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

Take a step back to see what type of content you have available. Your blog, your newsletter(s), information on your website, various services that you subscribe to that push content to consumers, etc. Determine what your rights are to that content and if you can share it. (Above all, respect copyrights.)

Next, once you have all your content assembled and know what content can be redistributed, determine the best methods to share the content. Think of your blog, your Twitter account, Facebook notes and status updates, targeted ads leading to a landing page/specific pages on your website, etc. What content would work well as printed pieces to generate leads? Consider all the possibilities and weave them into your marketing plan.

What are your best practices for content marketing?

The best takeaway to use on Twitter — any anywhere you engage people online — is the acronym R-A-R-E.  Keep your tweets:

• Relevant
• Articulate
• Reliable
• Enabling

She outlines more details for each in her article and we encourage you to read her article in its entirety.  R-A-R-E will keep your marketing efforts focused on client needs and make your social marketing sucessful.

What do you think of R-A-R-E?

There are a few things you can do to keep your electronic life clutter-free.  If your electronic life is more streamlined, you’re likely to be less distracted.  Less distraction means more productivity…or relaxation, your choice!

Email — If your inbox is full, your head is likely full of details, dates, names and tasks too.  Sort through your inbox and categorize old messages for filing purposes or delete old ones.  Start with a manageable inbox and keep it clean and clutter-free.

Twitter – Analyze why you follow all of the people you do.  If there isn’t a good reason, unfollow them.  Their tweets clutter your tweet stream and can waste your time.

Facebook – On your personal page, if there are individuals you no longer feel connected to (even through Facebook) or their status posts are not valuable to engaging with them, block them (to clear out your status update stream) or unfriend them.  (Remember to tread lightly if it’s a family member or friend (close or otherwise) as some people are very touchy about being blocked or unfriended!)  Additionally, if you have friends who play lots of online games on Facebook, consider changing your settings to ensure that their game updates don’t clutter your status stream.  (And, if you play a ton of games on Facebook, consider the message that sends when your page is a stream of all your game achievements!)

Online marketing – If you don’t have the time or energy to fully get your blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. off the ground, consider putting a message up announcing that you’re taking a break and aren’t reachable through this media.  Consider deleting the account entirely to not confuse home buyers and sellers waiting to hear from your from that resource if you just simply don’t have time to check/update it anymore.  If you really are busy with business, but want to keep these elements going, delegate the task(s) to an assistant or virtual assistant who can keep things active for you.

When you take the time to clear out clutter electronically, it will open doors for your business because you will find yourself less distracted than ever before.

Let us know how you de-clutter electronically.

The problem with Twitter is that your eyes and ears need to be really open.  You can’t assume that a tweet is simply a statement (especially if it comes from someone with 1,000,000+ followers).  Advertising subtleties have always been around in Twitter, it’s just the headlines are hitting now about it.

Just as online you can’t believe everything you read, Twitter is no different.  When a company (like us, Gooder Group) posts something online you know that our point of view is going to be about helping real estate professional find more leads, increasing your business, marketing smarter, using Gooder Group products and services, partnering with other suppliers who we work with, etc.  You know Gooder Group’s “biases.”   Others online may not make their connections known, so you have to tread a little more carefully.

Now you can understand why home buyers and sellers are wary.  They are given — and have access to — so much information that can help them make wise home buying and selling decisions.  But, some of it is not in their best interests.

Make your biases clear when you’re online.  Make your real estate services and company affiliation known.  Disclosure not only works as a marketing tool and being ethical, but allows home buyers and sellers know that you do have a bias, but you are also a treasure trove of useful local real estate information that they can’t get any where else.

Let us know how you sort through marketing messages to find those that are most useful to you.

Social media marketing — including Twitter and Facebook — are still evolving as more businesses move into the mix and start engaging with their customers and would-be customers.

Companies that have taken a step forward and crafted their own style and method of communicating with — and getting the attention of — customers are the stand out winners.  (Think of local restaurants that do more than send out coupons but build a community of fans, national retailers that promptly address questions and concerns on their pages and grow their reputation, other businesses that encourage interaction on their page and make shopping fun.)  They’ve taken a creative stand to make the medium their own and turned it into success with interacting with customers — and often getting some free publicity along the way too.

As you get involved with Facebook, study what other companies — and colleagues — are doing with their pages.  See what gets — and keeps — home buyers and sellers interested.  Using Facebook, how do you get people to “like” you, how do you keep them liking you and how do you get them to refer business to you long after you’ve helped them sell or buy a house?

Don’t be afraid to take a chance and try something a little different on your Facebook page.   You might just stand out from the crowd!

In your experience, what companies “do” Facebook right?

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?

Never fear, Google still ranks #1 with 970 million unique visitors that same month and Microsoft is #2 with 869 million.

Facebook is  a hugely popular site, attracting more and more visits on an on-going basis.  It’s where advertising is moving to get some of these visitors’ attention.  Are you advertising on Facebook yet?

To look at Facebook historically, their swift rise in traffic is evidenced by their overtaking the following sites:

• MySpace,  April 2008
• Amazon, August 2008
• eBay, January 2009
• AOL, February 2009
• Wikipedia, August 2009
• Yahoo, November 2010

Facebook is beyond a fad.  If you aren’t on Facebook and your business isn’t on Facebook, you’re leaving lots and lots of potential business behind.

If Facebook were to take over Microsoft or even Google’s top spot in terms of unique monthly visitors, when do you think that will happen?