SocialMadeSimple hits the road!

SocialMadeSimple Now Supports Facebook Pages!

www.SocialMadeSimple.com

As part of SocialMadeSimple’s new version 1.1 release, Facebook Pages are now supported! SocialMadeSimple users will be able to post directly to their facebook page as well as their facebook account (and twitter, Linkedin and a blog too!)

As always, SocialMadeSimple will be following the trends, and as soon as a new network is becoming popular, we’ll add it to the mix! Never worry about learning a network that is about to be out-of-style, simply learn to use SocialMadeSimple, and you’re good to go!

7 tips to boost business by blogging

http://bit.ly/cxZMW9

7 tips to boost business by blogging

Generate leads without a pay-per-click campaign

By Bernice Ross, Monday, April 26, 2010.

Inman News

Every year Realtors spend millions of dollars on print advertising, search-engine optimization, pay-per-click ads, toll-free call capture, and a host of tools in the hope of attracting clients who will work with them. There is another alternative that doesn’t take much of a shift from what you are already doing.

1. The tables have turned
The old sales model was “hunt ‘em, tell ‘em, and sell ‘em.” You know the drill. You have to go out and prospect for leads, then tell them how great you and your company are, and then close them on using your services, usually with some sort of manipulation.

Today, clients have turned the tables on us and now they’re the ones doing the hunting. They have absolutely no interest in being told what to do or being manipulated. Gen X and Gen Y (those born after 1964) actively search for information online before making any decisions. In fact, many will “stalk” an agent on their blog or on the social media for 12-18 months prior to contacting that agent about working with them.

2. Little competition
Only a small percentage of agents (maybe 3 percent to 5 percent, based on the audiences I see at real estate conferences) are actually blogging. The reason these numbers continue to be low is that most people perceive blogging to be exclusively about writing. Their rationale is that they’re not writers. Instead, their job is to generate leads and close transactions.

Nevertheless, blogging may be one of the easiest and most effective ways to generate great leads. Over time, potential clients get to know you. This is especially true for Gen X and Gen Y, who constantly search the Web as part of their decision-making process. If they like what you post, they will eventually identify themselves by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog for about a year and I would like to work with you.”

3. RSS: More than just a blogging tool
RSS (really simple syndication) is an amazing tool for generating and capturing leads for your business. RSS feeds distribute what you post online to multiple Web destinations. The power in this approach is that an RSS feed allows people to subscribe to your blog, but it also allows you to syndicate (send information) to multiple web destinations.

Not only can it be used for blogging, RSS feeds can be used to send podcasts, videos, pictures, plus a host of other types of Web information. For example, TubeMogul.com allows you to upload a video once and then they syndicate it to 15 video portals including YouTube, Google video, Yahoo video, Vimeo, etc. Put the link on your blog and you not only attract more Gen X and Gen Y clients, you improve your blog’s ranking as well.

4. You are already doing it!
The first thing to realize about blogging is that you are already creating the content for hundreds of blog posts every year. The best place to start is by asking, “How many questions have I answered in the last month for clients, either face-to-face, on the phone, or in an e-mail?” In each case, you are creating content that could be used for your blog. Rather than answering questions for just one person in an e-mail, when you blog you answer the question for a group of people.

Many agents have opted to create a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on their website. While your Web visitors may appreciate having that information in a single place, a static list of questions and answers does little to help your search-engine ranking.

What really helps your Web rankings is fresh, relevant content. By making each question and its answer a single blog post, you build search-engine ranking. Furthermore, the more posts you have, the greater your credibility becomes in the eyes of the consumer. In fact, if you look in your “sent box,” you may have a huge number of blog posts that are simply questions that you answered on a one-to-one basis for your clients.

5. Geekiness no longer a necessity
Blogging used to be a pretty geeky activity. Early bloggers needed to know HTML coding, plugins, widgets, and a host of other geeky concepts. Today, sites such as Posterous and Tumblr make doing a blog post as easy as writing an e-mail.

6. Tags are still important
“Tags” describe the content in your blog and help the search engines connect your post to users who are searching for that information. For example, if you answered a question about what happens when the appraisal comes in low for your buyers, you could tag it with your name, “buyer questions,” “low property appraisals,” “how to handle a low appraisal,” “how to get a new appraisal,” “real estate appraisal issues,” etc. These tags help search engines direct users who are searching for this information to your blog post.

7. Pictures matter
It’s also smart to have a picture to go with your posts. You can take these yourself or use a service such as Clipart.com or IStockphoto.com to avoid copyright infringement problems. You can also use advances searches at Google and Flickr, for example, for images that are approved for commercial reuse and modification.

What else can you blog on? Check next week’s columns for more ideas.

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, trainer and author of “Real Estate Dough: Your Recipe for Real Estate Success” and other books. You can reach her at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com and find her on Twitter: @bross.

Louise Corliss Runs Boston Marathon for Alzheimer’s

Geoff and I would like to wish our VP of Sales, Louise Corliss, good luck in running her first Boston Marathon on Monday.  In addition she is running to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of her mother diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008.  To see what the Alzheimer’s Association is all about and to make a donation visit http://alz.kintera.org/boston2010/lcorliss.

Best of luck Louise, we’re proud of you!!

David

10 Outstanding Social Media Infographics

http://nowsourcing.com/2010/03/17/social-media-infographic/?

Nobody has time to read anymore, right?  Every day we are all inundated with more and more information overload coming from credible and yet to be verified sources.  Where can Internet users find relief? Answer: the infographic.  Infographics are a wonderful mix of key data and visualization that can really bring the message home if put together correctly.  So without further ado, we bring you our top 10 favorite social media infographics!

1 – World Map of Social Networks

Let’s start at the 50,000 foot view, shall we?

(Source)

2 – Age Distribution on Social Network Sites

Is age distribution targeting more your thing? Pingdom put together an excellent overview by social network:

(Source)

3 – Social Media Periodic Table of Elements

As we previously reported, our friend and fellow Advertising Age Power 150 member Eyecube created another great visualization called the social media periodic table of elements:

(Source)

4 – The Conversation Prism

No social media infographic collection would be complete without Brian Solis’ Conversation Prism:

(Source)

5 – The Boom of Social Sites

Focus.com put together an outstanding visual showing both the size and timeline of social communities:

(Source)

6 – Make Social Media Work For Your Company

(Source)

7 – Hubspot Twitter Territory

Hubspot of Twitter Grader fame nailed it with a slick infographic showing how each state’s Twitter usage compares to the national average:

(Source)

8 – How Twitter Got Attacked by DDOS

If you’re a frequent Twitter user, you’ll remember the great DDOS attack as a period of social media withdrawal:

(Source)

9 – Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment V.2

While we’re on the subject of Internet security, we’d be remiss to not mention the US Air Force’s blogging assessment flowchart infographic:

(Source)

10 -Visualizing 6 Years of Facebook

We thought that the best way to round out this list would be to celebrate Facebook’s recent 6th anniversary – Muhammad Saleem put together this excellent infographic over at Mashable:

(Source)

Training Videos

Today we're in the studio recording training videos for SocialMadeSimple… As if using SocialMadeSimple wasn't easy enough!

These videos will be available on SocialMadeSimple's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SocialMadeSimple and on the SocialMadeSimple "help" section within the next couple days…

Join the conversation, and let us know what you think!

Geoff & David

Getting Older Without Getting Old

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/business/07digi.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1268427675-lmaLSAPbQbDEcnLDDMxlSA

SocialMadeSimple goes BETA!

On Wednesday, March 3rd SocialMadeSimple launched in BETA! We have a wonderful group of nearly 300 users signed up already, and they’ve already started to take SocialMadeSimple for its first spin.

SocialMadeSimple is the first social network marketing solution designed specifically for real estate and mortgage professionals.

If you’d like in on the action, simply visit www.SocialMadeSimple.com click on “Try now” and follow the instructions for those without a beta code to receive one.

As always, we love feedback from people who are interested in Social Media Marketing for real estate, feel free to comment on this post, or email us at info@socialmadesimple.com to let us know what you think or, or how you think we could make social network marketing easier for you.

How to Market Yourself Using Social Networks

So what is the general thinking regarding marketing one’s self using social networks. Well, having spent the past few months deep in thought about making social networking simple, I have read quite a bit about the subject. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is that you need to be in the conversation. It’s actually a lot like one-to-one marketing and word-of-mouth marketing, only in many ways better and more far reaching than traditional methods. I also believe that in order for it to be effective, you need to participate on a regular basis across a variety of networks. Lots of folks preach that you need to be the expert and offer value.

I would contend that these are things we all do naturally, abeit, some better than others. We all have a brand, we just might not realize it and promote it as we should. Social Network Marketing can make all this possible for the masses. There are essentially no barriers to entry to play in this game as the cost is low and the tools are available to everyone. Results can take some time and the metrics (tools to measure the effectiveness and return on investment) are still somewhat nebulous as the game is essentially a conversation across a broader network than your usual networking meeting at the coffee shop. Developing good will and trust among your network is invaluable and certainly hard to measure.

How do I become the expert? Well, I’d contend that you are the expert. You are a brand unto yourself. For some it’s not easy to talk about ourselves and therefore, I think Social Network Marketing augments our personalities. You do your job every day. Presumably you do it well. If you are a Loan Officer, every time you speak with a potential client, you are putting your brand to work. Think about it. What are you selling if not yourself? What is it about you that makes people come to you for advice about mortgage financing? Why does someone stay on the phone with you and listen to you?

One great way to start is to post articles of interest to folks in your network. Another great way is to comment on posts from your network. As you get into a groove, you can then begin to post out original content to your network. Remember, talking about yourself is okay to a point, but don’t overdo it. It’s that same as any conversation, you don’t want to bore people, you want to be interesting and add value.

Those are just a few thoughts I’ve had about getting started with Social Network Marketing. How do you actually do it you ask?? Well, as you know, there are dozens if not hundreds of social networks to choose from, but there are only a few that have the large numbers of members to be effective. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and your own Blog are what I’d consider the tools of the trade for the time being. Heres’s the shameless plug, www.socialmadesimple.com combines all of these with one simple to use interface, suggestions for blogging, a relevant content library for you to use, and a plan to keep you moving in the right direction. Let’s talk about each. Facebook has by far the most members. I think they are approaching 400 Million members. That’s more than the population of the United States. Facebook is a network where you can connect with friends, family, colleagues, etc., and also connect with all of their networks. Generally speaking, you can post about what’s going on in your life and comment on any posts from your network. Photo albums, links, games, shared communitites, are all part of Facebook. At this time, I consider Facebook to be more personal than business and I am cautious about posting and commenting from a business point of view. I think this is going to change in the near future. Businesses are gearing up strongly for a push into the Facebook world so don’t be too shy.

Linked in is the professional network. Here you put up a page about your professional life (very much like a resume) and link to people in a more professional environment. People will find you through common connections to the same jobs, schools, associations, etc.. One does not usually post photos or comments about the family vacation to Six Flags on Linkedin. As with most social networks, you link not only to verified colleagues, but to connections of connections through online introductions. Status updates (posts) on Linkedin are limited to 140 characters, and therefore get to the point rather quickly.

Twitter is also limited to 140 characters. I personally use twitter to announce the arrival of important information or links to other articles or blog posts that are of interest with just a quick teaser headline. You can follow just about anyone on Twitter but it can be overwhelming and often a waste of time. I find that following a few folks who post information of interest to me is the most useful.

A Blog – Short for Web Log – is where you can let your inner artist rock. Original content is king on the web and everyone has it inside. It absolutely does not have to be perfect. Just tell a story that is of interest or value to your subject. Post links to it on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, and you’re in business. Use everyday examples from your job, stories you might use while selling to a potential client are great.

If you need a reason to get in on the conversation, a recent survey by the Opinion Research Corp. confirms that young consumers (18-34) and highly educated consumers consider online information sources as their primary influence for buying decisions when compared with the rest of the population. In addition, the National Association of Realtors says, the average Realtor is 52 years old and the average homebuyer is 30 years old. You need to be in this game to reach your market. Focus on the Conversation!

Mortgage Rates Improve on Lower Consumer Confidence

Consumer Confidence reported this morning at 46, much lower than the anticipated 55.  This is in contrast to commentary from Washington that the economy is looking up.  Consumers only spend when they are confident and feel good about the job market, and when they don’t spend, tax receipts decline.  Additional news regarding weakness among certain European nations has caused a flight to quality in the US Bond Market which is good news for mortgage rates.