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.

Labels: CyberSunshine, Facebook, Fan Page, Real Estate Marketing, Real Estate Web Design, Social Media

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

Okay, so maybe simple things amuse me tremendously, but I think this captcha is really neat.

Labels: Real Estate Blog, Real Estate Web Design, Stuff You Need

You can't deny that this country is obsessed with looks and beauty. Aesthetics are important, whether we like it or not. When you meet a new client, you are expected to be well-groomed and have an outfit on that matches at the very least, and you should look like a professional person that can be trusted. So if you go to all that trouble to make sure YOU look good, shouldn't you put the same effort into making sure your real estate blog/website looks good? Think about it... your internet self is seen more than your actual self, and by many more viewers. You owe it to your real estate website to make sure it looks fabulous at all times.

You may have noticed that CyberSunshine just got a fancy new makeover. We're prettier than ever now (Jealous? You should be!). Every few years you should get a makeover for your site, for several reasons. And here is a list of those reasons:

1. Your site looks outdated and old-fashioned. That's not good. It makes you look like you're not up to speed with the times, and nobody (especially not the twenty-somethings that are currently making up the largest buyers market right now) wants someone that's outdated. Your real estate website is your image, and it is a direct reflection of you and your services. Make sure you're presenting yourself in a way that matters.

2. Your site is cluttered. This is really bad. Nobody wants to muddle through your mess of links and blurbs about how wonderful you are, just to find your listings. Not to say you aren't wonderful. I'm sure you are. But you don't have to drill it into people's heads a thousand times with all the testimonials and the paragraphs your assistant wrote six years ago covering your degrees and accomplishments. Make the site nice and neat, and spell out clearly who you are and what you do, and do it in a short paragraph if you can. Nobody wants to read your resume. They just want a basic description about why they should hire you, and then they want to see your listing. So make it easy, and make sure your content is limited and your navigation is clear and makes sense.

3. Your navigation doesn't work, or other links are broken. HUGE mistake! Always, always, make sure the links work on your page! Every couple of weeks (or days if you're a little OCD) check out the links on your page to make sure they work, especially the important ones (Contact Us, Listings, Home Search). If your links don't work, the potential buyer is going to continue on to another site that came up on Google and not even give you a second thought.

4. The services listed are no longer services you offer, and your photo is from 1986. Okay, seriously, you do not still have a poufy bangs thing going on, nor do you rock the blue eyeshadow. And what's with those shoulder-pads? Are you a line-backer for the Cowboys? Make it a point to update your photo once a year. Misrepresentation is a mark against you, and when your potential lead meets you for the first time and realizes that a) that photo was not from last year's Halloween party, and b) you're nearly 25 years older than they thought you were, they are going to be a little perturbed. While you're at it, make sure your service and your specialty areas where you sell are actually accurate. Nothing turns a buyer off faster than calling your office for a specific neighborhood and finding out that you USED to sell there, but it's been several years since you actually have.

I'm sure there are other great reasons to give your site a face lift, but for now these are the best ones I can come up with. So check out your site, give it an assessment from a non-biased point of view, and determine if it needs some help. Then email me and I'll get you set up with a fantastic designer!

Labels: Blog Project, Real Estate Blog, Real Estate Web Design

The National Association of REALTORS® will hold its annual conference and expo in Orlando, Florida this November 7-10. CyberSunshine, Inc. will be attending the Expo, located at booth 3367. This event should prove both exciting and helpful to real estate brokers and agents alike who want to get connected with other industry professionals to share ideas in a difficult market place. If you’re ready to take your website to the next level, stop by our booth and let us show you where real estate technology is heading.

Jump start your technology! Register for a chance to win a $500 Gift Certificate towards purchase by visiting our site online at http://www.CyberSunshine.com/500!

DURING THE EXPO: Visit our Booth #3367 to register for a chance to win FREE tickets to see Blue Man Group at Universal Studios, Florida! For a FREE Expo pass, email Sales@CyberSunshine.com or call 239-437-2628.

Labels: Custom IDX, CyberSunshine, Real Estate Web Design