Earlier this week we posted a question on our Facebook Fan Page asking if knowing how to tie all your social networking profiles together was a) important to you and b) if so, if you had it done. We got some agents saying that they had, noting what they had used to achieve this, and we got a lot of comments from agents stating that they really wanted to know how.

Posting the question on our Facebook Fan Page distributed the update to all our Fan’s personal walls – as of today that’s just over 7,000 Facebook profiles. That alone is a great start to the distribution of content and socialization with others. But let’s say that that update was actually a blog post automatically pulled from your real estate blog site and it wasn’t just posted within Facebook but it was also automatically posted on Twitter at the same time? And on top of that it was posted on your LinkedIN account profile… Now how many eyeballs have you got on your content? In my books, these four sites are the crux of Real Estate and where all your content MUST be distributed each time you update your blog or one of your social networking profiles/pages.

All this can be done automatically, within just a few minutes of your time, but saving you many more in the long run. Here’s a run down of how this can be achieved:

Blog Post to Facebook Fan Page

Here’s one of my favorite Facebook Applications in full effect!  NetworkedBlogs is a great application that can be easily added to your Blog site and tied to your Fan Page (it can also be tied to your Profile on Facebook, but DON’T!  Remember – Profile = Personal, Fan Page = Business).    Watch the following short video to see how this is done – step-by-step:

Facebook Fan Page to Twitter

This can be accomplished in many ways, but since we are already in Networkedblogs Application and it can be done directly in here, this is the way I would recommend:

Twitter to LinkedIN

Again, this can be accomplished in many ways, but for the sake of argument, here’s how I would recommend doing it:

The demise (and rebirth) of our friend, Jonathan Rivera’s “The Official Real Estate Referral Group” Fan Page last week was a HUGE eye opener not only for him, but for everyone.   Or at least I hope it was!   When Facebook shut down his real estate business page with 47,000 plus members, not only did he lose his mind, but he also lost the majority of those 47,000+ contacts!

He may have had a huge following, but he didn’t have any way to contact them now that his Fan Page was gone – all those tens of thousands of people were simply following his page – most hadn’t provided anyway for him to reach out to them other than writing a post on his Fan Page wall – and now his wall was gone!

Hey, this isn’t a post to tear down Jon and/or his short-fallings. Not at all.   Anyone could have had this happen to them.  But, this massive hit to his business was not only a huge learning curve for him, but for everyone who is using Fan Pages as a means of gaining more real estate business earnings. This post is about utilizing Facebook and your Fan Page in the most “tech savvy agent” way you can, and should be!

Gaining leads through opt-ins via Facebook, or any online resource, may not be on the forefront of your mind when you’re posting your blogs or adding an update to your Fan Page wall, but it MUST be! Below we’re going to give you a list of three ways you can obtain contact information from your social networking sites, both for future use and in case you get hit by Facebook’s dreaded hand of death!

1. Contact Forms

Obvious?  Yes.  But other than on your main real estate website, do you have them prominently available for your potential client’s to provide you with their information?  9 out of 10 agents will say “no” to this question.  We wrote a great post that many of you may have already put into place on your Fan Page about how to add a great, customizable Fan Page contact form.  If you haven’t done it yet, go do it now!

2.   RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are an awesome way to not only gain prospective leads contact info, but also to automatically set them up to receive updates from you without you having to do ANYTHING.  When adding your RSS feed to your blog and then your Fan Page, you have obtained your lead’s contact name and email address, and every time you add a blog post to your blog site (like this one), they will receive your information within an hour or so.  You can learn more about this within our “Have Blog, Will Read?” post.

3.   Deliverables

Giveaways have always been a proven way to get people to hand over to you what you want from them – and in this case – give them something of value and they will give you something of value in return.  How many times have you been to a conference where you have the opportunity to win something that you really have wanted and all you have had to do is give your contact information?  Ok, sometimes you haven’t really wanted what they have to offer, but if you won something or even gained something from it, it maybe worth your while to leave your contact information, right?

Think about what kind of deliverables you can offer your potential clients:   Whether it is free reports on market conditions, free dinner for two at Benihana’s for the person that gives you the most referrals this month, or a gift for helping you name your new blog site competition… the ideas are endless, and each idea will attract a different contact and new prospective leads.

Speaking of which, we’re going to be having a webinar next week to give you some great insight and tools you can use within Search Engine Optimization that is open for any and all to join – if you would like to be notified of when it will be and have an exclusive invitation be mailed to you, please enter your email address at the very top of this blogsite (“Become A Savvy Agent”) and we’ll be happy to send it along!

Hey, it’s no secret.  We are intensely passionate about what we do here at Tech Savvy Agent!   And that PASSION, DRIVE and AMBITION has been instrumental to our (seemingly) overnight success, which was solidified by our winning the “Most Innovative Blog” award  by INMAN yesterday!  So, we thought it would be appropriate to share what has been a large aspect of what has also been instrumental in how we have got to the place we find ourselves today.

It will come as no surprise that Facebook has been a driving force behind how Tech Savvy Agent has exponentially evolved.  And so we’re going to give you an inside look via the Top 5 Facebook Real Estate tips that we believe can take your Fan Page from blah to bling!

Tip #1 -Custom Landing Tab

Branding consistency and having a professional online (and offline) appearance is essential within the Real Estate world and Facebook has a way to make that a reality.  A custom landing tab (or page) will be the first impression you will be giving your new Facebook visitors, and since Facebook  is the #1 lead generating social networking site on the planet, it better be good!

With some design, HTML and FBML knowledge, these fan pages can be created to model your website or blog, therefore keeping your branding in check.

Tip #2 – Contact Forms – Get Your Leads!

Never forget what the purpose of all your hard work is  – Getting leads and selling homes!   One way to add the likelihood of this happening is by adding a Contact Form to your Facebook Fan Page.  We discussed this a few weeks ago and it became a huge hit within our Real Estate community – if you didn’t read it yet, now’s your chance - How To Add Contact Forms in Real Estate Facebook Fan Pages.   Personally speaking, we have received well over two dozen leads from our Contact Form on Facebook – which is probably two dozen more than we would have had if was not for the form!

Tip #3 – NetworkedBlogs

What’s a Fan Page without Fans?  Well, the same can be said about your Fan Page itself – What’s a Fan Page without Content?  You’ll probably find you have a fairly small following if you don’t have consistent, relevant information being posted to your Page, and similarily,  if you stop, then you’re fans will probably stop too.

We often hear Realtors say, “How can I get more Fans (or “Like’”s) to my Page? The answer is Consistent Content!   One way to ensure this is happening is to link your blog (you DO have one, don’t you?!) to your Fan Page through an application called NetworkedBlogs.    This is a widget that is added to your Blog site which is then verified on Facebook and automatically links the two up together.   Then, your updates on your Real Estate Fan Page will be posted not only on your Fan Page wall, but on your Fan’s walls automatically – and if you set it up right, to Twitter too!  You can have your new posts show up on your Profile page too, but I don’t recommend it – Don’t mix business with pleasure!

Yes, there are other apps and widgets out there that do the same thing, but this is our favorite – the below descriptive diagram shows why:

Tip #4 – Additional Consistent, Relevant Content

How often do you update your Fan Page?  Once a day, Twice a week, Once a month?  If you want to stay fresh in the eyes of your followers, then adding additional content to your Fan Page is a MUST!  But how can you do this when you are so busy as it is?  Do you have a phone?  Then you can probably update it while you’re out having lunch, or waiting for your next appraiser to arrive… spending a few minutes here and there throughout the day updating your Fan Page will pay huge dividends to your fan base and your the eye balls on your site and you!  Keep them engaged and they will stay – wander and they will too.

Tip #5 – Applications

Last time I checked, there were literally tens of thousands of Facebook Applications that had been created by just as many website developers all over the world.  These applications have been graciously added to Facebook’s deep abyss to help you make your Real Estate Fan Page one that works like clockwork.  Two of our favorite applications (other than NetworkedBlogs noted above) are Static FBML (to create your Custom Fan Pages) and Involver’s Video application (to add your neighborhood video recordings).  You can check these and all the other ones available out by typing the keywords of the application you are interested in within the search box on the top of Facebook’s page and then clicking on the “Applications” link on the left.

Listen, we didn’t just use tools of the trade to get where we are now (nor did Gary V for that matter!).  Each of us have MAD passion for what we do, and we have worked unbelievably hard every day (ok, and night!).

To be at the top of your game you have to WORK, and WORK HARD!  And while you’re doing that, put these items above to the test and see how your traffic, and business grows!

Like a thief in the night Facebook took away Jonathan Rivera’s business page, The Official Real Estate Referral Group, that had more than 47,000 fans.

Now it looks like Facebook is doing the walk of shame or maybe just what they should have done in the first place.  After this post was Tweeted nearly 400 times and shared on Facebook 315 times in the last 24 hours it seems that they have reinstated the page and simply changed the vanity URL as was the general consensus of fairness by the masses buzzing about it.

The issue in question was that Jon’s original vanity URL, set up nearly 2 years ago, was Facebook.com/SocialRealtors and was indeed a trademark violation regarding the use of the word Realtor according to the National Association of Realtors.  NAR contacted Facebook about having the domain changed and instead, without warning, Facebook took the page and thus the hard built community away from Jon.

I want to applaud Facebook for making the right decision on this one, even if they again hit the buttons without warning or notice. Also a HUGE THANKS for the way that so many of you rallied around this hot topic and helped to get the word out.

You can visit Jon’s new, uglier domain and see the page that started all the controversy in the first place.  While your there show him some “like” for his troubles.

Seems for now social media may still be run by us!

Well now we know who the boss is.  Facebook has shut down a real estate business page with 47,000 plus members giving zero notice to the page owner, Jonathan Rivera.  The Official Real Estate Referral Group is a community that Jon started almost 2 years ago and had just crossed the 47,000 fan mark making it one of the largest real estate related pages on Facebook.  The goal of the page was to connect like minded real estate agents who were looking to grow their business via referrals and social media.  Simply put, you meet a buyer or seller looking in another market and you can shout out to the page that you need another agent to handle the deal.  Jon had created over 1400 opportunities for agents in the last 18 months and more importantly has put countless time, energy and resources into moderating such a large page.

The controversy is related to the vanity URL that Jon chose when first setting up the page.  Once a Facebook Page has 25 fans the admin can go to Facebook.com/Username and secure a custom or vanity URL.  When Jon did this 2 years ago he choose Facebook.com/socialrealtors.  This is indeed improper use of the trademarked word Realtor so The National Association of Realtors or NAR reached out to Jon about changing the URL.  After several failed attempts to get Facebook to change the ending or at the least just remove any vanity ending, they instead this morning took the page away without notice!

The NAR trademark office has emailed Facebook directly stating that it wasn’t their intention to break up the popular group, just to have the URL reworked so that it would be NAR approved.  As opposed to allowing a simple change to the URL they shut the lights off without warning?

This is a close to home example that Facebook has total control over their network and can hit buttons that make your hard work and community vanish, literally over night and without warning.  Make sure your social media presence is weather proof and always secure email addresses when possible.

Please help Jon out by sharing this post and helping spread the word about this story.  If they can hit a button and make it go away we are fairly confident they could hit another to make it reappear with a new compliant URL.  The more people that read and share this post the better the chances are that their decision could be reversed.  Thanks guys!