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Social Networking Tips to share and hope you reciprocate! For Newbies, Oldies and Wannabees!

It's raining in Columbia, SC, and most of the Southeast, as I write. For a while, I've been trying to come up with some kind of plan for "Social Networking," and how to make it work in creating and doing actual business. To be honest, its REALLY easy for me to sit down at the computer, open up facebook, for example, and two hours later realize that all I've accomplished is to spend valuable time chatting with an old high school buddy or to watch YouTube videos. Now, that's all GREAT! And I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't really enjoy it, but... what's it got to do with business?

This morning while watching the rain fall and while killing time before March Madness and Doral (golf), I made an org chart! Whoooo, scary isn't it? I'm posting for all to take a look and offer constructive criticism, because I know there are folks on ActiveRain who are already doing what I'm, in this primitive way, trying to do. Which is... make sense of it all, and make it WORK!

So, as Barney Fife would say, "Now, this is the way we do it here at 'The Rock.'

Social Networking Org Chart

We spare no expense in graphics, powerpoints, and technology here in beautiful downtown Ballentine! Yes, we're leaving Mayberry in the dust now that we have been to the Social Networking auction and have all of these modern marvels and conveniences!

Seriously, maybe it's my personality, but I just have to have some kind of a method to the madness. My observations, and in no real order (note the irony):

I start with an E-mail Signature that includes phone number, e-mail address, and links to my profiles on ActiveRain, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and our company website. Surprise, any one of these when visited will offer links to our business, agents, listings, information, community, friends and fun stuff, too.

Now, what do do with this stuff?

I GET ActiveRain. Wonderful place to post a listing, meet and learn from true professionals and, not least, make some really fine friends. Also, I think it's fueled by Google Juice, not just electricity and the www. Check out this web alert received on a COMMENT I had made on a blog: (Note this is Loreena's post, but I get name and a tag line, "search all homes," and e-mail address.) Thanks Ms. Yeo, and you're definitely in my 'Circle of Trust.' (Tip: Be deliberate in what you name your 'blog' and all descriptions of it!)

Real Estate Blog - Who do you let in your Circle of Trust?
By Loreena Yeo - Broker|Realtor(R) of Frisco...
Charlie HardenColumbia, SC - Search All Homes & Land! (Home Sales USA - home@charlieharden.com). 9:56pm · Name: Email: ...contributing Frisco Texas Real... - http://activerain.com/blogs/316teamrealty

And as you can see on the 'graphic,' ActiveRain automatically feeds your blog posts to places where you set that up - in my case, so far, Facebook and LinkedIn. AR also feeds a blog link to twitter. Example - "Just posted on ActiveRain: Welcome Home to Lexington Woods! http://activerain.com/t/975874 12:30 PM Mar 10th from ActiveRain"

I especially like this because you can set up twitter and twitter widgets a lot of places to receive and broadcast your "tweets." The above blog link was automatically sent and available on my ActiveRain Blog Pages, Facebook (as my status), an agent website, and MySpace. All you have to do is post a blog on ActiveRain, and, presto, it is fed to a half dozen or more places.

My big questions now are where are all the other sites and places where we should be and how do we go about setting up automatic feeding to them for Blogs and Links?

Sooooo, there it is... A University professor asked, "What is your elevator speech." I said, "I sell real estate in Columbia, SC and cover all areas including Lake Murray. Otherwise just hanging out & having fun!" And that's what I'm trying to do on all of these places. We're here for business AND for entertainment, and hope to learn something along the way.

PLEASE share your thoughts. We'll all learn more in the comments than from the post! As I say, this is like the stone tablet. Others, as Elizabeth Neives calls them, the techie boys and girls have the printing press and the feed burners, will know what we need to know and I'm thinking they'll share it if we ask. So techies, we're asking!

One final tip: Use the same login and password for all these different places. It'll save what's left of your sanity after working in the real estate industry all day and then trying to make sense of the Social Networks.

Posted by Charlie Harden on 03/14/2009 12:55 PM

Comments (14)

Social Networking in the ActiveRain Channel

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14 Comments on Social Networking Tips to share and hope you reciprocate! For Newbies, Oldies and Wannabees!

MAR

Hi Charlie~ I can't wait to see what kind of answers and responses you get here....

I hope you are not expecting any wisdom from me on this subject. I'm entirely too random with it all. By the way.....you gotta get Skype next. Don't ask, I can't answer but I'm going to try to figure it out in between working and all this other stuff.

As for Doral....go Phil! Oh my, Tiger just holed one from the sand!

Vickie, thanks for your comment, because it invites responses and participation. Very much appreciated! And great that it was first!

Ann, you're sneaky smart. You ain't fooling me! Thanks for Skype idea. I've heard the word, that's all, though. Will now check it out. Phil's still hanging around the lead. Tiger's tuning up for that little tournament they have just down the road from here in the first part of April. It's fun watching him 'practice' isn't it?

Mike Mueller answered some of these same questions for us once before in this blog post. He reads this he'll be rolling his eyes and saying, asked and answered! I'm still working at it, and have accomplished some of those things that were mysteries back in November. I suppose this is not an overnight thing, huh?

Charlie, I think that it comes down to having a clear vision in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. It's cleaning for a Realtor because you guys sell houses. Part of it has to do with who your message is aimed towards. It's gonna differ by blog post. Sometimes you are talking to clients, sometimes you are talking to peers.

To me simple is better. Take one thing at a time and incorporate it. That way it stays focused. I personally use Twitter, Active Rain, LinkeIn and I'm just starting on Facebook.

Thank you Kate. True that you need to know what you're wanting to accomplish! I like the KISS method, too. I'm trying to get there, believe me. We agree on the four sites you mention. I'll be watching you!

Well if I could draw you something and sort of map it out for you I would it might be easier to understand. But imagine a giant umbrella and your website or whever you want all the traffic to go is holding the umbrella. The rain drops are all the potential traffic or people or visitors whatever you want to call it. The bigger your umbrella the more chance it can hit the umbrella which drips down the handle to your site. It doesnt matter what material the umbrella is made of in fact the more variety the better (RSS feeds, profiles, smaller websites, other blogs, you name it) you just want it to be big. Most call this internet presence. The bigger the better but also that each piece is well done so that there is a true call to action and a reason for a person to go from point A to B.

Another way to look at is this:

The primary goal of SEO is that your site stands out so much that it draws in so much traffic of its own. But thousands of little pieces can drive as much traffic. The problem is that direct traffic is direct and indirect traffic requires a bit more work to get people to make those extra clicks from A to B to C.

Now if you are looking for an endall one stop shop for doing this then there really isnt a solution to that. Its also not easy. But much of it can be automated and I guess thats what you are looking for. The biggest thing is to write something for each thing you do and like I said you need to give a reason to get to your site.

Another method can be to get your blog out in more places like you were saying but also just getting it on more sites. Its not that easy and again is more work but check into some other blogging platforms maybe.

Another thing to think about is other avenues. What about video? Youtube is huge. Are you on there?

ETC ETC

Like I said its not easy. If it were everyone would do it. It takes time and commitment. Some is automated and some requires your input. Its up to you to decide whats worth it or not or what you have time for or dont. But it all works and it all gets traffic and it all gets clients.

MAR

Charlie, I'm at about the same level as you regarding social media. FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and AR. I use MyBlogLog to keep my services consolidated, if that's the right term. And Feed Burner is great for blog tracking & e-mail subscriptions. Still learning what everything will do for us, but trying to take it one step at a time.

Thanks, Shane. And Happy St. Pats! I like the umbrella visual. A lot to mull over and much appreciated! And you're agreeing with Kate about the vision and purpose for each piece. You're right about my wanting it automated. Video, YES... I think you're absolutely right and it's on my back burner... I know, it needs to be working now!

I don't get much of a thrill out getting the content placed in just the right places. The content is the fun thing, whether its a listing, an idea, some news, a video or what have you! It seems like a good business for someone to get into, if they could figure some way to make the 'one stop shop.' "Feeding your content where you want it - everywhere." Right now there seem to be 80 zillion different places and ways to do it.

Pat, check me out... Is this making any sense... ;-) Your suggestion MyBlogLog is noted and of course FeedBurner needs some study.

Well, my ideal assistant will now have to be bilingual, tech-savvy, blogging compent, client friendly, SEO genius... and that job description continues to grow.

Charlie, I try SO hard to figure this stuff out! I am signed onto Twitter and trying to learn how to work it, Facebook is next. I had my outside blog done by Marti, I wasn't taking ANY chances. I am officially "tech-challanged."

Carole, I sort of feel the same way. Wheels seem to be spinning a lot of the time. I'm not sure which Marti you refer to. Your website looks nice, however! Thank you for commenting.

MAR

Hi Charlie: Some positive goals you've got going there. I've not yet been inclined to put a lot of time into the other social networks, but did bookmark an A|R post for later. I'll put it here in case you find it useful. Distribute your photos, text, video... to social networks - all from one place