Posts Tagged ‘twitter’
Make Your Social Network Posts “Valuable”
Friday, July 8th, 2011Building and maintaining a social media presence is difficult enough, but on top of everything else, you have to start assessing how much interaction your page is getting. Whenever we start maintaining a page for one of our social networking clients, we always ask ourselves this question: what can we post that the public will see as valuable? Whether you’re offering a freebie or telling a joke, your Facebook fans want content that they feel is both interesting and valuable to them. It’s the number one way to get interaction.
If you’re new to the social networking sphere, it can be tricky to assess exactly what your target market finds “valuable.” As real estate virtual assistants, we have found that these six things not only get you the interaction that you’re looking for, but the positive feedback as well. Remember, nobody wants to be the first person to start commenting on a Facebook status. Once you get the ball rolling and the interactions flowing, you will see a surge in the number of fans that start participating on your page. A good place to start getting those interactions would be offering them one of these six valuable “rewards”.
Give away something for free. Whether you go as small as an iTunes gift card or as large as a kindle, people want free stuff. By promoting a free item on your page, you will see that a lot more people will start interacting. You can hold a photo contest on your page, or have them post a funny poem and direct them to fill out a form on your website to qualify for the prize. Not only will you get the lead generation from the form on your site, but you’ll see a spike in your page’s interaction. It will break the ice to invite more comments and participation on your page in the future.
Give your fans some control. The most successful Facebook pages for small businesses have one thing in common: they make their fans feel important. Whether you post something like “Where should I eat lunch today? Suggestions!” or let them vote on your next Facebook profile picture, your fans will love that you take their input so seriously. As a real estate agent, you want to keep your clients happy, so showing that quality on your Facebook page will only do positive things for your brand.
Say thank you. Is there one fan in particular who is always participating on your page, whether it be by posting photos, “liking” your statuses, or commenting on your wall posts? Take some time to thank them by giving them a shout-out on your page. This is especially easy on Twitter, because you can easily thank new followers or give a mention to someone who consistently retweets your material, or has mentioned you in one of their tweets. Not only does this make you look more engaging, but you’re starting an interaction with your fans in a way that isn’t intimidating.
Teach them a little something. While it is, of course, very educational to post buyer and seller tips on a regular basis, sometimes it’s okay to think outside the box. Every week or every few weeks, find some random trivia fact that’s interesting and tweet it, or post in on your wall. You’d be surprised at the reaction you’ll get! People love learning random, interesting facts now and then, so offering them that content from time to time will keep your posts varied and interesting.
Let them into your personal life for awhile. Share your accomplishments, a cute family story, an inside joke at the office, or an upcoming event! While it is important to maintain a level of professionalism on your page, having it be all business all the time gets boring. People enjoy reading about the personal lives of people. That’s why Facebook became so successful in the first place! Tweeting and posting personal tidbits from time to time humanizes your brand, and that is very valuable to your fans. They want to see you as a person, after all, not just as a real estate agent! Don’t be afraid to get a little personal.
Make your fans laugh. Whether you just saw something hilarious on the street, you find a good joke online, or you see a story in the newspaper that is ridiculous, everyone loves to laugh. Showing that you have a sense of humor can only boost your interaction and your content’s value. Making your fans laugh will increase consumer engagement and keep them coming back to read more, which is key.
While your fans aren’t necessarily getting something tangible out of all of these kinds of posts, they are still getting something of value. Whether it’s a good laugh, a peek into your personal life, or some say over your Facebook profile, your fans will feel important after participating.
Having trouble thinking of something creative? No problem! Your real estate virtual assistant, can come up with and implement these ideas. Before you know it, your Facebook and Twitter accounts will be filled with valuable content and you can rest assured that your fans are enjoying the time spent on your social media sites!
Contact Carrie
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The Three Most Common Social Media Mistakes
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Social media is a brand-new form of marketing, so if you’re an experienced real estate agent who is used to more tried-and-true marketing tactics, it can be difficult to grasp the concept of Facebook and Twitter. It’s hard enough learning how to use social networking sites and to understand the lingo, but when you’re not getting the results that you want, it can get frustrating. That’s why sometimes, it’s important to take a step back and yourself this: What am I doing wrong?
As real estate virtual assistants, we have adopted social networking as one of our biggest marketing tools for our clients. Along the way, we have learned what to do to have a successful Facebook business page or Twitter account…and what not to do. These three mistakes are ones that we’ve noticed several real estate agents make on their accounts.
Their approach is too hard-selling. The second that people go to your page and decide to “like” it, they know that you’re a real estate agent. They know that you’re on Facebook to have a business page and to market yourself and your brand. With that being said, having your posts push listing after listing, link back to your website constantly, and only talk about the benefits of using your business will not spell success for your page. You do, of course, want to do this on occasion, but doing it too much and
not changing up your posts will be viewed as annoying, and more often than not, people will disable your posts from their news feed and stop reading your content. Get your message and your brand out on your page, but also take the time to act as a community resource and show some interest in your fans by inviting them to participate on your page. Once you start focusing on building relationships instead of marketing yourself, you’ll find that your page will be a much larger success.
They don’t have a plan. Since most real estate agents are busy, they don’t take the time to sit down and create a plan for their social networking. Instead, they create the page, start posting sporadically, and then give up when they don’t start to see results from their page. The important thing to remember is that social networking is not a marketing medium that will give you instant gratification. You need to take some time to create your pages, build your presence, build up your fan
base, and start building relationships. In order to do this successfully, you need to sit down and create a timeline of how you’re going to build up your presence. You can start by allotting a certain amount of time to create your pages and build up your content, then allotting a time frame for building up your fan base, and from there gradually start building relationships with your fans and followers. Having a plan helps you stay organized and allows you to set realistic goals for your social media marketing efforts. One of the benefits of having a virtual assistant is that we can show you our plan and make it work for you.
They’re way too business-like in their interactions and responses on their Facebook and Twitter pages. While we understand the need to be business-like and professional on your pages, it’s also important to make your fans feel comfortable. Taking the time to show gratitude to people who are engaging with your brand on your business page, referring to each person by name as you interact with them, and acknowledging the various points of view and opinions that show up on your page goes a long way. It’s also important to take an interest in what your fans are up to and keep the conversation as casual as possible. Not every Facebook and Twitter interaction will turn into a business transaction on the spot. Building that genuine friendship and relationship over social media will make your fans remember you, and if they ever do need real estate services, whether it be five weeks from now or five years from now, your name will be the one they think of. That’s how you should approach all of your social media interactions.
Now that we’ve recognized these three mistakes, the key is to make sure that when you go about building up your social networking presence, you don’t make the same ones. Remember, the key to social networking is to be social, not only to market yourself. It can be a powerful marketing tool, but in order for it to work, you need to take a different approach.
Contact Carrie
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So I’m on Facebook and Twitter, Now What’s My ROI?
Friday, October 15th, 2010
One of the biggest questions we get asked as Real Estate Virtual Assistants maintaining social media for our clients is, “What’s my ROI?”
This is a valid question. As an agent, you want to know where your money goes when you’ve hired us to maintain your social networking presence. Thankfully, we’ve found something that might help answer some questions about what your social networking efforts are really doing for you!
The first study that directly showed social media success metrics comes from Business.com’s “Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums” report. In the midst of all the statistics and analyzing there was a hidden gift: a chart below which listed social media success metrics!
This might not seem like it’s a big deal. You’d think that there would be many more studies that show how successful social media is in marketing. Because social media is such a new medium for business, there aren’t many studies that can show a quantified list of how successful social media really is in the business world. This could possibly be the first cut-and-dry, quantified list of what social media can really do for your business, and we’d like to share it with you:
According to the results of this study, the three most powerful things that social media does for your business are:
1.) It drives traffic to your website: According to this chart, 61% of companies said that social media led to an increase in their website traffic. A Facebook fan page or Twitter profile is just an introduction to who you are as an agent. If people are interested in hearing more about your business, they will click on the link to your website from your fan page to find out more.
2.) It allows you to engage with prospects: The whole idea behind social media is to engage with your network. Having a Facebook fan page and Twitter profile allows you to interact with local businesses and your fans and followers in an easy, accessible way. The more engaging you are on your pages, the more fans you’ll get, and the more fans you get, the better-known you’ll be in your community. You never know, the owner of that local dry-cleaners you’ve been interacting with on Facebook could be looking to sell their house, and your Facebook relationship could lead them to want you as their agent! In this study, 57% of companies said that having a social media presence increased their engagement with prospects.
3.) It builds your brand: Since social media is the trendiest, most popular medium for networking right now, it’s important that you have a social media presence to build your brand. There are more than 400 million users registered on Facebook and over 190 million users on Twitter. The more active of a social media presence you have, the more fans you’ll get, and more fans means that more people on these social media sites know who you are and what your brand is. 54% of the companies in this study said that having an active presence in social media led to more people being aware of their brand.
Those are the three top things that having an active social media presence does for your business. The common theme that they all have is that they would give you more positive exposure in your community, and that leads to more business! 
While these are the more powerful things that social media does for your brand, there are aspects of marketing where social media won’t do as much for you:
1.) It won’t always lead to lead-generation: According to this chart, only 36% of companies said social media led to prospect lead volume and only 33% said that social media led to prospect lead quality. Unfortunately, while interacting with your fans and followers on social media builds your brand and can sometimes lead to client-gain, it doesn’t happen as often as we’d like. Most people still use Google to search for real estate agents, and while having a presence on social media can help increase your SEO, many times future clients are still led to your website, not to your Facebook or Twitter page.
2.) You may not get useful feedback from your customers: Only 23% of companies said that having a Facebook or Twitter account got them useful feedback from their customers. While it’s good to know that there’s less of a chance you’ll be getting negative posts, it’d still be ideal to receive the positive ones! Many people would feel strange about posting their experience as your client in a public medium like social networking, which is why there might not be as much success in this area of social media marketing.
While there are some parts of social media marketing that might not do everything you’d want it to for your company, the results that it can produce are undeniably important. As the times continue to change and social media continues to become a bigger part of our every day lives, eventually the parts where social media marketing is lacking will become just as successful as the areas where it has excelled.
There’s no doubt that brand awareness, community engagement, and website traffic can only positively impact your business, and right now, that is what social media can do for you. The more active you are in social media for real estate, the bigger your brand becomes in your community.
At least now you know what your real ROI is when it comes to social media. We still think it’s a positive and very essential component to your marketing efforts and online presence. Best of all, your real estate virtual assistant can maintain this presence for you!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!Contact Carrie
Visit us Online at RealSupportInc.com
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Our Top Ten Twitter Tips All Tweeters Should Know
Saturday, September 4th, 2010Twitter is one of the fastest-growing marketing and networking websites in the country. Sometimes, however, it seems as though Twitter has its own language! It can be hard to build, maintain, and engage with your followers if you don’t know how to most efficiently communicate with them! We have complied the top ten (there are SO many!) Twitter tips for all tweeters to know in order to help you communicate better with your followers!
1.) Twitter Etiquette can enhance your presence on Twitter: In order to have a strong presence on Twitter, it is very important that you always follow someone who follows you, and vice versa. Even if you don’t know the person who is following you, you should always follow them back. You never know, the person who’s following could be a potential client, and following them is the way you can start engaging with them! Similarly, people who you begin to follow should always follow you back. Following this rule of Twitter etiquette not only makes you look friendly and engaging, but it also increases your presence on Twitter!
2.) Re-Tweet articles and quotes from people you’re following: Re-tweeting is tweeting another person’s tweet to your followers. It’s a great way to mention people you’re following on your profile, quickly engage/interact with that follower by giving them “props” for their tweet, and share an article or quote that is of interest to you. Re-tweeting is very simple: all you have to do is put your mouse over the tweet you want to re-tweet and click “re-tweet” in the lower right hand corner, and that tweet will immediately show up to your followers! This is a very fast and easy way to show that you’re paying attention to your followers!
3.) Hashtags or “Trending” gives you even more exposure: Hashtags, or “trending”, gives you more exposure on Twitter by allowing people to search your tweets, thereby giving you potential to gain more followers! A hashtag is a word or phrase you post at the end of your tweet that categorizes it and allows that tweet to be searched under that category. The hashtag words are preceded by a “#” sign. For example, if you post a quote on your page, you can easily make that tweet searchable on Twitter by adding “#quotes” at the end of your post. You should try and post a hashtag in as many tweets as possible in order to increase your presence on Twitter and get more people to see your tweets! This can increase your number of followers easily and quickly!
4.) Send personalized direct messages to new followers: Whenever you have a new follower that could potentially be your next client or an agent you may earn a referral from, it’s a good idea to send them a personalized direct message. Key word here is personalized. Direct messages on Twitter are private and can only be seen by the user, but they are a good way to send a personalized message that is a little longer than a tweet. Many tweeters have setup automatic direct messages that are sent out as soon as someone follows you. We don’t recommend this as it can come off as spam or impersonal. We’ve even heard that some tweeters will un-follow someone if they receive a canned automatic direct message. It’s a good idea to send personalized direct messages to important new followers to make a good first impression and make your new followers want to engage with you. Yes, it’s not automated and yes it takes a couple minutes, but we think it’s worth your time. After all, you could be interacting with your next potential client!
5.) Send tweets to thank new followers frequently: It’s difficult to send a private direct message to every new follower you get! One quick and efficient way to thank new followers is by sending frequent tweets thanking new followers by giving them a public mention. A good way to do this is by tweeting, “Thanks for the #follow!” and then mentioning as many new followers as you can at the end of the tweet.By putting a hashtag on #follow, you can increase both your presence on Twitter and the presence of your recent followers by making the tweet searchable. It’s also a way to begin engaging with your new followers, and we think they’d appreciate the mention on your page!
6.) Hashtags.org is a good resource to search for relevant trending topics (hashtags): It can be difficult to figure out which hashtags to use. You want whatever topic you’re hashtagging to be one that people use frequently. Hashtags.org is a website in which you can type in a trending topic in the search box and you get a graph that shows how often that hashtag was used over that particular week. If that hashtag is used frequently, you know it’s a good hashtag for you to use in order to increase your exposure! This is quick and easy resource for all tweeters!
7.) Certain days of the week present creative ways to engage with your followers: There are certain days of the week where there are hashtag or trending themes. It’s a good idea to frequently use these hashtags because they are fun and creative ways to engage with your followers. For example, on follow Friday you mention some of your followers in a tweet on your page as people who others might want to follow and put the hashtag #FF on the tweet. There is also worthy Wednesday which is similar to follow Friday, except you put #WW on the tweet. There is also music Monday where you share some songs you’ve listened to that day and put #MM on the tweet. The list goes on! Using these hashtags on these days of the week is an interesting way to engage with your followers and increase your presence on Twitter!
8.) Re-Tweeting AND commenting (when space allows) on their tweets: When someone you’re following posts an interesting tweet or something you’d like to publicly comment on, you can! When space allows, of course. Since Twitter only allows/shows 140 characters, it’s best to only comment on the shorter tweets so it’s easy to read/follow. You simply click to re-tweet and then before you post, you add your comment after the tweet in parenthesis or brackets. By doing this, you’re starting a public discussion with the person who originally posted it. Twitter is all about interaction, so it’s good to engage in conversations on Twitter and build relationships as much as possible!
9.) Your ratio of followers to following should be pretty equal: The number of people you’re following and the number of followers you have should be pretty equal! According to Twitter etiquette, if you start following someone, they should follow you back, and so your numbers should be around the same. Real estate is all about being engaging and building relationships, so follow as many RELEVANT people as you can! A good resource to use to help keep track of who you’re following and who’s following you is an application called TweetAdder, which automatically un-follows any people you’re following who aren’t following you back, after giving them x amount of days to do so. It’s important to keep your ratio equal to look engaging and present on Twitter.
10.) Create lists for the people you follow to categorize, keep track and follow easier: It can be hard to keep track of everyone you follow. Creating lists for your followers is a good way to separate them into categories/groups and easily view what your followers are tweeting more efficiently and therefore it’s MUCH easier to interact with those you wish to follow more closely. You can put all of your potential leads on one list, other agents in a list, current clients on another list and perhaps past clients in their own list as well. That way, you can view each list separately and easily interact with each contact type.
These tips are ways that you or your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can most efficiently maintain and manage your Twitter experience! If you’ve just read our tips and you don’t have time or can’t wrap your head around all of this, maybe it’s time to outsource your social media marketing to a Virtual Assistant! Have additional tips to share? We’d love to hear them!
Oh and by the way, don’t forget to follow Erica on Twitter AND follow Carrie on Twitter!
While you’re at it, you might as well “Like” us on Facebook too. We share tips, ideas and giveaways for your real estate business! Be sure to enter our September contest – you might be the lucky winner of a FREE logo design!!
Happy Tweeting!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!
Perhaps It’s Time to Rethink Your Sync
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Just when you started getting a handle on what it takes to have a successful Website along comes social networking. In your drive to keep up and stay synced do you find yourself texting, tweeting, facebooking yourself to distraction? Or is that very activity the distraction (from life, business) itself?
It’s so easy to get lost in “doing” when we are not sure of the reasons behind it. Or worse, because it is what “everyone else is doing”. And the very worst of all, because it fills the space of the moment, squeezing out any possibility of just “being”.
These were the questions and concerns that came up a couple of days ago during a recent meeting with a speakers mastermind group I belong to. Just like you, to a person they felt overwhelmed by the process of keeping up with social networking even though they were not quite sure what it could do for them.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge proponent of social networking. However it is just a tool. One that you should be driving, rather than it driving you. And, if you feel the need to be in sync all the time, perhaps it’s time to rethink your sync…
People who are way out of sync with the digital maelstrom of the moment aren’t always bad followers. They might be great leaders.
Seth Godin
If you are feeling overwhelmed trying to stay on top of social networking then a) it’s not working for you, you are working for it; and b) chances are the people you try to stay connected with are feeling the same. As the powerful tool it certainly can be, you either learn to master it, or let it go. But never, ever let it (or any other tool) lord over you —that’s just plain foolish.
All A-Twitter About Nothing
Friday, August 15th, 2008The latest and greatest is not always the best and most useful. This can be especially true of some of the more recent social networking innovations like Twitter (www.twitter.com). This minimalist texting / mini-blogging medium ideal for quick and easy connection with your friends and colleagues has caused quite a 
stir lately. From a business enhancement perspective however, it appears to be one more “cool tool” looking for a problem to solve.
Twitter is a free service that enables you to send short text messages (maximum of 140 characters) to your “followers” -other people who use Twitter that have specifically chosen to receive your messages. Think of this as a one-to-many (or in some cases, one-TOO-many!) instant text message. You can send updates or messages (“Tweets” in Twitter parlance) via the Twitter Website, email, your mobile phone, IM or a special free program on your computer called Twhirl (www.twhirl.org). As a follower of someone else’s Twitter messages you can receive them on all or any of these devices (i.e. mobile phone, IM, email, Twitter Website, etc.) as well as in the form of an RSS feed. Twitter is also like a mini-blog since it aggregates all your updates which you can put on your Website or within your regular blog.
So, why bother Twittering?
Well, from a purely social networking perspective it is easy, fast and very convenient given all the means to send and receive your short Tweets. It’s also very addictive and completely free, not counting text messaging fees if you use Twitter to send or receive on your mobile phone. As a serious business communications or marketing tool, I still have doubts. First of all, the 140 character message limitation puts a severe constraint on any kind of meaningful communication in a business context. You also have to build your base of “followers” in order for them to receive your Tweets. At this time one would be hard pressed to say that any sizable base of potential real estate customers are currently using Twitter. And while one-to-one private messaging is possible, Twitter was really designed for one-to-many communications which makes private discussions about properties or offers somewhat problematic.
Real Estate Twitter Not So Tweet…
In various blog discussions about the business uses of Twitter, some suggest that it is a great way to keep agents within a brokerage or members of a team up to date. I can see how this might work if you personally help each person set up their mobile phone to receive your Twitter messages, otherwise forget about it. Agents have a hard enough time just following their email consistently. For the purposes of this article I interviewed Andy Kaufman of Williams Realty in Berkeley, CA (www.myeastbayagent.com), who is arguably the Twitter “Guru” of real estate agents. Over the past year and a half he has amassed nearly 2,100 followers (what he refers to as his “online village”) and really loves the social networking aspects of Twitter. When asked if he has actually seen any new business from it during this period he said he is currently working with one prospect he met thanks to Twitter. However, he feels the biggest business benefit is meeting other REALTORS® who use Twitter and developing referral relationships as a result.
While Twitter may be the next great Web 2.0 application that is out of this world (NASA recently used Twitter to keep fans of the new Mars Lander up to date on its adventures), its use as an effective earth-bound business tool has yet to be proven.
