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Social Network Knowhow: Keeping It Clean (on Facebook)

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Success Mentor & Profit Designer

Facebook always feels a bit challenging to me. Their rules are published nowhere you can find easily and most are pretty indecipherable. Often you won't know you've broken one, until you get slapped. Yet, it is the largest social network globally and you certainly don't want to ignore it. Now, if you are using it strictly for family and friends and catching up with old flames and older relatives, stop reading now. This isn't for you. On the other hand, when you want to move business forward, keeping your friends clean on Facebook does matter.

The biggest task you can tackle is to get all of your friends into appropriate lists. This will give you awesome leverage when you create an event and want to invite a selected group. Without this, you are stuck going friend to friend and when you have several hundred or a couple of thousand, this is a major time zapper and ineffective. So do your work upfront. Before you accept anyone as a friend, check them out, which list can you tag them to (that you've created). Yes, you can put a friend on more than one list, great flexibility. The key is to get them onto at least one list that is relevant and pertinent.

Oh and while you are at it, when you are doing this, it is likely you are having to go to many of the profiles as you may not know the person well. Take a minute and write something warm and friendly on their wall. This will boost your visibility and show them you truly care. (You do care, don't you?)

I'm giving you an out. This whole idea may overwhelm you. You can establish criteria for friends to be tagged on specific lists and hand the task off to a VA (Virtual Assistant). You can also script (you'd be surprised how many do this and no one knows it) a series of messages that your VA can post on friends walls. While I encourage you to do this personally, I am well aware that you may be already stretched thin but do care and want your peeps to know that.

And one more thing, when you go through your friends, you are likely to find that you may have been a bit careless (unless you are perfect, and you might be!) and accepted some folks that you are no longer certain you want to be friends with for a number of reasons. It is okay to unfriend them, they won't be notified. You have a 5000 friend limit and if that matters then this is what you'll need to do. You can also invite peeps to be a fan on your fan page (you do have a fan page don't you?) There is no limit to the number of fans.

Social networking can be fun; it can also be a lot of work and time. I share time saving tips to drive your business forward. Next week is LinkedIN, and it will be on my blog!

Comments (5)

John Fiorelli
Premier Realty - Richmond, VA
REALTOR Richmond, VA aka fiorealtor.com

I agree..keeping FB pg-13 can be a chore... especially if you have friends and "friends on your profile!

John Fiorelli, REALTOR 
Recruiting Director
Marketing Consultant
Century 21 Signature Realty
2800 Buford Rd. Ste 204
Richmond, VA 23235
Direct: 804-908-2046
Office: 804-330-4222
Fax: 804-330-4249
 
Email:
john.fiorelli@century21.com
Web:
www.fiorealtor.com

Feb 18, 2010 12:27 PM
Maggie Dokic /Indialantic | 321-252-8696
Magdalena Dokic - Indialantic, FL
Selling the beach in Florida's space coast

Melissa, I love your tips.  I've been a FB member for years now.  But I'm still not utilizing it as well as I could be.

You have a great smile.  I hope you bless those around you with it often!

Feb 18, 2010 12:28 PM
Dean Carver
United Brokers Group/Carver Home Team - Ahwatukee, AZ

You also have to be careful what you comment on! I have a realtor friend that commented on a picture of a half-dressed man and the picture along with her comment showed up on my dashboard/news. I let her know and she was shocked because she thought she was doing it in private.

Feb 18, 2010 12:30 PM
Johnny Sabic
www.atlantamyhome.com - North Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Real Estate
Ron T. Weems Jr.
Weems Property Group | KW North Sound - Bothell, WA
Managing the details one home at a time.

Melissa,

Good advice. As you may know most of us don't have time to really try to keep up with the social media frenzy but as business owner, we need to. The younger generations are all about quick responses and so forth.

Feb 18, 2010 12:32 PM