Welcome to Part 2 of “50 Ways to Use Your Fan Page”.   Each post I will give you 10 more ideas on what kind of information to post and provide on your Facebook Fan Page.  I’ll give you unique and creative ideas on how to promote yourself, your listings, your website and your company online using Facebook. I’ll also provide you how-tos on promotion of the page, reading statistics and more.

The next 10 ideas on how to create value and promote your Facebook Fan Page are listed below. If there is something you would like to know more about or if you have an idea or suggestion you feel works, please feel free to let me know or post it below! After all, social media is all about sharing and collaboration. It is only successful when others participate.

1.    Post personal photos. Photos are probably one of the most popular uses for Facebook. Photos grab attention and encourage people to take a look at your page. You can and should post personal photos but keep it professional. Make sure you keep in mind that this is a professional fan page and use discretion.

2.    Post photos of properties.  If you have a particular property that you are featuring on your website and would like to get some extra viewing time on, post an album in the photos section that is of the property. Be sure to put the properties address as the name of the album. For added benefit, go into the settings area of your album and set it to ‘everyone’ can view. That way, even if someone can’t see your profile, they will be able to see that particular photo album. (You can designate settings for each album.)

3.    Post photos of events you attend.  Make sure you take great photos of any events that you attend. If there are people you know who appear in the photos, get their permission and “tag” them. Tagging can be done as you are uploading your photos or after you have posted them to your album. When you tag a photo of someone, Facebook sends them an email letting them know and encouraging them to visit your page. This is what creates the “community” feel of your page. The more personalization you put on the page, the more likely it will be it gets visited.

4.    Start a Discussion. Discussions provide a way to initiate conversation on your profile and encourage people to network with each other. Allow others a chance to communicate with you and your friends. It draws users in creates commentary. Click on the ‘discussions’ tab at the top of your fan page. Click the ‘start new topic’ link and enter the information. Once you’ve entered it, be sure to post on your wall that you’re starting a discussion. Keep it interesting; talk about current market events, or use it as a question and answer session. If you can provide valuable advice, you’ll get fans coming back for more.

5.    Advertise your Open Houses. At the top of your fan page is a tab called “Events”. Here you can post upcoming events like your upcoming open houses. You can even attach links to a map for driving directions.

6.    Add your own functionality through FBML (Facebook Markup Language). Facebook Mark Up Language allows you to add advanced functionality to your fan Page using this application.  If you know HTML, you can design and create your own pages or have someone do it for you. This application will add a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.  Click here to add the application: http://harvard.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878

7.    Announce your blog posts. You can advertise new posts to your blog simply by posting it as an update on your wall. You can attach a link directly to your blog that will direct fans right to the article.

8.    Use Twitter to drive traffic. Use your Twitter updates to let your followers know of unique and interesting content or new content you’ve posted to your fan page. Cross marketing is an extremely effective way to get social media to work for you.

9.    Become a fan yourself. Not only should you make sure that you become a fan of your own fan page through your personal profile, you should also make sure that you become a fan of other causes, companies, brands and people with whom you know and do business. Reaping the benefits of social media means you have to participate in it as well. Make sure you are cultivating the online community by searching around for pages that match your specific interests. A consummate professional pays attention to the causes and companies that matter most to their clients and becomes fans of them as well. One good turn deserves another.

10.     Visit at least two fans per week. Social media is like any other kind of socialization. You have to make yourself available to others for it to work. In today’s hectic business climate, you may find it difficult to pick up the phone and call people just to say hello. Facebook profiles make it much easier.  Be sure to pick at least two fan’s profiles per week to visit. Post a friendly ‘hello’ on their wall. They will get emailed that you posted and feel good you reached out to them.

This concludes part two of my series.  I hope you’re playing around with your fan page and starting to get a hand of its functionality. Check back soon for 10 more ideas as we work towards providing you with 50 ideas on how to use your Facebook Fan Page!

Until then, Happy Socializing!

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CyberSunshine, Inc. is real estate web design firm that has been developing website and intranet applications for the real estate industry since 1998.  Regarded as one of the industry’s premier technology development companies, and recently named as one of Florida’s Top 100 Small Businesses, CyberSunshine, Inc. enables clients to maximize their marketing and sales potential through the internet by providing flexible, dynamic systems with robust web-based solutions tailored to their specific needs.  For additional information call 239-437-2628 or visit http://www.cybersunshine.com.

I am remembering my grandfather today who was a WWII Bomber Pilot. A member of the 449th Bomb Group, he was shot down and taken as a POW. My grandfather flew a bomber that they named “Reluctant Liz” after my grandmother, Elizabeth (Betty) Bontly. On April 4, 1944 known as 4/4/44, seven of the original planes from Bruning in the 449th were shot down in that single day. This event was immortalized in the paintings by artist Jim Dietz entitled “Maximum Effort”. The painting commissioned by Col Hollie Wilkes hangs in the Pentagon. I have included an image of that painting in this note. The 449th received a DUC for a mission on 4 April 1944 when the group, flying without escort, raided marshalling yards in Bucharest; although heavily outnumbered by German fighters, the group succeeded not only in bombing the target but also in destroying many of the enemy interceptors The most successful operations of the allied strategical air warfare was against the German fuel supply which proved to be the fatal blow for the luftwaffe. The 449th Heavy Bomber group flew raids over Romania and is credited with the destruction of the oil refinery at Ploesti.

30 members of the 449th were killed over Austria in the worse of midair collisions. In all of the 449th Group, 388 men were killed in action, 363 were taken Prisoner of War and 101 planes (B-24′s) were lost.

My grandfather survived and lived to tell the tale. We have quite a bit of information, as he was more willing to talk about it later in his life. I have always been incredibly inspired by my grandfather’s efforts in this war and will continue to pass his story down to Baby Chase once he’s old enough to understand, though I pray that when he’s old enough “war” will be a concept we only read about in history books.

Please take some time today to remember those who have served in our military and died for our freedom. My grandfather was a brave but humble man. He probably would have laughed at me for posting this online but I know he wouldn’t be mad.

This is the official website for the 449th Bomb Group:

http://www.norfield-publishing.com/449th/449site.html

Additional Historical Information:

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28 B-24s of the 449 BG[3] from Grottaglie, after taking the usual route past Turnu Severin, across the Southern Carpathians, and up to Târgovişte and Snagov, bombed for two hours at mid day. The principal target was the Bucharest marshalling yard, Gara de Nord (tracks were destroyed). Warm weather and strong wind deflected bombs which landed on Calea Griviţei and Giuleşti and western/north-western Bucharest was severely hit, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing/injuring over 5,000. Bombs fell on Calea Victoriei, on the Splendid and Athénée Palace Hotels; on the German Military Mission; near Cathedral of St. Joseph (destroying its stained-glass windows); and on Cotroceni, uprooting poplars in the Botanical Garden of Bucharest[4]. One bomb shelter was also destroyed.

Seven B-24s were lost from enemy aircraft (flak was slight and inaccurate over the target), and 13 B-24s were damaged and returned.[5] 717 BS losses included Reluctant Liz, Miasis Dragon, and from the 719th BS, Consolidated Mess, Dixie Belle, Paper Doll, Born to Lose, and B-24 #41-28655. Destroyed/probable/damaged Luftwaffe aircraft were 32/6/5 ME-109, 6/5/1 FW-190, 1/0/0 HE-113, 1/0/0 Me-210, and 0/2/0 JU-88.

Welcome to my blog series, “50 Ways to Use Your Fan Page to Earn Business.”  Thank you for reading!  Over the next five weeks, I am going to provide you 50 unique ideas on how you can use your fan page to attract, retain and earn new business.   Each week I will give you 10 more ideas on what kind of information to post and provide on your Fan Page.  I’ll give you unique and creative ideas on how to promote yourself, your listings, your website and your company online using Facebook. I’ll also provide you how-tos on promotion of the page, reading statistics and more.

The first 10 ideas on how to create value and promote your Facebook Fan Page are listed below. I’m going to assume that you are just getting started, because most of you do not even have your page setup yet. If that is you, please check out my previous post on how to set a page up.

Over the next several weeks, if there is something you would like to know more about or if you have an idea or suggestion you feel works, please feel free to let me know or post it below! After all, social media is all about sharing and collaboration. It is only successful when others participate.

1. Spruce up your profile to prepare for visitors. Treat this moment like you would if your friends and family were coming over to see your new house for the first time. You want to make a good impression and have it sparkle.  If they come to your profile and there is nothing captivating or memorable, they may never come back.   If you’re an agent, be sure your profile photo looks professional. If you’re a brokerage, use your logo. Finally, make sure that all of your info is filled out entirely so visitors can learn all they need to know about you. It’s always great when you can find some common ground with the people with whom you do business.

2. Make it personal. People do business with people they know and like. This is an age-old saying and it still stands true. The beauty of social media is that it puts the personal back into technological relationships. You now have a way to allow people to get to know you. Post as much as you can about yourself – your hometown, schools that you went to, where you work, places you’ve been, etc.  When people find common ground with you, they’ll feel more connected. I happen to be an Ohio State Buckeye, which connects me with thousands of former alumni who still feel very connected to their school.

3. Use your newsletter as a guide. If you write or send out a newsletter or eNewsletter, a quick and easy way to start your fan page is to utilize content from your current and past publications. Post updates and events to your page and then invite your fans to those events!

4. Create value through unique and interesting content. Find interesting news articles online and post them to your fan page. Many websites now offer the ‘share’ utility that allows you to post content you feel is valuable to your profile.

5. Promote the benefits of your service. Think about the kind of information you would give a new or prospective client. Write down the questions they would typically ask of you regarding your service and then research the internet and try and find the answers. For example, post information on why it’s good to use a REALTOR® and then back it up with facts you find online.

6. Post your listings! If you have a featured property, use your fan page as a way to advertise it. It’s FREE!  Our websites come with a ‘share this’ feature on all listings details pages. That means you can go to your site and post the property to your fan page. When users click it, it takes them to your website so they can find even more information about you.

7. Become the main source for up-to-date local info. Use the updates feature to talk about the latest happenings in your area from new restaurant and mall openings to construction projects.  Find market, demographic and community information online and post it. Your clients will appreciate having one source for this important information.

8. Advertise your websites. Use your fan page as a way to drive traffic to your website(s). Send them to the site by promoting it on your page. Remember that you will most likely have different audiences on your fan page vs. your website. It’s ok to send users back and forth.

9. Post market information in various neighborhoods. Keep your audience in mind. Fans will be a combination of all ages and in all stages of the home buying process. Keep your name in the mind of your past clients by offering them recent sold data within their areas. Pick a different neighborhood each week and post information about market conditions.

10. Post sold properties. Let it be known when you have sold a property! This is your opportunity to show your fans what you are accomplishing. If you are busy and show that you know what you’re doing, they’ll be more likely to contact you to assist them.

This concludes part one of my series.  It should give you a good initial start on what kind of information to post on your social media sites. Come back next week for 10 more ideas as we work towards providing you with 50 ideas on how to use your Facebook Fan Page!

Until then, Happy Socializing!

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CyberSunshine, Inc. is real estate web design firm that has been developing website and intranet applications for the real estate industry since 1998.  Regarded as one of the industry’s premier technology development companies, and recently named as one of Florida’s Top 100 Small Businesses, CyberSunshine, Inc. enables clients to maximize their marketing and sales potential through the internet by providing flexible, dynamic systems with robust web-based solutions tailored to their specific needs.  With clients located throughout the globe, CyberSunshine, Inc. has solutions that can fit your specific business need.  For additional information call 239-437-2628 or visit http://www.cybersunshine.com.

To those of you who have created your Page and are now ready to move to the next step, let me first commend you for your efforts! I know this can be scary…but don’t worry! It’s FREE and the only way to truly goof up is to not do anything! Keep in mind that your goal in developing a social media marketing campaign is to keep it professional, build networks and cultivate relationships that will ultimately turn into business leads.

The first thing you need to do is look over your info section. Make sure that you have filled everything out entirely. You don’t have to give everything away but make sure that it at least provides your contact info and where you work. If someone is interested in getting in touch with you, this is where they’ll look so make sure it’s all accurate and up to date.

Secondly, you’ll want to check your settings and information. At the top left hand of the page, there is an ‘edit’ link. Within the edit section, you’ll find settings, wall settings, mobile, discussion boards, events, information, notes, photos, video, wall and more applications. To edit any one of these sections, click the small pencil icon to the right and then select ‘edit’.

• Under “Settings”, make sure that under “Published”, the “Published (publicly visible) is selected. Once you have “published” your fan page, it will become visible to other users.

• Under ‘Wall Settings” you can change the default view for fans and control who posts to your wall. This is where you can control who can post what to your page.

• “Mobile” allows you to publish your status updates via mobile phone for when you’re on the road. Once you get comfortable with Facebook, this can be a great way to let people know your status updates quickly. You have to have a carrier that works with this service so check your service plan.

• “Discussion Boards” allow you to get a conversation started about topics of importance or interest. This can be a great tool for you to get some valuable feedback from your clients. You set the topics and promote the discussion.

• “Events” is a great feature. This is a fantastic way to get the word out about any event you have coming up. Post open houses, grand openings, social gatherings, real estate seminars and more. If you send emails out to clients about events you would like to attend, make sure you post them to your fan page as well. Once you create the event, you can promote it to your fans through Facebook. Your fans are sent the info and they can even RSVP to it.

• “Information” is where you can manage the information settings on your page. This is where you can add your website, picture and basic info.

• “Links” provides you the ability to determine who can post links to your fan page. You can post websites, blogs, videos, and songs, as well as content on Facebook, like profiles, photos, notes, groups, and events. You can allow all fans to post links or only allow admins. This is your decision.

• “Notes” allows you to share information through written entries. You can tag people you know in these entries and others can leave comments. If you want to write an article about something important, or perhaps you want to write a thank you to a recent client, you can use this feature and then tag that person. They will get an email that they are in that note and can go right to it on your page.

• “Photos” allow you to upload your own personal photos to your fan page. In my opinion, photos are a really great way to gain interest in your fan page quickly. People like to look at photos online. Once you upload them, you can add comments and tag other fans in them. The photos are also posted in news feeds of your fans, which can get their attention and encourage them to take a look (which drives them to your page). You can create your own albums and then share them with others. If you go to an event, take photos of that event. If you have a property that is especially enticing, create an album for it. I’ll have more ideas to share about how to use this great application in future posts.

• The “Videos” section allows you to post, record and send videos to fans. This is a great way to generate interest, as videos can be extremely viral. Viral means that others will see it, then forward it to their friends, who forward it to theirs, and so on. If you have a video of a community or property, this is a good place to include it.

• Your Facebook “Wall” is the open forum where you communicate with your fans. It’s the best place to interact with them through comments, posts, insights and more. Think of your wall as your customizable bulletin board where you can post interesting bits of information. The best part about the wall is its interactivity between you and your fans. With it, you can share information and not only become an information resource, but obtain valuable feedback for your business.

That wraps up the overview of your new Facebook Fan Page. In the next week, take a look at all of the features of your page and get familiar with them and how they function. If you’re interested in learning more about social media and Facebook, please follow my blog. Next week I will be starting a new blog series, “50 Ways to Use Your Fan Page”. It will be a five week series that will provide you with 10 unique and creative ideas each week on how to use your fan page in business networking. If you’re interested in getting started but feel stuck on what to do next, you’ll want to check back each week. I hope to get an interesting discussion started on how we can all use this fantastic media to cultivate new and rewarding relationships.

If you use Facebook and feel it has been successful, I’d like to hear from you! Let me know how you have used it in your business to help promote yourself and your services.

Until next time, Happy Socializing!

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As a real estate professional, you are your brand. You create logos around your name and business. If you’re a broker, then brand awareness is even more crucial.  If you have an organization, business, product or personality that you intend to keep in business through this year and beyond, well then you’ll want to setup a Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Pages are customizable pages setup to help a variety of promotional groups “join the conversation with Facebook users”.  They allow unlimited users (unlike personal profiles), business-to-consumer interaction, and content sharing.  One of the most important aspects, but often overlooked is the fact that they allow you to create a very targeted focus group for your business.  If all that still hasn’t’ convinced you, well then you should know that they are even beginning to show up quite quickly in major search engines.  Did I get your attention now? Everything from corporations, major newspapers and television shows to individual celebrities and non-profits can leverage the power of a Facebook Page to promote brand awareness.

Facebook Pages are similar yet quite different from personal profiles. Instead of “friends”, Pages acquire “fans”.  Fans are sent updates (posted by page administrators) via news feeds on their personal profiles, which are then promoted to their ‘friends’. Under ‘News Feed’, you’ll see a list of the updates that have been made by your friends. Along the far right hand side of the page you may see thumbnail images with the title along with an announcement that “John Smith” is a fan. Along with it is a link for you to click to “Become a fan”.

Page creation can be difficult to find. I’ve provided you a quick link to help you out (you can thank me later). http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/create.php Creating a page is not difficult or time consuming, and involves only a few fields of pertinent information.

1)      First, choose the category in which your Page will be seen in the Facebook directory. Select whether you are Local, a Brand or Product, or an Artist, Band or Public Figure. As a real estate professional, you’ll most likely find the right designation under “Local”.  Select ‘real estate’ from the drop down menu. (Note: if you want to setup a Page for a non-profit you care about, you’ll find “non-profit” under Brand or Product)

2)      Choose your name.  This part’s important. Tread carefully!! Once you have chosen it, Facebook does not allow you to change it. It’s also important to know that whatever you choose will be found in the URL of the page, which is great for search engine effectiveness.  That’s why you’ll want to make sure that the name you use is the one that you use in all of your other marketing. Now is not the time to be cute – keep it simple and obvious.  If you’re not sure, take a look at your marketing tools; business cards and brochures…how do you present yourself? Go with what you see most often in your real estate marketing materials, whether its your name, your company name or a URL, select the name that you feel a potential buyer or seller would use to search for you.

3)      Finally, perform the “security check”. The security check is just simply a Captcha box that requires you to type in the words you see on the screen. This is just so the system can verify that you are indeed a human.

4)      Click ‘Create Page’ and you’re done!

Now what do you do?

1)      Take a break and get a treat for yourself…you’ve officially began your social media campaign!

2)      Start customizing. Select an image to upload- make sure its professional looking.  A logo or photo identifying your Page is critical…don’t leave the goofy question mark you’ll see there (you can change this any time if needed).

3)      Fill out the info page. This is good for search engines; add as much as you can and be as descriptive as possible. You want people to relate to your group so they’ll become your fan.

4)      Fill the page with useful and interesting content. You’ll want to start obtaining fans but if you have nothing interesting to lend, you won’t have any fans.

If you’re a real estate brokerage, post statistics on your market area, show off your company real estate websites, and brag about your sales numbers.  You can announce new agents to your team, brag up a particular listing agent who was a recent top producer or even highlight an agent of the month. Use the page as a way to market your business.

If you’re an agent, post open houses to your events, show off your website(s) through link posts, share photos of featured listings and communicate with prospects via updates. Be creative! The more clever you are, the better your Page will be.

5)      Finally, start promoting. Remember you are now a needle in a haystack. You need to spread the word about your page. Post your Page information to sites like delicious.com, twitter, your website and your blog.

In my next post, I’ll give you all kinds of information on how to promote your Page, how to update your fans, how to target your updates and more. Until then, Happy Socializing!

Whenever you get a lead, always ask how they found out about you.  If you have a contact form, include a drop down. If you talk to them on the phone, you don’t have to spend a lot of time chatting about it,  just find out whether they heard about you in an ad, online or other sources. If they say online, find out if its your website, Google, a chamber site or others. If you are a brokerage or an agent, a great way to get started is to create a lead tracking form. You can find these online or make one up yourself using a Word processing program.  Ideally you’d have one online.  CyberSunshine includes a business manager with every website that allows you to create specific lead categories like ‘web’, ‘magazine ad’, etc. You can then assign categories to each lead you receive from your real estate website or via manual entry. Once you have this information, you can run statistics on where your leads are coming from to get a clearer picture of the sources that are sending you the most leads. You’ll be surprised at how clear things will become once you have this information. You’ll be able to see what marketing spends are giving you the most ROI (return on investment) and then make the best decisions for your business.

Contact us today for more information on our business management system and how we can put it to work for you!

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? (Source: http://www.Twitter.com)

You are hearing all over the news that people are ‘twittering’. For those of you addicted to Facebook and posting status updates, Twitter could be the next best thing to chocolate covered Peeps. (Do they make those?)

It seems that the more we retreat into the confines of our offices, delving into the anonymous, ubiquitous world of the internet, the more we long for social interaction and connection. Could it be that the world has gotten so small and yet still feels so big that we all feel completely disconnected from each other? Well if you do, then start Twittering. It allows you to talk about what you’re doing each moment of the day with all of the people who have decided that they care enough to become one of your “followers”.

Once you’ve setup your Twitter account, chose those that you will “follow”.  When you follow someone, you are updated when they post to their account. If you’re a news junkie or talk show fan, you can follow your favorites.  Find out what their next shows are and get breaking news.  Taking it one step further, you can keep in touch with friends by following them and their daily actions.  Once you follow them, you’ll get notified when they make updates and you can reply to those updates any time.

How does Twitter benefit your business? If you use Twitter for personal AND business, you might find that you get inundated with too much mindless, mundane updates for it to actually work as a networking site (I prefer Facebook myself).  However, I am always open to feedback from those of you who have gained positive connections and/or sales through Twitter (Contact me if you have!) Where I really feel it benefits is from a research and development standpoint – listen to the tweets and you might find it ‘sweet’.

Use Twitter to….

Simply Listen and Learn. As real estate professionals, and especially if you own a real estate business, you should always be keeping up with the latest news and events in your industry. By now you should be getting preference specific news updates like Google alerts on those topics that you care about- your market, local area economic concerns, etc. (If you’re not, you better start…email me if you need to know how to set this up). You need to keep up on this information to remain an educated, well-informed service professional for your clients. In keeping with that objective, Twitter CAN help you stay informed.  Follow organizations like Inman News, the Real Estate Channel, and even your own local association for updates on things that affect you, your business and your clients.

Learn about your competition. What better way to find out what your competitors are doing…each day more and more real estate businesses are adding “corporate profiles”.  Usually a staff member or even an executive is posting updates to their page about their latest business happenings.  If you’re lucky, they’re posting information about their newest marketing campaign, strategy, expansions, management practices and more.  They’re so busy bragging themselves up, suddenly you know as much about them as their own agents.

Learn about your clients. Regardless of what age range you cater to, get your clients enthused about social media. If you have someone contact you through your website, search for them on Twitter. Follow them if you find them. Read all about their daily lives, family and things they care about then make sure you stay on top of it. If they post that they are sad they lost their dog, send them a note of sympathy. Let them know you care.  Thoughtfulness is the key to prosperity.

Remind you what is important. As I was writing this, I took a break to be with my three month old son. He was blissfully playing on his back with a play gym I recently bought him. As I approached him, his eyes lit up and he smiled at me. There was something wonderfully sweet about the fact that he has no idea what Twitter is…or the internet for that matter. I’m going to enjoy and relish in the first few years of his life where he is not inundated with constant communication and social networking. I’m sure by the time he is five he’ll know more about all of this than me…but until then, I’m glad all he’ll know or care about is the color of his “Peeps” not the amount of his Tweets.

Happy Socializing!

One time saving and convenient feature Google offers is “Travel Information.”

The “Travel Information” feature allows you to see delays, weather conditions, and even the status of a flight!  All you have to do is type the airport’s three letter code followed by the word “airport.”  For example, Southwest Florida International Airport updates can be found by searching for “RSW airport.”

If you or a loved one is traveling and you need flight information fast, use Google! To check the status of a U.S. flight, type the name of the airline followed by the flight number. For example, to see the status for United Airlines flight 153 search for “United 153.”

1. Get a personal website and BRAND you or your company.

80% of all real estate transactions involve the use of the Internet. Buyers using the Internet end up using a professional real estate person to help them 90% of the time. In order to be successful in this industry, you need to think “Internet,” yet also focus on branding. You should work hard as a real estate professional to differentiate yourself from competition in all aspects of your marketing.

Building a brand is a critical piece to accomplishing this task, and is something that many real estate agents tend to overlook. You want your brand to mean something specific to the marketplace. Your brand is not just your company name, logo, website, or advertisements. A brand is what your clients think, say, and believe about your company. Your clients should be undoubtedly aware of the benefits you offer them.

Your brand identity must work for you on your website and all other marketing materials you may use. Use your brand identity to describe your services and how you can benefit your clients. It is important to realize that your brand is also deciphered into your logo so that it is easily remembered. When your clients see your logo, they should effortlessly associate it with your distinguished services and benefits.

2. Market your Real Estate Website

It is extremely important to your continued success as a real estate professional to spend time on a real estate web marketing plan. You should work with an online consultant who will help you determine your goals and objectives for your online marketing. You MUST diversify your marketing strategies, much the same way you would with an investment portfolio. After all, the technology you purchase is an investment and it should be working for you at all times. Invest your money into a variety of different marketing platforms (e.g. natural search, pay per click, manual submissions, site adjustments, etc.) so that you get the maximum benefit for your expenditures, and avoid “putting all your eggs in one basket.” We recommend participating in data push programs such as GoogleBase and Video portals for maximum exposure.

3. Enhance your listings- Video is the future!

In order to truly differentiate and stand out from other more standardized websites, there are many things you can do to enhance your listing and drive traffic to your site. You could add more remarks, photos, brochures and virtual tours. One way to truly stand out from the rest is by creating videos of your properties and the communities in which they are located. Video portals are an easy and convenient way agents can show video from their website and gain additional exposure of their properties. Web videos are a creative way to realistically show a home without physically having to be there. They offer a thorough, realistic view of a home, which allows the listing to become something of significance for buyers who are searching for a more tangible way to experience a particular property.

4. Work Hard and Commit Yourself to the Site

Too often, agents want their website to be simple and “do-it-all for them.” The popular saying “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to real estate websites. You cannot build a site and then just let it sit there, expecting it to earn you business without doing anything. You should commit at least a couple of hours to your website per month. Two to three hours per week is preferable. Commitment to online advertising is critical. While real estate advertisers continue to cut back expenditures on print ads and direct mail, online advertising continues to grow in popularity and has become essential to the success of real estate agents. It is estimated that in 2007 50% or more of real estate companies spent more on their online advertising than on print. You need to be ready and willing to embrace this technology to stay in the game.

5. Reinvest in Your Technology

If you do have a website, you must continue to reinvest in it in order to keep it fresh, new, and innovative. A website is an investment just like a property. If you care for it and maintenance it, then it will flourish and make money for you. If you let it sit, it will do nothing and degenerate with time.

Reinvest about one-third of your technology costs each year for maintenance, replacement, and training purposes. Invest at minimum, 5% to 10% of your revenue in technology. Set aside funds each time you make a sale into a marketing account for this purpose. Cutting corners when it comes to your technology will only hurt your long-term success. When implemented correctly, the savings of technology and return on your investment will far exceed the costs.

Follow these five basic rules and you’ll be further on your way to a more successful online marketing approach. Keep in mind, however, that it is never a bad idea to enlist the help of a professional when determining your online marketing goals and objectives. If you sell real estate well, chances are you don’t have a lot of time to devote to all of these things so you’ll need to delegate. An experience professional can not only help you formulate a plan, but execute it as well.