ActiveRain Tutorials

Branding Your Business Part 1- Customizing Facebook Pages

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:22:12 -0500

Since this Friday I am teaching a webinar for ActiveRain University titled Customizing Your ActiveRain Blog that it was time for me to share about the importance of building your brands across all social media platforms. Instead of writing a 3,000 word novel to cover all of the different platforms that exist and tips to customizing each, I figured I would break this down into a series.

The first network I want to talk about today is Customizing your Facebook Page. But before I get into what to customize and how, I first want to share the difference between the three main categories Facebook offers. The first is a Facebook Profile. A profile is your personal page on Facebook. It is where you have "friends" and can connect with people on a personal level. What many do not realize about these profiles is that Facebook frowns heavily on you doing any business on them. In fact, section 4.2 of Facebook TOS says this: "You will not use your personal profile for commercial gain." Pretty self explanatory.

A Facebook Group is the second category of Facebook that I wanted to discuss. These pages are limited to the number of members you can have. Also, they normally require each person to be accepted into the group. They also have several limitations to the customization end of things. So while these might be good idea, they have some major limitations when it comes to being effective for business.

The third Facebook category which I want to talk in detail about is Facebook Pages. These are designed for businesses. They allow many customizations and also unlimited number of fans. Many times though, when I look at Facebook Pages, I see so many things that could use some improvement.

Here are my 4 most important things to do when customizing a Facebook Page.

1. Fill in the about me section on your main page. Facebook pages have a small about me section on the main area of your page. Make sure you fill this area in with a brief description of what the page is about. The other thing that is good to do here is add a link to your website. You can do so by just typing out the full URL to your site.

This is a quick and easy way to share a little bit of information about the purpose of your page and also your business. Like I mentioned, keep this brief. Don't try to get into a sales pitch here or you will lose the consumer before they even take the time to click to become a fan.

2. Custom avatars- Did you know that you can create your own custom avatars for your Facebook Page? Instead of using a standard 200x200 photo, you can actually have something that is up to 540 pixels long! One of the big advantages to the larger custom avatars is that they will stand out from your competition when someone is searching for pages to join. If the logos for all the other pages are small and yours is over twice the size, you have a much better chance of them noticing you. Here are a few ideas for other things to incorporate into your avatar. You can add additional text, graphics, & colors to it. While the links you add are not going to be able to be clicked, you can give people valuable information like a quick reference to your phone number, twitter account, etc.

Here are a few that I recently designed for clients. You can see what I mean:

The key though to making these larger avatars is that you have to keep in mind the logo that will show up on your thumbnails on the wall. So it is important that you use the correct spacing, sizing etc for your main logo/image. If not, you will end up with half of your head, or logo showing up on the thumbnails and that doesn't always look the greatest. If you are graphically design challenged, I can help.

3. Integration of Blog- There are several ways to integrate your blog into your Facebook page. While some work better than others, you have to go with the process you prefer. I personally like mine coming in as an RSS feed through social RSS, but you can also use the notes function if you wish. The key though is to feed in your blog information so that there is a steady stream of content other than just your regular wall posts. One word of caution though, remember when you set up the RSS feed that it feeds everything posted to that domain. So if you set it up & then place a blog post that is off topic or slightly offensive, it will be visible to your Facebook page as well.

4. Custom Welcome Tab- This is by far the most effective thing you can have on your Facebook page. You can set this to be the tab that greets every single guest to your site. That way they can get to know you immediately. Our Facebook Page which was built by Mike Mueller, has a nice welcome video from myself & Jason Crouch that greets every single fan to our page. We kept our video under a minute and just thank people for visiting & encourage them to become a fan. In less than 10 days, it has been viewed 100 times!

These custom tabs can also have all types of things added to them. Including good keyword rich content, links to pages of your website, links to other services you offer. If you know FBML, you can really do some awesome things on a page. But, if you are like me and are not an expert on FBML (Facebook Markup Language) then I would HIGHLY recommend you contact Mike Mueller to build your page. He has done over 200 of them & is really up to date on all the changes in specs to the pages. That way you do not have someone build a great custom page for you to find out the next week that Facebook is making major changes to size allotments & other specs. If you want a page, contact him here. Also, because he likes me so much, he told me I can offer a 10% discount if you mention my name. So tell him Jeremy sent you!

Take these 4 simple steps, place them into action, and you can really have one really awesome custom page that is branded to your business. This means that if they find you on a website or on Facebook, it doesn't really matter because both sites look, feel & act in very similar manners. If you don't believe me, take a look at our website & Facebook page. You will definitely see the correlation in our branding between the two.

If you want to learn more about how to customize your Facebook Page, feel free to contact me directly or register for our workshop on 3/17/10 at 2PM EST. Mike is going to teach you more on how to build awesome custom Facebook pages like ours!

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog to keep up to date with my latest posts of tips & tricks to enhance your experience on ActiveRain. If you would like, you can sign up to receive updates via email directly in your inbox.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

ActiveRain University Presents Customizing Your ActiveRain Blog

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:57:31 -0600

Branding your image is one of the most important aspects of any business. You need to have an image that depicts you and the business you are involved in. Many sites require complex steps to customize a theme and make it the way you wish. ActiveRain offers you a really great option on how to customize your blog to represent your image better. Unfortunately, very few really master how to accomplish this.

Have you ever seen a blog on ActiveRain that looks like this?

I know I surely have. While this type of theme might be acceptable on this network, it really doesn't convey a professional branding that you would wish to associate with your business. On Friday March 19th at 11 AM EST (8 AM PST) I will be teaching at ActiveRain University on how to customize your your blog on ActiveRain. This 1 hour webinar will cover the following:

Creating a Custom Header that has Pizazz.
Uploading a Header to your ActiveRain Blog & Outside Blog.
Customizing your ActiveRain Background to compliment your header.

Now, in case you were wondering why ActiveRain chose me to teach this class, let me show you a few examples of headers I have created in the past for clients:

And here are a few more examples of member blogs that I have customized:

These are just a few customizations on ActiveRain that I have done for clients in the past. In this webinar, I will show you step by step how to take your blog customizations to the next level.

To register for this class, visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/752157441.

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Website Linking Strategies- Are Your Efforts Paying Off?

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:41:00 -0600

Website Linking Strategies- Are your efforts paying off?

I wrote the other day How to Get Your Website to the First Page of Google which received an awesome response from many. One of the main points I discussed in that article was the importance of linking in your blog posts. I explained how this can be a vital part of your Search Engine Optimization and if done properly can bring great results.

Many questions were asked in the comment section as well as a few practices that were used by commenters that I wanted to address. Before I get into that, let's do a quick review of what I'm talking about. In that post I said:

"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."

Many who read the post I believe stopped reading there & rushed off to their twitter profile, Facebook profile and every other social network they participate on and started adding links. But, if you read on, there was a very important disclaimer that went along with that statement. I said: "One thing for sure, you need to be 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."

A common misconception is that when I place a link online, that link is automatically recognized by the search engines and is benefiting me each time I place it somewhere. So, every time there is an opportunity to place a link, the instant notion is to place one. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying do not place the link just because the search engines are not reading it. I always place a link when there is a place asking me. Even if the search engines do not follow it it still can bring a consumer reading that site to me.

So, how do we know whether the link is a benefit or not? What can we do to check? As I have shared in the past, I am huge fan of using Firefox as my web browser because of the amazing add-ons they have to enhance & help you analyze your online presence. Firefox has an add-on called NoDoFollow. This simple add-on can easily be turned on and off and show you whether the links you are leaving are being followed by the search engines or not. Here is quick video showing you how NoDoFollow works:

Try using NoDoFollow and see how effective your linking strategies are. My guess is that you will be surprised by some of the places that links are followed and not followed.

Anchoring Your Links

Another common mistake I see when inserting links is not setting them as anchor text. What do I mean by anchor text? Anchor Text as defined by Wikipedia is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. Think of them in the most literal play on words possible, they anchor the link down for search engines to understand what that link is supposed to be. So when you are writing your posts, instead of placing a link like this, http://www.eventbrite.com/event/581158260 you would make a link like this: How to Chug Google Juice & Gain 15 Years of Fame. Not only does this assist the search engines in understanding what you are trying to say, it also assists consumers to know what they are about to click on.

If both of those links were placed in a blog post, my guess is that the one with anchored text would be clicked on at a ratio of around 5:1 to the other link. I wrote how to insert links into your blog a few months back, so if you are not sure the proper way to do so, visit the tutorial for assistance. While this seems like a minor thing, if it is done properly over several hundred posts of content, it can really pay off in large dividends.

Titling Your Links

This is another minor step that can help both consumers & search engines understand what you are trying to convey. When adding a title to the link, it does exactly that, titles the link for everyone. That way when someone hovers over a link, a pop-up appears with what that link is supposed to be. So even though the link anchor might be Jason Crouch, and the link is to his profile, the title is completely different pops up when you hover over the link Jason Crouch. Once again, a very minor thing to do that can result in many more clickthroughs and SEO benefits.

I hope this helps everyone have a better understanding on linking strategies. 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. We also have a webinar coming up where we will get into this in more detail. Find more info here.

Photo Credit 1HappySnapper(photography)& John of Austin

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

How to Add Facebook Fanbox to Your ActiveRain Blog

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:55:14 -0500

**THIS TUTORIAL IS ONLY APPLICABLE TO FAN PAGES. IT DOES NOT APPLY TO A REGULAR FACEBOOK FRIEND PAGE**

Since Facebook announced the ability to have your own personal url for your Facebook Pages, there has been an amazing increase in Fan Pages. One awesome feature that has recently been released is the ability to add a Facebook Fanbox Widget.

Like most new and cool things, I immediately had to try & add it to my page. So, I visited Facebook and noticed that the code was giving as a <script> which is not on the approved widget list yet on our network. But, as I scrolled down a little further, I found a version of the code in <iframe> which is supported by the network.

So what are Facebook FanBoxes?

The fanboxes are almost like mini versions of your fan page. It allows people to become a fan of your Facebook page right from your blog. It also shows some of your fans on rotating basis. The other fun thing is that you can bring in your wall from your Facebook page to show what is happening on Facebook on your blog.

How to install Facebook Fanbox on your ActiveRain Blog.

The <iframe> widget is rather generic and if you just copy & paste the generic version of the widget, it will be too wide & look funny on your blog here on ActiveRain. But, like any good community builder, I have taken the time to make the necessary changes so that the widget will look right on your page.

Two Versions for Your ActiveRain Blog.

The first version includes your stream from your Facebook Page Wall into your ActiveRain Blog. The finished product will look very similar to my personal widget over on the right. The first step is to copy this piece of code in it's entirety:

After you have copied the code above, you will then go to My Settings on your ActiveRain Blog. Paste the code into the Blog Description box. Once you have copied & pasted the code into your blog, it is now time to alter the coding to make it your personal page. Start by opening up a new tab on your web browser & bring up your Facebook FanPage. You are going to need to tab back & forth between the 2 pages to get all the information needed to customize your page.

You will notice 3 parts of the code above that I have placed in BOLD print. The reason for this, is that these three sections you must enter your information or the widget will not work properly. Also, it will be very generic & not customized to you.

The first section you are going to change is Your ID Number. This is found by visiting your facebook fan page. Under your profile picture there is a link to add a fanbox to your site. Click on that link. DO NOT USE THE CODE THAT APPEARS NEXT ON FACEBOOK.

Once it opens, you will want to copy 12 digit id number that is at the end of the URL. This is YOUR ID NUMBER.

Once you have that ID number go back to the code and replace the words YOUR ID NUMBER with the 12 digit number.

The next step is to get the link for your page. If you are lucky enough to have over 100 fans already, You have a custom URL. Mine is http://facebook.com/socialmediatips that would be the URL I would place in mine. But, if you do not have the vanity URL yet, your URL would look more like this: http://facebook.com/Real-Estate-Client-Referrals/101152061373. The number at the end of the URL is very important as that is part of the URL identifier so make sure you include it as well. You will paste the entire URL into the YOUR FACEBOOK URL section.

The third & final customization to the code is to title the fanbox widget at the bottom of your widget. I titled mine Social Media Tips, but yours might be Miami Real Estate, or Denver Locals, whatever you want to name it. The choice is yours. I would keep it to less than 5 words.

After making these changes to the code, make sure to click Update to save changes!

Some of you may not wish to have the wall included into your widget out of fear of what some of your friends might say, or to just make things simpler, so I have also customized the widget without the wall feed included. To make this widget on your blog, you will want to copy this code:

As above, follow the 3 simple steps to Customize your widget on your blog by changing the ID Number, URL & Fanpage Name. Once the changes have been made, DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK UPDATE ON YOUR ACTIVERAIN SETTINGS PAGE.

I will leave you with this final thought. While it seems like this is a rather complex & long laborious process, it really is not. I have already taken the hard part out by making the customizations to the html code to make this widget work properly and look good on ActiveRain.

My guess is that if you follow the steps above you can add this widget in less than 5 minutes. When Clint Miller Contacted me yesterday to add the widget to his Real Estate Client Referrals blog on ActiveRain, we were able to have it up & running in about 2 minutes time.

Also, if you are familiar with HTML codes you can make a few more customizations to this widget. For example, you may not want 12 of your friends showing at a time, or maybe you wish for none to be showing. This coding is fully customizable. If you would like some of those changes but are not familiar with HTML codes, let me know in the comments section and I will try to make the changes & post them below. One suggestion is this. Make sure to keep your friends showing on the widget in multiples of 3. If not, you will run into issues.

Lastly, if you have not already joined the ActiveRain Page, what are you waiting for? Use the Fanbox on the right of my page & become a fan today!

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

7 Secrets to Facebook Page Success- Webinar with Mike Mueller

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:35:19 -0600

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!

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Effectively Posting Your Listings To Your Blog

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:54:06 -0500

Effectively Posting Your Listings to Your Blog.

Posting your listings to your blog is something that any agent loves to do. It provides exposure for the listing which makes the seller happy & also gives your blog an additional posting of content. However over the past few months of being on staff I have encountered this question more times than I can count. "How do I post my listings on my blog?" Because of this I have written this post that will walk you through what you should & shouldn't be doing when posting your listings on your blog.

What Not to Do When Writing About Your Listing

Before I share how to effectively post your listings to your blog, I want to start with a few things not to do. The biggest No No is to just copy & paste directly from your MLS. Copying & pasting can cause coding issues to your blog where giant paragraphs of funny text shows up. Also, this a violation of our Community Guidelines. The second way many post their listings is through using some sort of outside service where you input your listing information & are provided with a piece of html code that creates a pretty flyer like the one to the right.

While there are plenty of wonderful services available to place your listings on your blog, (postlets, vflyer, realbird, etc) they are not always the best way. Before I go any further, let me make this statement: There is nothing wrong with using those services! They are a great for posting your listings to many social media platforms like craigslist, twitter, & facebook. But in order to make your listings more attractive to consumers & also search engines, using those sites hold you back on your blog & here is why.

Lack of content: Many times those services have a limit on the number of characters you can use in the description. They also do not allow you include links in the flyer. Since you can't link you are missing valuable opportunities for link juice.
Lack of Creativity. While they create really pretty looking flyers that can be visually appealing, they hinder you from using any type of creativity in the layout or added features to your listing because of the set template. The ability to add extras to the flyers in out of the question.
Layout Issues. Have you ever placed one of these flyers on your blog & the entire layout of your blog goes haywire? You know what I mean, your profile picture is at the bottom of the page, your post title runs over a picture, and text is going everywhere? Well this is caused by the html coding you inserted having the incorrect dimensions. Most everything you post on ActiveRain needs to remain under 550 pixels wide to keep from encountering this issue. Unfortunately these flyers are normally set for wider dimensions that the maximum allowed on ActiveRain.

Tips to Writing an Effective Listing Post.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, the best way to write bout a listing is to write an original blog post about the home. This way you are giving unique content about the property. You are the creator & can make it look & feel however you want. Here are 4 simple tips to increase the appeal of your listings for both consumers & also search engines:

Include Community Info. Before you take the time to write about your listing, I would suggest taking time to write about some of the other local things in the community. Write about local attractions, amenities in the neighborhood, restaurants, & anything else about the neighborhood. By writing these hyper local posts before writing about your listing you will then be able to incorporate these things into your listing post. This provides great ways to link posts together & build some major google juice.
Post plenty of Photographs. Pictures help showcase your listing. Adding these to the post bring things to life. Remember the importance of labeling your photos when placing them into your post.
Don't be afraid of giving too much information! Many times agents fear that if they give you all the details of the listing that consumers will not contact them. Posts that include more content than the average listing posts will be the blogs that consumers come back to again & again. Because of new technologies, consumers can find just about anything they want to know about a property online. So if you do not give them the information they are needing, they will move onto someone else.
Try adding a slideshow or video for an extra wow factor. Slideshows & videos give just an added dimension to the post. It allows the consumer to take a break from reading & just watch. Be careful though to not make the video too long or you can lost their interest. I would suggest keeping both around 2-3 minutes max.
Title the post correctly. One of the biggest problems I see when looking at a post that is for a listing is that the title is done all wrong. It is so important to Address your listings properly for search engines. If you just title the post "Reduced 3BR 2BA home to $389,000" you are definitely not helping the search engines to understand what your post is about.

Add these 5 simple tips when writing your next post about a new listing & watch the difference in results. Consumers will spend more time reading & learning as well as google will like it more.

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

So what is Jeremy doing in September?

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:16:29 -0600

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Mortgage Rates Widget For Your Blog & Website ~New Tool To Help Consumers Exclusively from SmartHippo

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:39:36 -0600

As many of you are aware, I recently started a new job as community manager for a company called SmartHippo. This company is focused on helping the consumer make the most informed decision when getting a mortgage by providing a free advice section where you can ask questions and receive responses from mortgage professionals. The other great feature that SmartHippo offers to consumers is the ability to write reviews of a lender they used. Consumers can write all about the good, the bad, & indifferent of the lender they used to help others understand how reliable, how pleasant and everything else about their transaction before making one of the biggest decisions of their life.

Since joining the team, one of my focuses was to create tools that will assist real estate agents with the process of getting a mortgage for their clients. One way we have been able to achieve this goal is by the design of our newest release, the SmartHippo Mortgage Rates Widget. This widget gives consumers an easy way to compare the rates of multiple lenders in their area. They can simply enter a loan amount, a home value, and their zip code and instantly compare mortgage rates in their area.

How does it work? The widget searches the rates database that SmartHippo has created of unbiased rates of lenders who share their information on the network. Buyers can then simply see the list of rates, read lender reviews, and make an educated decision on who to get their loan through.

Why would a real estate agent want to use this widget? In the real estate industry agents are always hesitant to recommend any other businesses because if something goes wrong the client will inevitably come back and say "you recommended this person and now it all went wrong!" When you give the consumer a third party option where they can get the information on multiple sources with reviews from actual consumers who have used the company and expressed their opinions about the service they received.

So what does this look like? Take a look and tell me your thoughts:

Mortgage rates by

Get this widget

How do you get the widget installed on your blog or website? It is actually really easy to do. Simply visit the Mortgage Rates Widget page on SmartHippo, and grab the code needed to install this widget. The steps are really easy to do and this widget can be installed in less than 2 minutes time. Here is a simple video on how to install:

I hope this new widget is a benefit to you and you consumers! Let me know what you think of it!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

35+ Tools to Enhance Your Social Media Strategy Webinar 2/25/10

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:49:51 -0600

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!

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I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Back by popular demand! We're teaching encore social media classes!

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:56:22 -0600

IF you have any questions, please let me know. Also, if you are unsure of our teaching style, fill out the form at the bottom to sign up for our free webinars on Thursday February 25th.

Via Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653) (Austin Texas Homes, LLC):

After attending Raincamp Dallas, I received a number of requests to re-teach some of our recent classes.  Jeremy and I will be offering both of our initial 210 Consulting webinars next week once again.

"How to Chug Google Juice AND Get 15 Years of Fame" - Monday, March 1st - 1-3pm Eastern

The primary topics for our class will be:

How to write posts on your blog to increase your inquiries (and sales)

How to get Google and other search engines to pay attention to your blog

Dominating Google for your desired keywords

What a longtail keyword is, and how it can send you oodles of potential business

How to garner more subscribers and a loyal audience for your blog

In essence, your blog should serve as your "home base" online with any social media marketing plan. With that in mind, we can help you shape your blog into a cozy and fun place to hang out.

How would it feel to see other people start to spread your content and writing around to their friends?
What are your goals with regard to blogging and social media? This session is an absolute must for anyone who is new to blogging, or to anyone who feels that they aren't optimizing their efforts with their blog....yet. We promise to share what has worked well for us.

Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/581158260 - Cost is $60 - use discount code "activerain" for $10 off

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"Cashing In on Your Social Media Investment" - Tuesday, March 2nd from 2-4pm Eastern

During our (approximate) two-hour session, Jeremy Blanton and I will share a number of items that will help you to better leverage your online marketing efforts.

For the upcoming class, we will be providing lots of details on specific tools that we have used to make it easier to engage with others. We can also show you some tricks using Twitter and Facebook to connect with others in your geographic area and to find potential clients. We will also cover Flickr, YouTube, and Posterous.

We will be discussing the following topics in a fun, laidback atmosphere:

How to effectively listen in order to identify potential clients

How to add valuable content to engage with those around you

Some basic "etiquette" for Twitter, Facebook, and blogging

Techniques for promoting yourself and your events

Register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/581176314 - Cost is $60 - use discount code "activerain" for $10 off

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If you're interested in taking both classes, we are offering a package deal for just $90 for all four hours of training. Please email me directly at jason@210consulting.com to take advantage of this deal.

If you're unsure about paying for the classes right now, but you want to get a taste for our teaching style at 210 Consulting, you can also check out our FREE 45-minute webinar this Thursday at either 12:30pm Eastern or 1:30pm Eastern.

The topic this week will be "20+ Social Media Tools for Your Business". Seating is limited to 25 people per session. If you're interested in the free sessions, simply fill out this form and we'll be in touch with more details soon:

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If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?



If you're looking for a home in the Austin area, you can visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. Thanks!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

3 Tips to Getting Your Website to the First Page of Google ~ Social Media Advisors

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:57:13 -0600

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/

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Giving Consumers the Content They Need to Make Educated Decisions~ Jeremy's Newest Project

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:04:00 -0600

If you haven't heard by now, we are in 2010, (twenty-ten, two thousand ten, or my favorite, oh-ten) and as this new decade begins I see this year becoming more of a shift in the way consumers gain the information they need as well as how other consumers share their experiences with others. I read an article the other day about consumer review based site Yelp being offered 500 million from Google to be purchased. Yelp, however, turned down the offer from Google.

This being said, I really feel that as this year carries forward you will see more companies adopting the principles of consumer based reviews and question/answer sections on their sites. The other day, I heard of a company called Formspring which allows you to easily add a Q&A to any site that you use. This is a free service that takes virtually no time to set up, but could be very beneficial to your business. Why? Well, it is rather simple:

1. Gives consumers an easy place to ask you questions about your business or your area.

2. Gives you the ability to share your knowledge in a non publication type of arena with consumers.

3. Allows consumers to find answers to other questions they may have without needing to fill out a form & feel as if someone will begin spamming them for business. They can simply look through past questions & answers and possibly find what they need.

I said all this to get to the point of my post which was to tell everyone about what I have been up to these days. In addition to recently starting my own Social Media Consulting business with Jason Crouch called 210 Consulting, I also recently started a new job as a community manager for a company called SmartHippo. SmartHippo is a site designed to allow the consumers a place to come and ask questions of lending professionals and receive free top quality answers directly from lenders.

Another awesome feature that SmartHippo offers is a platform for consumers to write reviews of the lender they used to benefit other consumers. This should help to raise the bar of customer service provided by lenders as well as give other consumers a place to come and read unbiased opinions of a lender before making the largest decision of their life. A customer can read whether the rate quoted online was the same they received, the loan closed on time, the lender was prompt in returning calls, etc. SmartHippo's main focus is to empower the consumer with as much knowledge as possible before getting a mortgage through these lender reviews.

The last thing that SmartHippo allows which I think will be very beneficial to real estate agents is the ability to refer your customers to a site where the buyer can compare ALL the rates available in their area. Unlike other sites that offer similar things, they will not be selling the leads to the highest bidder. This means that buyers can see all the rates available in their area and make their own decision based on the reviews of the lender, the Q&A responses of the lender as well as the rate offered by them.

As a real estate agent, I see this being a great new tool to offer to your buyers to assist them make an informed decision on a mortgage as well as keep you from having to "recommend a lender" which we all hate to do for the liability associated with it. You are no longer needing to make up lists of available lenders to share with a buyer or anything. We all know how awkward that moment is when the buyer asks you "Which lender would you recommend?" You simply give the buyer a website and allow them to get all the information they need.

So what are my duties with this new position? Well, as the community manager, I have a few different roles. The first is to help build our community through various different social media platforms. (YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, etc.) My other main task right now is to create and manage our community blog that will consist of some of the top bloggers in the lending industry. This includes writers like Ken Cook, Eleanor Thorne, & John Cannata. The community blog known as "The Herd" will provide valuable content to buyers who are in the process of purchasing a home. I hope over the next few months to add several other top notch bloggers into the community.

I am really excited to join up with this SmartHippo and am really looking forward to what the future holds. So, if you are unfamiliar with SmartHippo, please take a few minutes to check out their site here. I think this can be a great tool for your customers to "Join the Herd, Save Money" as their slogan states. Also, check back on my blog over the next few weeks as I will keep you updated about some really exciting features & updates of what is happening at SmartHippo!

Visit SmartHippo Now!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

Would you like to learn more about using Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, YouTube, and More?

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:16:57 -0600

This class is going to be jam packed with many of the different social media networks that Jason and myself use in our daily business routines. Not only will we share which ones we use, but also show you how to optimize your efforts on each.

Via Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653) (Austin Texas Homes, LLC):

On Monday, February 15th at 1pm Eastern time (noon Central, 11am Mountain, 10am Pacific), 210 Consulting is offering a webinar entitled:

"Cashing In on Your Social Media Investment"

During our (approximate) two-hour session, Jeremy Blanton and I will share a number of items that will help you to better leverage your online marketing efforts. Our first webinar was very well-received, and a good number of students signed up for individual coaching. We have the recorded version available for that one at http://budurl.com/210recording.

For the upcoming class, we will be providing lots of details on specific tools that we have used to make it easier to engage with others. We can also show you some tricks using Twitter and Facebook to connect with others in your geographic area and to find potential clients.

We will be covering the following topics in a fun, laidback atmosphere:

How to effectively listen in order to identify potential clients

How to add valuable content to engage with those around you

Some basic "etiquette" for Twitter, Facebook, and blogging

Techniques for promoting yourself and your events

The cost is $50, but if you sign up by Friday at midnight, you can use the CODE "earlybird" and get a $15 discount! Space is limited to the first 25 people to sign up, and we do offer a money-back guarantee if you aren't satisfied with the class.

Some praise from our students:

REALLY enjoyed my coaching session today and am looking forward to working with you both! Already made suggested changes on AR! - Lori Cain

I picked up some valuable lessons from your class. I have tried a few other Blog platforms including Blogger, Live Journal, Typepad and Wordpress. Wordpress seems to be ideal for what my needs are. Still learning it. Thank you for the class. I look forward to future sessions. - Dawn O.

Here are a couple of full posts that others have written about us:

Want To Blog Better & More Effectively? Check Out These Guys: by Kent Simpson of Tucson

Why I hired Jason Crouch as my social media coach. by Bruce Brockmeier

If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere?

If you're looking for a home in the Austin area, you can visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. Thanks!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks:

How To Use ScribeFire to Enhance Your ActiveRain Blog Posts

Brad Andersohn ~ Community Manager (ActiveRain) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:26:58 -0600

How To Use ScribeFire to Enhance Your ActiveRain Blog Posts

Scribefire.com is a great 3rd party add-on to the Mozilla Firefox Browser. Lately, the emails and calls have been coming in about how to setup AR Blogs, get API's, and how to use Scribefire with ActiveRain Blog posts. First off, the reason I mention Scribefire is that it is one of the few third party apps I have found that works well and doesn't conflict with the AR Network HTML format.

Really Important

Some members on AR use MS Word, Publisher, Front Page and other sources which often times (but not always) has hidden HTML codes, tables, and formatting that is incompatible with ActiveRain. You've seen them, you know the ones, these are the posts that show funky looking codes, push the sidebar half way down the page, and make Blogs look like "you know what" when they load on your computer screen.

Why Use Scribefire?

Though the AR Blog Post editor may seem somewhat simplified and to some, a bit archaic, it still does a great job for creating great text content, adding images, photos and links, and producing search engine friendly creations. However there are many who want to customize and create larger fonts, add color to their fonts, use a different style of font etc. This is where Scribefire does a great job and works well with AR.

THE MAIN REASON FOR POSTING THIS

Where most of our members get hung up is when downloading Scribefire as their Firefox add-on. Somewhere in the process, Scribefire asks for your Blog URL, API, and other information that IS NOT NECESSARY to begin using the Scribefire tools on ActiveRain. The requested and "perceived as required" information is ONLY for use on Blogging Platforms where you plan to use ScribeFire as the total replacement tool for creating your Blog posts. IE: Wordpress, Blogger, Self-Hosted Blogs etc. NOT ON ACTIVERAIN.

Here's the Scoop on How It Works

Go to Scribefire.com, download it and add to your Firefox Browser. BYPASS all the additional questions and other stuff they want you to enter. (unless you are using scribefire on another blogging platform) To begin using the Scribefire tools and options, just press the "hotkeys" FUNCTION + F8 while in the edit mode of a Blog post, and the Scribefire Window (shown below) will open up in the lower section of your computer screen. Now you will have two areas to work in, your AR Blog post, and the Scribefire editing window.

Create your text, change your font color, select a larger sized font, use a variety of different style fonts, have a field day, and when you're done, just highlight the section you've created in the Scribefire window, copy it (CTRL+C) and then paste it into your AR Blog post body (CTRL+V) You can do this using the ActiveRain WYSIWYG tab. Save your post in "draft" mode to be sure everything looks just as you want it, then make the necessary changes you want before making your post public.

DISCLAIMER.. I mean Warning.. NO... A QUICK TIP!

One thing to be careful of is that you don't go CRAZY with Font Colors and sizes. Sometimes the colored fonts and multiple sized text can make your Blog Post hard to read and unpleasing to the eye. Yellow font colors are difficult to read, Big Fonts can take away from the message in the little fonts, and multi-colored Blog post (for some) can and will cause nausea. (IMO)

SUMMARY and PURPOSE

The Scribefire add-on tools will allow you to enhance your AR Blog posts to your liking, give you a bit more versatility, and keep the AR network and your Blog clean of those Hidden and incompatible HTML codes. Many of these outside third party apps can and will make Blogs on AR look like "you know what" and frustrate AR members beyond your wildest imagination. I'm not kidding, you should see and hear some of the emails and calls I get. lol~ NOT!! :-)

Scribefire

For my next trick, we'll look at how to insert iFrames and tables into your Blog post without completely blowing out your Blog. This is one of the more common errors I see on ActiveRain by members that not only affects your AR Blog, but does even worse things to your Localism and Outside Blogs.

Download The ActiveRain "HELP" Toolbar for your Browser

ActiveRain University Calendar Real Estate RainCamp The ActiveRain Manual

Agents Helping Haiti Free Teleconference This Thursday January 28th

Jeremy Blanton (210 Consulting~ Social Media Advisors) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:54:58 -0600

Join Us This Thursday For Agents Helping Haiti, a Telethon to help families devastated by the recent earthquake in Haiti. This 6 hour telethon will feature 30 minute segments with some of the most well known people in the real estate industry. Come listen as they share some of their tools and secrets they use in their daily and support this cause.

12 Top Real Estate Experts 12 BIG Ideas

12:00PM Kendra Todd- Shares of her trip to Haiti & REALTOR® Experience

12:30 PM Jeremy Blanton- How to Write a $10,000 Blog Post

1:00 PM Laurie Moore- How to Keep Your Foot Out of Your Mouth and In the Door

1:30 PM Frances Flynn Thorsen- Risk vs. Reward REALTOR® Foreclosure Pitfalls

2:00 PM Jason Crouch- The Importance of Building an Online Following

2:30 PM Ken Golde- Distressed Agents: Settling Your Own Debt

3:00 PM Jim Cronin- Social Media. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

3:30 PM Special Guest

4:00 PM Joeann Fossland- 6 Figure Referral Business Using Strategic Partners

4:30 PM Special Guest

5:00 PM Patti Kouri- 100% Intention- 100% of Your Results

5:30 PM Jay Kinder- 65 Million in Sales... How to List 500 Homes a Year

Here is How You Can Participate:

Step 1:Write these details down and post them next to your phone so you don't forget.

WHEN: January 28th, 2010

TIME: Noon to 6:00 PM EST

ONLINE: Listen online

DIAL-IN: 773-945-1010

PASSCODE: 506-483-474

Step 2: Donate To Help Haiti Earthquake Vicitims

Click on any of the charity links below to make a donation at their website. A new window will pop-up.

As the Real Estate Community we can make a difference in lives. Join me this Thursday!

Also, please help spread the word by reblogging & sharing this post with all your friends!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the Co-Founder of 210 Consulting- Social Media Advisors. If you would like more information on any of the topics discussed in this blog, please contact me directly.

Also, lets connect on these great social networks: