So what are some of these “unwritten rules” that you can guide your Facebook Page posts? Here are some good general rules that you may find you need to adjust for your audience:

• Post every day. That may seem excessive to you but as people make more friends and Like more pages, your posts may be missed. If you are only posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your community misses one or two of them. There are studies that show posting between 3-5 times a day can be good amount for Pages (make sure you are varying your posts and also watch your statistics to see what works best for your community). You can decide that you might take the weekend off but also realize that the weekend is when many people are on Facebook.
• Focus on engagement. You are trying to connect and get response from your community. Ask questions, post helpful tips, links to articles that your audience will Like and Share. When you make the posts about your audience and what they need rather than selling, you will develop a richer and deeper relationship with your community. You will sell more as a byproduct of that deeper relationship. Set aside time to follow up on posts and respond to questions on your Wall.
• Have a call to action. Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post. Or have them watch your video or go to your website.
• Don’t oversell or undersell. No one likes a never-ending sales pitch. By the same token, make sure you do highlight your wares from time-to-time! Use the 80-20 rule for sales messages vs. content/connection posts. So if you decide to post five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and four posts will be other helpful or fun content for your community.
• Make it fun. Facebook is a social community. People are there to have fun. This is a place where you can let your corporate hair down a little. Stay true to your brand but think of ways to entertain your audience.

Click here to read the free HubSpot White Paper yourself!

Google explains the change best with:

“Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience. Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met. Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search.”

Read more: Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World

While Social Network integration is still very much in it’s infancy, it is quickly becoming the future and we must all watch it unfold to stay ahead of the game. Here are some tips on what to look out for and how to build your Social Network data now:

1. Google+ will obviously align with Google’s search while Facebook results will be pushed farther down the rankings. The vice versa will occur with Microsoft’s Facebook-aligned search engine Bing. This will make it important for people to have multiple Social Network accounts so they can achieve high rankings on each search engine – and, in turn, reach the most amount of people possible.
2. Start posting relevant content now! It will take time for Social Search to mature and you’ll want to be on the frontlines when it does. Start thinking about how to make your Social Network postings and shares more relevant to the search results you’d like them associated with. Also, the greater amount of content on your Social Networks the better.
3. Social Search is going to level the playing field by allowing you to leapfrog SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Today, you must compete with highly paid and resourced SEO experts to rank high on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). In the near future, instead of writing articles that have to work their way up to the front page in traditional search, you can instead have your content displayed at the top of the SERP using your preferred Social Network. Keep writing great, focused and relevant content and sharing those articles and posts on Social Networks. The content you contribute will ultimately end up being displayed, allowing other people to find your content and connect with you.

As Social Search matures, Real Estate Rainmaker will keep you in the loop with the latest important updates. Stay tuned!

Introducing RAINMAKER SOCIAL, the one-of-a-kind collection of tools to enhance your RAINMAKER MEGA SITE and bring it into the Social Age. Social Media and “social search” have arrived. And, the future is now. Here’s why:

• “Inbound links are a good measure of authority, but they are slow. In a social media world, a relevant piece of content on a subject could become outdated in minutes.” – RAINMAKER SOCIAL users love the easy-to-use share tools in the new system compared to the out-dated (and slower) inbound links. With the share tools, you can constantly share content and stay relevant without the wait!
• “Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter are battling over the future of search. It is clear to all of these internet giants that social search is the future.” – These companies basically decide what user’s search. As they enhance Social Search, we all will be taken along for the ride too. That’s why it’s important for RAINMAKER SOCIAL users to hop on the bandwagon now so you get an early start on the future ahead of your competition.
• “Google+ is the fastest growing social network ever.” Google+ is not important – not yet — in the inherent contact database sense like Facebook. However, going forward Google will be using Google+ as its main source of social search data. Because Google is the #1 search engine in the world (no surprise there!) that makes Google+ an important tool in Google’s Social Search Rankings. Bottom line: Social search is coming on fast. Ride the wave…don’t get drowned by it.
• “Facebook’s current share of the search engine market is miniscule… why does Facebook not have at least a negligible portion of the search market? Simple: Private data. … The limitations of private data make Facebook a weak search engine and subsequently resulted in very little usage.” – This however has changed recently with the inclusion of the ability to select your own privacy settings with each individual post. RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are now sharing via the PUBLIC option that is now included. Use this public option as much as possible and you will build a pool of data and results that optimize your chances of being found through Facebook search.
• “Social search is really about more personalized search engine results.” – Search in the future will be personalized. That’s why RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are building their personal search network today.

Don’t miss out on the future. Check out www.RainmakerSocial.com for more information and order today to get a jump on your competition!

For more about integrating search and social marketing read this excellent, free whitepaper: www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/

Jesse Hickman

You might believe that recipients of your email or postal mail newsletters would automatically pass them along to their friends, family or other contacts when they are done reading them. However, that kind thought may never cross their minds!

You might assume that the happy home buyers last week were satisfied with their home purchase and are spreading your name and number around town. There’s no guarantee of that either.

A successful seller is now moving across town to their smaller home and you might believe that they are singing your praises to their old and new neighbors alike. You might be mistaken.

How do you gently ask for referrals? First, you simply need to ask. If you don’t ask, you could be losing a lot of potential pass-along good will — and new leads. All your communication can include simple reminders that your business is built on referrals and you provide the same great service to anyone who works with you. (Check out Gooder Group newsletters which always include a blurb on the back page asking consumers for referrals.)

A few simple words can make a world of difference in your business!

Information you may want to include in your database could encompass personal information from birthdays, anniversaries, spouse/kid/pet names or ages/grades, interests/hobbies, special wants/needs for a home, etc. The information you add to your database deepens the knowledge you have of your customers and can allow you to personalize and customize long-term contact in the future.

The time is now to gather external information about your customers to invest in your business for the future. Personalized communication combined with relevant content, appropriate message and good design, can increase your market share easily. Gathering this additional information is dependent only on your ability to listen closely and record what you learn for future reference.

Let us know how you get the details and use those details to build your business.

Some of your email subscribers could be some of your biggest fans, forwarding and sharing your messages on social media sites. Make sure new viewers of the messages know how to reach you easily and quickly and what your call to action is.

Let us know how you measure the impact of social media in your marketing.

However, as you are working to find these new home buyers and sellers, step back for one minute and think about the individual home buyer’s or seller’s potential lifetime value to you.  You may or may not know the answers to these questions, but always assume that buyers and sellers you work with know many people!  (Also always assume that they will talk about your service — or lack thereof if there is a problem!)

• Are they local and well connected in your community?
• Do they — or someone close to them — work for a large firm?
• Do they have the potential to invest in real estate?
• Are they entering the real estate market with an eye for moving up later?
• Do they have a strong involvement in social media?

Getting their home purchase or sale today is wonderful, but think about the long-term value of this customer.  If you lay the foundation for excellent, unparalleled service, this single customer can — over time — send you a sizable number of referrals, helping you build your business even more.

Analyze the marketing communication you send and be sure to segment your contact list so that you not only gain new business today, but set the framework to increase business from past clients.

Share your proven methods for gaining referrals from clients.

However, the gist of these numbers is that a huge majority of real estate professionals NEVER contact home sellers or buyers after the home is sold or purchased. NEVER!

This group of home sellers and buyers is a prime group for you to ask for referrals, to get repeat business, to network with, to get testimonials from.  Why would you work so hard to get a client and then drop them with no further contact?  It seems so obvious, but yet a good number of real estate pros are just leaving additional business on the table.

Referrals won’t come your way if you never touch base with previous clients.  They just gave you a commission and you don’t even say thank you or check in with them?  Why would they be inclined to send their friends and family to you?

Who gives you testimonials if you abandon your previous clients?  Your previous clients are the only ones who have worked with you and know why your service is — or was — the best.

Do you expect that when a previous client decides to sell their home or buy another that they’ll just automatically contact you?  The lack of communication from you doesn’t leave them with anything to remember you by when the time comes for another real estate transaction.

Don’t forget the clients that got you to where you are.  They deserve to be thanked and if you expect a source of additional business coming from them — continued contact is also necessary.

How do you keep up with previous clients?

• We regularly get direct mail from these neighborhood experts. Many time’s it’s a “just sold” or “just listed” postcard, but sometimes it varies and includes a list of all the listings in our immediate area or mentioning a local event of note to us — concert in the park, etc.
• These real estate experts advertise religiously in our neighborhood newsletter. Not an issue goes by without seeing (now expecting!) an advertisement about their listings and services.
• They are involved in our neighborhood. Go to social events in our subdivision and you see these real estate experts there too. You recognize them not only by name and face from their ads, but you know them because you talk to them frequently — and not always about real estate matters.
• One of the experts has an open house each winter at their home. They invite the neighborhood to stop by, have a bite to eat, chat and drop off a toy for a local toy drive. This good will brings not only more joy to children at the designated charity, but another chance to connect — in person — with not only neighbors and friends, but previous clients — and future clients!

In this day and age of social marketing, it’s great to see examples of real estate professionals who really connect with their community on more than an electronic level.

How are you involved in the communities where you are the real estate expert?

In this new year, with a new marketing plan in place (or in the works) and with perhaps even improvements in your local real estate market, take time to revisit your involvement (and visibility) in your area through community organizations.  Re-read our blog post from six months ago and consider exploring local marketing possibilities.

Let us know if you took advantage of doing some local marketing (and how it turned out) this summer.  And, if you haven’t yet, what are your plans for exploring this opportunity in your area?