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Video is becoming a popular tool in the real estate agent’s marketing plan. And why not? YouTube happens to be the worlds second most popular search engine. That is why it is a great idea to incorporate video into your real estate business. Not only do you get exposure on YouTube, videos make great content for your blog, real estate website, Facebook Pages, and more.

Many agents really want to start using video, but draw a blank as to what kind of topics to do real estate videos on. So here is my first installment of my 10 Ideas For Real Estate Video.

1.  Video Tour of Homes

One of the most obvious ways to use video for real estate is to do video tours of your listings. As a form of a virtual tour, simply take a video walk-through of the home. Take shots of the front and the surroundings on the street, then walk through the front door and take viewer through the home as if they were walking through it in person. This is something that can easily be done with your own camcorder if you have the right tools (a decent camcorder, a tripod, and simple editing software). If you are marketing a “high end” or luxury listing, or you just don’t have the time, then I recommend hiring a professional to make the video tours.

(No camcorder or budget for a professional? You can also make a video tour by stringing together still photos using such software as RealEstateShows, Animoto, and more.)

This is a great tool to use for buyers too! Take along your camera on showings to record the homes your buyers are viewing. Then you can email your videos afterward to remind your buyers about exactly what they have seen. Or you can send the videos to their far-away spouses or family members to take a look.

2.  Tour of Neighborhoods/Towns

Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

Build your trusted “local expert” status by taking a video tour of the neighborhoods and towns you serve. Show off the great neighborhood features, the local parks, favorite local hot spots and shopping. Highlight everything that makes that neighborhood unique and a great place to live. It is a great way to show those thinking of relocating to the area why they should move there.

Do you serve a selling area comprised of several distinct neighborhoods? Do a separate video for each of them. The more content you can provide, the better.

For an excellent way to do a call to action:  Invite your viewers and current residents to request that you highlight their favorite neighborhoods or parts of the area.

I was way excited to listen and learn, and to get the opportunity to meet many awesome real estate folks I see on my social media streams on a daily basis. And REBCPHL didn’t disappoint.

First of all, the venue, World Cafe Live, had to be the coolest I’ve ever been to for an event like this. It was a great atmosphere, a great casual setup, the music in between was fun, and lunch was great. Not a bad location at all. Since I’m little new to the area I didn’t know this place was there, but now it’s on my radar and I may be back for their many great musical acts.

I spent my time there observing, listening, learning and contributing where I could. Many of the sessions were on social media related topics, which of course has been the hottest topic over the last couple years. A couple of the most intriguing topics to me included discussion on “taking it offline” (which almost turned into a smartphone addicts anonymous meeting). Then the Raise the Bar (or “RTB”) discussion had me very interested even though I’m not an active REALTOR. It shocks me that some in the industry seem so resistant to raising the bar on professionalism and holding themselves (and each other) to a higher standard.

All in all it was a great event. I met some great people that I’ve networked with online, and made a few new friends. I am looking forward to the next RE BarCamp that comes to my neck of the woods. Next time, I might even present at a session.

Lastly, let me ask you to take a moment and help out a great friend of the RE.net, Joe Ferrara. He was diagnosed with an aggressive malignant brain tumor and he and his family need all the prayers, love, and support they could get. And check out the Friends of Joe Ferrara group started up on Facebook.

Image of Michael Russer

After attending the awesome VREBC last week, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite speakers from it, Michael Russer. When I first started out as a Real Estate Virtual Assistant over 5 years ago, I was introduced through the REVA Network to Michael Russer and his fantastic classes and webinars. Also known as “Mr. Internet”, Michael has been speaking and coaching real estate pros for years on using the internet for their real estate business. He is also one of the biggest cheerleaders of the Virtual Assistant industry, which is another reason why I am a big fan of his.

Michael’s extensive list of accomplishments and books written can be found right here. His latest program, Online Dominance, includes a fantastic Mentoring program for agents that contains his high-energy group coaching calls, as well as the highly valuable CLICKS to CLOSES™ and ePRODUCTIVITY™ courses. This is one program where a few of my real estate friends are participants, and they all are raving fans.

The main reason I am posting this is to highlight a fantastic lead follow up resource that he shares and how he goes about sharing it with the use of his Facbook fan page. The resource Michael shares is the ingenious “Critical First Response Email Script”. It is a simple email sent to internet consumers after their initial inquiry. It is crafted in a way that is no pressure, “non-salesy”, and invites consumers to open a dialogue when they are ready to.

How do you get this fantastic email script? Well, you must become a fan of the Online Dominance Facebook page in order to get to the download link. This Facebook tactic demonstrates a great way to generate new fans (or leads) to your Facbook fan page by enticing users to get something of value from you that they want or need. This simple trick is something you can do with your own fan page by creating a tab that only fans can access and use that tab to share valuable links, or special downloads for your fans. Then just watch your fan numbers grow.

I highly recommend that you check out Michael Russer

• Online Dominance – www.OnlineDominance.com
• The Mr. Internet News Real Estate Blog
• Online Dominance Facebook Page

Looking to spruce up your own Facebook fan page and add valuable links and information for your fans? Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help you! Contact us today for an assessment of your real estate and social media support needs. and if your not already, come on over to Facebook and be a fan!

via chrisbrogan.com

If you don’t know, Chris Brogan is a major player and thought leader in the Social Media realm. When he speaks, many of us listen.
I stumbled upon this post is from a couple months ago, but I thought it was a super important one to share. If you are a REALTOR looking to use social media effectively,listen up! [now go read it!]

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

Image by MegBarberVA via Flickr

Do you Poken? That question brings up the subject of my latest techno-gadget-geek obsession… the Poken. It was introduced to me at a recent DVVAA networking lunch by fellow Virtual Assistant, Kyna Baker, and I think it is just the coolest thing ever. As usual, I’m always looking for things to make the business life of real estate agents easier, and this fun little gadget can do just that.

What is a Poken, you ask? To put it simply, the Poken is a digital business card device. It provides you an easy way to share your contact info as well as all your online social network profiles with others you meet who have a Poken too. The exchange works by simply touching the palms together with another Poken user, or “high 4″ as they call it. And viola, the green glow means the information has transferred.

Later, you just plug your poken into your computer’s USB port and transfer the contacts of the new people you just met into your Poken hub(it’s web based). You then can easily download those contacts and put into your Outlook or other contact manager. And if you make changes your contact info, it updates your connections in their hubs and vice versa. There’s no more scribbling down your social network links, or new email addresses.  There’s no scanning business cards, no typing into a database.  How cool is that? (Scroll down for info on where to get one)

They have 2 products currently, the Poken Spark and the Poken Pulse, and I ordered both just to test them all out. So far I am liking them a lot for different reasons. Here is a video I made showing them off and talking about the differences between the two products.

The Poken Spark is the original incarnation, and come in all sorts of eye-catching designs. I think they live up to their name as they can really spark up a conversation when people see them. They are small and can easily clip to your key key chain. The Spark holds about 50 contacts (before you download them), but does not have additional storage.

The Poken Pulse is their newer product that works in the same way, but also has 2GB of flash memory. It’s plainer looking than the Spark. It looks almost like a standard USB memory stick, but it does have the little hand on it and can be ordered with designs on the inside. It interacts with all other Pokens just the same, and has the ability to hold more contacts. Again is is the size of a USB memory stick and like the Spark, can be hooked on to a key chain.

So where can you get a Poken? The easiest way is to purchase your Poken online, and here are a number of places that sell Pokens on US soil:

• Start Poken
• Poken Zoo
• Poken Girl
• findapoken

Some of these vendors also allow you to by them in bulk orders, and you can even get them with your own logo printed right on them. Great to hand out for networking events, REALTOR conferences and expos, or even Thank You gifts for referrals.

Hope you find the Pokens as cool as I do. I see lots of possibilities with them as they gain popularity around the globe. And if you ever run into me in person (it can happen folks), be sure to Poken with me.

via mashable.com

There seems to be a theme here with all this talk about Facebook lately. But her I go again. They’ve got a whole new look on their homepage now. Greater emphasis on search. Easier to instant message. I’m liking it so far.

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

Image by Evil Erin via Flickr

Many agents are catching on and joining in on the Facebook fun. The talk of social media and using it for real estate business have been quite the buzz around all the conferences and webinars in the past year. You will find no bigger cheerleader for this that than me, since I have been encouraging this for what seems forever now. Now that I see numerous agents embracing and using Facebook, I have been making some observations. Some that make me pull my hair out. So now I feel the need to give out some guidance on some pitfalls to avoid when using Facebook. It’s time to stop the madness.

1. Don’t incessantly use your status updates to do nothing but post your listings over and over again. Sometimes I wonder if some agents think that consumers log on to Facebook just to look for real estate. Newsflash… They don’t. Posting listings on there once in awhile is fine, as long as you also post relevant and interesting information that people may want to know. Using it to constantly post listings looks fake, inauthentic (and in my generation despise that) and will easily get you ignored by the simple push of the “Hide” button. There are subtle ways to put your listings on your profile. Here is one way I suggest to do it.

2. Keep the drunken bachelor/bachelorette party photos and the like, off of Facebook… or at least make them private. Even though you are a professional, you are probably not all business all of the time and want to project that on Facebook. Even so, be mindful of current and potential clients that may be connected to you and that certain things can turn them off and not give you their business. Yes, your friends might find that picture where you were passed out on the floor or making out with some random person funny, but your prospective clients might be downright offended and cause them to look down upon you. Get to know your privacy settings. They are your friend.

3. Try not to trash people, cities or things on your status updates, links, fan pages, etc. You never know who may be looking at your profile. Things get around, and though you may think you are safe to post how much you hate a certain person, place or thing, no matter how justified you are, it may come back to bite you. This story is a great example of this. And though that story happened through Twitter, with 350 million active Facebook users it is bound to happen there too.

4. Don’t air your dirty laundry for all to see on Facebook. There is such thing a too much information. And really, people don’t really need to know all of your personal drama, marital problems, etc. As the above points mentioned, be mindful of who is looking at your profile. It looks unprofessional. And really, does the public really need to know your very private personal drama? Your clients may look at you differently, or stop returning your calls.

5. Stop constantly posting your Farmville, Mafia Wars, CafeWorld, Fishville, etc, in your status updates. Now in fairness, I do play and participate in some of above mentioned games.  They’re fun but must played in moderation  Really, do you want your colleagues, prospects and clients to think you do nothing but play with a virtual farm all day? It starts to make your clients wonder if you are really spending the time marketing their home or plowing imaginary land. There are ways to play and not share every single detail of what you have done in your games. So if you’re tempted to share it, don’t. It’s annoying. And people will tend to ignore or unfriend you.

So real estate pros, please heed my above advice.  Facebook is a great opportunity to engage with your clients, market yourself, your properties (subtly), and show a bit of your personality, please be mindful of everything you do on there. You never know who is looking and how it may help or hurt your business.

And while you’re at it, come on over and be a fan – www.facebook.com/barbervasolutions

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Facebook is not just another place for you to market, but a place to share and ENGAGE with your clients and prospects. It is another opportunity to become a trusted expert in your local market or among your friends and colleagues. Facebook claims to have 250 million active users, so think of how many of those users may be within your reach. What are you waiting for?

You better not be using lack of time as an excuse. Being active on Facebook doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. So if that is the excuse you are still using, drop it. With a few applications and tools you can automate much of your Facebook updates and such that it will really only take you a few minutes a day to communicate, comment and engage with your Facebook friends.

In case you didn’t know already here are a few things that you can be doing in Facebook to help increase your online presence:

• Advertise your listings and use Postlets which can help you syndicate to Facebook as well as dozens of other places (DO NOT do nothing but promote your listings. Nothing is more annoying than a friend that does nothing but advertise)
• Add an RSS feed from your blog. It will automatically update when you have a new blog post.
• Connect your status updates with Twitter or Ping.fm. Make all your status updates in one place that will update Facebook automatically
• Talk about the latest open house or how excited you are about your first time buyers new home find.
• Converse directly with clients, friends and prospects and add a personality to the “brand”. Become someone they know and trust. (you don’t have to be all business all the time)
• Create a Business page that can include all of your business happenings, blog postings, newsletter sign up, and so much more. Then invite everyone to become fans so you can easily broadcast your important info to them.

There is a lot you can be doing in Facebook and you are running out of excused to not be on there. So if you are still a stranger to Facebook, stop what you are doing right now (I really mean it!) and get started by doing the following:

1. Sign up for Facebook
2. Set up your profile and don’t forget to add a picture
3. Find some of your friends and colleagues
4. Engage with people
5. Set up a Business Page – or ask your real estate virtual assistant to help
6. Become a Fan of BVAS!

And here are a few awesome places to get more tips and advice on how to use Facebook effectively for your business:

Using Facebook to Sell with Soul – A few dos and don’ts

6 Facebook Apps Every Realtor Needs

3 New Facebook Strategies For Building Your Personal Brand

Facebook – Genius Drip Marketing & Free

InsideFacebook.com

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Excellent post from www.Mashable.com today… Check it out and take her advice.

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous