FBML More Important Than HTML? Nathan Latka Answers
Nathan Latka is an inspiring guy. While still in his last year at Virginia Tech as a double major in Architecture and Business Finance, Nathan, 22, has become quite literally known as “The College Entrepreneur”. He is becoming a go to resource for social media interviews and Facebook coaching so I thought I would have him on to share some of his expertise with our Tech Savvy Agents. He has a wealth of knowledge to share at a young age and in my opinion represents the future of consumers you will both be selling to and learning from as a Realtor.
Nathan specializes in FBML or Facebook Mark Up Language. Similar to what HTML does for your website FBML does for your Facebook Page. As Nathan points out there are 500 million people on Facebook, many who are logging in multiple times per day. How many visitors is your website or blog getting per month? Why swim up stream when there is a “Facebook Boom” happening as Nathan calls it within the walls of this amazing social networking site. Nathan helps business owners of all sizes customize their Facebook Page so that it captures leads, impresses prospective clients and allows for instant communication on the site where your prospects want to be and are spending the most time. Everyone has a wall and an info tab but FBML enables completely custom designs and layout options and that is where Nathan comes in. He creates a custom page with your branding, social media badges, email opt ins, video, etc.. and he will even teach you how he does it! He has also launched a new live window that would allow for streaming an open house all within a tab on your Facebook tab. Maybe the neighbors can’t make it or you have an out of town prospect that isn’t ready to fly in yet but they can indeed be right there by leveraging this savvy and innovative technology.
Where I can really appreciate what Nathan is doing is that just like a busy real estate agent, as a busy college student, he really understands the challenges of time and task management. He showed me an awesome way to find real time status updates with search terms like “Move to Virginia” where you can find hot leads of current Facebook users that you aren’t even friends with! Imagine seeing an update like “We are going to Move to Virginia and need to know where to live”. You can respond but how? Linking to a custom Facebook tab is a way to invite them to check you out, impress them with your marketing savviness, but without forcing them off of Facebook to your site right away. Connecting and building a new relationship on Facebook is leading many agents to paychecks right now and with a custom landing page I can see ROI increasing for sure!
If you are as impressed as we are with Nathan’s FBML real estate pages and want to learn more you can hook up with him by simple visiting any of the sites below or by clicking on any of the images in this post:
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The technology is there for Realtors to take! I am just happy to be a resource to your community Chris and Tech Savvy Agents! Cheers =D
First a few things that are incorrect. From the actual Facebook statistics page.
* Facebook has 400 million people not 500 million.
* 70% of these people are not in the United States
* Avg user spends 7 hours a month on Facebook. (Nielsen)
Great article, but I would definitely not say that FBML is more important than HTML. FBML is a proprietary mark-up language, meaning Facebook owns it and at any time they can take it away – just like they did a few weeks ago when everyone with less than 10,000 followers pages disappeared. FBML is also a subset of HTML.
So what am I getting at? Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket. Don’t think of your Fanpage as your website. On Facebook you do not own your page, your website you have total control of content, images, your hosting provider.
Your website and your blog are just as important as your Fanpage. I have been in the web technology market for over 20 years, have published numerous books on the topic and have written software for Adobe, and over 10,000 clients.
Make sure you and your company plan a solid course of action that incorporates numerous social and web platforms, and don’t count as FBML or Fanpages to be the “to-go” to page.
Stephen beat me to the punch. A FB page is not an alternative to a static site or blog, but it can be quite an effective supplement. I’ll check out Nathan’s site.
Wow !! The search for Virginia tip is great. Tried it for Calgary and came up with a number of potential leads. Just wondering about facebooks policy on sending messages to these leads “hey, check out my website or fanpage…” Will facebook frown on this ?
Nathan does some Fantastic work!
@ Stephen and @ Alex, actually Facebook has announced the 500 millionth active user. The fact is correct.
Secondly, I would argue VERY strongly that FBML is much more important than HTML at this point. The KEY is making sure you are taking EMAILS away from your FBML tabs. You own emails no matter what happens.
Right now, with 500 million plus on Facebook you can either spend thousands in marketing money to drive traffic from where they are to your blog, OR you can host a website via FBML for FREE in an FBML tab. This in itself builds amazing credibility.
@Stephen, because you have been in the web industry so long, you understand it 110%. Leveraging these new technologies is something you are quickly learning and, I think you will agree, once you start really leveraging them you’ll understand why they are more powerful than html pages.
Also, FBML pages are in no way static. Did you know that Coke, Wendy’s, and other large brands on Facebook get WAY more traffic on their fan pages as opposed to their websites? THAT is impressive AND telling!
Thanks for all the feedback- this is what social media is all about!
great post! some basic fbml code can be found at http://zarrata.com/durofy/web-design/basic-fbml-for-everyone/
Facebook should be a funnel to get people to your blog/website. You want them on the land you own not the land you rent.
Facebook is definitely a great tool to take advantage of in prospecting for leads like Nathan points out. Great Job!
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