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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Labels: CyberSunshine, Memorial Day, WWII

My last post told you all about how to create a fan page on Facebook. Oddly enough it can be really hard to find exactly where you can create a page, once you have a login to this popular social media site. In my last post I provided you a quick link. Check it out if you still haven’t created your Page.

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!

Labels: business networking, CyberSunshine, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Social Media, social media campaign, Stuff You Need, yberSunshine

This is an interesting article about the winners and losers within social media sites. You'll gain some valuable insight on whose using what sites.

Big Winners and Big Losers for April 2009 - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Posted using ShareThis

Facebook Fan Pages are getting a lot of attention lately in the media and rightfully so. Research indicates that 70% of viral marketers report increasing brand awareness as one of the most successful areas of their social marketing campaigns. Not since the onset of the internet and websites have you been given the ability to reach out across the miles to millions of potential prospects in such an exciting and targeted fashion. Best of all, it’s FREE!

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 real estate website, 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!

Labels: CyberSunshine, Internet Marketing, marketing quick tip, Real Estate Marketing, Real Estate Web Design, Social Media