Facebook is one of the most powerful online technology tools available and it's growing at such a seriously blazing speed.  Everywhere I turn it seems like people are online viewing Facebook, checking their messages from Facebook, talking about Facebook, you probably already know that they have even made a movie called "The Social Network" which is about Facebook.  The bottom line is that Facebook is huge and I believe Facebook is the NEW Google of today.

While I was standing in line at the Best Buy checkout counter the lady in front of me was updating her Facebook status.  What totally blew my mind was that she was fully emerged in Facebook.  When I got home from Best Buy I was watching the news and the news anchor was reporting on a breaking story and at the end of his report he said "for an update on this story be sure to visit our Facebook page".  He didn't say come to channel 10 news.com!!!  He said FACEBOOK!!!

We recently launched a new Facebook Business Page Facebook.com/SamMillerTeam which was created by our friends at Real Pro Systems.  If you have a basic understanding of marketing and branding you know it is critical that you maintain a consistent look and feel throughout all of your marketing.  A compelling benefit of our new business page is that it extends the branding and theme of our KnoxCountyOhio.com website which Real Pro Systems also designed for us.  

Our new Facebook Business Page is completely interactive and it is truly an extension of our primary website and it maintains our team theme and brand.   The new page design is unique because it not only features a custom "Welcome Page" but it also features two fully integrated client connection pages.  These pages enable the consumer to register and receive Knox County Listings by Email automatically and they can also request to list their home with our The Sam Miller Team using these online forms.  These unique pages are actually functioning within Facebook with the help of Real Pro Systems design team and they are uniquely integrated within my KnoxCountyOhio.com website.  An impressive feature that will save our team some valuable time is that once a consumer registers using our new forms within our Facebook business page our KnoxCountyOhio.com website will automatically sync the client contact info within our Real Pro Systems website.       

When a consumer visits our new Facebook business page they can preview all of our real estate listings.  Each of our listings rotate in a slideshow format and they have a fully functioning and integrated link that is clickable and takes the visitor directly to that listing on our KnoxCountyOhio.com website.  This is much more visually pleasing and far more productive than using a website widget that drives consumers to competing websites like Postlets, Zillow, Trulia and REALTOR.com.  Would you rather have consumers surfing websites like REALTOR.com or would you rather have them viewing homes on your own website?  The answer is obvious and by utilizing an integrated Facebook Business Page like we have just launched you can do exactly what Facebook was designed to do which is connect with people.

Take a look at our new Facebook.com/SamMillerTeam pages and if you like what you see please "Like" us while you're there.  

Sam Miller Team of REMAX Stars Realty (740) 397-7800  Knox County Ohio Real Estate

That's a topic that a lot of people (especially Realtors) like to talk about . . . About.Me.  But I would like to ask you to check your ego at the door for just a minute and let me tell you about a great service . . . About.Me.  There was a time when I sent out my emails or anything that needed my signature on it with an awful lot of information crammed at the bottom.  It cluttered up the page, but you couldn't NOT include your contact information, right?  Along comes About.Me.  You create your profile and add all of your contact info and make it pretty (or ugly, as the case may be), and then your signature line is just a few short words.  If someone wants to know more about you, or how to get a hold of you, they click on the link and they find out more than they will ever want to know your pertinent information.  And the even neater thing is . . . there are analytics involved, so you can see how many people are checking you out.  This is my signature line.  It tells the story - simply . . .  http://About.Me/MimiFoster

 

About.Me was written by Mimi Foster

If you would like to Search for Homes in Colorado Springs, CO, or for any of your other real estate needs, please contact your Colorado Springs Realtor

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Selling homes throughout Colorado Springs, Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs and surrounding areas with a Specialty in Victorian and Vintage Homes in
Downtown Colorado Springs

 

Yesterday I receive a message from one of our members, Sara Bonert.  Sara is the Director of Broker Relations for Zillow She asked me if there was a way to incorporate the wonderful new about me video that was created for her profile on Zillow onto her ActiveRain profile.  She said that she had tried for a while, but was unable to get it embedded properly.

This got me thinking.  Whenever I visit someones profile, if they have a video that tells me about them, most of the time I will click & watch the video instead of reading paragraph after paragraph of text.  However If their video is boring & not engaging, I normally stop it after 15-20 seconds & move on to another place.  Zillow does an awesome job of implementing this into the profiles of their staff.

I decided shortly after inserting Sara's video onto her profile that this was something very unique that I could do to help my profile start to stand out from anyone else.  Granted, everyone can add a video to their profile after following the tutorial below, but even if all 153,000+ members do this, there still will only be one About Me video from Jeremy Blanton. So, one of the first things I did today was make my own welcome video.  You can see my example on my profile.

Tips to Creating an Effective About Me Video

Start by making an interesting video about you.  It took me several tries to make a video that sounded interesting & not boring.  The first few times I stuttered through my words & also looked very sad.  Also the tone of my voice was rather dull & drab.  Since videos are all about visualization you want to look happy & sound excited!

Don't get caught up on Professionalism.  While Sara had a professional on hand to create & edit her video, not everyone has access to that. My video was recorded straight from the web cam built into my computer.  I simply cut the section that I wanted to publish with a basic video editing software that every computer has.  (iMovie on Mac, or Windows Movie Maker on PC)

Be Human!  Whatever you do, please do not make your video a mini infomercial. It is fine to say your name & what company you work.  It is even ok to add in the easiest ways to contact you.  But please do not go through every designation, how many homes you have sold in the last month, why it is the perfect time to buy or sell real estate, or why they should hire you today.  Remember, all your contact information is already listed in your profile, so you don't need to say it on the video.  If they want to contact you, they can find how to do so right above. 

Also, share non business things that you enjoy doing, like golf, or reading a book, or going for a run.  Those small things can be the thing that connects that consumer with you.  Remember, your social media success is dependent on engaging someone else.

Keep it Simple. You video needs to be short sweet & to the point.  Don't add 25 slide transitions & pages of text intro & at the end.  If the video gets too long, you better have something really interesting to keep me around.  I would suggest keeping the video under 3 minutes max.  Mine was actually under 2 minutes because if you are anything like me, you got a lot going on & well to sit still & watch one page for a long period of time is difficult.

How to Insert Video On Your Profile

The first thing you need to do after creating your simple video is upload it to one of the many video platforms like youtube, viddler, vimeo, seesmic, and the list goes on.  Once you upload your video remember to go into the settings & change it to not include related videos if you are using youtube.  After you have done this, copy the embed code that is generated.

After copying the embed code, you will then visit your my home page & click on the Edit button next to My Profile.  You will see a button that says HTML third from the right on the toolbar.  I would suggest adding the video to the first section of your profile so that people see it first when entering your profile.  If you place it in the second or third box, the chances that they watch the video go down dramatically since they have to scroll down to see it.

When you click this button it brings up the entire box in HTML coding.  Then paste in the copied embed code in the box above all of the rest of the coding.  That way your video shows up at the top.  

Then click Update. 

****ONE VERY IMPORTANT LAST STEP!***

Make sure you click save profile to save addition of the HTML Embed Code.  If you do not click save profile after clicking update on the HTML box, the changes will not take effect.

Congratulations! You have now successfully added a video to your profile!

As always, while it seems like this may be some huge massive project to do, it really is not.  To shoot the video, edit, upload to youtube & embed on my profile the entire time with many interruptions was maybe 20 minutes.  Just like my video says, if you get stuck, do not hesitate to leave me a comment & ask for help!