I don’t even think the term “light speed” correctly assesses the velocity in which things change with technology.  In a blink of an eye something beyond your control can affect the way you reach your target audience…. when you are playing by someone else’s rules.  Case in point – Facebook.

Facebook basically just dropped a bombshell and instantly changed the way we communicate online with their new newsfeed, timelines, subscriptions and a myriad of other enhancements and updates.  BTW, if you need help or want an overview of these changes Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin did a wonderful job of detailing them in this post Facebook Changes Everything Are You Ready?. 

For the most part, I love the new features! However, if you have a fan page, you might have noticed a drop off in the amount of interaction you are getting on it.  Facebook said they want to make it easier for people to connect on the web.  Great, what about businesses?  If you are a consistent reader of Tech Savvy Agent chances are you may have missed our last couples posts due to “pages” not appearing in the news feed with the same consistency.  I am not getting the same amount of impressions right now and have to work a little harder to figure out the new lay of the land.  Here are a few posts that talk about the same topic with the last post being an interesting read due to their optimism (I share the same optimism in the end).

1. Recent Facebook Updates Cripple Pages

2. Why Is Facebook Punishing Highly Engaging Brands?

3. What Brands and Marketers Should Pay Attention To on the New Facebook

If your Facebook page was your pseudo website and the main way you communicated with your clients because you haven’t diversified enough, these changes could really hurt your business.  Email, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Google, SEM, SEO, phone calls, QR codes, texting and print (yes I said it) all need to be used in conjunction with one another to drive people to your home base, which is your self-hosted blog.  That is the only thing that you control!  If Twitter goes away tomorrow and you use other mediums to communicate with your audience, you will still be fine.  If email communication stops working because people are sick and tired of being “dripped on” you’ll be ok.  You cannot afford to put all of your eggs in one basket.  I know there are some really cool Facebook page creation programs out there that do some amazing things, but if your website doesn’t look and perform up to snuff, you need to start there first!  Mark Z. can make any change he wants at anytime and this could negatively impact your business if you are running it off of your fanpage.

Your main objective in your marketing has to be to drive people to your site and give supply them with a ton of quality content that will make them want to come back.  Real estate is no longer a short term transactional game, but a long term relationship building process that relies on your web presence more than ever.  Your self hosted blog is the only thing that you can have almost 100% control over.  That is where your time needs to be spent first.

I don’t doubt everything is going to be ok for Facebook pages and Mark Zuckerberg will come out with a cool timeline feature for pages too, but it just goes to show you how little control you have in this platform or any other one for that matter.  Long live your self hosted blog!

In this post, I am going to talk to you about three of these tools.  I was going to create a single video talking about all three tools, but quickly realized that it would be way to long if I wanted to uncover some of the golden nuggets these applications can offer.

APPLICATION 1

The first app I want to discuss is called SocialBro.  I was never a huge fan of Twitter and Chris Smith handled the account for Tech Savvy.  I realize that my stubbornness had to see the door and I just recently jumped in with both feet with some nudging by friends, thanks guys (Chris specifically)!  This application is actually making Twitter more enjoyable for me and is helping me understand the things I need to do to build a strong Twitter community, as well as break down the barriers to my current community.  Check out this video of some of the easy to use feature sets of this product.  Oh yeah, it’s free as of the day I write this.  Don’t expect to last though!

Video 2 is here! Crowdbooster is an effective tool to help you manage both your Twitter profile and Facebook fan page!  Although SocialBro is a deeper Twitter app, Crowdbooster is great for Facebook fan pages as well as providing some neat cross platform analytics.  Check out the video below and stay tuned for video 3 coming soon!

Why? Because it’s hard to hide things on Facebook. A party that a teen attends wouldn’t dare be posted on Facebook if they didn’t want their parents to know about it. Guess where it’s going to go? You guessed it, Google+! It’s easy to disseminate who sees your post due to Google’s ingenious circles. So if its a picture of them studying in the library, that goes to the family circle so the fam can see their little Einstein working. See how this might catch on?

What does this mean for Real Estate? If the kids like it and begin to use it, then the trend will be set and this will be the preferred medium of communication for the next eternity or at least a few years until iFace+ comes out .

I hope and think it will take off as it seems to be a happy little combo of Facebook and Twitter. I find myself going to it first to follow all of my “gurus” in the business, before using that social network that requires you to use another service to make sense of it….yeah, I am talking about you Twitter. Following… errr I mean putting someone in your circle on Google+ is a much better experience than following someone on Twitter. Chris Brogan’s Google+ stream IMO is immensely more satisfying to read than the 140 character limited Twitter stream. Obviously, everyone’s stream will be more satisfying because of the space to express your thoughts fully. The entire user interface is more friendly and easier to understand than Twitter’s. I can see this new social network doing some serious damage to the little bird.

I am going to go on record and say I like Google+. I didn’t like Google Wave and never got into Google Buzz, but Google+ is something I will use. I guess only time will tell what’s going to happen here, I could be eating my words.
About Stephen Pacinelli

Yes, he did get over a million followers within the first 24 hours of signing up for his twitter account – but is that really the way YOU want to get followed and gain more business? Speaking of which, didn’t he just get fired from his $2M per episode job?

Moving on… As promised, we thought it was pretty timely to give you a run down of the top ways to use Twitter for furthering your online business gains and making it an important part of your social networking focus. Below is our top 3 posts on how this is done -and a renewed opportunity to put them into action if you didn’t the first time around. Twitter hasn’t diminished, nor does it look like it is about to. #DUH.

1.  #TwitterIsStupid – AKA Please Help Me - Michael McClure (@ProfessionalOne) has taken this hashtag in 2009 to being in the top 25 most connected in real estate  - now find out how.

2.  10 Twitter Tips For A Realtor By A Realtor! – Thanks to Audeliz Angie Perez (@RealtorAngieP) for this in-depth look into how Twitter can and should be used by you, the Realtor.

3.  Hootsuite Training Video - A must watch if you are looking for the best way to manage your Twitter account(s) with your other social networking platforms.