Archive for social media
10 Tips Guaranteed to Make the LinkedIn Reciprocity Gods Smile
“I don’t bother with LinkedIn because it’s too much work.”
“LinkedIn isn’t fun. I’d rather play on Facebook. “
I hear many people complain about LinkedIn. That’s a shame because the people I hear complaining about LinkedIn are some of the finest professionals I know in the bricks-and-mortar world. In the meantime, I’m watching people I revere as thought leaders and movers and shakers succumb to mind numbing Facebook games while important corners of their social media presence remain neglected and ignored.
LinkedIn offers members a chance to write and receive Recommendations about their Connections. This is one of the most powerful features of the platform.
Imagine a prospective client or employer arrives at your LinkedIn profile page and sees a thread of Recommendations from people at all stages in your career. Imagine the impact that event has. Imagine the confidence you can inspire with written testimony of your service.
Leverage your presence on LinkedIn using the Recommendation feature. Writing Recommendations for others will ignite a reciprocity exchange and social adrenaline will inspire recipients to respond with Recommendations for your LinkedIn page.
- Don’t ask people for Recommendations. Write Recommendations for other people! Making a request for a Recommendation creates social indebtedness. Writing a Recommendation places the recipient in the social capital receivables bucket.
- Make LinkedIn Recommendation writing part of a weekly engagement plan. Write at least two recommendations for people you have worked with successfully. Thank each for a job well done and state that others can have confidence in receiving the same service.
- Create a list of people you have worked with successfully. Connect with them on LinkedIn and put them on a schedule for written Recommendation acknowledgement. Use a memory jogger and date plan.
- Write a Recommendation for a competitor. Example: Real estate agent or broker writes a Recommendation for an agent who recently cooperated in a successful transaction.
- Write a Recommendation for a staffer or colleague. After following Tip #2, be certain that you are extending testimonial support to your company staffers and independent contractors.
- Write with integrity. Do not exaggerate about someone’s service. Be honest and truthful.
- Refrain from writing Recommendations that do not reflect your honest enthusiasm. It is better to abstain from writing a dishonest testimonial than jeopardizing your reputation.
- Issue written gratitude for persons who write Recommendations for you.
- Hide from view and delete Recommendations from others when the writers are persons with whom you would not do business. Consider removing those people from your network and disengaging completely when you feel your reputation is at stake.
- Review your written recommendations periodically. If there is deleterious change in your business relationship with someone who displays your personal Recommendation, withdraw your Recommendation.
(Are we connected on LinkedIn? Here’s my profile.)
Design a Social Media Business Plan for 2010
This is a Webinar I presented several days ago.
Real Estate Social Media Plan Webinar Handout
Happy New Year!
Design a Social Media Business Plan for 2010 - Click here for the most popular videos
Are You a Social Media Voice or a Social Media Echo?
Risk is about more than legal liability and ethical responsibility. People who are lazy are at risk of reputational fracture. That risk may be deadly. After all, who wants to work with a jerk? Increasing numbers of people are falling into this “lazy” pool as I study social media engagement.
People who engage on social media are making connections with other people. They are having conversations, sharing resources and information. My personal social media universe includes several thousand people on Facebook and Twitter. The downside of a large pool of “friends” is exposure to more people who chatter whether or not they have anything useful to say. Quotation regurgitation is the latest online trend; endless Twitter streams of quotations automatically populate Facebook pages and blogs.
Earlier today I counted scores of quotations and references to the departed Holy Lady of Calcutta, the saintly Mother Teresa. I had a brief hissy fit on my Posterous blog and promptly unfollowed coachy creatures who were using Mother Teresa to hawk their miraculous diet cures and network marketing products.
Kaira Rouda has a fresh voice that speaks to the heart, mind, and soul.
I was very frustrated this morning … In the space of five minutes, the wisdom of Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Einstein, Churchill, JFK, and Benjamin Franklin were flashed before my eyes. Adding insult to injury, the tiny nun grew an “h” in her name and Gandhi’s “h” was missplaced. I wanted to leap in joy when I saw a post from real estate visionary and author Kaira Rouda on Facebook … a voice with an original thought:
Creative leaders rally a team through a purpose. Great bosses are leaders, not managers.
A sentence … a complete thought! An original thought! It made me think. Lead, not manage! It set a nice tone for the day as I worked on a writing project. Kaira Rouda always posts original thoughts … it sets her apart from the social media echo chamber. As scores of recycled quotations flooded the Twitter streams and Facebook news feeds I took comfort in the knowledge that there is intelligent life on this planet.
I have an original thought of my own today:
Quotations are like chocolate chips … Use them sparingly and leave the reader hungry for more!
The Dirty Little Secret About REALTOR Facebook Training
How many of your Facebook friends are REALTORS?
The secret about REALTOR Facebook training in most quarters is pretty simple. Most real estate Facebook training sets the students up for failure if the students’ aim is to learn social media skills that will advance their business. Here is a checklist of topics REALTORS should cover in the course of their Facebook training.
- Terms of Service. Facebook is built upon a solid educational culture. Business solicitation on personal profile pages is highly discouraged. Wonder why people lose their accounts? Behavior leading to account deactivation include massive friend hijacking, placing marketing links on other people’s profile pages, extensive advertising on the offender’s own page, and similar conduct. Understand that the culture of Facebook is best understood with a thorough examination of the Terms of Service.
- Legal Compliance. Fully 99% of the REALTOR pages I survey regularly at Facebook are noncompliant with state licensing law. Brokerage name and contact information are not readily seen on agents’ and brokers’ profile pages. Many of these agents have completed “social media training” in many venues, in person and online. Most real estate offices still do not have a written social media policy.
- Going Viral with Questionable Marketing Tactics. Real estate licensees pay less and less attention to serious risk management in the bricks-and-mortar world; they increase brokerage jeopardy when they play with those matches online. Internal saber rattling at Attorney General offices in many states makes me think predatory marketing of distressed homeowners will be the undoing of some brokerages in 2010.
- Calling Social Media a Marketing Channel. Social media is NOT a marketing channel. Social media is a conversational medium. Fundamental precepts about purely social engagement eschew traditional marketing language and methods. Return on investment (ROI) is less easily applied to social networking plans.
- Lack of Strategy aka “ActiveRain syndrome”. Some bricks-and-mortar strategies apply to online engagement. In recent years, the ActiveRain blog community established a peer-to-peer social networking model replicated among licensees on other social platforms. Take the First Time Home Buyer Seminar bricks-and-mortar marketing device. Whom does a REALTOR invite? A lender? … home inspector? … and people who are renting! Does a Coldwell Banker REALTOR host invite all the RE/MAX agents in town? There are increasing numbers of qualified REALTOR groups where agents can gather and engage … Women’s Council of REALTORS has new groups, CRS and other specialty groups are pages where licensees can gather and share ideas.
- Choose Friends Wisely/UNfriend Fellow REALTORS. Most REALTORS’ Facebook Friends lists are comprised of fellow REALTORS. Real estate Facebook trainers can share good dialogue for declining Friend requests and UNfriending fellow REALTORS. I urge students to UNfriend their colleagues with words that acknowledge their plan of action. Example: “I am grateful for your friendship in real life and I look forward for ways that we can connect online to advance our business. I am designing a social media strategy that reserves my Facebook profile page for close friends and family. Thank you for your friendship … Let’s connect at the “Women’s Council of REALTORS Region 4″ page.”
- Facebook Fan Page Titles are Written in Stone. Once you start a Fan Page, the title is a permanent part of the page. Do NOT use your company name in the title of the Fan Page unless (a) you have the broker’s permission to use the company name and (b) you expect to stay at that company for the duration of your real estate career.
- A Teacher Is a Model. Be clear about strategy. Study the teacher’s Facebook presence. Does the teacher actively list and sell real estate? What is the ratio of consumers to licensees on the teacher’s pages? Can you see a strategy that you can emulate for dollar-productive results in your market?
Engage and Enjoy Success!
Real Estate Social Media Tech Audit Survey
Please take this survey … we are putting together an educational calendar for 2010 and will use this information to tailor our programs.
10 Social Media Tips for Real Estate Leadership
Women’s Council of REALTORS veteran Joeann Fossland is looking for information about social media for real estate leadership. She is travelling to Reno to attend a WCR Leadership Conference and she issued a Tweet (Twitter post shown at right) from the airport in Tucson enroute to her gig.
As a leader, what social media is useful to you and why?
- Model social media behavior that people can understand and follow. Do you have a serious engagement plan tied to goals and objectives? Is recruiting new members a major component of your business plan? … member retention? Do you want to attract more member participation and create new leaders? Do you know how to measure engagement quantitatively and qualitatively?
- Facebook is useful as an association tool. Start a Facebook Fan Page (”fan page” is a Facebook solution for a business page) and create a plan attached to the launch.
- Twitter is an excellent communication device. Tie the Twitter stream to the Fan Page … and leverage your blog posts at this popular platform.
- Create a Linked-In presence. A LinkedIn group connects members and serves as a place where leadership can demonstrate savvy in group engagement and use of other engagement tools - polls, presentations, etc.
- Hire an expert who understands social media and real estate. How long has the expert used social media platforms? What percentage of the expert’s income is tied to social media consultancy? Does the expert model engagement across multiple platforms that you want to emulate? Eliminate so-called gurus who engage in Mafia Wars and similar games as part of their regular social media diet. How much of the expert’s expertise is tied to technology vs. strategy and business development?
- Build a social media presence around a core blog. Leverage blog(s) across social media microblogging platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- Use a solid policy and procedure guide as the basis for engagement. Real estate licensees face a myriad of complex licensing laws, fair housing rules, FTC guidelines, and more. Licensees who are REALTORS must act according to Article 12 of the REALTOR Code of Ethics. The industry’s most comprehensive Real Estate Social Media Policy and Procedure Manual will save hours of time and research, help leadership mitigate risk, and provide a benchmark of engagement and Internet protocols that are useful at the association as well as in the brokerage world.
- Learn to listen! Conversational media is most fruitful when members learn to listen … Take a pulse of the market … Hear what your members are saying. What do they want most from membership? What works for them? What does not work for them?
- Develop a response plan for daily engagment. Who is a responsible spokesperson for the group? Does the job of spokesperson lie with one person or with a group?
- Develop a video plan. Launch a YouTube channel and other video portals to share your message. New Flip video cameras make this part of the job fun and there are growing legions of Flip enthusiasts in WCR ranks nationwide who are ready to help. Have fun!
10 Reasons to Attend Social Media Mastermind Live in Sedona
View from King Suite balcony
I am very excited to join a remarkable group of social media experts at the first Social Media Mastermind Live! conference January 14 - 16, 2010 at the Sedona Hilton. Herea are 10 reasons to register NOW!:
- Tickets are only $295!
- There is no better way to start a New Year than with an energizing conference where online friends meet offline … and in Sedona!
- There is a great speaker lineup. Raleigh R. Pinskey, PR and Social Media Branding Expert to the Stars, is the dinner keynote speaker. She is GOOOOOD … I am the Friday morning keynote speaker and I would love to connect with you offline … Marcie Roggow is also slated to speak … (you heard it here first, before it hit the program!)
- There is an incredible room rate for a King Suite (fireplace, balcony, king size bed, pull-out sofa, microwave, refrigerator) … $119 includes free Internet and day pass to fitness center.
- Sedona is awesome!
- The Sedona Hilton is a magnificent resort.
- There are three pools at the Hilton, they are heated to 82 degress year round. Bring your bathing suit!
- Pamper yourself in the world class spa … massage, facial, wraps, salon. (I can hardly wait!)
- The views don’t get better than this! Each room has a balcony with an eyeful of red rock!
- You will learn, explore, and become empowered in social media once and for all!
