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Do you have a Real Estate Marketing Fan Page.  If so, you need to read the article by Social Media Examiner titled, 5 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page. Here are some of the highlights:

#1: Featured Photos

Any photos that you post to your Fan Page will show at the top of your Wall.  This is a great way to let the viewer know what your Page is all about.  Put in special offers and photos showing off what your business is really about.  For a real estate professional, show off your community and invite people to come live with your in that warm inviting space.

#2: The Left-Side Links Panel
Be careful how many tabs you include in this list.  If you go over 8, a ‘more’ buttons appears.  Most visitors will never click on that link, so try to limit it to just 8.

#3: Rolling Feedback
When logged in as Administrator you will see each Posts feedback.  Keep an eye on this data to determine what types of Content you Post get the most favorable reviews in terms of Likes, Comments and Impressions.

#4: Featured Likes
You can set up to 5 Featured Pages that your ‘Liked’ to always show on your Page.  Why not highlight the Pages of your Referral or B-2-B Partners in this section, and ask them to do the same on their Page.

#5: Wall Tab Layouts Can Be Different
Make sure you set your Wall so that it shows ‘Only Posts by Page’.  This way when your Fans come to the Page, they will see your Content first, not Posts added by your Fans. 

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If you relied solely on Google Places to promote your Real Estate Company on the internet, then you might have been in for a shock last week when Google did what Google does best, it shut down scores of online businesses – no warning, no explanations – just gone. Search Engine Land has a great article on how to take ownership of your online presence:

1.  Send A Clear Message: We’re In Business & We’re Ready To Help

Your business has tools available to reinforce to current and potential customers that it’s prepared to address their needs.

Your website is a living and breathing representation of your real-world business, and the most important online tool available to you that is completely within your control. By keeping it updated and current, you indicate to visitors that you are open, available and can be trusted to handle their requests.

In addition to the basics of outlining your business’ services and contact information, add new content on at least a weekly basis – feature a new product, special, or customer testimonial right on the homepage. Just like you’d change the storefront for each season, update the content and graphics on your site to match the time of year.

Include social media widgets on the homepage to illustrate activity and interest in your business, as well as blog headlines to showcase thought leadership in your local marketplace.

Your blog and social media channels allow you to share real-time information with both current and potential customers. By updating these platforms on a near-daily basis, you indicate to readers and followers that you are not only open, but also active, invested, and up-to-date on the latest trends in your field. Your quick responses to comments or complaints left on these channels show that you care about your customers and have the means to make things right.

As the New York Times story showed, accurate online business listings are critical to your online presence. Use the story as a wakeup call to take advantage of any and all tools available to take ownership of your listings sites like Yelp, CitySearch, YP.com and others. Most of these sites require owner verification when making changes to contact information and services, so make sure you’re registered as the point person for your business.

2. Build Relationships With Local Media & Influencers To Create A Strong Reputation

Do your fair share of PR so you have local allies and conversation in favor of your business.

Is your business opening new locations? Is it the first to sell a new product in its market? Does it have a major anniversary of its opening coming up?

Take advantage of newsworthy opportunities to reach out to local media and influencers to get your business’ name in the press and in blogs and social media. Not only will the third-party support help generate increase awareness and confidence in your company, but local media stories featuring your business will appear high in search rankings – a big plus when current and potential customers search for you directly or indirectly.

The relationships you build with local media and influencers can come in handy should you face online reputational issues like negative blog posts or comments about your business.

By laying the groundwork in advance, you can more easily reach out to and rely on your relationships to help come to your defense, or at least consider your perspective should they write about those complaints. Building trust between you and those who write about you locally is key to helping mitigate both online and offline reputational issues.

3. Have A Response Strategy In Place

Whether it’s an unauthorized change to your online business listing, a negative review, or a competitive SEM campaign that’s drowning out your placements in search, have a response strategy in place so you know exactly what to do if your online reputation is hit hard fast.

• Have a list of your online business listings –including profile URLs, login information, confirmation e-mails, etc. – at the ready in case you learn of false updates to your online business listing.  Know how to update the sites and know the process for contacting the sites in case an issue with your listing arises.

• Draft template responses to the typical complaints you receive both in the real-world and online from your customers. The responses should be drafted for use in response to media inquiries, as well as online forums, blog comments and social media updates (e.g., a post on your business’ Facebook wall, a tweet that includes your Twitter handle, etc.).

• Have the blueprint of an SEM response campaign ready to go on Google, Bing and local sites in case a new or existing competitor launches a campaign to overshadow your search results. You should have the most important keywords selected and set aside some funds to pay for it should the need arise.

4. Monitor Online Conversations & Be Ready To Respond At A Moment’s Notice

As the Google Places story showed, affected businesses saw devastating drops in demand for their services as a result of their businesses being erroneously closed online – and some didn’t even know it happened for weeks!

Monitoring is the only way to completely ensure that you’re not caught off-guard by changes to your business’ online presence, and that you can take the steps necessary to respond in a timely manner.

• Conduct daily searches of what is being said about your business in social media by viewing your Facebook page and scanning Twitter, and search Google, Bing and the major local sites on a regular basis, to evaluate and respond to changes in your profiles and search rankings, customer reviews, and comments.
• Also take advantage of Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, and other free tools to make sure you receive the latest on what’s being said about your business online.

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Check out this video from eMarketingvids for the virtual business card site About.Me. Like so many other places on the web, all real estate professionals should have there information here. Can’t hurt to give it a try, and who knows, maybe Google loves it.

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On the Official YouTube Blog they are running a series of articles based on The YouTube Creator Playbook.  This week they are starting off at the beginning, with the first 15 seconds.

Just like people decide to read your content based on the headline, they decide whether to watch your video based on the first 15 seconds (and the Title of the Video, of course).

Make compelling content first…

• Start off with something that will immediately grab attention, whether it’s what you say or a stunning visual
• Make it clear what your video is about early on, so viewers aren’t confused about what they’re watching
• Tease the rest of the video so the audience is intrigued to see where you take them.

…share your channel branding later.

• A flashy intro may look cool, but it’s not the star of the video – let them see you, or your great content, first
• Make your branding compelling by making it entertaining or unique to each video

The general concept of capturing the audience’s attention upfront applies to all types of content in different ways. Find what’s right for your channel.

So first off, lose the fancy graphics and your company logo.  Put your gorgeous face on the screen and let the viewer know exactly what they will be getting if they stick around.  Smile, be personable and be excited about the information you are about to share, and above all be the professional that we know that you are.

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eMarketingVids has put out a pretty good video breaking down how Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm determines whose Facebook posts will show up in your News Feed.  Why is this important for Real Estate Marketers?  Its simple.  If your Post does not show up in your Fans News Feed, they will never click on the link and go to your Blog or website.

1. Affinity – This number defines the relationship between the post creator and the recipient.  If someone ‘Likes’ your post and Comments and is constantly going back to that person for more Content, you will have a High Affinity Score.  So they will see more of your content.

2.Weight – Each post is assigned a score based on the number of Comments and Likes it receives.  Again, ask people to post comments and ‘Like’ your material.  A strong Call To Action will help here.

3. Recency – This is a reflection of how long ago the post was created.  So create content on a frequent and consistent basis.

So get your Fans to Engage in your content.  Get them to click on your links, ‘Like’  and Comment on your posts, and if appropriate post directly to your wall.  And above all – keep Posting every day.  Build Credibility through Content

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In our microwave everything, ‘I want it now’ culture, how do you get people to stop and spend 5 minutes reading your blog or watching your video.  In her recent series of articles, Amy Porterfield starts her series by explaining how to build rapport.  Here are her 6 simple steps.

Tip 1:  Treat each new blog post like a first impression.

Tip 2:  Be personal, friendly and inviting by writing to ONE person at a time.

Tip 3:  Make sure your blog reflects your brand impeccably.

Tip 4:  Make it about them, not about you.

Tip 5:  The most important word in any language is YOU.

Tip 6:  Become a master storyteller.

Make your content about the Reader or the Viewer, never about you.  Sure you can tell a story about what happened in your life, or some experience you had, but always bring it around so that is a benefit to the reader, if only that they feel better after having read your story.

Always think of the other person first and you will go far in business and in life.

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What type of Blogger should you be for Real Estate Marketing.  In a recent blog post, Lynn Terry reviewed the book ‘The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing’.  In it the Author contends that there are three different kinds of Bloggers, each with their unique perspective.  Which of these three is best suited for Real Estate:

An inspirational blogger is someone you can relate to, and someone that is achieving or doing the thing that you want to achieve yourself. You can learn from their mistakes, get new ideas from them, and even be inspired seeing what to expect as you work toward the same goals.

An expert blogger is someone that is successful and has helped others achieve the same success – in any given niche, or on any topic. It might be someone that is a skydiving instructor sharing tips and advice, and making recommendations from professional experience for example.

A supportive blogger is one that encourages and motivates you. It’s someone you respect and trust, and someone that is there with ideas and support as you work toward something. An example might be a weight loss blogger that hosts a weekly weigh-in, and blogs on topics that take away all your excuses.

Although you may wear each of these three hats at one time or another, the best blogger type for the real estate industry is the Expert Blogger.  Your clients want to see you as the ‘go-to guy’, the one with the unique talents and expertise to get the job done.  They want someone who is an area expert who exudes confidence.  You can be inspirational and supportive with your friends and family, but when dealing with clients, they want someone who is a rock-solid expert.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is as importand in Real Estate Marketing as it is in any other field of internet marketing.  Search Engine Land put together this very simple video to give an overview of what SEO really is.

Don’t know SEO? Know someone who needs a short, easy to understand overview of search engine optimization and how it works? Grab some popcorn and watch our new SEO video, which in just three minutes covers the basics of search engine optimization:

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Well, the verdict is out!  For months now I have been hearing that your Edge Rank on Facebook has been affected by whether you post directly to your Facebook Fan Page vs using an API like HootSuite to do the post.  Edgerank Checker has done a study on over 1 Million updates and found it makes a difference by 70%!  What’s the lesson, post everything to FB by hand.

It’s been a general consensus in the EdgeRank community that 3rd party APIs (HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc) are punished in Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. We ran a study across our entire data set to provide evidence that our hypothesis is true. The result of our study was quite conclusive. Using a 3rd party API to update your Facebook Page decreases your engagement per fan (on average) by about 70%.

The Details

We ran our analysis on 1,000,000+ Updates on 50,000+ Pages that influence over 1,000,000,000+ Fans. We took each individual post and analyzed the engagement (comment & likes) along with how many fans the Page had at the moment of updating. The result is a percentage that represents engagement per fan per post. Our sample size ranged per API, although we cut it off at the Top 10 APIs outside of Facebook.

Why are 3rd Party APIs so much lower?

We have a few theories explaining the results:

• Facebook Penalizes 3rd Party API’s EdgeRank
• Facebook Collapses 3rd Party API Updates
• High Chance of Being Scheduled or Automated
• Content is not Optimized for Facebook

Facebook Penalizes 3rd Party API’s EdgeRank

When an object is created in Facebook, it is assigned a weight. We believe that Facebook strategically reduced the weight of objects created through the API. The reason behind this strategy would be to encourage more content creation within the Facebook Platform. This ultimately increases the value of their platform while increasing ad impressions.

http://edgerankchecker.com/blog/2011/09/does-using-hootsuite-kill-your-edgerank/

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Join Real Estate Marketing This Week as we discuss the world of Real Estate and Mortgage Marketing. We shot this video of our Radio Show as an example of how you can use one piece of content in many different ways.

If You Don’t See The Video, Click Here => Real Estate Marketing Video

To Jump To Part 1, Click Here => Real Estate Marketing Part 1

Part 8

Michael: Ok so that is good to know I know there are people who want to try and do that and I really do not know. I am really a full time mortgage professional I did not get into the loan modification business on purpose we write mortgage loans, real estate loans for residential and commercial so therefore I do not know your laws on the same token you do not do loan modifications and you do not write loans you are professional realtor.

Jeri: Exactly, and one more thing bottom line is you can not be defrauding the bank. Because then you are stepping into mortgage fraud as you know. You do have to have a hardship, you honestly do have to show, if you are going to be benefiting from staying in the home you have to show a hardship that you can not afford the current payment.

Michael: Yes, if you are making a couple hundred thousand a year and have a ½ million in the bank and owe $200,000 the bank isn’t on your side in that case.

Jeri: No

Kalyn: There are a lot of situations though when a homeowner wants to stay in their home if that is the case then we market it to investors because that is a lot of the people who are buying these homes so we work with the investor and we work out the lease amount and the homeowners can stay in their homes in those situations.

Michael: Whatever it looks like at the end of the day the homeowner needs to picture where they are going to be in the short term midterm and long term and where this house fits into those plans if a loan mod isn’t right a short sale is a significantly better option than a foreclosure.

Jeri: Absolutely

Kalyn: They need to call now they need to take action because you do need to find a place to live and we are here to help you with you don’t want to gets two weeks to the point of foreclosure and have no where to move your family.

Michael; And the Dreamvestors Team that is your main focus right now but people still call you for first time home buyers

Kalyn: Absolutely yes we work with buyers as well as people who are short selling.

Jeri: yes, we have been in real estate several years and we did not want just short sales we are fortunate to have a very strong clientele base and we are always taking new clients. We have just adjusted our focus as the market called for it and as our clients called for it.

Michael: One more time with your phone number and then we will give out Velocity Financials phone number, what is it again?

Jeri: You can reach us at 480-363-6752

Michael: and that is Jeri League and Kayln Roberts with the Dreamvestors Team, Keller Williams and if you didn’t write down that phone number like I didn’t, that is why I kept having to ask then you can call the office of Velocity Financial at 480-Velocity again if you were not able to write that information down we are happy to help put you through to them to help you through this situation don’t wait until it is too late, don’t wait until you get the sale notice if you know you are going to be facing foreclosure make the call. Call now you are welcome to call the office and we will put you right through and that is 480-Velocity and one more time Jeri

Jeri: 480-363-6752

Michael: and then the other thing too when we talk about these short sales getting out of that home before it goes to foreclosure is always the best case scenario the bank is happier with it, the house is more sellable in most cases, people are still living there it is still there home, they still feel like the pride of ownership.

Jeri: Yes, and in addition pride of neighborhood is another point. Your neighbors are going to like you better because there is not a foreclosure in their neighborhood, it helps keep the prices up when the bank takes them back the banks price them even lower typically

Michael: well sure and then it is vacant and we have the potential problem of neighborhood kids turning the house into a paintball arena. I saw that in an fantastic two story home with an amazing backyard this house was to die for a million dollar home and the neighborhood kids turned this house into a paintball arena. Now I am not going to lie that might have been fun when I was a kid but this house was trashed, wires hanging out I mean it was just an absolute mess. The lenders do not want that, you do not want that. They need to take action they need to call you or call us at Velocity Financial and we will make sure they get in touch with you so we can help figure out what is best for you.

Kalyn: Yes educate yourself and call someone today.

Michael: Folks it is important to point out today that I would like to see you call Kalyn and Jeri for this because I know, I have seen their track record. I know their close ratio and I know that they generally care about you and your needs first but if you have someone who does this and you are contemplating it, if you have a sale date coming up you need to take action. Move on with your life put this part of your life behind you. One of the things to and we do not want to get to deep into this, Jeri or Kalyn but after the short sale is done it is all said and done you have an affiliation with people who can help them out in getting their credit repaired and ready to go.

Jeri: We do we really pride ourselves on being a one stop shop so we help educate them if it is going to be a loan modification or a short sale once they get through the process then we begin working with them on credit repair. We have a program that we work ourselves and if it is a really sticky issue with your credit we have people that we work very closely with that we will refer you to we also have a team that includes a bankruptcy attorney a real estate attorney and a real estate CPA

Michael: good so it is one stop shop and then Jeri, real quick with the phone number.

Jeri: 480-363- 6752

Michael: and for more information on loan modifications you can call 1-888-MOD-INFO or you can reach all of us at Velocity Financial at 480- Velocity. We are sure happy thank you so much Jeri for coming on.

Jeri: thank you Michael

Michael: and Kalyn thank you so much.

Kalyn: Thank you Michael

Michael:; Folks stay tuned Bill O’Riley is next.
Real Estate Marketing This Week

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