Starting a Facebook page is literally like opening up a branch office. It takes some initial time to build, but over time will become a valuable marketing tool. There are real estate agencies generating more business from Facebook than web portals! It’s a social channel that allows you to engage easily and be interactive with your customers, which is an investment in a longer-term relationship that may take place over many years and many homes!

Here are 25 Facebook tips:

1. Complete the information tab and all other places where you can enter data on your page.
2. Add high quality clear pictures — good visuals are a proven draw. (Here are some great tips!)
3. Add a property search tab that will link back to your website.
4. Add designed tabs (e.g. “Request a valuation”) to attract more leads and provide a more personal experience.
5. Add an app (e.g., “fan of the week”) for excitement and a dynamic feeling.
6. Add an “invite friends” app – Get the crowd to spread the word!
7. Add a Twitter app.
8. Add a YouTube app and post videos of select, photogenic properties.
9. Add the Contact app – Encourage fans to send you a message if they want a fast response.
10. Encourage staff/friends to Like you to begin with – You have to start somewhere.
11. Post educational links (e.g., an article on how to create “curb appeal” when you’re selling your house, or a list of sites to estimate your mortgage payment).
12. Set up Facebook links from your website, and on your email signatures, and from your blog. This will encourage link building.
13. Offer incentives to vendors to Like you and share your news on Facebook (e.g., have a “Vendor of the Month” drawing for a small prize for vendors who have promoted you).
14. Encourage recommendations on Facebook from your happy clients after a sale — if possible, include pictures of them enjoying their new home.
15. Ask relevant questions — Facebook is a great place for questions — A way to find out what your fans want from you.
16. Reach out and Like relevant companies/ facilities locally – schools/ restaurants/ golf clubs etc. They show the context for the homes you sell.
17. Share/Like local companies status updates if you find them valuable. They will then start to reciprocate.
18. Post your blogs on your Facebook page.
19. Post relevant newsworthy statuses on a regular basis (local/regional or property related)
20. Use Facebook insights to establish what posts are more successful than others. Use the stats to adjust your activities and messages.
21. Acknowledge new fans by posting on your wall — welcome them and offer assistance.
22. Set up Facebook ads to spread brand awareness locally
23. Add videos that have many views on YouTube — just make sure they are relevant to your business!
24. Add fun illustrations (captioned photos, funny pets) or funny scenes from movies that pertain to real estate (e.g., The Money Pit).
25. Have a complaints procedure in place – and be prepared to address them quickly!

Once you put a good group of these tips into practice, you’ll find your Facebook site humming along and gathering interest. It requires little time each day to maintain a vibrant, dynamic site!

Ian Charles Watson is the principal of Agent Media. Agent Media stays on top of the latest technological advances in full digital marketing solutions specifically for Real Estate Agents — helping them make the most of their marketing budget in a competitive marketplace.

House key image: Jeannie Rhoades

Today we’re pleased to announce an integration between Traackr and Nimble, which we think anyone contemplating or currently engaging in Influencer Marketing will find interesting. Traackr and Nimble subscribers will be able to manage all aspects of an influencer program in a seamless manner, navigating and sharing information between both platforms.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is the relatively new activity of finding and building relationships with key individuals who have influence over potential buyers. Once you discover them,  attracting, connecting and sharing between the brand and influencer builds the relationship. From this relationship stems potentially outsized rewards, such as increased attention, awareness, 3rd party validation, high quality leads, and signed deals.

Influencer Marketing turns on 5 common activities:

• Identifying influencers across various dimensions the brand cares about (e.g. product, keyword, vertical, etc).

• Ranking them in order of importance, organizing outreach.

• Marketing to influencers, building awareness of the brand.

• Marketing via influencers, whereby influencers increase market awareness of the brand (especially with their own audiences).

• Sales influenced by influencers, influencers become advocates of the brand.

This represents a model of closed-loop influencer marketing. And, as Marketing moves beyond a generally ad-driven mindset to a more personal, humane (if not human) approach, influence marketing has an increasingly relevant part to play.

What is Traackr?

Traackr is a leading influencer marketing platform. The beauty of Traackr is that it surfaces the people who can have a disproportionate and measurable impact on your brand — helping you effectively identify and rank influencers for virtually any keyword.

The Benefits of Using Traackr and Nimble Together

Up until now, companies that have invested in influencer marketing have faced the challenge of reconciling siloed solutions to manage their marketing programs with discovery, research, engagement and management happening in different places, making it difficult to truly nurture relationships. Using Traackr and Nimble together provide users the ability to perform influencer discovery and tracking, relationship building and nurturing, as well as activating and measuring results.

• View an Influencer in Nimble – In one click, users can add an influencer from a Traackr project to Nimble and bring over complete online profile information for each person.

• Centrally Manage Influencer Outreach Efforts – Once inside Nimble, users can see all of their email and social communications with an influencer, access a complete conversation history, then effectively message, schedule activities and nurture through an engagement lifecycle.

• Coordinate Influencer Engagement Across Teams and Projects - Via Nimble, users can collaborate with team members working on multiple influencer projects to make sure relationships are managed consistently. Everyone on a team can access past interactions and notes about a person.

• Record Key Insights about Influencers - Users can make notes about how to maintain a relationship with an influential person while accessing insights about them in Traackr. For example, they can note key pieces of content to reference or look at an influencer’s social network while in their Traackr projects and access that information when they engage via Nimble.

Nimble continues to work with great partners like Traackr to build out our hearty Apps Marketplace and augment the benefits of relationships for social selling success.

Recently when I was speaking to a group of professional speakers, I was asked “What do you do when someone you don’t know asks you to connect with you on LinkedIn?” When I first started using LinkedIn, the answer was simple: I ignored their request and I marked it as spam. When I first started using LinkedIn, I was very concerned about people stealing and spamming my connections from me, so I didn’t connect to anyone I didn’t know well. That was my initial LinkedIn strategy for connections, and it served me well.

In fact, according to LinkedIn: “LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.” That’s right, LinkedIn is for connections to your TRUSTED contacts. So what does that mean?

The answer is — it depends on who you are. Who do you trust, and with what do you trust them?

This is why you need a connections strategy for LinkedIn. You need to determine who you trust – and with what, and let that guide YOU on who to connect with on LinkedIn.

My personal connections strategy on LinkedIn:

First, the person I am connecting to needs to be living, breathing human. How do I determine who is human, and who is not? It starts with the message they sent me to connect. Is it a real message that explains how we know each other – or how we can benefit each others’ businesses or lives? Generic invitations mean I need to look closer. Next, I look at the picture. Do they have a picture? If they have no picture, I don’t automatically boot them from my network. I will just look much more closely at their profile to see if they’re human or not. Next, I look to see if they have more than 25 connections. Don’t ask me why 25, it just seems like a reasonable number to me. Then, I look to see if they have a real profile. Doesn’t have to be complete, but it has to be real. I accept most connections from human beings.

But let’s say you send me a generic message, you have no picture, and you’re brand new to LinkedIn. Do I automatically ignore or mark the request as spam? Not on your life.

Next, I look to see if the person is from Milwaukee. That’s where I live, and it’s where I do a good percentage of my business. If the person is from Milwaukee, I just might let them into my network — and often I do, as I speak to a lot of groups in Milwaukee where I share my contact information and invite people to connect with me.

Heck, I speak to a lot of groups not in Milwaukee too, and I invite them to connect as well.

But there is one final test to pass, whether you’re from Milwaukee or not: You have to prove you are a human.

How do you prove your humanity?

Instead of accepting the request, I simply reply to the invitation with a simple note.

“Hi <name>. Thanks for your connection request. I apologize for not remembering where we met. Can you refresh my memory? If we haven’t met in person yet, can you let me know how we know each other, or how we can benefit each other’s networks? Thanks a bunch! Phil”

And then I wait.

If the person replies with anything other than “I’d like to sell you something,” or they don’t lie to me, I typically accept them into my network. And I seldom get spammers or people who don’t add value to my network in my network. Sure, I don’t know everyone perfectly well, but I know them

That’s my LinkedIn connections strategy. What’s YOUR strategy?

Phil Gerbyshak is Chief Connections Officer at www.philgerbyshak.com where he works with organizations to connect their marketing to their customers in meaningful ways.

We think human relationships are the most important part of your business!
Try Nimble today for free!

Late last week, we learned that Nimble won  Best Relationship Management Solution in the prestigious Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Awards. The list is the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program, recognizing applications, products, and services that deliver solutions for use by business, government, consumers, academic, and other organizations.

When he accepted the award, our CEO, Jon Ferrara, gave credit for Nimble’s success to our extended community of supportive users, evangelists and the entire Nimble Team.  Jon lives his passion. He believes relationships make or break business success. He says that the ongoing dialog he and the Nimble Team have had with our community has enabled us to continue to hone our product into an insightful relationship management solution, still evolving with community input. It was this community he thanked for guiding the thoughtful and deliberate path leading to the CODiE Award.

Your generosity with your time, advice, and strategies has led us to where we are today — and to the Nimble that is emerging and evolving. Identifying and nurturing contacts, dealing efficiently and productively with incoming social signals, and completing activities to keep things on track — these are the pieces of our product that are possible, in large part, due to your help.

Innovation and growth is all well and good — but the bedrock of Jon’s vision is all of you. The entire Nimble team would like to join him in conveying our thanks.

]]> http://www.nimble.com/blog/nimble-wins-2013-codie-award-for-best-relationship-management-solution/feed/ 0 http://www.nimble.com/blog/managing-sales-teams/ http://www.nimble.com/blog/managing-sales-teams/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 20:56:18 +0000 Josiane Feigon http://www.nimble.com/blog/?p=4142 ]]>

Have you ever talked to your team and noticed how differently each person listens?

I’ve found that people usually fall into one of four “zones” that influence the way they listen and learn. Interacting with coworkers and employees requires you to know which zone each person is in so you can communicate effectively.

The Zones:

1. The Dead Zone: People in this zone have checked out. Basically, they just don’t care. These folks are probably low to medium performers. They’ve lost focus and ambition, and have no desire to advance further.

2. The Comfort Zone: People in this zone are sitting comfortably in their own little world. They are complacent; they resist any change that is happening around them. These average performers will do just enough to get by, and won’t show initiative for anything else.

3. The Panic Zone: People in this zone feel anxious, nervous, frazzled, and overwhelmed. They care a lot — a bit too much; they are ambitious and take on a lot. Panic Zone members may not know how to manage their time productively – how to prioritize or know what’s important versus urgent.

4. The Stretch Zone: People in this zone are excited (but not overexcited), enthusiastic, and ambitious. They have a list of goals, ideas, and strategies. They care a lot and want to do things differently if it will improve things. These are probably your top performers.

Depending on the size of your organization, you may know all these people. No one stays in the same zone forever. For example; a person may begin in the Stretch Zone. But once they learn what is involved in the job, they may jump to the Panic Zone. As time passes and they get to know their job really well they may move into autopilot, resting in the Comfort Zone. If they’re not happy and motivated, they may start caring less and less and end up in the Dead Zone.

Coaching and Managing

Once you’ve determined the zone, you can begin to tailor your management and behavior to meet their needs.

Managing in The Dead Zone: This zone is dangerous because people who no longer care are resistant to trying anything new –  they are very close to leaving the organization. When coaching them, find out what got them into this zone — it could be for personal or professional reasons, or both. Then have that tough talk with them. Ask them if they think they are in the right role.   Many managers fail to recognize when someone is in the Dead Zone. They think that giving them new tasks or new hires to mentor will help them feel needed and get them out of their “funk.” Big mistake! The Dead Zone can easily infect your new hires.

Managing in the Comfort Zone: People who have been part of the old sales regimen may fall into this comfort zone. They are resistant to adopting new ideas and they’re stuck. But they can be managed, because they really care. When you talk to someone in the Comfort Zone, include strategies that shake them up and change their routine, their territory, their product responsibilities. or perhaps a new vertical market. It might also include putting them on a new project to manage, giving them the opportunity for recognition and reward. Be careful! Someone in the Comfort Zone who isn’t managed properly can eventually find themselves in the Dead Zone, where it might be too late for change. You might try pairing up your Comfort Zone employee next to someone in the Stretch Zone — they just may share some needed energy.

Managing in the Panic Zone: These people can be those who finally realized what is expected of them and are running scared; they may be senior team members who are overachievers with low self-esteem (e.g., who concentrate on meeting sales goals at the end of each month). Help them understand that panic isn’t the answer, and help them separate things that really need their attention from those that can wait. Be gentle. The last thing they need is pressure from you — they are putting enough pressure on themselves. Prioritize with them. Help them slow down, sort through, and organize what’s in front of them.

Managing in the Stretch Zone: We wish all our team members could be in the Stretch Zone.  Nonetheless, managing someone in this zone is delicate — you don’t want to kill their spirit, just keep them on task. Coach them to stay focused, enthusiastic, and ambitious, but keep them in check.

What percentage of your team is in each zone? For a larger team, you can afford to have all zones represented and coaching will be a priority. For smaller teams, you will need to hire with great care, aiming for Stretch Zone candidates.

Josiane Feigon is the founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications. A 20-year veteran of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent. Her book Smart Selling on the Phone and Online is quickly becoming the sourcebook for inside sales and forthcoming book, Smart Sales Manager [July 2013 release] will be the new playbook for sales managers who need to lead their teams through today’s 2.0 landscape.

Success on Twitter is not the result of diluting your feed with praise about yourself and your company.

Success on Twitter is the result of using your content to influence and connect with your target market. Over 500 million people worldwide use Twitter. Anyone can connect with you, if they are motivated to do so.

Some basic Twitter know-how goes a long way for successfully tweeting about your company. Here are 7 tips to make your tweeting a success:

1. Keep the content about you and your products to a minimum, and focus on engaging your customer.

2. Create interesting, witty content.

3. Ask for a RT (a retweet).

4. Use #’s (hashtags).

5. Use @mentions and RT’s to interact with your market and thought leaders.

6. Respond to your @connects.

7. Use contests and coupons.

Let’s look at each of these:

1. Keep the content about you and your products to a minimum, and focus on engaging your customer.

While this may seem counterintuitive to traditional marketers,  social media is about interacting, sharing, and creating a bond with your customer. Generally speaking, your customer doesn’t really care about you or your products, unless you can connect with them emotionally. Let’s face it, as consumers, we like to talk about ourselves, not be talked to about your product.

If you can create content that engages, piques the interest of, and emotionally connects with your consumer, you will become a more important part of their world. You/ your product/ your brand will more likely to be shared with others who share the same worldview.

Understand your product, understand your customer, and speak to them on Twitter. Associate your products with feelings, thought provoking information, and lifestyles.

It’s okay to add your products in some of your tweets, but don’t shout about them.

2. Create interesting, witty content.

Great content gets shared. Shared content means more brand exposure, which means more leads, which means more sales. Write tweets that are of interest to your market. And try to be witty, in a way that connects with your market.

Think of the text of tweets as headlines or ad copy. The more attention grabbing they are, the more likely they will be read. The more they are read, the more likely they will be retweeted and shared.

3. Ask for a RT (retweet).

This may seem so obvious that it often gets overlooked, but – ask your followers for a RT, or even better, a retweet. You will likely get good results.

A study by Buddy Media has shown that tweets asking for a RT get 12 times as many retweets, and spelling it out by asking for a ‘retweet’ actually increased that rate to 32 times more. The study also found, however, that currently only 1% of brands use this tactic. (Mashable)

You don’t want to use this too often, though, or your customers will soon become disinterested. But, do give it try occasionally — especially when you have something great to share!

4. Use #’s (hashtags).

Including hashtags in your tweets makes them reach a larger audience. Your tweet not only goes out to all of your followers, but also to everyone who follows, or searches for a particular hashtag.

Remember, hashtags are a way to organize topics. You can create your own hashtags. You can make funny or obscure hashtags that specifically relate to your market and/ or product and brand.

Some brilliant uses of hashtags include @MapleLeafFoods use of #bacon:

5. Respond to your @connects.

Check your @connects frequently. Twitter is about conversing with your customer. Many of your customers these days use Twitter more than email as a way to connect with companies.

A response on Twitter is expected fast.

If a customer is mentioning you in a tweet, you need to pay attention and take action – even if that action is a simple thank you.

Use Twitter as a customer service tool, to respond quickly, and well, to your customers’ needs.  This can go along way to build trust, develop loyalty, and generate more leads and sales.

6. Use @mentions and RT’s to interact with your market and thought leaders.

Twitter lets you communicate with your market very easily. It’s also a great way to get in touch with thought leaders, celebrities and newsmakers in your industry.

If you have a great customer who follows you on Twitter, for example, mention them. Send them an @handle tweet to thank them, retweet a tweet, or mention them in a #ff (#ff stands for FollowFriday). This weekly shoutout has been a tradition on Twitter, and still has some merit. It gives you the chance to acknowledge your valuable and worthy followers, and suggest that others follow them as well.

Because Twitter is such an open forum, you can easily get in touch with thought leaders, other businesses, celebrities and more. You can use this to develop new business leads, get RT’s from industry leaders to gain further reach, and open dialogue to associate your company with others.

For example, if you have written a blog post about a related company, you can send them the link through a mention on Twitter.

7. Use contests and coupons.

Ok, this is where I disclose my bias. Wishpond makes contests, coupons and sweepstakes apps. Social promotions do go a long way in developing emotional bonds with your consumer, as well as getting lots of retweets.

Contests are a fun way to engage your audience and generate buzz about your product. Who doesn’t like to win? And who doesn’t like to share when they’ve won? Contests can create user-generated content for you too. And user-generated content is some of the most shared content. People like to share what they’ve created.

Coupons generate a lot of excitement for your products too. And they are retweeted often to followers and friends. Check out, for example, how @LookoutBlizzard has used our Sweepstakes to generate buzz on Twitter for their new game:

Try out these Twitter tips. You don’t have much to lose, and you may just gain more engaged Twitter followers by doing so.

Krista Bunskoek is a Content Marketer at Wishpond. Wishpond creates social marketing tools tools for business. Their apps work on Twitter, Facebook, websites and mobile. Learn about their social marketing suite.

]]> http://www.nimble.com/blog/7-tips-about-tweeting/feed/ 0 http://www.nimble.com/blog/is-your-company-socialized/ http://www.nimble.com/blog/is-your-company-socialized/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 16:36:07 +0000 Clay Franklin http://www.nimble.com/blog/?p=4132 ]]>

Many companies are still trying to determine the return on investment (ROI) for Social Media activities.  Other companies have embraced it and are even providing customer service with Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites. In my opinion, this service and support engagement on social channels is the next frontier for addressing the needs of your community of raving fans, loyal customers, and disgruntled grumblers — as well as a great place for the occasional promotion.

The Positive Experience: Comcast Does Care!

Take a company like Comcast that was struggling with a less-than-stellar reputation for excellent customer service with email.  They changed the way they handle customer service by using Social Media as a way for people to reach out to them.  Now when I have any issue with my Comcast Internet service I just send a tweet to @ComcastBill.  I will get a response in a short time frame like an hour or the next day depending on the time of day.  I will get assigned to a customer service specialist and get answers to my questions FAST.

Another satisfying customer service experience I had recently was with Yamaha USA Audio products.  I looked at the Yelp reviews for my local service centers and was not thrilled.  So I looked for another way to contact customer service.  I found the Yamaha Facebook page for customer service and submitted a post to the page with my question.  Within 48 hours, I was contacted and assigned a case number.  As it turned out, they offered to pay shipping to the service center for my in-warranty broken receiver.

These are two recent examples of how I have personally used social media to get exceptional customer service from “Big” companies.

Negative Experience: The Local Bike Shop with a Deaf Ear

I bought an expensive road bike from my local bike shop.  I followed them on Twitter and liked their page on Facebook.  I tweeted to them and commented on their Facebook page.  The company did not follow me back on Twitter or even like my comment or posts on their Facebook page.  Ouch. I probably will not pay much attention to their social sites in the future.  It’s not enough just to go through the motions and appear to have a social media presence, you have to actually participate, keep up the dialogue, and make customers feel like part of the brand.  I suggest fast response, follow your followers and like your fans’ comments, posts and pictures.

Best Practices

Whether you’re using social media for engagement or have gone to the next level and are providing customer service via social channels, there are a few important things to remember.

• Listen on all the channels where your customers and prospects live and play

• Follow people and companies on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others

• Interact with fans and followers so they feel recognized and valued

• React quickly to both good news and complaints, with transparency and empathy

• Acknowledge and appreciate you customers. Take opportunities to offer value to existing customers especially. A retained customer is the most valuable of all. (Remember, promotions and contests are a great way to raise interest and gain fans; just keep them relatively rare and always fun!)

A final thought: Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble, talks about the 5 E’s of Social: Educate, Enchant, Engage, Embrace, and Empower. If you connect with your prospects and customers using those ideas, you will build a brand following to be envied.

Is your company Socialized?

See what incredible powers Nimble can give you! Sign up today for a free trial!

Managing your paperwork is a tiresome process for any organization. Here at Nimble we decided to help streamline this and save some trees by using an electronic document system called RightSignature. When you pair up Nimble with RightSignature, documentation is held electronically — from partner documents to employment contracts — and is easily accessible when you need it.

There are a number of solutions available to do this, but we chose RightSignature because they offer a well-designed, easy-to-use solution at a good price. Our team has found it to be a terrific addition; it’s now a snap to relate documents to a Nimble contact.

The two key features offered by this integration are the ability to use your Nimble contacts directly within RightSignature and a view into RightSignature from within Nimble to see the contact’s documents. A full overview is given in this video:

For more information on the RightSignatures integration, see the Nimble FAQ page here. We’ve got many more ways to extend Nimble with powerful add-ons — visit the Nimble Apps Marketplace.

Nimble is the best business relationship  manager on planet Earth. Sign up today!

(click here for larger view)

In the customer lifecycle, the prospective customer begins to become aware and to form a picture of your company — hazy at first, then solidified by what they discover and experience. A lot of the information that customers absorb — and a lot of the opinions that customers form — are in place before any representative of your company has a personal interaction with that prospect.

Awareness Today Is Driven by the Customer’s Social Strategies

Today’s “social prospect” is less interested in print ads, tv spots, and glossy billboards than in peer conversations and reviews, communities, and Google searches. They are having conversations amongst themselves online and in social media.  They ask around or look around at Facebook, Twitter, or on Google+. They order your ebook; they look at discussions on Quora, or in their LinkedIn Groups.  They are making decisions on their own about what they want to buy. They expect to talk to companies on whatever channel they choose — and they expect a relevant conversation.

It’s right here that opportunities abound, and right here that a lot of opportunities are lost. Unless you are listening socially, finding out about your prospects, delving into what questions they need answered, and learning how you can enter the conversation to help and guide them, then they have no reason to value your brand over others.

These early forays into the conversation are a foundation on which to earn their business, an authentic way to build confidence. If you can build trust, allay concerns, and inspire confidence at this stage, then together you can build a mutually beneficial relationship with a sale somewhere along the path.

Broad Strokes of the Awareness Stage:

• Listen

• Ask questions

• Offer unselfish guidance

• Establish credibility

• Be present, consistently

How Nimble Helps:

1. Import prospects and their companies into Nimble

2. Walk through their profile — see them in rich detail (who do they follow, what are they interested in, who follows them) — get to know them

3. Follow your prospects on social channels

4. Research them and their company

5. Politely reach out to connect and engage — and offer assistance, insights, thought leadership

6. Track the relationship and follow up, weigh in, keep connected

7. Use Nimble’s Last Contacted and Recently Contacted features so no relationships slip through the cracks

This is where the personal brand is perhaps most important — in establishing credibility, offering thought leadership, keeping a dynamic connection, and presenting solutions. Sharing commonalities establishes intimacy and trust. Be open, be genuine,  be trustworthy.

Onward Through the Lifecycle

Business is about meeting needs in a professional, scalable manner.Your relationships are a step in the process — the crucial step that keeps the door open. Once that relationship is viable, you can then move forward. When the prospect becomes a customer, you can:

• Manage the implementation of your service or product

• Begin to deepen the relationship

• Educate and train — show that you have the ability to solve their needs

The field is clear at this point to build a sense of community, include customers in an advisory capacity, and build loyalty and trust. This rich soil of satisfaction and mutual respect is the basis of continuing toward advocacy and evangelism, including referrals, cross-promotional activities, and a sense of partnership. The complete cycle can only occur if you are present and active when prospects become aware.

Part 2 will cover how to engage with the New Customer.