The BVAS Connection» Social Networking

What is the ROI of Pinterest?

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:17:42 +0000

Facepalm - Image via Wikipedia

“How do I leverage Pinterest for my real estate business?”

The title of this post, as well as the above question is starting to get asked a lot around the real estate marketing circles and social networks I follow. And I must tell you, it makes me cringe to hear it. Many agents are joining this relatively new network, looking increase their marketing reach and hoping it’s the holy grail of lead generation. Frankly I think they are missing the point and purpose of Pinterest, and may be sorely disappointed in the lack of “ROI”.

Just what is Pinterest, some of you may you be asking? Pinterest is an new-ish social network where users can Pin images, putting together a visual collection of things they love, their interests and inspiration, etc., on pin boards users create in their accounts. These pin boards can be related to anything from food to crafts, fashion to home decor. The possibilities are endless.

Personally, I LOVE Pinterest. For me it is a great source of creative inspiration, craft and DIY project ideas, home decor ideas, recipe ideas, and a place that I can daydream by pining images of my dream home or dream vacation spots. For me Pinterest is fun and and inspirational.

Where I believe that people are really going wrong, especially those that want to “leverage Pinterest for their business,” is that marketing and self promotion is not in the spirit of what Pinterest was designed for. Just simply look at #3 on their list of the Pinterest etiquette guidelines:

Avoid Self Promotion

Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

When embarking on any new social networks, Pinterest or otherwise, my advice is to first explore it and really observe. Get an idea of what this community really is about. Observe how other users are utilizing the network. Then go have fun with it. On Pinterest, you may find that you can create new connections and meet like minded people you never knew before. But don’t have high expectations that it will be a magical source of lead generation.

If you are looking into to Pinterest purely as a way to promote yourselves, your listings and generate your business, then frankly I think you should move along. Pinterest is not exactly the place for you, and I think you will find very little ROI, if that is your main goal. Your time may be best spent elsewhere.

There are certainly ways to use Pinterest and relate it to your real estate business, and you can do so without shameless self promotion. Coming up in a follow-up post, I will show you come creative ways to use Pinterest as it relates to real estate, and show you some examples of those in the real estate industry who are doing it right. Stay tuned!

And if you want to follow me on Pinterest, find me here. You will see that I am definitely not all business all the time.

The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing (hubspot.com)
What Is Pinterest and Why Is Everyone Talking About It? (accesscomptech.wordpress.com)

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy.

Facebook Timeline: A Quick How-To

Megan E. Barber — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:01:56 +0000

You may have heard about the new Facebook profile interface, the Facebook Timeline. (If you haven’t yet Check out this complete guide from Mashable) It is quite a radical change to the overall look and function the Facebook profile that they started previewing to users back in September. Now they are rolling it out for everyone to have access too, and should become the default profile setting for all users in a upcoming months.

Want to go ahead and change and play around with the new Facebook Timeline now? They’ve made it easy! Here is now:
(tips courtesy of Mashable)

Login & Click - Log out of your Facebook account, then go to this About Timeline page.
Get Timeline - At the bottom right of the page, click on “Get Timeline.” If you like what you see and don’t want to edit anything, publish it right away by scrolling back to the top of that page and click “Publish Now” and you’re done. If you’d like to edit, go to the next step.
Scroll Down and Edit - Scroll down on your timeline and edit or remove any items you don’t want shown. Do that by holding your cursor over the upper right of an item you want to edit, and then click on the icon that looks like a pencil — it will have a label that reads Edit or Remove.
Make Changes - From the resulting drop-down list, you can change the date of the item, add a location, hide it from the timeline, delete the post altogether, or report it/mark it as spam.
Highlight and Expand your favorite posts - If you’d like to “feature” any of your posts, click on the star icon to the left of that pencil icon. Then that item will be expanded all the way across the page, made larger for all your friends to see. Cool huh?
Publish Now – Or wait until Dec 22nd - Once you’re satisfied with all of your edits, either scroll back to the top of your Timeline and click “Publish Now,” or do nothing and it’ll be automatically published on December 22, 2011.

11 Weeks Left in 2011? Let’s Get Ready for 2012 NOW!

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:05:32 +0000

Believe it or not, there are only 11 weeks left in 2011! We are firmly in the 4th quarter and have you examined your progress on your 2011 business plan? Are you flying blind without one? Well whatever your answer, there is no time to waste. The time to implement is now if you want 2012 to get off to a great start.

Some say that if you start your business January 1st 2012, you are already behind. Real estate is a lag industry and things can take 60-90 days of implementation to see any results. So if you don’t start until January, you may not see any results for several months (especially in this slow economy).

The best marketing advice I’ve ever received is to ramp up your marketing efforts and activities in the 4th quarter so you can see your results once the new year hits and get it off to a fabulous start. If you wait too long, you may find it harder to reach your business or revenue goals because you were waiting for leads to convert and get those marketing results to appear. Market for next year starting NOW!

Starting now, there are probably a few things you can be doing differently, or at least get started on, that can get your 2012 started off right. For example, you can:

Start a blog or dust off that blog you have been neglecting and post regularly (at least 2-3 times a week to start)
Give your website a makeover and make sure the focus is on the consumer, and not what a great REALTOR you are.
Create or find deliverables that your prospects would actually want to sign up for and get those leads starting to come into your pipeline
Increase your visibility on Facebook and make a business pages focusing on the neighborhoods and communities you serve.
Start up on Twitter and be visible, engage, and share with your followers.
Start using video! Promote your properties, your expertise, and your market area
Be sure to keep your social media activities ongoing and never let anything get stale or make people wonder if you are still in business.

It is the perfect time to examine your current business plan (if you have one) refine it, in start implementing NOW so you can have a fabulous 2012. So take some action! I want you to start it off with a bang!

Have some marketing ideas you can implement now to get next year off to a great start? I would love to hear them! Please leave me a comment below!

Social Media vs. Traditional Marketing – There Is No Magic Bullet

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:00:17 +0000

Old school vs. the new school. Traditional marketing methods vs. Social media marketing. Ways of the past vs. the wave of the future. Around the online real estate world, a small debate was going on about the different schools of thought on real estate marketing methods such as social media and online marketing, and the more traditional routes such as cold calling, door knocking, and direct mail.

Some have quickly taken one side over the other, dismissing the validity of the other point. The “old school” folks cheer on the statement that social media is a total waste of time. The “new school” people think the ones who deny the potential of social media are dinosaurs of the industry that should step aside. I think the the bigger picture here in this debate is that a balanced approach using both old and new methods is necessary to succeed in this market.

Is social media a complete waste of time? I don’t certainly think so. If you know me, you know that I am a big social media fan, and use things like Facebook and Twitter quite often personally and for my business. I have even signed new clients that I’ve met via social media.

Social networking can certainly have potential to be a time waster, with the virtual farms, virtual mafia, and the penchant to announce what one had for breakfast. Certainly if you spend too much of your time living on Facebook and Twitter, you are not going to get much done in general, or be able to effectively work with your clients. But if you handle your social networking activities correctly (strategically), you can get potentially attract new business through your social media engagement.

It is also necessary to have the right mindset and expectation about the potential business social media marketing can bring you. Connections that you attract through social media can take a long time for them to convert to actual business, much like other internet leads. But if you look at the bigger picture, social networks are a great tool to foster new relationships with prospects by engaging with them and repeatedly be out in front of them.

Through some of the more traditional methods of cold calling, and door knocking, most of the “old school” gurus direct agents to go through their database, sphere or lists looking for buyers and sellers that are ready to make their move RIGHT NOW. And then they’ll instruct them to cross the prospect off the list and move on the the next if the are not ready to do business in the immediate. Where this differs from social media marketing is that you are spending little time incubating those warm or cold leads, and going directly for the hot ones. While this approach may be successful for some, it is not for everyone, and even some prospects find this type of communication a total turn off (Hello Gen Y?).

Both social media marketing and more traditional prospecting methods both have their place in today’s marketing plans. Cold calling for hot leads can help you generate business that is ready to move right now, while social media marketing can help fill that pipeline of incoming leads that can eventually warm up to actual business too. I believe a balanced approach in your marketing plan is best.

There is no one marketing method that is the magic bullet. But use any combination of them with the right approach and mindset, and they will bring you new business.

What side of the debate do you stand on? Or what marketing methods have yielded the best results for you? I want to hear from you, so please comment below!

The Power of Information – New video from RISMedia

Megan E. Barber — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:42:37 +0000

RISMedia just released this fantastic new video today about the impact of social media and mobile internet on the future of real estate. It is evident that they worked hard on this. This video has some good stuff to get you thinking in case you are on the fence.

This is a great video that illustrates what is coming in the future. But I don’t think social media is THE magic bullet. I have a post upcoming that talks about this more, so stay tuned!

Let me know your thoughts on the video. Leave me a comment below!

The World is Obsessed With Facebook – video

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:32:42 +0000

Check out this fun video inspired by the onlineschools.org infographic about the latest Facebook stats.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Tools You Need to Build Your Business with Video

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:28:19 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Building your real estate business with video is nothing new. Last year, real estate coaches and consultants had merely introduced video as a great option that you should consider to start incorporating into your real estate business. Now in 2011, video has become a NECESSARY tool for building your real estate business online. With YouTube being the 2nd most popular search engine in the world (2nd to Google), people are consuming video content online day in and day out. And let’s face it, pictures and video capture attention a little better as most people would rather watch a video than read big long articles and posts.

So as part of my Getting Down to Basics series, if you have yet to get started with video and want to know how, here I will share with you the tools you need to get started with creating videos.

Tools You Need to Get Started

Camera – First you need a camera to capture your videos. A hand-held camcorder can do the trick, or even your smartphone with video camera can work. You can find great deals for them on Amazon, or on Kodak. My recommendations:
- Flip Video – Offers 3 different HD handheld camcorders, with fun colors and design options. I personally use the HD Ultra.
- Kodak Playtouch – A new version of Kodak’s handheld camera came out (formerly the Zi8) and has gained much popularity since it came out. Unlike the flip, it has the option to use an external microphone, which allows you to capture video in slightly noisy places and still be heard clearly.
- iPhone, Motorola DroidX, etc. – Most all of the latest smartphones include decent cameras that can be enhanced with some simple accessories.
Tripod- The Tripod is your friend! Even if you have the most steady hand, the tripod will really help improve the quality of your videos while helping you create them from a steady, level surface. You can find very simple, portable tripods to ones with fancy features. Start your search at Amazon.
- Another option is a Stabilizer Bar. If you are touring a home with your camera, these really help with the quality of your videos by helping reduce the side to side twist in your videos. Check out the one on HDhat.com.
Wide Angle Lens – A wide angle lens is especially important when you are filming home tours with your camera. The regular view of a camcorder can be limited and can be hard to show a room, especiall from a doorway. A wide angle lens gives you a much better view of the entire room. You can find some great wide angle lens options that can magnetically attach to your camera model (or phone) via Amazon, or check out these awesome snap-on cases from HDhat.com that are made for the Kodak PlayTouch or the iPhone4.
Editing Software – You might not get every video perfect in one take. So most likely, your raw video footage will need some editing, some title additions, etc. There are many editing options out there and you don’t need to be a total pro to use most of them.
- Most computers will come with easy-to-use video and movie creation software installed right on, like Windows Movie Maker for PCs and iMovie for Macs.
- For more robust video editing options, you can try something like Camtasia or what I personally use, Pinnacle Studio.
YouTube Channel – Not only is it valuable to put your videos on your blog or website, it is absolutely necessary that you have a YouTube channel. As mentioned above, YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine and uploading them to YouTube will help gain exposure for them as well as add additional promotion and embedding opportunities on your social networks and blogs. Your YouTube channel background can also be customized to go with your personal branding. (And if you don’t know how, your Virtual Assistant can definitely help with this)

So there are the essential tools you need to get started with using video for your real estate marketing. If you have any questions tools you need for real estate videos, or have some favorite tools of your own, we would love to hear about it. Please leave us a comment below and let us know about it!

Next up, I will be going over some tips and and best practices for creating and using video to build your business.

1 in 11 humans Are on Facebook [infographic]

Megan E. Barber — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:15:57 +0000

via socialcommercetoday.com

I ran across a few great infographics on Social Commerce Today, including the above illustrating the growth of Facebook over 2010, top brands, and demograhpics. Click the image above to read the great post.

Anyone out there still unsure about the importance of building a presence for your business on Facebook?

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

Update on the New Facebook Pages

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:29:04 +0000

Facebook has changed once again, though this time we were expecting it. Facebook pages now have a new look and some awesome new features. In the midday hours yesterday, the much buzzed about preview of the new Facebook Pages was rolled out. The official switch date for all Facebook pages is March 10, 2011, but yesterday Facebook gave many the option to upgrade their pages early (which of course I did).

So what in new with Facebook Pages? Let me give you an overview.

New Look

The new Facebook pages now closely resembles the new Facebook profiles that were rolled out in December 2010. Now they feature the addition of the 5 image banner at the top of the page and tabs have been removed and moved to the section beneath the page’s Avatar. So now any of your custom FBML tabs, or applications you’ve added to your page have been moved to this new spot.

Another change to the look, albeit small, is they’ve added an “Edit Page” button in the upper right hand corner of your page, instead of a link below the page avatar.

New Features

Now here is the best part. Facebook has added a bunch of fantastic new features that make managing your page and your page’s content so much better.

You can now receive immediate email notifications when people post, comment or interact with your business page. Beforehand it was difficult to track people posting on your page unless you were regularly monitoring it.
You now have the option to post, comment, update or like, as yourself or as your business page. It is a great opportunity for you to be able to promote your brand/business on other page while commenting or other interactions using your Page.
You have the ability to change the category your page appears under. So if you want to switch from a Local Business or Place, to a Company or Organization, you can.
You have the option to change the arrangement of the posts on your wall to be either the order of the most recent postings or order them by the most popular or “relevant” posts on your wall.
You can feature your self or your business partners as the page owners of your business page. Prior to this, it was difficult to tell who owned or ran a particular page, but now you have that option.
You can feature up to 5 of your favorite liked pages over on your left hand sidebar. So feature other business pages of yours, or your favorites.
Just like in the new Facebook profile layout, there is now the banner of 5 images across the top. You can use this area to feature your listings, or you can get creative and carry your branding message across.

What stays the same?

You still have the ability to designate one of your other tabs as default landing tab. So if you would like your custom welcome tab to be the first thing a user sees, you still can. If you had done this previously on the old version of your page, there is a chance that you will need to redo it after you upgrade, so it is best to double check.
Your custom landing tabs have remained the same width as before at 520 pixels wide. So no need to fear making your costom tabs you worked so hard on even narrower.

What else?

The location of the tabs has moved to a much less conspicuous place (as noted above). They are small links directly under the page avatar. So this means if you want to draw attention to your custom page tabs that you (or your assistant) have worked so hard to create, then you will need to get creative and perhaps draw attention to them using your page avatar.

Also, rumor has it that Static FBML will also be going away after March 10, 2011. Pages that are currently using custom tabs with FBML, can still remain. But it has been rumored that one will not be able to create new tabs using FBML. What will take it’s place? We shall see.

Overall, I think the changes that Facebook has made to the are pretty great for those using Facebook pages for real estate, or any other industry. It gives many more options on how you can display yourself and your content, and it is a fresh new look.

What are your thoughts about the new Facebook Pages? I would love to hear it, so please leave a comment below to state your thoughts or your questions about the new pages setup.

Coming soon: A full video review for my Getting Down to Basis series displaying layout and giving the lowdown how-to on set up the new Facebook Page.