FaceBook...
I just had to get that out of the way quickly... We all knew it had to be on the list. There are 300,000,000 people there, and some of them might actually be looking for a real estate agent.
But PLEASE, don't just wade in and start telling everyone that you are a real estate agent. Put it in your profile, and maybe every once in a while you might mention something real estate related on your personal stream... but you don't need to assault the world with your "agentness".
It is actually giving the rest of us a bad name.
Now that is out of the way...
Get a FaceBook Fan page for your business. I prefer to call them Business Pages. Send your blog posts there. Post up about your listings, open houses and community events there... but lean it towards community events... Promote it through your blog... overtly AND passively.
- Overtly - "Join my FaceBook Business Page and recieve updates on community events in _______" Don't be afraid to ask your readers to join your page. Post up about how excited you are about the page... link to it...
- Passively - Once you have the page up and running, you can place a widget on your blog that promotes the page by showing "wall activity" and/or fans. Get it out there in your blog or website.
People that join your Fan Page are giving you permission to market to them. Give them value (like great community events coverage and real estate information) and don't abuse them (same boring stuff over and over) and they will tell their friends... they will actually BE YOUR FANS.
I think that FaceBook will be more important than Google... and soon.
Google is so big it has gravity. There is NO denying it. But there is no "buy in" for most users. It is a search tool for them. But, FaceBook isn't a tool... it is a place, a community... it is part of their lives. For casual searches, how tough would it be to change to Bing? Or Yahoo? Or something that doesn't exist yet? But for casual FaceBook users, how tough would it be to switch to another platform? How tough would it be to rebuild their network of friends?
They are poised for scary growth... And there isn't much in the way of direct competition... There are competitors for various parts of their empire... pieces of the functionality... but nothing that ties it all together. I am sure that someone will come out with something better... but the momentum will be hard to shift.
So...
For now, FaceBook is one of the most important places we need to be able to show up...
Just remember, Fan Page, NOT personal Profile.
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