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

1.  Facebook is where it’s at.  If you’re not on there yet, what are you waiting for?

2.  Email marketing works best when you target your niche.  Broadcast emails hit everyone; niches pinpoint your perfect client.

3.  Craigslist is hot for real estate.  Advertise there and see!

4.  Print marketing is still relevant.  Emptier mailboxes this year meant your piece got more impact than ever before.

5.  Cutting your marketing budget will cut down your number of new clients.

6.  Clean up your contact database and treat it like gold.  Once it’s cleaned up, keep it current and up-to-date.

7.  Learn all you can about mobile marketing.  Sign up for other companies’ mobile offers and study their successes and failures.

8.  Ask for referrals.  Provide the best customer service to ensure clients talk (well) about you everywhere they go — especially online!

9.  Start texting if you haven’t already.  Understand that the youngest home buyers (and sellers) often prefer texting to other forms of communication.

10.  Engage.  Online and off line.  Be accessible, honest and open with home buyers and sellers.

Now that 2010 is almost over, what marketing tips would you add?  What have you learned about marketing in 2010?

The key to successful engagement is building trust with those interactions.  Along the way you can educate, motivate and encourage home sellers and buyers to make their real estate decisions.  Be a leader when it comes to engagement.  Coach your would-be home sellers and buyers to make the move that is right for them.  Help them see the potential in making a change in their real estate situation, all while focusing on the benefits to their lives.  Share the vision with your prospects and understand what their goals are.

If you lead the conversations, your engagement is more likely to end in a closed transaction!

Let us know how you successfully engage clients and would-be clients in the social media realm.

The key is that you want to hear all the details from both these camps!  You want people to talk about their great experience working with you.  Having them pass along that great word of mouth and send referrals your way is your goal.

However, if the experience of buying or selling a home with you was anything but stellar, you need to know too.  The details of why the transaction didn’t go as planned or meet your client’s needs can help you ensure it doesn’t happen again or change the way you do things to get to closing.

Getting honest feedback is difficult when things go wrong.  A simple email questionnaire may not allow an individual to explain things completely.  Being open and upfront with your clients that you want to hear about the good — and the bad — as soon as possible is key.

Encourage them to communicate with you about their problems with you or the process immediately.  Give them options:  perhaps they are more comfortable talking to an assistant of yours; maybe they want to discuss things at a distance on the phone; often they may not want to send email or a letter as they don’t want the problems documented in their own words.  Regardless, find out what their comfort level is in relaying information to you and get to the heart of their problem.

Be sure to “make it right” for them and make sure it’s right for all your clients after them!

Let us know how you work with clients who aren’t happy with their home selling or buying process.

Local search is where it’s at and consumers know Google Places. Google Places is where business claim their business, add contact information and additional info as well. (If you haven’t claimed your spot on Google Places, go there now!) HotPot is an extension of Google Places allowing visitors to add ratings and reviews.  And, if you’ve seen any headlines lately, you’ve heard that consumers are relying more heavily on business and product reviews than ever before in making purchase decisions.

Friends who leave reviews can also share these reviews and invite others to add reviews as well.  Word-of-mouth with one click is a great opportunity for you!

Share your experience with Google Places and Hot Pot.

Unique content is most valuable to home buying and selling consumers.  They want to learn about the real estate process and understand what to expect and what is typical when they buy or sell a home.

Unique content is also good for growing organic search, that is, how search engines find and rank your site in comparison with other sites when an individual searches on “buying a home in [TOWN, STATE].”

What is unique content?  Content that is truly yours.  On your website, include content that informs and educates, is specific to home selling and buying, maybe is even specific to your local area or region.  If you blog, create a visible and quick way to find your blog.  Encourage comments — each are unique. If you are in social media, make sure you have a quick link to find you on these sites.  Invite interaction — each exchange is original.

When you have unique content that can help home buyers and sellers find answers — or feel comfortable asking a question — your website can be a hub where visitors can research, learn and educate themselves.  Through the service you’re providing online, you’re building trust with these consumers who are more likely to work with you on their home purchase or sale.

Let us know what kinds of content on your website help your business stand out.

Regardless of the hurdles buyers and sellers face, they may feel dissatisfied with the process and lay some (or most!) of the blame for their dissatisfaction on you. That’s natural.

It’s how you handle that dissatisfaction which will determine whether you can salvage the business relationship with them. It’s imperative to restore a sense of trust and partnership in order to rely on them for a good testimonial, future business and referrals.

Since you likely cannot remedy the situation by solving all the problems that arose, erasing the past or even repeating the process to show them how you can flawlessly sell a home for them or help them buy a new one, it’s important instead to make sure you take the time to slow down and listen to their complaint(s). They may not even want an apology, but they do want to be heard. They want acknowledgement that the stress and inconvenience they faced was not pleasant and that you agree with them. They’re looking for justification of why they were upset. Acknowledge their dissatisfaction.

Even though you cannot travel back in time to make things right, you can have an open mind and open ears to listen and nod in agreement. Sometimes it’s quicker and easier to quickly and profusely apologize. Instead, before responding quickly, take the time to hear out your clients completely. Then, of course, apologize, but empathize as well. A little empathy can go a long way to salvaging a business relationship!

Let us know how you handle difficult customer service situations and what successes you have garnered from relationships you weren’t sure could be saved.

Say you learn a LOT about a group of people in your database:  where they live is obvious, but their car ownership, places of work, kids names and ages, pets, recent furniture purchases, etc.  This much data is personal even though it may shed some light on their lifestyle and life stage.  All that very-detailed information you’ve collected is valuable, but….

STOP.

Just because you HAVE the information doesn’t mean you have to use it — at all — especially in one conversation or marketing piece!  You can instantly scare off anyone if you start including very detailed information like that.  Your communication won’t sound sincere and instead will have the tone of a stalker!

Beware of how much data you share at one time in your marketing pieces about your recipients.  Customers today like marketers (like you!) to “know” them, but in a more casual product-related way.  They do not want to know that you know EVERYTHING about them — whether you do or not.

Let us know how you walk the fine line between letting your customers know you “know” them while holding back a little too.