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 In a social media world, a relevant piece of content on a subject could become outdated in minutes.”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

If you had a website back in 1996, compare how far your business has come.  Consumers expect more and want more from you than they did 15 years ago.  Websites are so much more than a simple electronic brochure.  Graphics are also vital.

Every once in a while it’s good to reflect back on how far your business and marketing expertise has advanced.  Let us know what you find most interesting at Archive.org that makes you smile!

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.

Instant communication is the name of the game and the waiting involved in sending and receiving an email response isn’t quite quick enough for many in today’s world.  Having a conversation via text is the preferred way to “talk” in many circles and may drive business practices in that same direction.

Be sure you’re ready if you’re aren’t already familiar with the basics:  learn how to text, understand how to read texting abbreviations, and answer texts quickly.  Your new wave of business may depend on it!

Let us know how much you text in business situations.

What is your option now if a recipient is not inclined to turn on the images?

The long-forgotten “alt” attribute (a text description of the image on the image tag in HTML) allows you to describe the image in as much detail as you want whether the image is displayed or not.  For example, say you have an image of your newest listing, “123 Main Street” in your email.  You can add the description of the property in the alt tag to get the recipient interested in the property before they even select to view the image or click on it.  And, if they see the image and hover over it, they will also see the alt tag text.

It’s a win-win situation for you and your email recipient!  Share how you use the alt attribute on images in your email.

There are many paid services out there to track what’s said about you online. However, there are a lot of free services you can use to track your name, company name, keywords, even your competitors in the social media and web world. Here’s a short list of available options. Explore them to see if you learn anything you didn’t see online on your own.

• GoogleAlerts – “Monitor the Web for interesting new content.”
• Giga Alert – similar to Google Alerts.
• Technorati – this site allows you to monitor the entire blogosphere.
• Boardreader – forums and other online board postings can be monitored.
• Twitter Search – a way to search what is being said on Twitter at any time.
• Trackur – a free option to search for terms online.
• MonitorThis – search for entries in 26 different search engines.
• Social Media FireHose – tracking of information on social media sites more broadly than Google Alerts.

No matter what you use to track what’s being said about you — or a topic that is important to you or your clients — the important thing is to be aware of what is being said.  What is your reputation like?  What direction is a topic going?  By monitoring this information, you will know and can stay on top of your reputation and topics that are important to home buyers and sellers.

Which ones do you use and what have you found that you wouldn’t have otherwise?

How do you take care of your data?  Is it secure?  Is it backed up?  Data is the heart of your marketing — treat it like the valuable “gold” that it is!

• Ensure that your data is backed up regularly.  Check a backup copy regularly to see if it’s complete and usable — don’t wait until disaster to find out the back up method or media is unusable!
• Keep the information secure.  Don’t share it with anyone, most notably if you have pledged to not share/sell it!  Consider where the data is stored and evaluate how secure that is.
• Be sure that your opt-outs are indeed “out” when you do the particular mailing that they requested to be removed from.
• Clean your postal mailing list regularly.  Weed out undeliverables/unknowns to save on postage, but double check if the individual can be reached through another method of communication.
• Keep up with routine checking of your emailing lists.  Investigate undeliverables to determine if you have another method of contact for that individual.  Process opt-outs as quickly as you’d process an opt-in!
• Evaluate whether data on your smart phone, laptop, portable devices, etc. is sufficiently protected if the device is lost or stolen.

Data is the heart of your business.  Share your best practices for how you keep your data secure and accurate.

Marketing Profs outlined the top 6 tips to keep your emails out of spam folders in a recent article entitled, “URGENT: Bussiness moneys for you Dear, sir!! A Reformed Spam Writer Helps You Stay Out of the Junk Folder.” It’s a must-read because you might inadvertently be doing some of the things in your emails that will get them flagged as spam.

The author quotes that studies have shown 10-20% of the emails you send will accidentally get directed to the recipient’s spam folder.  With rates that high, you need to make sure that 1 out of every 5 emails gets where it needs to go.  Your business depends on it!

Share what you’ve learned to keep your emails going directly to your recipient’s inbox.

This excellent article entitled “Top 10 SEO Content Writing Tips Everyone Should Know” from Wordtracker is a great refresher of what you can do to make sure your online content is search engine optimized.

The key takeaway is something we’ve said time and again — stay on topic.

Let us know your top SEO (search engine optimization) tips.