communications are being received, it makes sense that we move to a more reliable and protected way of touching our sphere of influence.
Keep in mind that this chart is based on information from December 2008, and I’ll bet the numbers have shifted more to the blue.
What do you think? Are you using social media for marketing and communicating with your audience?
Please share your experience with us by commenting below.
