Social network

Getting Down to Basics: Facebook Profile vs Page

January 28, 2011 By Megan E. Barber 1 Comment

On this first post on my Getting Down to Basics series, I am going to touch on some fundamentals of Facebook. One of the most common misconceptions I have found among many Realtors that have not fully delved into Facebook, is the difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook page.

It is easy to confuse the difference between Facebook profiles and pages (often called “business pages” or “fan pages”) because they look very similar. But they couldn’t be more different than one another as they have separate terms of service and serve different purposes.

Different Looks

The Facebook profile has a slightly different look from the official page especially since the dawn of the “new” Facebook profile that came out in December 2010. The most distinct differences would be the personal information listed at the top, and below that, the banner of 5 photos across the top above your wall.

and the lack of “tabs” on the profile page is also a big difference (though with Facebook changing all of the time, who knows how long tabs will still be there in the future).

*Facebook takes your first 5 tagged photos and puts them in that spot above your wall. So be sure that you like and approve of photos you’re tagged in as they’re the first thing people will see on your profile.

Different Verbiage

Facebook uses different terms for those connected to your profile and official page, friends vs. like.

For Facebook profiles you will see the “Add as Friend” button to add the profile of others to connect with your profile, and the term “friends” when referring to your profile connections.

Facebook pages, you will see the “Like” button when stumbling upon a new page, and the connections to the page are referred to as “People Who Like This”.

Different Terms of Service

In the past few years where Facebook has become a popular business tool, this question has come up from a few of my agents: “I want a Facebook page for their business, so do I have to sign up for a whole separate Facebook account?” The answer is a resounding NO.

In Facebook’s terms of service, they specifically state that you cannot have more than one personal profile, so that is a major no-no. They also say that you may not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain. Your profile is supposed to represent an actual person, not a brand. So it is advisable that as a Realtor, you should not promote your listings or directly solicit business on your Facebook profile. The Facebook official page is your answer to this.

That being said, that does not mean you can’t use your profile to foster relationships with your sphere. You should definitely engage with your friends on Facebook, show your personality, share your activities outside of your business life, just not blatantly promoting your real estate listings all the time. Think of Facebook as a giant online cocktail party. You wouldn’t go from person to person just telling them about your listings all the time would you?

Some additional points about your Facebook profile:

Facebook profile has a maximum friend limit of 5,000
Only those that you have mutually chosen to become friends with can see our full profile (unless you changed your privacy settings)

Facebook Pages on the other hand are specifically meant for commercial use. So your Facebook page or “Business Page” as I usually call it, is the appropriate place to post your listings, promote your real estate business, etc. Some additional info on Facebook official pages:

Facebook pages are indexed by Google
There are no limits to how many people can choose to like your page
You can track visitor stats via Insights
You can have as many Facebook pages as you wish

So that’s your basic overview of the difference between Facebook profiles and official pages. Here are some other great places to check out that explain this really well.

Pixel Coaching – Facebook Foundations: Profile vs. Official Pages (check out their awesome comparison chart at the bottom)
iClick Solutions – Difference between Facebook Profile and Facebook Fan Page

If you have any questions about some basics in Facebook , or any other social media or tech tool out there, we would love to hear about them, so please leave a comment below!

Next up in Getting Down to Basics, a video tutorial on how to create a Facebook page for your business.

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.

Filed Under: Getting Down To Basics, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking Tagged With: basics, Facebook, getting down to basics, Real Estate Technology, Social network

My Rules For Twitter Engagement

September 8, 2010 By Megan E. Barber Leave a Comment

If you couldn’t tell, I Love Twitter. For 3 years it has been my source of much breaking news, the source of shared ideas and articles with my colleagues, and I discovered who this Justin Beiber kid is (and still don’t care). Twitter can be a fantastic resource and marketing engine if you use it right, or a total time suck if you don’t. It is all about who you engage with and how you go about doing it.

My time is limited enough as a small business owner/work-at-home mom. I have to keep my Twitter stream clean and not full of cluttered nonsense, so I am relatively selective when following other Twitter users. Inspired by Janie Coffee and her post on her rules of who she does and does not follow, I decided to come up with my own rules of engagement when it comes to my Twitter followers.

Do’s and Don’ts If you Want Me to Follow You Back on Twitter

Don’t

Don’t have nothing in your profile description, or no image uploaded. Besides seeing what is in your stream, how would I know who and what you are and know any reason to follow you.
Don’t post links to porn, look like a pornbot, post links to your private video show, etc. Not interested in engaging.
Don’t post nothing but quotes. The occasional quote is nice, but if that is all you’ve got and nothing else interesting to say, you are not worth my time.
Don’t put in your description the words MLM, marketing expert, ninja, guru, jedi master(yes, I’ve really seen that), MLM, wealth, “make money on Twitter”, etc. I really don’t believe you and you probably can’t back it up.
Don’t have endless tweets in your stream that look like “spammy” marketing and are nothing but links back to your crappy marketing website.
Don’t tell me how you made 6 figures on Twitter, Facebook, etc by using your “proven” system that you want to sell to me.
Don’t have a blank twitter stream. If you have nothing to day, why would I follow you.
Don’t follow me, then unfollow, then follow, then unfollow, then follow again. That is so annoying.

Do

Do tweet about things that are interesting and engaging. Such things that interest me are: real estate, real estate marketing, virtual assistant industry, entrepreneurs, small business issues, motherhood, new jersey, wine, coffee, chocolate, jokes, and Simpsons trivia.
Do have a picture uploaded. The picture doesn’t necessarily have to be of you, but at least I know that you took the time to personalize your profile.
Do have @ replies to other people. That lets me know that you interact and engage with others. You’re not just a shameless self promoter or totally self involved.
Do have a somewhat balanced Following/Follower ratio. If you follow thousands more than those following you, is looks fishy to me.
Do follow others that I know and respect.
Do reach out to me by DM with an actual personal message. Auto-DMs with links to your site turn me off.

Not following me yet on Twitter? Well go ahead and find me there - @MegBarberVA

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking Tagged With: Marketing, Real Estate Technology, Social network, Social Networking, twitter, Website

Choose Your Social Media Friends Carefully

August 13, 2010 By Megan E. Barber 1 Comment

So there’s enough talk about Social Media being the latest and greatest marketing tool and why it’s necessary to have in your marketing arsenal. It’s starting to be overkill, so I’m sure by now you are getting the idea. I want to dig in a little deeper and to talk about adding “friends” and connections that can be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy.

So you’ve set up your social media profiles, Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts. Now what? Now it’s time to add your “friends”. You can accomplish very little in social media without friends, or connections. Who is going to see your posts, videos, or updates if you are not connected to anyone? It’s like shouting out to an empty room.

The great place to start out is by adding your own family, your friends, current and past clients that you regularly keep in touch with. But it is a good idea to be strategic about the kinds of friends and connections you make on your social networks. You want to make connections with people that will bring you business or have the potential to bring you business. And though this may be controversial to some, I am of the opinion that agents should not be spending too much of their social media time connecting with just a bunch of other real estate agents.

When some agents just start out in their social networks, they get caught in the trap of spending a lot of time adding, and friending only other agents, and ignoring the potential client base they can find from their sphere of influence and local area. Networking primarily with other agents may be fun, may generate an occasional referral, but other agents are not the people that a majority of your business will come from. In some cases, they are your direct competition (but not always). You want to connect with real potential sellers and buyers in your area, people that would want to use your services.

Say you opened a new business selling widgets. You wouldn’t necessarily want to connect primarily with other makers of the same widgets. You want to connect with people that are interested in buying your widgets. You want to get front of mind awareness with THOSE people because they are the meat and potatoes of your business.

Now I am not saying that you should ignore and not connect and network other agents on social media completely. You should spend some of your time networking with other agents. You can find some great agents out there to inspire you, to learn from, to joke with, commiserate with. Heck, in my own business, I network with a ton of other Virtual Assistants on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But it is a good idea to balance it out and strategically build your friends lists with clients and those potential buyers and sellers.

So choose your friends and connections on your social networks carefully. Be sure to spend your time networking with a good mix of potential business and other agents. And don’t forget to provide that great content! Entice people to network with you. Provide them great information in a friendly way. Do that, and you will eventually have people clamoring to be connected to YOU.

Choose Your Social Media Friends Carefully

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Real Estate Mistakes, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking Tagged With: Facebook, Marketing, Online Marketing, Real Estate Technology, Social media, Social network, twitter

The Poken- My New Favorite Tech Gadget

March 1, 2010 By Megan E. Barber 3 Comments

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:

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.

Filed Under: Blogging, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking, video Tagged With: Blog, bvas, Poken, Real Estate Technology, Social network, Social Networking, tools, video, Virtual Assistant

Avoid These Facebook Pitfalls

February 2, 2010 By Megan E. Barber Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, Social Networking Tagged With: Add new tag, Facebook, Marketing, Online Marketing, Real Estate Mistakes, Social media, Social network, Social Networking, twitter

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Getting Down to Basics: Facebook Profile vs Page

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My Rules For Twitter Engagement

Do’s and Don’ts If you Want Me to Follow You Back on Twitter

Don’t

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Choose Your Social Media Friends Carefully

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The Poken- My New Favorite Tech Gadget

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