Bonus: I couldn’t find a sidebar widget for the event so I made my own. Here’s the code:
<div>Meet me at <a href="http://rebarcamp.com/sanfrancisco/" target="blank"><img src="http://rebarcamp.com/sanfrancisco/wp-content/themes/church_10/images/logo.png" alt="REBarCampSF" width="175"> </a></div>
Put that on your sidebar and it’ll look like this:
Here is everything you need to know as a Professional about Facebook's Vanity URLs, Profiles, Groups, and Pages.
First a little info on Facebook. What started as a way for College Kids to stay connected has evolved into one of the fastest growing sites on the internet. It's not for Kids either.
Did you know...
30 million users update their statuses at least once each day (13 million did per month at the beginning of the year)
8 million users become fans of Pages each day (up from 2.5 million per day at the beginning of the year)
10 million videos are uploaded each month (up from 4 million)
900 million photos are uploaded to the site each month (up from 700 million)
1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week (up from 15 million per month)
35 million active groups exist on the site (up from 19 million)
2.5 million notes created each month
30 million users access Facebook each month through a mobile device
(source: Inside Facebook)
This is why Facebook has become very important. If your past, present and future clients are all there - shouldn't you be too? It's the "HOW" of your being there that's important to understand. Let's start with the fundamentals.
The Profile
Join Facebook and the first thing you do is create a Profile. This is you (personally).
People who connect to you become "FRIENDS" of you. A Friend of yours can also see who your other friends are. This also means that when your friends upload and tag pictures, videos, etc of you that picture is usually also shown to all your other Friends as well. That's great if it's the Church BBQ and all your friends are part of the same church. That's not so great if one of your friends from 20 years ago posts embarassing pictures of you. (Yes you can try to control who posts what and who sees what in the privacy settings but it's aa losing battle). When a potential client becomes your "friend" they are subjected to all your pictures, your friends pictures, and so on. We know professionally to stay away from Politics, Sex and Religion in our daily business but when we accept a potential client as a "friend" we've opened that door wide open!
Vanity URLs or Vanity Usernames
June 12th, 9 PM Pacific time, Facebook opened up the ability to create a Vanity Username for your profile. During that landrush Facebook reported 500,000 usernames in the first 15 minutes! Most people claimed their name. I went from
to You can see why. MikeMueller is a whole lot easier to remember than a string of numbers. If you did not get a Vanity URL for your profile yet you still can - just go to http://www.facebook.com/username. Here's one word of caution. You cannot change your username later. Think of it as a lower back tattoo. Chose wisely - your going to have it for a very long time.
Another thing to remember is that this is a Vanity URL for your PROFILE. (I'll explain more later)
Groups
This is going to be easy. You can setup a group in Facebook for anything you want but even Facebook is pondering the viability of groups. They are walled off from the rest of the community. What happens in a group, stays in the group. Google does not see groups. They are not indexed by search engines and have NO SEO value. Updates in groups stay in the group, they do not show on your members walls. Simply put, Groups are a dead end. Let's move on.
Pages
Facebook allows for custom creation of fabulous pages. They (Facebook) call them Fan Pages but really they are Business Pages. Instead of "Friends" your Page collects "Fans". Hey, I'm not a big Fan of the term either.
What can a Facebook Business Page do? Almost anything. The best analogy is that a Facebook Business Page is a website/blog within Facebook. One of the most important things about a Page is that it separates your Personal (family, friends, church, and old girlfriends from 20 years ago) from your Professional Persona of today. Fans of your page do not see the Church BBQ pictures. The only Politics, Sex and Religion they'll see is what you chose to share with them. You still can have personality (and should).
Yes you can get a Custom Vanity URL for your Page if you have 100 Fans. You do not need to have 100 fans to create a page.
Here’s 7 reasons why your business needs a FB page.
Pages allow a business to "Publish to the Stream" (this shows up on your fans homepage)
Pages allow a business to engage fans with Rich Media (video, pictures, events)
Pages let a business analyze how fans are interacting with the Insights Dashboard (FB has deep analytics)
Pages let a business increase SEO (pages show up in higher Google keyword searches)
Pages allow you to run highly targeted demographic ads to attract only those that are relevant to your business.
Pages allow you to arrange Tabs in the order you like (with the exception of the Wall and Info)
Pages allow you to force a particular tab to open first for new visitors. Example: You can have a tab that introduces your team, your area, or you.
Do I have a Page?
It's easy to tell. Pull up your URL. If under your picture (top left) it says "Edit Page" - then it's a PAGE!
If under your picture you see"View Photos of Me" - that's a Profile!
That's almost everything you need to know about Pages.
There's just one more thing...
It's easy to create a Page on Facebook. It's easy to draw people to the page. What isn't easy is to keep them there. You need to have compelling content.
If your page has just the "Wall", "Info" and other stock tabs - your new found Fans will be out of there before the page loads! It's easy to automate new inflow of content. You can bring in blog posts, Tweets, Flickr, most anything and do so automatically.
As an example of what a Page can do - here's a few of he Custom Pages I've helped others with...
Remember, these pages are works in process, Check them out, become a fan and see how they are being used.
It won’t be anything like the land rush of the first Facebook URL frenzy but starting Sunday Night June 28th at 9:00 PM the gates are open for all.
Facebook was pretty smart in the way they released custom URLs. You see, most anyone can create a “Fan Page” for virtually any product, group or person. These Fan Pages usually have little or no fans. All it would take is for one quick kid with a finger on his mouse to steal away something like http://www.facebook.com/MountainDew
So Facebook slowed the release of Custom Page Names to those pages with 1,000 or more fans and to those created prior to May 31, 2009, That allowed all those real companies to get in and secure their Facebook Page Name.
You and I didn’t have to worry about that, but we certainly do now. If you have a Facebook Business Page you’ll want to be in on the new land rush.
Why?
First of all, every business should have a Business page on Facebook. I’ll take that a step further and suggest every page should also be customized to best fit the business.
Here’s 4 reasons why your business needs a Facebook Business Page.
Pages allow a business to "Publish to the Stream" (this shows up on your fans homepage)
Pages allow a business to engage fans with Rich Media (video, pictures, events)
Pages let a business analyze how fans are interacting with the Insights Dashboard (Facebook has deep analytics)
Pages let a business increase SEO (pages show up in higher Google keyword searches)
So you sell Yugos in Yuba City ? There’s nothing stopping the Yugo dealer in Yreka from setting up http://www.facebook.com/YubaCityYugo and stealing your thunder. (Does a Yugo really have thunder?)
That also brings me to the next important item. There’s nothing compelling about a standard Facebook Business Page. Why drive clients and customers to a standard page? Nothing at all.
Your Business Page MUST have compelling content that engages your visitors or they’ll leave just as fast as it took the page to load.
What can a Facebook Business Page do? It might be easier to say what can’t they do? Here’s 7 Facebook Business Pages that work.
When Matt Stigliano (RERockStar) requested a MuellerMap I knew he would do a great job. Even though he was just starting into recording video, we talked about how he could incorporate a slideshow from RealEstateShows, Flickr or Picasa.
What I didn't realize was just how much he was going to "ROCK IT". I should have guessed. Afterall, what would you expect from a Real Rock Star who has performed infront of hundreds of thosands of fans.
I'm reblogging his post below because I would have a hard time writing anything better to explain the how and the why of a MuellerMap. Thanks for your kind words Matt. I am deeply humbled. I just made the tool. To put that in RockStar terms - I made the guitar, you took it onstage and ROCKED the audience!
First, let me introduce everyone that doesn't know him to Mike Mueller. Mike is (as he says) a "Social Media.ist" - he'd probably never claim to be an "expert" or "guru," but I would definitely vote for him as one of the top social media people who get it, love it, live it, learn it and teach it. Mike's been invaluable to me as I've been learning new things. Always one to comment on a new idea I have or tell me how I could improve something I've already done, Mike is always around to help you out. I think he may never sleep, which of course, means he's a vampire - but I haven't confirmed any of that yet, so let's keep that between you and me.
Some time ago, Mike introduced his Mueller Labs product called, Mueller Maps. The concept is simple, the results are powerful. By building a customizable map based off of Google's map, Mueller Maps allows you to place markers on the map which are links to more info. As you can see in the graphic above (a screenshot of the actual map at RErockstar.com), I have placed the blue markers in various places on the map. Clicking on any one of these will bring up a pop up that looks like this:
The How.
Inside these detail boxes you can insert just about anything you want. Mike and I opted for a "video" and "info" tab. Under each tab can be links, videos, photos - if you can dream it up, it can be put in there. Each piece of information is inserted using a simple Google Docs based spreadsheet, so once the map is built, editing and adding new map points is pretty simple. Once you get a bit of a template down, you don't need to do much more than cut and paste and then adjust a few pieces of information (the actual URL to your link, the video embed code, etc.).
I have made mine quite simple so far, in the video box is a link to a Flickr slideshow (I separate each community into a set and build a slide show out of that set), a link to "Learn More" and a link to "Homes for sale" in that neighborhood. The "Learn More" link goes to a blog post I wrote about the neighborhood and the "Homes for sale" link goes to my IDX-search on my website that takes them direct to a list of homes for sale in that community (see my previous article on "ARE-TEC IDX - How To Utilize Variables To Make Your Client's Experience Even Better" to see how easy this is with ARE-TEC). The info tab contains the same two links (I will be adding more in the future) with a still photo (also from Flickr), usually of the main entrance to the community.
The Why.
What makes these maps so genius outside of the fact that they look awesome and create an easy to use, visual presentation for your visitors, is that because you're trying to provide relevant links within those tabs, you wind up providing more content on local neighborhoods. I have written several well-viewed posts about neighborhoods now and I am seeing direct SEO benefits and home searches from it. By being forced to give a link in the each tab, I am forcing myself to write about what the consumer wants to hear. Local neighborhood info. In addition, because I'm using Flickr as the source for my photos, I am adding more photos to Flickr everyday (and Google loves Flickr). Most of my posts are right there alongside my Flickr sets for each neighborhood - in most cases giving me three results in a row in Google searches on any neighborhood (two for Flickr and one for the site - and if you visit the Flickr sets, you'll also get links back to my site - helps in building my site's authority).
With each additional post and map point, I am building serious community info on my blog and blogging more regularly. The more regular you blog, the more Google takes notice. Do you see where all this is going? I may not be #1, but you can't avoid my name (my last listing was given to me because when the seller performed different searches, they saw me everywhere - omnipresence is a good thing in real estate). The more you write about your local area, the more of an expert you become. The more of an expert you are, the more local buyers and sellers will take note.
The possibilities are endless.
While I've used mine to showcase neighborhoods, you can do anything with a Mueller Map. Schools, local hot spots, restaurants, your offices, your listings, local tourist attractions or a combination of all of these and more. It's all up to what you want to showcase and is only limited by your imagination. I have plans to eventually build a video archive of local places I like to visit - when I do, I'll build a completely different Mueller Map to showcase them. Think of the map as a visual representation of pages on your blogs - how can you map out your local content?
Of course, with all the work that goes into building one, you might expect to see a huge price tag attached to it. We're Realtors®, we get charged a fortune every corner we turn. The difference? Mike Mueller's not a guy looking to make a quick buck, he's actually someone who wants to see technology used as much as possible and will do what he can to make that happen. Guess how much one costs? Go ahead...guess. Nope, you're wrong - they're only $150. And Mike will work with you to get it to look the way you want and help get you started to entering your own new map points (once you learn it, it's easy).
Mary Steadman from San Jose, CA that is. According to her site, http://www.marylifeblog.com/ she fell on some hard times and lost her job. The good news is that she has since turned it all around.
In her own words…
My name is Mary Steadman. Married 3 years to Kevin. I lost my job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company a few months back. But here is my story on how I make $5,000+ a month by just submitting small texts and ads online on Google.
Good for you Mary! That’s great income from just a couple of clicks.
Hey, I also looked up the Domain Owner , and it looks like you don’t actually own the site.
I also found that great write up of you in The Chicago Gazette News except they have a horrible URL: http://nastyornice.com/ (especially for a big newspaper). I could go on and on.
Oh and by the way… do you know Kevin Hoeffer from San Jose, CA? He has http://www.kevinmakesdough.com/ and incredibly he has a very similar story!
My name is Kevin Hoeffer. Married 3 years to Audrey. I lost my job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company a few months back. But here is my story on how I make $5,000+ a month by just submitting small texts and ads online on Google.
All kidding aside, the moral of the story is that this is just another scam. Plain and simple. Hungry for more? Here’s a few thousand Google Scams . Heck, even Matt Cutts, straight from Google tells everyone he can about these scams every time he speaks!
Now should you find yourself blissfully married for around 3 years * and recently lose your job as a boring account rep for a manufacturing company, step back and think about this for a minute or two. Do I really have to say it out loud? If something sounds too good to be true – it is!
NOTE: In case you were curious, the small $1 they initially charge you is for a "welcome packet", then there is a monthly auto charge of $60 - 100 dollars. The system still doesn’t work, and you’ll be out $100 a month until you can cancel (if you can cancel). Still sound good?
* Today is the our 20th wedding anniversary! (thanks dear!)
Here’s what we do know… Google has recently secured one million phone numbers!
Here’s what we don’t know… When they are going to launch.
What’s Google Voice?
To put it in Lord of the Rings terminology, if your cell phone is one ring (pun fully intended ) your home phone another, and your office yet another, then Google Voice would be the one hanging from Frodo’s neck. It’s The One Ring . Yeah that one!
First Lady Michelle Obama is in San Francisco today calling on Americans to make this a "summer of service".
She’ll be giving the keynote address at a conference on volunteerism at the Moscone Center which is a kickoff of United We Serve, a national call to community service from President Barack Obama.
So how do you find volunteer opporunities in your area? Leave it the tech community and Craig Newmark (Craigslist)
Hey, the deal with the United We Serve AllForGood.org thing is that we’re making it easy to find volunteer opportunities near you.
This is the "craigslist for service. "
Check out the right hand side, top, of this page. You’ll see a "gadget", just enter your zipcode or similar starting with the location link, and you’ll get it, no problem.
You can also click the search icon, the magnifying glass, to search more broadly.
made up of volunteering enthusiasts from places like Google, Craigslist Foundation, UCLA, YouTube, FanFeedr and Aha! Ink. As a contributor to the All for Good project, Google is hosting the All for Good website and products. Several Google engineers worked on All for Good as a 20-percent project (Google lets engineers spend a day a week on projects that interest them), collaborating with a broader team to build the product.
So now that you are inspired to go out and make a difference, you know where to start looking!
After attending, the SABOR Town Hall Meeting and listening to Sean Wood and Rich Teplitsky of KGBTexas speak on the topic of social media, I've been doing a lot of thinking about some of the things I noticed while I was there as well as some of the snippets of conversation that my ears overheard from other people's small groups as they were gathering and getting ready to go. Some of the audience was there to get an idea of what social media was, some were there to get more out of it, some where there just to see what the craze is all about.
Return on investment (ROI), is the ratio of gain or loss on an investment relative to the money invested. In real estate, you often hear the term ROI being referred to around the hours and/or money we spend on any particular activity in order to generate business. In terms of social media, I have heard many people question what the ROI is on it. Whether it be blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or even ActiveRain itself, social media is all around us, but there has been some serious conflicts over the quantifying of the actual returns of using it based on the investment you put into it. There are plenty of success stories of transactions closed thanks to the many different forms of social media, but I think there's something else to look at.
Interaction.
As agents we spend much of our time looking to get in front of people. To talk to them, to share our experiences, to tell them what we do, and to hopefully make them our clients (or at least a great referral source). Agents are doing this all day long. The girl at the grocery store, the guy pumping gas, the small business owner that you know through BNI - no matter where we go, we're interacting and building relationships which we work to turn into business. Occasionally, the business falls in our lap - "You're a Realtor®? I have a house I need to sell, can you stop over tomorrow?" Other days, it takes a growth process of going from "that agent guy" to "my Realtor®." We hear the word cultivation a lot when referring to the people we meet. Cultivate the relationship, build the trust, get the business.
Social media is really no different. Strangers will talk to you, friends will tell others about you, and building a sphere of influence is the name of the game. As many people discuss over and over again, the trick is not to sell. I definitely believe this to be the case, but this is not the point of this post.
So what is the ROI on social media?
First off, most social media activities is free. So let's toss out the money part of the equation. Let's talk about time. Most people dabble in social media for a few minutes a day and get a little something out of it here and there. Others dive in head first and are the proud flag-bearers of the "new wave" of the web 2.0 world. I see why people get discouraged when the jump into social media. You jump in say "hello world" and no one answers back. Not at first at least. It is a slow growth process that requires a little more time than showing up at the latest mixer and handing out your business card.
The difference between the mixer and social media? The mixer ends at 8PM, social media never sleeps. When you start putting those conversations out into the cyber-world they last - in many cases for eternity. You might do something at 8AM, but someone may not interact with you on it until 10PM the next day. It allows for a conversation to last, to stick around, and to be discovered by others at any given time. Your conversation doesn't end when you get in your car and drive home.
Let's look at an example.
Let's talk Twitter for a few moments. Some of you love it, some of you hate it, and some don't get it. I try to get on Twitter quite a bit. I use it for a couple of different purposes as well. I have conversations with locals, agents, and friends all over the world, but I also use it as a news source, a feed reader of sorts, and a way to track stories I want to know more about. I've also used it to get direct access to information about specific posts I'd like to make (if your local news is on Twitter, make friends with them - best source for Localism posts ever). It serves me well, but I'd like to give a few specific examples:
Getting to know your neighbors - I have got to know quite a few of my local San Antonio neighbors. And in getting to know them, I have built friendships (and everyone remembers their friends a bit more than a stranger, right?). I have built a source of contacts from several different industries. Need a programmer who runs circles around my head? I know a few. Want nutrition and fitness advice and training? If my guy can't do it, no one can. Need PR/advertising? I got the guy for you. Need a roofer? Got him. Want to know what restaurant has the best beer in town (and some awesome food)? I can give your directions and tell you who to ask for when you get there. Much like many of us maintain some sort business to business directory, Twitter is just that for me. Expect I know these people and talk with them about normal everyday things too. They're my friends, not just names in a database.
Becoming the "go to" for people - Although it's always difficult to tread the boundaries of what you can and can't say to someone who is not your client, you'll find you become a great referral source for information. I often get questions asked that I have written posts about or recently had a conversation online about. I can easily point someone in the right direction. If I haven't done it, I probably know someone who has spoken about it - so I become an informational referral source. And what does that do? It creates a sense of trust and value.
Knowledge. Plain and simple - I entered the real estate business on the down side. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I dove into blogs and conversations and learned as much as I could. I asked questions and got answers. Agents are much more eager to help a new agent than I ever dreamed. I have learned some great bits and pieces from people I think are the best and brightest.
Want to see your name in lights? - Ok, you may not get your name on the marquee at Madison Square Garden, but the internet does provide a certain level of fame. Think of some of the names in real estate you see everyday on the internet. The other great way to "get noticed" is by the press. As I've witnessed first hand, the press and our associations are out there and they're watching and reading. To tie two examples together, a guy I know only via Twitter once recommended me to the local news who had put out a tweet looking for agents for a piece they were putting together. I didn't get the spot, because they had already found someone, but a guy I've never met tried to get my name out there for me. Powerful, right?
Recurring Online Interaction.
That's my new way of viewing ROI. Everyday a conversation starts that I can be a part of or not. Everyday, snippets from a conversation I had a few days ago comes back to me and we pick it up from there. The interactions begins to build who you are, not just what you do. Last night I answered a tweet of someone I've spoken to here and there. It wasn't real estate related at all, but within a few tweets, she made a joke about me finding her a "cheap" home. Soon we were discussing the thought behind it. I have never said "hello, I'm a real estate agent" to her, but she knows and made the reference to it in our conversation. Will she buy a house with someday? I sure hope so, but in the meantime, I think she's funny, interesting, and a nice few moments of conversation once in awhile. What I know for a fact though, is that she knows what I do, enjoys talking to me, and would probably think of me for her real estate needs...because I am there all the time. In front of her, on her screen, and top of mind. I don't have to send her a fridge magnet once a month to remind her that I'm out here. She already knows it.
Alltop is a site that collects All the Top ics from All the Top blogs* and puts them in easy categories. (now you can see where the name comes from). Haven’t heard of Alltop? Maybe you have heard of one of it’s founders, Guy Kawasaki . Find a category you like and Alltop has already gathered hundreds of the best posts from the best blogs on the web and put them on one single page for you. For each blog Alltop will deliver the most recent 5 post titles. Hover over the title and you’ll be able to read the first paragraph. A simple click on the title will deliver you to the full article.
What use is this to me?
Case in point. I’ve been looking for employment daily. I have a resume, I have a cover letter, I even have a video and a blog post. (hire Mike ). With the job market as it is, it hasn’t been easy to find a job. Looking for pointers I headed to my favorite search engine and started looking for tips. A couple hours later I walked away frustrated. I found very little. This morning had an idea. I headed over to Alltop, found the section called Careers . The page loaded almost instantly. I now was looking at 1,094 of the freshest posts from the best career blogs on the web.
I found some great gems in minutes (not hours) most all of which didn’t show up in my search engine experience.
I’m a big proponent of using technology to work better, faster, more efficiently. I should have know better and to just head straight to Alltop. I know Alltop isn’t going to get me a job but the information I find there might.
Bonus: If you want to assemble just the latest posts of the blogs you like you can create a custom page! As you come across new ones you can add them with a single click. You can even share your personal collection with others. Here’s mine: http://my.alltop.com/mikemueller
* Disclaimer: I am very proud for my blog to be included in Alltop. You can find it in one of the busiest sections, Social Media . (all the way at the bottom)
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
to 
You can see why. MikeMueller is a whole lot easier to remember than a string of numbers. If you did not get a Vanity URL for your profile yet you still can - just go to 
There’s nothing compelling about a standard Facebook Business Page. Why drive clients and customers to a standard page? Nothing at all.
Posted by 
Oh and by the way… do you know Kevin Hoeffer from San Jose, CA? He has 
;)
;)
