social media: What exactly is a Social Marketing "Campaign?" - 04/06/11 07:08 AM
 
One of the things we're most excited about with our latest update to Roost.com is our new "Campaign Creator."
And when we take people through it, you can almost see the lightbulb go off about how this awesome feature can help a small business owner or professional with too much to do and too little time.
But we'll be the first ones to admit that the notion of Campaigns in Social Marketing is kind of a new concept, and in some ways a counter-intuitive one.  After all, the Social web is all about real-time right?  Aren't campaigns advertising?  How can … (1 comments)

social media: Forecast about Facebook/Social vs Google/SEO - How did I do? - 02/28/11 08:45 AM

A little less than a year ago I wrote a series of posts on activerain trying to raise awareness (admittedly somewhat aggressively) about the emergence of Facebook and the Social Web and the erosion of a Google dominated SEO strategy for real estate marketing.
These posts generated a fair amount of dialogue (some violently opposed to my thinking) and I'm curious what folks think about this today?
"Get ready to care more about Edgerank than SEO" -  This is the one that touched it off last May.  My basic premise:
 
SEO as a marketing strategy for Real Estate is … (1 comments)

social media: Share your favorite Social Marketing Tools - 02/21/11 05:50 AM
What tools do you use to manage your Social Marketing efforts?  Updates to Facebook & LinkedIn, etc.
 
Tell us what you love, what you hate, and what you wish you had!
 
Here's my top three list (excluding a tool that is very close to my heart to maintain editorial integrity of this post...):
1) HootSuite (I use this to organize and watch different streams in Twitter and monitor keywords like "@Roost")
2) Facebook Mobile (have recently gotten addicted to FB on the train)
3) A yet to be created tool that allows me to turn voice into a status … (0 comments)

social media: Facebook changes Pages. What does that mean for you? - 02/18/11 05:08 AM

As many of you know, Facebook recently announced some significant changes to Pages.  Some of these we expected, some are pleasant surprises.  So, as social marketers should we be happy, sad, or indifferent?  Pretty happy methinks.  Some of these changes are kinda nifty, but more importantly they shows Facebook’s interest in making Pages the best web presence for your service or product.  Our understanding is that Facebook has applied significant new resources to the project, and these are the first fruits to bear.  Admittedly, some of these changes will require some rejiggering for people using custom FBML tabs, and we’ll talk about that … (1 comments)

social media: Another great way to get "Likes" for your Facebook Biz Page - 12/28/10 08:56 AM
We originally announced this free tool on the Roost blog a couple weeks ago.  Great new way to help you get Likes as part of your normal Social Media activities.  You can actually use it through Twitter as well.
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We’re very excited to announce the launch of RoostBar.
RoostBar is an incredible new tool for your Facebook marketing kit to help you build audience (“Likes”) – simply by giving you more leverage from the great content you already share.
Any link you share via the Roost Publisher is now sent with RoostBar attached.   And as you can see from … (2 comments)

social media: RoostBar is an easy way to increase Fans ("Likes") of your Facebook Business Pages? - 12/20/10 08:06 AM

We’re very excited to announce the launch of RoostBar.
RoostBar is an incredible new tool for your Facebook marketing kit to help you build audience (“Likes”) – simply by giving you more leverage from the great content you already share.
Any link you share via the Roost Publisher is now sent with RoostBar attached.   And as you can see from the picture below that means several cool things to you.
RoostBar features a “Like” button for your Facebook Page which will give you a direct benefit from having shared the content It also includes a “Share” button making it … (0 comments)

social media: New Roost Whitepaper - Create a Social Media Campaign in 5 Easy Steps! - 09/27/10 07:27 AM
 The hardest part of creating a Social Media campaign is getting started...
Many of the REALTORs we talk to get excited about Social Media as a way to get more referral business, but really struggle with how to get started.  Like anything, the first step is the hardest.  And if we allow it to feel big, hard and intimidating it can be very difficult to convince ourselves to give it a tray.
So in an effort to help folks with some easy steps to get started, we just published our latest white paper "Create a Complete Social Media Campaign in 5 … (1 comments)

social media: Get started with Social Media...AND...a chance to win Tech Productivity Tools package! - 09/23/10 12:45 PM


Facebook has gotten a ton of buzz lately.  And for good reason.  Never before have so many people adopted a technology that makes getting word-of-mouth business so easy.
You can create & strengthen relationships, demonstrate your expertise, and get new business all online.  “But how do I actually make it work for me and not waste my time?”
Social media can seem overwhelmingly complex and, worse, like a waste of time.  We here at Roost recognize these pains, so we’ve been hard at work building tools that really will help you get new prospects on Facebook effectively and efficiently.  But in order to market yourself … (0 comments)

social media: Big news @ Roost today - Roost Goes Social! - 09/01/10 03:25 PM

We have big news to share today.  After six months of research and prototyping, and with more than 17,000 users, we’ve officially shifted all of our focus to the Roost Social Real Estate Toolkit.
The consumer property search engine at Roost.com will no longer be accessible as we put all effort and resources into building upon the amazing success our Social Real Estate Toolkit has seen.
We’re proud of the comprehensive and accurate search engine we built for consumers. But, frankly, we came to the understanding that the leads generated from the search product were only of incremental value to our clients. … (4 comments)

social media: Social Media Training Webinars - Sep schedule - 09/01/10 06:00 AM
We just published our September schedule for free Social Media Training Webinars.  These are conducted by the always entertaining & informative Derek Overbey of Roost.  
They're free and educational, not a sales pitch.  It's easy to register (links below).  Come join us!
 
Roost September '10 Webinar Schedule Are you looking to get more out of Facebook? Do you wish you knew some of the tips and tricks to leverage the platform more effectively? Well your questions will be answered!
Roost is providing “FREE” webinars throughout the month of September to help you utilize the most powerful marketing channel we have … (5 comments)

social media: Hot of the presses - New Roost Publisher for Facebook saves time & effort - 08/24/10 10:10 AM
 
We're excited to announce the launch of our new publisher tool for Facebook as part of the free Roost Social Real Estate Toolkit.  This tool allows you to easily customize and schedule wall posts to your Personal Profile and/or Facebook Business Page(s).
Based on feedback from users - we know that finding the time to post content into Facebook every day is time consuming, especially when you have multiple pages to go with your profile.
With the Roost Publisher, you can use your time efficiently to customize links and schedule posts to be distributed throughout the day or week and follow … (2 comments)

social media: Your first seven days with social networking - 08/23/10 05:28 AM

(Note:  I'm excited to share this very practical get started post from Jerry Kidd at RealtyTechBytes.com )
By Jerry Kidd CRB CRS GRI

 
Let’s pretend that you have never heard of social networking until just now.  And from what you have heard, you are excited because you have learned that you can use it to stay in touch with past clients, meet new prospects and also use it to nurture those new relationships until they are ready to move from interaction to transaction.  And all for very little money!
But how do you get started?  That’s a great question because … (2 comments)

social media: If Social Networking isn't SAVING you time...you're doing it wrong. - 07/20/10 09:42 AM

I hear this all the time from people who are concerned about Social Networking as a marketing vehicle - "you can just waste so much time with Facebook."
To me, that is a clear signal of someone who is not managing their use of that incredibly powerful referral generation tool effectively.  Yes, we can all get sucked in and spend inordinate amounts of time viewing photos, and so on.  But isn't that true of the web in general?  How about email?  How about the phone? Basically all technology tools that give you access to content and communication have the potential … (37 comments)

social media: The Viral REALTOR®: Part I – Optimizing Audience Development on Facebook - 07/18/10 10:53 AM


Don't be fooled. Time is money.
“The Viral REALTOR” is a two-part post about getting the most out of your social media marketing effort on Facebook (this piece by Roost's head of Product, Brad Selby recently also appeared in Inman News.).
Part I:  Facebook is evolving to benefit your business.  Take your real estate business viral with Facebook communication channels.  Support your Facebook success on your website and blog.
If you’re a business, Facebook is the place to be.  It has the scale, and it has the channels.  Yes, the days of cranking up the k-factor on your sweet new quiz game … (1 comments)

social media: Placing all your online focus on Google SEO today...is like betting on Yahoo! 5 years ago - 06/10/10 06:32 AM
I want to show you two charts from two different periods in time.  They're not exactly apples to apples (I explain why at bottom of post).  But regardless they point to something very clear... 

My point - even if SEO is working well for you today, you need to start paying attention to Facebook.  
Caveats - I realize these comparisons aren't completely apples to apples:
- First, Hitwise and Alexa are measuring slightly different things. Hitwise is measuring "Market Share" which they define as "...the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category..." and Alexa is measuring "Reach" … (67 comments)

social media: Good bye lead conversion. Hello engagement conversion? - 06/04/10 05:08 AM

I've been invited to speak at the REAL Trends conference this summer. The topic: Measuring the effectiveness of your online efforts.
That got me thinking...if the past five years have been about visitors, leads & conversion %...what will be the success metrics we use to track ROI of online marketing over the next five years and beyond?
And so you ask, why will the next 5 be any different than the last?   Well, if you've read my other recent posts you already know that I believe, given the amazing emergence of the Social Web (specifically Facebook - and Twitter … (44 comments)

social media: Get ready to care about "EdgeRank" more than SEO - 05/21/10 09:07 AM
You've probably never hear of "EdgeRank." But if you're serious about online marketing, you need to get your mind around it quickly. It's more important than SEO and will make or break you on the most important place on the web: Facebook
SEO as a marketing strategy for Real Estate is dying.  Here's why:
#1) For the the vast majority of Real Estate agents and brokers it is already dead on arrival, and has been for several years.  
Let's face it, only 5-7 players consistently win on any local keyword string.  Are you one of those?  Long tail you tell … (194 comments)

social media: Easily add Facebook Like Buttons to your Wordpress blog - 05/03/10 05:30 AM

Note - this post was written by our head of Product at Roost, Brad Selby over at the Roost Blog.  Thanks Brad!

In a previous post, we discussed the benefits of Like Buttons for real estate professionals.  The crib sheet:  Like Buttons on blog posts are great because people can easily publish/”Like” your posts to their Facebook via wall and feed stories. Those stories will then reach a larger audience, which means more audience for you.
There’s good news out of developerland – the first excellent Like Button plugin for Wordpress has hit the streets.
It’s easy to install and gives … (3 comments)

social media: You’re getting “Hidden” in Facebook and it’s costing you money - 04/28/10 07:33 AM

Too many of you out there are getting tuned out by your potential clients and prospects on Facebook.  People are hitting the “Hide” button on you every day.  You don’t know that it’s happening, but it is.  How do I know this?  Because I’m one of the ones doing it. 
Why?  Well before we get to that let’s establish some context…
My wife and I just sold our home in San Francisco about 2 months ago, and are now in a rental (small one…with 2 kids…don’t get me started) while we hunt for a new, more family friendly pad.  At … (5 comments)

social media: What are your goals for Facebook? (...turns out...I have a suggestion...) - 04/19/10 04:54 AM

Since we’ve started building Social Real Estate tools, I’ve been really impressed with how many of our clients see the opportunity Facebook presents in generating referral/word of mouth business.
But let’s face it, this is a nascent platform for small/local business people and like all new things, ROI measurement is still tricky.  And what makes that scary is how easy it is to spend large chunks of time playing with it.  If you’re not getting a return on that time, that is expensive opportunity cost.
Obviously, everyone’s goal here is to leverage Facebook to get more deals.  But like most … (0 comments)

 


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