Let's get soci@l — Growing your online audience: Friends, followers, and connections

My marketing guru told me about a great free book that he wanted me to read and then pick one chapter to write a review about. I'm always up for reading, but with his love of horror and science fiction, I wasn't sure what he was asking me to do or what I was agreeing to do.

Looking at the Table of Contents didn't help me any; all the chapter titles sounded worthwhile. Ultimately, I first skimmed looking at subtitles, bullet lists, and pull quotes. From that it was pretty easy to decide which chapter I wanted to read first: Growing your online audience - friends, followers, and connections.

This is Chapter 3, and the reason why I chose it was because of two subheadings

• Twitter
• Facebook

I set up a Facebook account in August 2009 but I still don't think I have a clue as to how to use it for my business until I read this chapter. I have not yet succumbed to Twitter but soci@l gives me hope.

The thing that I really don't like about both Facebook and Twitter is that too many people tell you too much about their personal lives, and too many exercise no tact with their online language. That frustrates me because I don't like to do something if it's not fun, and so far I haven't found Facebook or Twitter to be fun. Perhaps, however, if I can get through that and get some hot real estate leads from them.... I can be persuaded.

Almost as soon as I thought that to myself while reading, I come upon Ben Kinney's Item #7 for making use of Twitter:

"7. Use targeted words - When tweeting, consider using words that you believe people will search for online. More and more search engines and blogs are indexing tweets by the keywords used and showing those tweets in search engine results. Instead of saying "grabbing a pizza," try tweeting "grabbing a pizza from Pizza Time in downtown Bellingham, Washington, for the Huskies game."

Ack! That's exactly what I hate. I don't care that you're "grabbing a pizza from Pizza Time in downtown Bellingham, Washington, for the Huskies game"! Get a life!

Maybe I do care if I connect with somewho who eats at Pizza Time all the time, is looking for a million-dollar mansion, and wants me to help him. Making connections is what it's all about.

The first two Twitter items were also helpful:

"1. Follow local relevant people - Use a Twitter directory likeTwellow.com to follow people from your industry, affiliate industries, and people with similar interests.

2. Use tools - Take advantage of tools like TweetBeep and Geochirp to assist you in finding people located within a radius of a certain city. These are the tools that allow you to build a local audience."

Those should certainly help me get set up and get past much of the Twitter dung.

There is much more in Chapter 3, but the one thing that really puzzle me is the daily discipline required to do all this. Ben says 20-40 minutes per day. I spend 45 minutes per day just at ActiveRain, and if I write a post, like this one, it's more like 2 hours and 45 minutes. I don't see how anyone can do ActiveRain, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Merchant Circle, and others in just 20-40 minutes a day. Maybe if I drove faster than the speed limit when I'm out showing and previewing properties, I'd have more time for social networking!

After reading this book once, I've decided that it's kind of lake Lay's potato chips. No one serious about taking their business to the next level can read it just once. I'm hoping that soon, after reading this book again and attending RainCamp San Diego, you'll be able to follow me on Twitter!

This blog post is a review of Soci@l: Attract Friends, Followers and Connections to Your Business. Soci@l is a free download written by Ben Kinney in conjunction with ActiveRain and Jay Papasan. In exchange for downloading the free copy of Soci@l and writing this review, I have a chance to win a free iPad and I'm getting 2000 ActiveRain points.

Download a free copy of Social here and find out how you can have a chance to win an iPad and be guaranteed 2000 ActiveRain points.

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If you're looking for a great real estate agent in San Diego, well,
let me Google one for you.

I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Jim Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award Mission Valley
California DRE License #01458572
619-729-5701
jimfrimmer@century21award.com
Mission Valley Condos Information

♪♫♫♫♪

Try RusselRayPhotos.com for inexpensive, royalty-free photos.

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