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7 Secrets to Facebook Page Success

I am sure by now we all know that Facebook is an absolute must for your business, but you may not understand why this is so important. Allow me to share a few statistics that might make it more obvious why everyone who is in business needs to have a Facebook page.

General Stats

• More than 400 million active users on Facebook
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
• More than 3.5 million events created each month

Many though get confused by the personal profiles and Facebook Pages which are designated for business. If you weren't aware, Facebook frowns heavily on the use of a personal page for business purposes. In fact, I have heard of profiles being shut down because they were being used for the wrong purpose. A client of mine the other week ran into restrictions on his profile because it had too much business dealings taking place for their liking. They made it almost impossible to add friends, join a page, or even attend an event. The other thing with a personal page is that you are limited toonly 5,000 friends. Facebook pages allow you to have unlimited fans and talk about business as much as you wish. Because of these rules that are in place on Facebook, not only are more and more people joining daily, but so are businesses setting up a page is growing at astronomical rates.

Take a look at some of these stats on Facebook Pages:

• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

In a constant effort to provide the best content for our clients, 210 Consulting is bringing in one of the most proficient people on the planet about Facebook Fan Pages, Mike Mueller. Mike has created over 150 custom Facebook pages for clients and is constantly keeping abreast of any changes to Facebook. He has also traveled around the country teaching hundreds the basics of Facebook pages and how to use them successfully.

We are excited for Mike to join us for this FREE 60 minute webinar titled "7 Secrets to Facebook Success" on Tuesday, March 9th at 2PM EST.

To register for this free class, simply fill out the form below.  Seating is limited and is on a first come first serve basis. We hope to see you there!

It is no secret by now that social media is a huge component to any real estate agents marketing plan.  Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are so important in generating new contacts and increasing business.  But, with the constant changing of tools, new applications, and new platforms emerging, it can become overwhelming quickly as to which are effective and what isn't 

Join Jason Crouch and myself tomorrow as we will share over 35 different tools that we implement regularly in our social media marketing plan in two back to back webinars.  These 45 minute webinars will be fast-paced and give you a cursory overview of tools we love using in our business.  The class times are 12:30 & 1:30 ET. 

To register for these sessions, simply fill out the form below and you will receive an email tomorrow with a link to join the session.  Here are just a few of the things we will talk about:

• Facebook
• Facebook Business Pages
• Posterous
• Google Alerts
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Mobile Apps for Blackberry & iPhone
  

Obviously, we will be cover a lot more than listed above.  As mentioned these sessions are completely free to anyone who wishes to attend.  Seating is limited to 25 seats per class and will be on a first come first serve basis.  If you can't attend tomorrow's session, fill out the form anyways and we can add you to our mailing list to keep you informed when this class will be taught again.  Make sure to fill out the form below completely & correctly so we can contact you tomorrow with the webinar information.

We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

The concept of getting your website to the first page of Google seems like an almost impossible task to many.  People spend months writing more and more content for their site, getting backlinks, and editing things without ever getting your website to the first page of Google.  You feel defeated when your site stays on page 17 and just won't budge.  Then one day you get a call from a company who promises “if you give us $395.00 per month, we will put your site on the first page of Google.” The part that these telemarketers neglect to mention is that the moment you stop paying them, your website will drop faster than lead balloon.  As a former real estate agent, I used to get these calls regularly.

So, how can you actually get your website to the first page of Google?  Well, there are a couple of really basic principles that you’ll need to implement.  The “basics” are just that – basic.  Before I share these, first you need to learn to not over-complicate things.  Here are 3 easy steps to getting your website to the first page of Google:

1. Good, solid, keyword-rich content. So what is quality keyword-rich content? Basically, it’s content that gives something of value to consumers and search engines.  You need to have keyword-rich posts that answer the questions your consumers have.  Do not just spit out some random words and call it a post.  If you write just to write and do not really have purpose, you are basically wasting your time if you are trying to get business.  Develop a gameplan for your content and stick to it.

Ten well-written, targeted, keyword dense posts will bring a greater result than 100 posts that are thrown together quickly, with topics all over the place, and which contain piles of typos, grammatical errors, and more.  This is a prime example of the principle of quality over quantity for the greatest result possible.

2.  Writing Consistently on Your Blog. Many times people start working on getting their website to the first page of Google and after the first month or so they simply give up. One of the key factors to getting your website on the first page of Google is to consistently offer fresh content on your site.  The easiest way to do this, of course, is to integrate a blog into your page.

You don’t need to have a Masters degree in English to have an effective blog.  You just need to publish 2-3 good, quality posts each week that offer valuable content to your readers that are also written with your primary keywords in mind.  One of the biggest excuses that I hear is that a business does not have time to write.  According to HubSpot, businesses who blog receive 55% more visitors than companies who do not.

Here’s a simple time management strategy:  On the weekend or whenever you have a few spare hours, (watching a football game, relaxing by the fire, etc.), sit down and write 2 or 3 really good quality posts.  Then, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you can launch these pre-written posts.  You can then take the rest of the week to respond to comments, etc.  To the consumers and search engines, it appears as though you have written new content on three different days.

This practice is far healthier for your rankings than writing a bunch of content one day, then waiting 7-10 days to write more.  Why? The search engines are constantly visiting your page to index more content.  The freshness is important when it comes to Google’s indexing algorithm.  Also, they see a constant stream of new stuff instead of a bunch on one day, then a week of dormancy until you get around to posting again.  This is also helpful for your consumer audience of readers.  If you publish 3-4 posts all at once, the likelihood of those posts bringing you good consumer traffic from those subscribed to your blog is minimal.  Most consumers will read maybe one post, but will not have the time, attention span, or energy to read multiple posts.

3.  Link, Link, Link! The more sites that are pointing links at your page (especially when titled with the keywords you are trying to achieve) will produce a great return.  One easy way to get some great links pointing to your site is to make sure you have added your business site to your profiles on any and all networks you participate in.  Links from higher ranking sites help the search engines realize that these sites recognize your website. 

It is kind of like when Oprah endorsed KFC’s new grilled chicken promo.  In no time, there were over 2 million coupons printed and many were left missing out on the promotion because of lack of supply. Links from reputable sites make your own site seem more reputable. 

One thing for sure, you need to make positive that the links you insert places are actually working for you.  Many networks block the search engines from following the links to prevent spam.  (I will be writing more about this in the future.)

Another great way to get links, is to ask your friends and family members to place a link on their blogs, websites, etc.  Two things with regards to linking: do not pay a link farm service.  Search engines don’t value these links – I could go into great detail about why, but just rest assured that it’s a waste of time and money. The other tip is to not do a reciprocal link when possible.  This means, if your brother links to your site, do not put a link back to his. 

A detour. An easy alternative to reciprocal links is to have a link triangle. In this case, your brother links to your site, you link to your parents, and your parents link to your brother’s page.  All links are one-way and none are going back and forth.  The more links you can have pointed at your site, the better it will help in getting your website to the first page of Google. You can think of each link as a “vote” for your site.

If you implement just these three tips, it will help get your website onto the first page of Google.  Obviously,  there are plenty of other factors that contribute to this phenomenon.  If you take these and not only integrate into your website, but also into your blog, the most vital part to your website, you will start seeing results in a rather quick fashion. These three items I discussed alone can make or break the effectiveness of a website. 

If you have any questions, let me know. And by the way, 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors offers some really great personal coaching taught by myself and Jason Crouch on this subject.

Photo Credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mklingo/245562110/ & http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiderpop/2798740868/

One of the most common questions that I keep getting asked over & over is by many of our members here on ActiveRain is "How do I get those I work with & my friends to try out ActiveRain.  They just don't understand it and how to use it for business."  I also get asked by many of our members to teach the class for their brokerage.  In fact, many have asked if I would come personally & teach the class at their office. 

While unfortunately I am not able to physically travel around the US to visit each & every current & new member in person,  I am however able to do it virtually through technology.  As many of you know, I started a few months back teaching a Blogging Basics 101 class for our new members that have not yet become a Rainmaker. With our webinar software, I am now able to teach up to 1,000 people at a time.  So if you have a small or large company or brokerage, I should be able to accommodate. So, without further ado, let me announce that I will now be offering my Blogging Basics 101 class to not only new members, but also to brokerages, & businesses alike.  

So, if you have been telling your staff & friends about ActiveRain & encouraging them to sign up but they have not yet taken the time to do so, this class is for you & them!  This is the perfect solution to help all of your friends that are real estate agents, lenders, home inspectors,home stagers, & brokers to finally get their blogging career started in the right direction.   

What Can Be Expected in this Webinar?

In this class I will teach you: 

How to Optimize Your ActiveRain Profile.
How to Insert Photos into your Blog
How to Insert Hyperlinks.
Setting up Your Outside Blog.
How to write effective blog posts for consumers & search engines.

How to use your blog to connect with your community.
Topics to write about on your blog.
Question & Answer  
Why Blogs are the most important tool in your Social Media Arsenal.

When is My Webinar For My Brokerage?

Good question!  Due to different time zones & schedules, we will be planning these classes separately from my regularly scheduled classes.  Depending on the amount of interest along with the size of the brokerages, there may be a few companies combined together.   Of course, these classes will be scheduled at convenient times for your business.  So, if you have your company meetings on Tuesdays at 9AM, or Thursday at 5PM I will do my best to accommodate.

How Much is it Gonna Cost me?

For this time of top notch training from an expert in the field, you could expect to be paying hundreds of dollars to have them come in & speak to your team.  But, what if I said that the training was free for our members?  That is right, I said FREE.  The only thing that I ask, is that you make sure that those in your office that are not currently using ActiveRain on a regualr basis come to the class & encourage them to at least try out our Rainmaker Membership for the first month.  It will only cost them $5.00, but they will be able to enjoy the successes like so many of our members already have.

So, if you have a group that you would like to have a special training session for, feel free to fill out the simple form below.

Technology is constantly changing the way businesses act and conduct business daily.  How willing are you to adapt to the changes as they come along and incorporate them into your business plan?  If you are not, you may want to re-think before your all your business has been captured by your competitors.

This is a movie review of Transformers 2, but since I didn't care for the movie that much, it turned more into a lesson on how to embrace change for your business. In fact, if you want, you can skip right to around 1:24.

I reference Blockbuster Video and how they have not been able to embrace change as fast as competitors like Redbox which are not slowly putting them out of business. You need to embrace change in your business and integrate social media into your plan if you have not yet. If you refuse to embrace change, you will end up just like Blockbuster in a few years....an empty building with a for lease sign in front of it. Please take a few moments to watch:

The Moral of the story?   Technology is constantly changing the way we handle our day to day businesses.  Be alert to these changes and be willing to embrace/implement them into your business plan. Even if you feel you do not like it, or feel it is a waste of time, you need to at least test out the new technology to see if it will help or hinder your business before you form an opinion on them.  Assuming they won't work because of something you hear from somewhere else could be fatal to your business.  Plus, we all knows what can happen if we just assume....

Each time I teach a webinar class, one of the things we spend a good amount of time covering is how to claim the domain name for your outside blog.  When you become a Rainmaker, a custom domain URL is part of your benefit.  You do not need to go to godaddy.com and purchase a domain name. So, I decided that I would take a  moment tonight and do a brief tutorial on how to claim your domain for your Outside Blog through ActiveRain.

Also, if you were wondering if an outside blog would be a benefit for you, you may want to check out a few great features of the outside blog.

First, a few of the awesome themes available:

• Business Casual Theme
• Easy Going Theme
• Blue Days
• Real Estate Red
• A Day at the Beach
• Granite

And here are a few of the awesome widgets available:

• Local Posts Widget
• Google Search Widget
• Feedburner Email Subscribe Widget

So, if you have not yet become a Rainmaker and started your Outside Blog, try it today!  Also, if you would like to learn more on how to optimize ActiveRain & your Outside Blog, see if my Blogging Basics 101 class is right for you!

Last evening I read a really interesting article over on HubSpot about the differences between businesses who blog and those who do not.  Did you know that companies who blog receive 55% more traffic than one who does not?  Over the past few weeks I have helped many of our members figure out how to have their blogs be seen by the public and show up well in the search engines in my Blogging Basics 101 webinar and many had no idea how powerful a blog could be for your online presence.

As I shared the other day, one of the biggest reasons to become a Rainmaker is so your posts will be able to be seen by the search engines and also consumers.  If the consumers are not able to read that what you have written and contact you directly for business, what is the purpose in writing?

I wanted to see if this 55% more traffic held true for our members on ActiveRain, so I decided I would pick two members.  I picked a random rainmaker that had 79,000 points and a random non-rainmaker that had just over 81,000 points.  Both began writing on ActiveRain within 2 weeks of each other and predominantly wrote posts about their local area and consumer centered posts. Here are the results:

The graph on the left are 8 posts from someone who is not a Rainmaker and posts are not able to be read by the public or indexed by the search engines.  The graph on the right was from a Rainmaker.  You can see that there is no comparison between the two.  Someone that is a Rainmaker is receiving 386% more views of their blog posts over someone who is not!  This number was astounding to me.  It made me realize right away the power of being a Rainmaker. On average that means that the post is being read by close to 500 others outside of the ActiveRain network.

I also want to point out, that this number does not take into account the views your posts will receive on Localism and also on your outside blog which also have strong web presences just like ActiveRain does.  Are you convinced yet that maybe you need to be come a Rainmaker?  If not, here are over 1,500 testimonies from our members,

In case you are still hesiatant to spend the money to become a Rainmaker, I want to offer you a special promotion to try out our Rainmaker membership that over 80% of our members have.  If you click on this special promotion link to upgrade, you will be able to try out all of the premium member benefits for the first month for only $5.00.  There are no long term contracts to sign, so if you do not see the results you want, you can cancel at the end of the first month and it has only cost you $5.00.   In addition to trying out our Rainmaker membership, you will also be eligible to take my Blogging Basics 101 Webinar where I will personally teach you everything you need to know about blogging, ActiveRain, and how to use both to optimize your online presence and take you to page 1 of Google.

Are You Ready to take your blogging career to the next level?  Get started today!

As I have shared over the past few weeks, I have been extremely busy with Webinars for our new members teaching them how to write posts effectively for search engines & also to be appealing to consumers.  In the classes I share how to write posts to rank well in the search engines as well as making your posts appealing to a consumer who comes to read what you have written. 

During the webinars, one of the questions that normally comes up is Why do I need to be a Rainmaker?  While there are thousands of reasons why everyone should be a rainmaker, I decided to just share 6 of the most important ones.

• Google Dominance-  This is a no-brainer.  If you write it properly, it will rank well in Google.  It doesn't take months and years to start ranking well in Google.  If you don't believe me, read about one of the members who became a Rainmaker in less than 10 hours of sending two posts public was #1 & #2 on Google!  If you take the training that ActiveRain offers our Rainmakers and put it to use for you, the same results can be yours. 

• Blog views get a steroid injection.  If you are trying to figure out how to get more traffic to your blog, then a Rainmaker is a great option.  Did you know that our Rainmakers Average 500 views per post?  Here are some really interesting stats from a member who recently became a rainmaker.

                   Before                                                                         After

These stats were taken immediately after becoming a Rainmaker and you can see the results.  In an instant their blog traffic increased 4 times what it was on posts before being a Rainmaker.  This happens instantly because when you become a Rainmaker you get to have your posts show up in the search engines and also be read by consumers. 

• Increase of Income- This is probably my favorite reason for becoming a Rainmaker.  Once you become a rainmaker, you can really increase your revenue.  I don't need to prove that a Rainmaker Membership can increase your income, many of our members already have:

Over the past week or two, I had two referrals from my friends here at ActiveRain, AND one of the biggest closings we've had in months.  The closing came from a consumer who found my blog months ago and became a "fan". -Jason Crouch

While almost 60% of the members who joined Active Rain at the same time I did, have not used  this amazing marketing tool, I have garnered close to sixty (YES, sixty!!!) new clients through my blogging on AR.  I literally credit ActiveRain with saving my business during these trying times. -Mirela Monte

• Posts show up on Localism.  "The World's Most Complete Neighborpedia"  When you are writing content about your local area this gives you a great secondary avenue to share your information & increase your Internet exposure by double instantly.
  

• ActiveBlogs- Think of the endless marketing opportunities by having your blog show up on it's own domain name.  For example, which would you prefer seeing on a business card? http://activerain.com/blogs/jeremy or http://activejeremy.com?  Just how Localism gives you another avenue to share your content exponentially, your ActiveBlog does the same thing by offering a third place to syndicate your content to.
  

• Top Notch Training- The training & knowledge you can obtain on ActiveRain is alone enough reason to become a Rainmaker.  Between the webinars offered by ActiveRain and also the great information shared by members you can learn enough to revolutionize your business and take it to the next level.

So if you are not yet a Rainmaker, what have you been waiting for?  Get started today for only $5.00 for the first month. Or, if you would some training on how a rainmaker can increase your business, feel free to sign up for my Blogging Basics 101 Webinar where I will teach you personally how to get the most out of your membership. 

What are you waiting for?  Let's take your blogging career to the next level today!

I  read a post earlier this morning from fellow staff member Joel Kruse on how within a three hour period he helped a new member, achieve page one results with her new ActiveRain Blog on Google.  If you missed the article, go read it here: New Rainmaker on the first page of Google in 3 hours the post is rather astonishing!

As I began reading the comments, one of the comments I saw by a few over & over was: "Lets be real, who cares if you are #1 for Manhattan Beach Events & Activities?  You need to be on page 1 for real estate terms in your area."   I wanted to take a few minutes to explain why writing about anything in addition to real estate can be an asset to your Real Estate business.

Adopting the Walmart Mentality to Your Blog

I don't know about anyone else, but I know that whenever my wife & I visit walmart we end up being there for a minimum of 30 minutes & spending close to $100.00 no matter what.  We go in to purchase a bag of potatoes & diapers & while inside realize that we needed paper towels, see an adorable outfit for Isabelle we can't pass up & need more shaving cream.  The reason that this happens is because Walmart has everything you could ever possibly need!  They are a smorgasbord of products. Also, you know that their prices are always going to either be better than the competition or very close.

This same principle is true to your writing on your blog.  While writing about community events & activities, or restaurants may not have anything to do with real estate, writing these posts bring consumers to your blog.  While they are there reading about a local restaurant, or an upcoming Marathon, they also notice you work in real estate & as they become comfortable with you as a local expert, they are also going to be telling others about your blog.  Also, they will check back regularly for more information & also connect with you.  Also, you never know who they may be telling about your site & the great info you shared about the local parade that is ready to buy a home now.

Here is an example to bring this into perspective:  A few years ago, I wrote about baseball & a major local tournament that was taking place here.  Shortly after writing that post, a gentleman contacted me one day.  He said, "Hi Jeremy, I read what you wrote about the upcoming baseball tournament.  My son is playing in it this year & I was wondering if you could help us find a place to rent for 10 days."  While I never ventured into the rental market & stuck strictly to real estate sales, I was kinda bummed he was looking to rent instead of purchasing.

I gave the man a the name of a nice condo development that did rentals & didn't think much of it anymore.  As the next year of the tournament rolled around, I received a call one day from this gentleman.  He said: "Hey Jeremy I have been following your blog for the past few months & it seems that the market in Myrtle Beach is really prime for us to purchase. When we come back down in a few weeks can we get together & look at property?"  I said most definitely!  So, we met up while they were here.  They ended up purchasing two properties from me as well as referred another 3 people to me.

That one small thing written about a baseball tournament resulted in over $30,000 in commissions because I wrote an article that appealed to this gentleman's needs, & also took a step beyond the call of duty to help him find a rental.  Also, he was able to relate to me because he knew I loved baseball enough to take time & write about it.  We had a common connection.  He didn't first come to me because buying a place here was on his mind. Just like when I visit Walmart I am not going in to purchase Isabelle a new dress, or my wife a new pair of shoes.   I am there for bag of potatoes.  But because the rest is available, I get that as well. 

If nothing else, write the post for the Juice!

Ok, so maybe you think this principle above is crazy & completely ridiculous.  If you do, that is perfectly fine and you don't need to believe it.  But, what about the SEO side of writing local content?  As you write these local content posts you are working on building a larger online presence.    Every time you write a post & submit it for the public to view, you are giving Google another page to index on your blog & increasing SEO. One of the things that Google loves is fresh new content.  The more content you can provide, the more it will love you. 

So, Have You Adopted the Walmart Mentality to Your Blog?