I’ll admit it. I’m hooked on Facebook.  I somehow missed out on the whole MySpace craze (thankfully, visiting a MySpace page now just makes my eyes hurt) – but Facebook has me hook, line and sinker.
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Recently on the Being BOB Blog, I wrote a post about taking social networks seriously, where I implied that you should be thinking about marketing your listings in the places where your target markets are these days. Believe me, that is rarely in the classifieds sections of the local newspaper anymore.
Now, industry social networks like ActiveRain are great for connecting with your peers; but let’s face it, consumers aren’t hanging out there. If you’re looking for buyers and sellers, in this day and age you need to be a little more creative.
This got me thinking on how you can take this idea and use social networks like Facebook to really power your business.
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Here’s how:
1. Encourage past clients and new clients to ‘friend’ you or ‘add’ you to their networks. Include links to your profile in your marketing materials, business cards etc. Build a brand new online “sphere†(like the old “farmâ€).
2. Creating Groups – This is the most obvious way to use the site. Create a “Central New York Home Buyers†group for example and help first time buyers with their questions. Leverage your expertise to become the expert for the group.
3. Creating a unique Group is also a great way to keep in touch with business networking contacts you meet – maybe it’s at a local Chamber of Commerce meeting or even at a Real Estate  conference. You can engage in post conference discussions, share information in a neutral open forum that doesn’t demand the intimacy of an email or telephone contact.
4. Shares – You could use Facebook to market properties to a select group or share properties with your friends. A handy bookmarklet lets you add external links to your Shares. You could add a link to a property from your own site, even add a listing etc.
Think about it, you could have an exclusive group of Realtors in your market, maybe it’s even inside your branch office, and you could share great listings with each other even before they hit the MLS.
5. If you’re a blogger, add your RSS feed to your profile. Facebook lets you add a Blog feed to your notes. You could find new readers and even drive traffic back to your blog by sharing your posts with your network.
Using social networking to your advantage is just another piece in the puzzle as you promote and expand your business.  Clearly, you need to be where your customers are. I think that maximizing your exposure on social networks like Facebook is going to be increasingly important to small businesses – especially in industries that are already so network-dependent like real estate. Unfortunately, due to the fleeting nature of these sites, the trick is going to be to stay on top on where everyone is. The real danger is arriving too late and finding your audience has already moved on.
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