Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
Just like chocolate and peanut butter, being social and Facebook go hand-in-hand. But are you really being social through your Facebook business page? This tutorial video will give you tips and advice for getting the most out of Facebook by simply being friendly.
Stefanie Hahn is the education director for Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® in Malvern, Pa. Visit her Web site: www.StefanieHahn.com.
Subhi J. Gharbieh
By Subhi J. Gharbieh
Being a REALTOR® for a little more than four years now, I have a good understanding of how to approach my business today. I think it is safe to say that when I got into the business, “cold calling” was pretty much being phased out. With the emergence of federal and state Do Not Call laws, it was becoming very difficult to effectively prospect potential clients over the phone. On the flip side, I feel that these laws have made us resort to more genuine, personal ways of prospecting.
I have found that my most effective prospecting strategy is to simply put yourself in your potential client’s shoes. Would you give the time of day to sit on the phone and listen to what some REALTOR® who you have never met has to say? Especially when they call around dinner time…who enjoys that? I personally would not speak to any telemarketer trying to sell their product/service over the phone, so I am not a big fan of cold calling.
Social media today has really evolved the way we prospect and do business overall. Blogging, tweeting, and sharing your posts with Facebook friends, are easy ways to get your message out to an unlimited number of prospects. Who knows which one of your friends will share your post, exposing it to all of their friends, and on and on… Facebook is also an easy way of gathering an e-mail list of potential clients, if they do not choose to hide their contact information.
So get out there — knock on doors, attend local events, and meet new people! Life is too short to be shy.
Subhi J. Gharbieh is the broker owner of Gharbieh & Associates in Dallas. Connect with him at www.Gharbieh.com or on Twitter @subhig.
Dave Robison
By Dave Robison
Ever had that friend that whenever your phone rang, you looked at the caller ID and cringed? You simply subconsciously wanted to call them your friend because at one time they were, but for some reason they crossed the line into a category that none of us dare say to their face that they are now apart of. It’s the “What are they selling now?” category. Many REALTORS® are in that category, especially during the downturn as they have jumped to selling their clients other products, cell phones, or even pyramid schemes.
For me, I hated getting calls from that friend. For that reason I built my company so that I didn’t have to beg for business. I could focus on being a friend instead of a beggar.
How am I getting referrals without asking for referrals? I’m having fun and growing a tribe.
First: Facebook has stats on fan pages and I can see how effective I’m being. I can tell if my tribe is growing and can gauge interaction with people. If likes are growing and interaction and comments are growing my referrals will grow as well. Secret weapon to getting referrals without asking is my fan page
Second: The blogging of house listings and market conditions are dead. Blogging is all about interacting. We started a theme called “Dig it or Ditch it” where we post a picture of a room inside a house. Comments soared. Add a contest where people ‘”share the post” on their profile and our likes grew too. We now are reaching our friends’ friends. On one of these posts we received 19 new fans who were friends with our friends. We didn’t have to call our friends and beg them for business and we gained access to 19 of their friends without throwing a house warming party or sending out postcards. We just posted a pic of a room in a house. Continue reading »
Laura Rubinchuk
By Laura Rubinchuk
Lately I’ve been convinced that Facebook business pages should be more like a community page, a 365 page, or another way to get your community involved and talking.
While I see extreme value in that, and don’t mean to discredit that theory, because there are many ways to make social media work for you, I want to say that you should STILL have a fan page for you business (or your brand).
I recently got engaged and found wedding planning to be a second job. Research, planning, Web surfing, reviews, etc. etc. <eyes glazing over here> I’ve found that I went back to what I know well. When I find a vendor I’m interested in, I took to wedding rating sites in addition to Facebook. I wanted to see what people were willing to stake their names and identities to say. Is it just the vendor talking about recent events or did the clients actually post something to say “Thank you! You were great!” or something of the sort. In one instance, I was so torn between two vendors, I actually sent a complete stranger a Facebook message. Surprised? She responded. She was willing to spend the time to tell a complete stranger how great this DJ was at her wedding. I find it’s easy to bash or praise a vendor as a faceless avatar with an arbitrary name – it’s more credibility when it’s an actual person speaking up and vouching for this professional.
Take that to your business. We ask clients for testimonials all the time – we add it to our websites, our marketing brochures, we paste them everywhere! But what about your Facebook page? Why not simply ask them to write it there? You know they’re on there killing time anyway! You know how it goes – the post shows up on their wall, and their friends see it, and so on and so forth.
Just don’t forget to be consistent. Don’t have one post a month or none at all. Don’t brag, don’t just post your blogs or tweets. Actually provide some content and reassurance so when a stranger looks for you, they’ll find something great they can’t ignore! I plan to implement this new strategy, now that the lightbulb has gone off!
Laura Rubinchuk, GRI, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Realty in McLean, Va. Visit her blog at www.ArlingtonRealEstateNews.com or her Web site at www.TheLJRGroup.com.
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
Are You Distracted?
In today’s world most of us are overwhelmed with information, new products, and services, most of which provide little more than distraction to the average person.
As a REALTOR®, it is definitely easy to get caught up in the hype of the latest technologies; after all, most of them are very appealing with the promises of making our lives easier and more profitable. Last week I attended the CAR Tech Tuesday event in Anaheim, Calif. and while there I had many great conversations with REALTORS®, but one really stood out in my mind …
“How does one cut through all of the noise that we are bombarded with to get to the dollar-producing activities?”
CAR added a fun twist to the event this year, they had a “meet the speakers” during a “speed networking” session. This was by far the best part of the day for me. Those of us who spoke at the event got the chance to do 4-minute sessions with approx 25-30 groups of approximately 30 people. The common questions asked by the REALTOR® attendees in these different groups were things like: Continue reading »
Brooke Wolford
By Brooke Wolford
I often wonder about how a lot of people handle the relationships they make using social media. Yes, it’s great to tweet, comment, or share, but what are you doing to build an actual relationship?
I often see others posting superficial things that they don’t have a passion for and they really have no knowledge to discuss. Isn’t it true that social media is about the conversation and not just merely posting something?
I am always concerned about my privacy, and yes, there are things I chose not to share. At the same time, it’s important to let people see who you really are. I cannot be fake, no matter how hard I could possibly try. “I am who I am.”
I look back at some of the longest relationships I have had on social networking sites. I know so much about them and when I meet them IRL, I know that there will be a comfortable conversation. We will have things to laugh about. Continue reading »
Jeremy Williams
By Jeremy Williams
In a series I am teaching on social media to a group of agents at the Keller Williams Realty NE office in Kingwood, Texas, I have emphasized that social media should just be one of many components in an agents tool kit for lead generation. With all the new social media sites online, it can be overwhelming and it is easy to slip into the mindset of “I must be on all social media sites.” Are you experiencing these feelings? Are you spending more time on social media sites than with people? Have you become an addict?
Here is a 12 step program for REALTORS® to remedy your situation:
1. We admit we are powerless over Facebook, Twitter, Linked, WordPress and YouTube – that our lives have become unmanageable after staying up until 2 in the morning to monitor status updates.
2. Came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, including lead generating using more archaic methods such as dialing a phone number or shaking a real, “not virtual,” hand.
3. Made a decision to turn off our computers thus stop sharing our personal photos of us in bathing suits at the lake and return to sharing our experiences in person. Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
Social Media policies are becoming commonplace with businesses today. Companies want to make sure their employees understand what online behaviors will not be tolerated of their charges. For many of us, these “tolerated” behaviors seem obvious, but we all know that one guy or girl who likes to share a little too much.
I think it’s important to try to post to your audience. So if Facebook is my personal space, I will post personal (but not too personal) updates, photos, etc. LinkedIn is my business network everything I post here is business-related. Twitter is my grey area, I post both work and personal updates and photos here and my connections vary from my mother to Anderson Cooper. Not that I think Anderson Cooper reads my updates, but if he ever did …
I charge you with creating your own social media policy. Figure out how you want to interact on these sites and with whom. Creating your own social media policy means understanding and implementing your social contracts within these sites. Your social contract will dictate who you connect with, how you interact with your connections and your behavior on that site. I’ve always had certain rules that I’ve stuck to with my social media sites. These are mine, yours may be very different and only you can determine what your social contracts should be for these sites.
Facebook Friends
I like to keep the social in Facebook … I post personal updates and photos here. I might post a tiny bit of business here, but it’s very minimal. I maintain a Facebook Page for my company that contains all of my necessary work updates. Typically with Facebook, if we’re not friends in real life, then I’m not accepting your friend request. There are always exceptions to this rule of course. If we don’t know each other, but you write a little note with your request, I usually accept. I’m a sucker for the little note. Continue reading »
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
Does Facebook Privacy have you concerned?
Lately, it seems like everyone is concerned about their online privacy …
… I can’t help but ask what are you hiding?
As a real estate professional, I use social media sites to expand and grow my business first and foremost; therefore, I want my information to be found easily. In fact, I go out of my way to optimize my online presence so that more people will find it.
I was teaching a class on Facebook to REALTORS(R) last week and I actually had someone ask me if I felt it was safe to put your phone number on social media sites …
… Are you kidding me?
I was also asked several other questions like:
- What kind of information is OK to post?
- Is it OK to post my hobbies & interests?
- Should my profile picture be professional or casual?
- Is it OK to accept friend requests from other REALTORS(R)?
- Is it OK to unfriend someone or hide them from my news feed?
My advice is … Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
It’s summertime! Let’s grab our bathing suits, hit the pool and… oh yeah, check our Facebook privacy settings. Another update from Zuckerburg and crew has created the need to recheck what you are sharing on Facebook.
First things first …
If you are connected with more than 15 people on facebook and you haven’t created a few “Friend Lists” yet, stop and do this now. Setting up your lists is simple and…BONUS…they are easy to maintain.
Just as a refresher….
Click on Account
Click on Edit Friends
On the left menu, click on Friends
Click Create New List
Enter a name for your list (family, work, YPN)
Click on the faces of your friends to add them to the list
- You can have friends on more than one list
Click Create List
<Rinse, lather, repeat>
Now that you have your lists setup you can add a friend when you accept their friend invitation.
OK, where were we … oh yeah, privacy. Continue reading »
Recent Comments