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The Secret: Going from 16 to 822 Friends on Facebook in one week.

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Virtual Pictures Corp. (VPiX)

I got a call from a prospect last week after she went to one of the RainCamp seminars. My name was brought up as a recommendation. 

So thanks Bob or whoever else named dropped me.

During the phone conversation, I was explaining what to do on Facebook for some marketing tips. Then out of the blue, she asked me, "How come you're not very BIG on Facebook?"

What do you mean? I asked.

She said, "Well, you don't really have a Facebook presence. You have less than 20 friends."

I explained that when you have a natural, page one presence on Bing, Yahoo and Yahoo -- you don't really need to have a Facebook presence. But I took her point.  

I'm getting 30+ leads every week thanks to our page one presence on Google, Yahoo and Bing right now. But 90% of them I turn down.

What am I going to do with more leads? I can barely service the clients we have now.

But she was right. Here I am talking about Social Media marketing and I'm not eating my own dogfood. 

I told her, "Let me show what we can do in a week. I'll get 500 friends minimum in a week just to show you that it CAN be done."

She said, "If you can get 500 in a week ethically, you can have my entire internet marketing business." 

That was a week ago.

 Today is 8 days later and I have 822 friends. And I get another 9 - 12 every day now. 

I exceeded what I said I'd have and now I have her business. She was truly amazed because she said nobody at Rain Camp gave her a short "things to do," list.  She said she loved the seminars... but nobody at Rain Camp gave out any "how to do it," secrets of how to market themselves on Facebook. 

So, she hired me and I told her the (3) secrets that I did to land 822 friends. My success story? I've closed more than $21,900 in new business thanks to the work we did on Facebook to improve our image. 

Here's my Facebook page:  

How did I do it?  

Email me for details.

 

Posted by

Bart Wilson | CIO
..................................................................
Virtual Pictures Corp (VPiX®)  
iPhone: (719) 645-9940  |  Skype:  vpix360 

Scott Hayes
(512) 786-8300 - Austin, TX
Realty Austin, Broker Associate

Very good blog post Bart. I look forward adding more friends this coming month.

Jul 25, 2010 04:51 PM
FN LN
Toronto, ON

Bart - What would you do once you collect 5,000 friends which is the maximum amount of Facebook friends you can collect?

Jul 26, 2010 02:26 AM
Melanie Hedrick
Elite Texas Properties, the best homes from McKinney to Dallas! - McKinney, TX
972-816-7205

It does matter what type of "friend" you have doesn't it?  We want people specifically interested in our area, etc. not just friends for the sake of the numbers, don't we?  Any opinions would be appreciated!

Jul 26, 2010 04:19 AM
Bartley Wilson
Virtual Pictures Corp. (VPiX) - Monument, CO
VR Software and 360° Solutions

In the "new age of Internet Marketing," you have to realize one simple truth: That any friend or follower could be your future listing or a future buyer.

"Judging a book by it's cover," is something that consumers and buyers do all the time.  It's a lot different for us REALTORS.  Why?  We are not supposed to restrict services to any man or woman regardless of sex, religion, marital status, etc.

It might sound strange, but I'm thinking this might soon apply to:  Facebook or Twitter status, too. 

Give that idea some thought...   Just because they look like a moron on line, doesn't necessarily mean they might not be a future listing or a future buyer.  So we need to be aware of this. Because when you start restricting and booting every person that we don't like from Following you on Facebook or Twitter -- you might be denying yourself a future commission check.

-- bart

Jul 26, 2010 04:25 AM
Lydia Puller, Realtor
Vanguard Properties - San Francisco, CA
Homes for Sale in San Francisco, Marin & East Bay

Bart...interesting information. I went to your facebook page and like it, its about your busines and not you per se.  I sent you an email...I'm intereste what you have to say. Makes sense to me and I definitely need help with FB and Twitter.

Jul 26, 2010 02:20 PM
Troy Funk
Allison James Estates & Homes, Sarasota 941-957-3737 - Sarasota, FL
Broker / Associate

Facebook has been so good to me in business ... thanks for sharing how to grow this.

Aug 30, 2010 02:21 PM