In this past week’s paper, I was pleased to read that one of our local real estate companies has gone all out to promote themselves on the Internet. They have entertaining videos of the team, video testimonials, and interviews with homeowners wanting to sell their homes.  Their Facebook business page has over 300 members who are notified about real estate news, current listings of homes, even contests for the family.

The members of the Cody ReMax team use Twitter and a blog as well, with all of the social networks connected through their corporate website at CodyTeam.com. This main website is filled with useful information and is quite attractive. The only thing I didn’t see on the site was a form to sign up for their newsletter. And as I’ve mentioned before, collecting a mailing list of interested people is one of the most important functions of your website.

I hope some of the other businesses in our area are taking notice of the advances that are being made by the Cody team, thanks to proper use of Internet strategies. Congratulations Paul T. Cody on your efforts to dominate the Internet!

Technorati Tags: Paul T Cody team, using social media in real estate

Hootsuite is an application that allows you to monitor your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts all from one dashboard. It saves me loads of time and so far I love it. There are also extra features such as the ability to send your messages now or later, stats to show how many readers clicked on links that you mentioned, and one click to shorten a URL or upload a file or photo.

One feature I need to start using more is the Hootlet. I dragged it unto my Internet toolbar, where it sits waiting patiently. Then whenever I come across a website that would be of interest to others in my social network, I simply click the Hootlet. That action opens my Hootsuite account and automatically sends the site information out. I can choose to notify one or all of my networks, depending on the subject of the website.

I try to log in to Hootsuite at least twice a day, morning and evening. That way I’m able to interact with people in different time zones. I re-tweet interesting comments, reply to questions, and share information that may benefit others. Rarely do I mention what I had for lunch. Unless I had something unusual or found a great new restaurant or recipe.

The popularity of social media hasn’t diminished and thanks to services like Hootsuite, I can keep up without spending all of my time tied to the computer.

Technorati Tags: Hootsuite, Hootlet, using social media

I know how important regular newsletters are to keep in touch with my customers. But finding time to write is the challenge. Sure, I could hire a ghostwriter, but I prefer to write my own information whenever possible. I’ve tried sending a newsletter out every week and actually kept it up for almost a year. Then I ran out of steam.

Because I use Aweber, I can still keep in touch with my subscribers on a regular basis. I have a schedule for posting to each of my blogs and have Aweber set to send out an automatic broadcast every time my blog is updated. Not only that, I have Aweber linked to my Twitter account, so a tweet is also sent mentioning my new post.

Although I’m still interacting, I’ve been feeling the need to send a newsletter on a regular basis as well. Monthly will probably fit my schedule best and since the blog updates will be sent too, should be enough. If I’m able to write a few months worth of content at once, I can load it all into my Aweber account and have the newsletters sent on schedule. That way I can write everything once and forget about it for awhile.

Thanks to programs like the Aweber autoresponder, it’s now easier than ever to contact the people that are interested in my products and services. How do you keep in touch with your clients?

Technorati Tags: autoresponder, newsletters, contacting clients

Small businesses are really starting to jump on the social media bandwagon. They are finally realizing how beneficial marketing this way can be. I just listened to a case study from a company called Naked Pizza that reported $200,000 in extra business as a result of using Twitter. People learn to know, like, and trust you. The result is word of mouth advertising that does more to promote your business than all of the paid advertising that you could do.

I took my granddaughter for a walk today and stopped in at a local children’s consignment store. The owner has a website and I was curious as to how she promotes herself online. I found out that the store has a Facebook Fan page. Recently, the store had a special sale which was advertised in a number of places, including Facebook. The result was an extremely successful day. Each of the customers were asked how they found out about the sale. The answer – the Facebook Fan page. If you’re still wondering whether social marketing is effective, talk to business owners that have taken the plunge and see how enthusiastic they are about the results.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Twitter, business promotion

I’ve been reading a number of reports on the results of social media. According to one of them, as many as 80% of consumers use social media for recommendations before purchasing a product. I know for myself how valuable I find Twitter. Just yesterday, I was having trouble installing a new software application I’d downloaded. One comment on Twitter and the company responded within five minutes asking what the problem was. Try getting that level of service from email or phone calls.

I’m in the process of starting a Facebook Fan Page, so I can’t say a lot about that just yet. My current Facebook account is a personal one and I like to keep it for family and friends. Lisa and Diane, the creators of the Mefest Women’s Show in Waterloo, rely on a Facebook group to keep in touch with their hundreds of followers.They can’t say enough about the benefits.

A case study was done on a restaurant in the states that asked their customers to become fans on their restaurant Facebook Fan page. The results: the Facebook users visited more often, told their friends, and spent more when they came to dine.  The Facebook users were a small percentage of the total customers though, so the study was inconclusive. Still, it shows that these channels shouldn’t be ignored. Isn’t it time you added social media to your marketing campaign?

Technorati Tags: social media, Twitter, Facebook