So after a 7 month hiatus and a shell shocked feeling of “WTH???,” Guerrilla Social Media is finally back on Facebook and our Business page is up and running. For the last seven months, I’ve been struggling with the fact that Facebook is free, so sometimes you get what you pay for and sometimes more, and customer service isn’t their strong point and why should it be?

One day last fall, I went to update my business page and it was GONE. After 3 months of automated responses from Facebook Help, I found myself disenfranchised and sulking over the fact that 2 years of hard work and over 950 “Fans” (at that time) were simply gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

Well, finally the fog has lifted and the considerate but firm prodding of my teammates, has motivated me to get back on the horse and redevelop the presence we worked so hard at.

So if you get a chance, Click Here to get updates on social media events, tips, and to see what’s going on in Hampton Roads, oh and ‘Like’ our page! Vanity URL and Video will be completed soon.

Every week I run into technology savvy Realtors who immerse themselves in Google Juice, Social Media, and mobile technology but feel trapped in brokerages that don’t offer adequate technology training or tools to help them stay up to date and ahead of the curve in a tough real estate market.

Conversely, real estate brokers are fighting tooth and nail to try to learn ever-changing technology trends, while being tasked with helping their active agents stay productive and keep the agents they have, in a hostile environment where some companies are trying to recruit away their agents by any means necessary.

Though everyone can gain from learning new things and embracing technology, its not always the broker’s job to do and be everything.  The broker’s job is to provide the tools for agents to be successful and here are a few ways they can make technology tools and training more accessible without having to play catch-up with tech savvy brokers.

Create a Committee

If you have a tech savvy agent in your office, see if they would be interested in being the head of a ‘Technology and Online Marketing Committee.’ This committee would be composed of tech savvy agents who know technology and who are having success, AND seasoned agents who have had long term success but may be lacking in tech. This would promote balance and show that the brokerage appreciates the value of both technology and successful longevity.

Consult with a Tech Savvy Agent - No Strings Attached

While Tech Savvy Agents are looking around, the are also bombarded with emails letters and phone calls from brokers just like you who are looking to recruit them.  How about a Guerrilla technique?  Ask them to have lunch to pick their brain and see what their vision for the future of real estate looks like and ensure them that this is not an attempt to recruit them.  Nerds love to talk about the future and nerdy Realtors are no different. Take notes and consult with your in house committee to see what they think about those perspectives.

Ask for Referrals

Sales 101! Everyone wants to refer, no one wants to be sold.  Tech savvy agents know other tech savvy agents because nerds love to share info with other nerds after all, no one else ‘understands’ them!  Asking “who do you know” rather than “work for me” is a great technique that works well in recruiting especially if you get a direct introduction.

Partner with a consultant

Real estate agents are in the business of helping people buy and sell real estate.  Technology is just one set of tools to help them do it more effectively. Partnering with an expert who handles regular training and consultations with agents in your brokerage can be a time efficient and cost effective way to keep your tech savvy agents on the path of improvement while still being able to do what they’re good at: Real Estate!

So the bottom line is that as a broker, you don’t have to be the most technical, you just have to be resourceful and provide affordable, reliable tools that agents can access and integrate relatively smoothly into their real estate business.

To my broker friends, what are you doing to add value to your brokerage through technology?

Do you feel that being tech savvy is essential or is providing a good set of resources equally effective?

I love being a Gen-Xer.  I’m right in between “Go outside and play” and “Sit in front of a TV all day.”  I’ve been able to live through amazing evolutions of technology participating in most every step of its transition.  When I was a kid, my understanding of tsunamis was limited to the school films of kids on beaches picking up flopping fish before disappearing into an animated wave. I also grew up in inland Jersey and Virginia, so the ideas of monsoons, typhoons, earthquakes and even hurricanes were relatively foreign then.

Traditional media did a great job of bringing us ‘up-to-the minute’, ‘after the fact’.  Seeing something real-time was rare, especially from a real person’s perspective.  In 2004 and 2005 the devastation of the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and Hurricane Katrina, shocked everyone and glued us to traditional media that couldn’t get info out fast enough or from a perspective we could relate to.

Social Media – Enter Stage Right

Since 2004 as we know, social media has exploded and the race is on because real people can submit the news as it happens via social networks which can be more relevant and reliable. Our friends give a true perspective rather than polished news content and if you have a friend on the scene, you trust them to ‘report’ it as-is not as it should be. We also race each other wanting to be the first one to inform our Facebook friends of recent disasters because everyone wants to be in the know. Social Media’s role in the most recent disaster in Japan has further illuminated this phenomenon.

Because we see so much more news, as it happens, from a more realistic perspectives, mass social media exposure distorts our view of reality. We’ve gone from hearing signs and wonders to actually seeing and living it minute by minute.  This combined with the fact that the world is scheduled to end in 2012 has caused an increase in doomsday messages.

Now before you go hoarding canned goods and buying that ham radio, there is a website that will put your mind at ease.  The National Association of Radio Distress Signals (RSOE) has an awesome Alert Map that tracks disaster related events worldwide.

Disasters Occur Every Minute of Every Day

This perspective, shows that Earth really is a leaving breathing thing and there is always something going on with it so there’s no need to panic yet.  Now, if all your best friends disappear, that might be a cause for concern.

How has easy access to world events effected your view the pending end of days scenario?

Recently I attended a mixer with some friends and being my usual self, I played amateur photographer and snapped a few pics!  This morning I went to upload the pics, and Facebook went to doing its magic.

For those that don’t know, Facebook has a relatively new feature that not only recognizes faces but also has the ability to put names with faces.  Facebook knows your face!

In this case I’m always denying the possibility that I look like my mom. Well, I uploaded an album that both me and my mom and Facebook’s face recognition feature proved me wrong.

The two photos on the right are me, the left is my mom, you be the judge.

Below is what we look like under a professional’s lens.

Conversely, Facebook doesn’t always get it right!  During the same upload, Facebook got one completely wrong by connecting two of my close friends: Wendy Walker and Kim Finley.

Though this is clearly an incorrect correlation, it actually got me to thinking and I started comparing pictures and they do have quite a resemblance.

So what are your thoughts?  Is Facebook right?  Do I look like my mom?  And what about Kim and Wendy?  Is technology that advanced?

A few months back, Paul McGirt a Realtor in the Virginia Beach area wrote an interesting article in the Hampton Roads Association of Realtors Magazine called Social Media – Because We are Social People.  While going through my archives, I found that mag and it got me to thinking about the social media scene and the ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ that populate it.

When we see The Social Network and shows like The Facebook Obsession, we get a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg and get the impression that had he not create a multi-billion dollar, universe altering company, he would be stereotypical computer guy: anti-social.  On top of that, that most computer professionals like IT managers and web developers are stereotyped with similar personality traits, which further distorts the view of what trait a social media consultant should possess.

Before we get into that trait, you must first understand that social media is the fusion of sociology and technology.  Masterful usage of tools like Facebook and Twitter is essential to the art, but the ability to understand and interpret people’s behavior and translating that into how they will make decisions is the magic behind making social media work for business.  And regardless of how many books you read, it is virtually impossible to get to know behavior unless you socialize.

The explosion of social media as a truly organic business marketing tool, has sparked a rise of consultants and so called experts to meet the demand. But when was the last time you saw your social media ‘expert’ at a networking function?

To be successful at consulting in social media, you must be social.  Nationally known experts like PR Sarah Evans and Jeff Turner understand people.  They interact masterfully online, but can also work a room like nobody’s business and naturally attract people.  The social media manager’s job is to convert that knowledge and charisma into online social capital.

What do you think?  Is it possible to manage and teach people social media effectively without being social?

One of the most common questions I get during seminars and consultations is: “Should I have a Facebook profile for my business life and my personal life to keep them separated?”   Before I answer that, I want to highlight a basic principle of social media: being a real person.  People are tired of dealing with the phony, shallow, and disingenuous.  Few customers use Facebook for the sole purpose of interacting with businesses and very few people are on social networks specifically to generate business, and those that are tend to be viewed as one of the aforementioned undesirables.

Most people are on social networks like Facebook and Twitter to connect with and get to know other people. That being said, sales professionals and small business owners looking to uses social media to generate business will need to learn to interact with and engage their target audience on a personal level. You are a total person and if you seek to add business contacts through a personal social network like Facebook, you should be open to letting your friends experience a controlled version of the total you.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

One of the hardest concepts for business people to understand and embrace is the idea of interacting with their current and/or potential clients and customers on a personal level, but in business, before we had mass marketing, we had to build relationships. People want to feel like the businesses they patronize have a desire to be interested in them as an individual and a willingness to invest in their life through social capital. Showing interest in the lives of your clients builds trust and trust builds new and repeat business.

No one cares about your business

Though this is only a partial truth, the reality is that your business is only a small portion of your life overall. People want a snapshot of you and your business is part of that snapshot.  Separating your business from that snapshot robs your sphere of influence of a part of who you are and what you’re doing.

So as you embark on your Facebook business strategy, ask yourself: Does my business have enough personal and engaging content to stand alone?  If the answer to that question is yes, Create your own Facebook business page by clicking here.  If the answer is no, read up on Facebook Terms of Use (scroll to section 4.1 and 4.2).

Registration and Account Security

Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:

1. You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
2. You will not create more than one personal profile.

That being said, Facebook is a personal zone.  Think about how much you would like to be specifically prospected by your Facebook friends, or any friends for that matter, then make your decision on how you plan to use Facebook.

Despite the appearance of a down economy, some businesses are surviving, and even thriving more than they ever could have imagined! It’s no coincidence that many thriving businesses are also aggressively marketing whether they can afford it or not. Though marketing in a shifting economy to sustain and even grow your business isn’t a new concept, the social media revolution is creating a new paradigm in the marketing equation: Organizational Buy-In.

Organizational Buy-In is the absolute faith in/and voluntary adoption of an organizations vision, mission, and policy with the genuine intention of improving and growing that organization by any reasonable means. In other words, you have an organization filled with employees who believe in what you’re doing and are willing to do what it takes to make that happen even if the if the end result means your business will become so efficient their job will no longer exist.

Employees taking pride in their profession and figurative ownership in their company isn’t a new concept either, but until now, marketing has mostly been up to business owners, sales people and in larger companies, the marketing department. The introduction of social media as a business tool adds a new twist to what businesses consider marketing and how they use word of mouth through social media to generate brand awareness and revenue.

Now more than ever, businesses rely on more intelligent, harder working, and loyal employees to stay afloat. Employees that meet this criteria are great for maintaining and even growing a business but inside those people is an untapped wealth of potential: they are your new marketing committee.

When was the last time a ‘behind the desk’ employee actively marketed for your business? Is that even possible? Marketing is hard work, and employees are working hard enough as it is to keep their jobs. Why would they go out of their way to get involved in marketing?

First of all, lets talk about loyalty:

Loyal employees tend to be loyal because of relationships they develop with ownership and/or management. Believe it or not, your employees like you, believe in what you’re doing, and want to help you do it better.

So your employees actually like you! Who knew? But saying they like you enough to start marketing; That’s a pretty big leap. Now before you building a bridge to nowhere STOP! Believe it or not, this is going to be a lot easier than you think! Most of your employees are already using the major social networks like Facebook and Twitter, so getting them to use it isn’t step one, and many of them are already talking about their jobs so that isn’t a major hurdle either. The trick is getting your employees to say and do the right things.  With the right education and company policy, your employees can become your main source of new and recurring business and a constant marketing committee.

I know that you’re excited about educating your new marketing committee and turning them loose on the masses, but before you do, consider this: Organizational Buy-In creates a relationship between the employee and the business that forces a win-win that if left unchecked could have a negative effect on your brand.  Once your employees start talking about your business and how awesome it is, they become an active component on the face of your business.  If you’re afraid of this, its too late, they already are. Their friends family and neighbors already know where they work, but now they are actively posting information that will entice people to your business without selling.  For your employees, this new tool can also be used as a weapon. If you treat them badly, they can use this those same methods of marketing to attempt to damage your brand.   So the win for the business is expanded marketing with proven effectiveness and the win for the employee is the necessity for a better work environment driven by ethics, and fairness and an environment that acknowledges the importance of every team member.  This is refresher of an old principle: treat your people right!

I know this concept sounds scary but the business of today is about internal and external collaboration.  Marketing for small and mid-sized businesses especially, will rely more on the efforts of everyone in the organization.  Start thinking about how your team players fit into your marketing model and how they can be maximized in getting the word out about your business.

So the news came down today that Google is going to limit/deny Facebook users’ ability to import contacts directly from GMail until Facebook allows Google users to reciprocate.  Though I see Google’s position this still has to be one of the dumbest and most immature moves ever seen on the interwebs!

For those who missed it, in March of this year (2010), Facebook surpassed Google as the most popular site on the internet.  Google gets over 2 BILLION searches every day, and yes, Facebook is even more popular than that.  With that being said, this move is Google’s way of saying, you beat us so play nice or we are going to make it harder for your users to import contacts.

What is this, Prohibition??  This is a penalty on Facebook USERS not on Facebook.  People aren’t addicted to Google, Facebook however is a different story.  Google helps people find things.  Facebook helps people connect to the world.  You do the math.  So if anything, this could hurt Google and cause them to lose users.  I recommend GMail to many of my clients simply for the importability to social networks.  If they lose that capability, I will be forced to stop recommending it.

Secondly, any GMail user with 0.37 seconds on their hands can search Google and find a fairly simple way to export their contacts from Gmail so they can upload them to Facebook, or just click here.  :)

Google, you can’t win.  People will still love you as long as you don’t mess with their Facebook addiction.  Take your ball and go home.

One of the most common questions/statements I get from business owners about developing and using social media in their marketing strategy is “how do I generate content” or “I just don’t have any content to share with my fans/followers.”  But with every business I’ve consulted with since starting my business, this has been the furthest from the truth.  Every business has an endless flow of valuable, rich and engaging content, the problem is that many business owners have an advertising mindset, not an engaging mindset, so first of all, lets talk about how to change the way we think about our businesses.

You business is a living breathing organism just like you.  So many things go on inside and and around your business that people (especially your customers or potential customers) would find interesting.  There is a reason people come though your doors, use your services or want to consult with you, and many of those reasons have nothing to do with what you actually do.

1) Think about your regulars:

Hopefully, you have repeat customers.  If you do, ask those customers about themselves.  Everyone has a story, and a background and sometimes those similar backgrounds will lead to similar people who will have a similar need or desire to do business with you. Also, ask them why they keep coming back and talk about that.

2) Think about your business

Businesses are constantly changing.  Be it new inventory, a new strategy, or new people, something changing within your business and people love to hear stories about change.  What else is going on?  Did something funny, happy, sad, odd, or completely mundane happen today? Yes, people find mundane things interesting.  In fact, if you think about the mundane, it’s actually the glue that holds people together.

3) If it moves, it will move

People have been mesmerized by moving pictures as long as they have been around.  With the popularity of sites like Youtube and Vimeo and even the video capabilities of Facebook, people are growing to almost expect businesses and places of interest to entertain them with interesting videos and picture montages that engage, influence and inspire.  Anything, but don’t sell! Start thinking about things you can film and just do it.  If you want an great example of the evolution of a video strategy on Facebook, ‘Like’ A. Dodson’s.  They started slow and are now very good at using video to engage their fans.

As you think about content, realize that before you write something off as boring, ask yourself: “is it boring because I see it everyday, or is it just plain boring.”  If it’s the former, ignore that urge to pass it over and share it.  Its your only way to share the personality of your business with your audience.  Start talking about it, and your brand will grow strong, gain a following, and generate new and repeat business.  Have fun!

Every time I teach a Facebook seminar I am asked “should I friend people who request me but that I don’t know?”  My answer to that is “it depends.”  One of the hardest things for most people to understand is that Facebook is and should be treated in many cases like real life.

The easiest way to determine if someone is genuine is if they include a personal message with their friend request.  I love getting requests that say “Hi, I’m so and so and this is why I want to be friends with you.”

Facebook is your sphere of influence.  In life you have many connections that exist at different levels:  same with Facebook.  Some are close friends that see everything, others are loose connections that you may like to know better and want to control level of access.

The first step is looking at the person’s profile.  You can usually judge a person’s worthiness in 30 seconds.  A quick look at wall posts and pictures will give you a reasonable window into someone’s intentions.

If the person has mostly business content, you know that more than likely they are on Facebook primarily for business and could be a spammer.  If they have drunken pics from last week’s bar crawl it may require you to dig deeper.  The point is to find people who are on Facebook to engage, not to sell something or be vulgar.

If the person passes the wall and photo test, check out your mutual connections.  Sometimes you can see what type of person you’re adding by the types of people they associate with.

Depending on how popular you are, you may be what is known as connector if this is the case, mutual connections wont work for you.  Connectors know lots of people and are more than well known.  If you are a connector, evaluate your overall purpose or purposes for being on Facebook.  If it is exposure to new spheres of influence, then add away but categorize your friends and secure your privacy settings so that you know who has access to what on your profile.