If you have one of the 80 million accounts that got upgraded to the new look on February 4th, and are struggling to figure it out, today’s Web 2.0 post will be great for you!

It comes from Nik Nik at MyTechOpinion, called 10 Tips for Getting Reacquainted with Facebook’s New Layout.

If you can’t seem to find ANYTHING, or just feel like you’re missing some of the old navigation links, check out her post. She provides screenshots that make it easy to figure out what’s what.

And if we haven’t connected already, look me up at www.Facebook.com/RichRogala.

Here are a few ideas:

• Put together a list of local contractors (carpenters, plumbers, landscapers, interior decorators, etc.) you know and trust, and who are fairly priced. Send to your list (works even better if you can get coupons from your contractors, who will appreciate the business) with a note about wanting to help keep a few extra dollars in their budget.

• Collect a yearly calendar of fun, free events in your community. Your note can mention that having fun and making memories does not always require money to be spent.

• Create a page on your website with a bunch of YouTube videos showing easy, DIY projects they can do around their home to improve home value, and send the link out via email.

• On the business end of things, think about professional contacts you know that would benefit by being introduced. Then pick up the phone or jump on your email and introduce them. They’ll appreciate it, and remember you for it.

A lot of these might be things they could do on their own, but they’ll appreciate that you took the time to put them all together in one easy place. It shows that you’re thinking of them, and care about them beyond just “making the commission”.

One tool that I used, and recommend a lot here on my blog, is sending unexpected gifts to your clients. Rather than spend my marketing budget on newspaper ads and other things that were industry standard, but didn’t seem to consistently generate business, I spent those dollars on treating past, current and potential clients like gold.

Here is another gift idea that can be used  as a gift for clients that have just closed with you, and is really appreciated: People who buy a home (or sold with you and will most likely be moving into a new home) almost always have the desire to turn this house into a home. Whether they ever decorated or remodeled in a previous house, most unconsciously have big plans for their new home. So a 1 or 2 year subscription gift to a high-quality magazine like Architectural Digest gets them excited.

This does several things:

• You’re surprising them with a gift, so you’re front of mind again
• The gift is related to their home, and offers value by giving them ideas, tips and information they can use for their home
• Most people will put this magazine on their coffee table, where they’ll see and be reminded of you. In fact, if you’re able to get the publisher to put a gift label on the magazines – something like “Compliments of Rich Rogala, Realtor®”, they’re likely to tell their friends and family about you as well.
• Finally, this gift will land in their mailbox every month, and they’ll continuously be reminded of you. If you’re keeping in touch in other ways too, you’re very likely to generate a lot of referrals from this one client, and will be the Realtor® they think of the next time they’re ready to move.

If so, this means that there’s a large group that would probably like to change homes, but have held back because they’re concerned about not getting a price for their home that is high enough to pay off their mortgage, or because they dread the idea of their home languishing on the market for months and months.

But with the new $6500 repeat buyers credit, you have a great reason to contact past clients and see how things have been for them. Since the law requires that they’ve been in their home for at least 5 years, this will be a group that you might not have spoken with much. (Hopefully you have been keeping in touch with them – you’re trying to build a referral based business!) But even if you haven’t, but have been wanting to catch back up with past clients, this is a great “in”.

Be creative, and come up with a catchy brochure or simple letter asking if they’ve been waiting for good news before they start their next home search, then give info on the new tax credit, and have them contact you to receive a Current market analysis of their home, and to learn more about the very affordable homes in their area.

If you don’t have past clients that fit the criteria of 5 years in their home, then talk to current and recent past clients. They can tell their friends about the new tax credit, and mention that you as their Realtor are keeping up to date, and can tell them all about it. Great way to generate referrals!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, 00 repeat buyer credit, real estate referral marketing tips

Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously.

So today’s Web 2.0 Wrap-Up post is from Bill Gassett, Free SEO Through Google Local Business Pages. It’s a great post that offers lots of handy info on using Google Local business pages to improve how often and where you show up in Google’s local listings.

Check it out, and then take advantage of the free tools that Google offers. After all, if you want to be found online, a great place to start is through local listings. And Google gives you lots of tools to help you do just that!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, online real estate marketing coach, local search for real estate agents, SEO for Realtors

My challenge to you is to find a way to use these stories in your marketing that fits your personality.

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This is our house. 24 Maple Drive…I love this house. I love that I taught my kids to ride their bikes in the driveway. I love that I slept with them in tents in the backyard. I love that we carved our initials in the tree out front. This house is warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and looks spectacular with Christmas lights. It’s a great house. I never want to move. But the thing I think I like best about this house are the voices I hear when I walk through the door.

This is my favorite quote from the classic movie, Father of the Bride.  This is the kind of thing that new homeowners imagine when they buy any home.  They may not say it out loud, for fear of sounding corny or unrealistic.  But don’t most of us want the fantasy life that George Banks so lovingly describes in this monologue? 

A home is more than just bricks, hardwood flooring and wall to wall carpeting, a patio and a backyard.  It’s the building blocks of people beginning their lives together and making memories.

The home plays a large part of this movie.  It’s where George Banks played basketball with his daughter in the driveway every night, where his little girl stood in her nightgown and socks at the top of the banister right before she slid down it to fall into her father’s arms, and, eventually, it ends up serving as the setting of his no-longer-little-girl’s wedding reception.

People love to hear about sentimental memories being made in the home.  It makes them believe that good old family values are still alive and well.

With that said, are you staying in contact with your home buyers after that monumental closing?  Do you know about the memories that they are making in their new homes?  Are they hosting family game nights, book club meetings, garage band practices, block parties and/or weddings?

Make it a point to stay in contact with them and find out. It would be the perfect feature to post on your website.  You could call it Home-Made Memories.  Have them send you a picture and tell a story. Or if you want to go all out, you can dedicate a whole blog to your happy clients.

To get an idea, take a look at this blog.  It’s about a young couple starting their life in their new home.  You can follow them as they go through the trials and tribulations of fixing up their 53 year-old home and throwing the cutest DIY backyard wedding you’ve ever seen.  There are a ton of other blogs out there like this one.  New homeowners love to talk about their home.  Why not let them use you as their outlet to do it?

People will love to see concrete evidence of happy homeowners that were made possible by you, their trusted advisor, friend and real estate agent.

After all, who doesn’t like to see that sappy home memories can happen in real life too?  Have your Real Estate Virtual Assistant setup a page on your website to dedicate to your Home-Made Memories or have them put together a special blog post for each client’s special memory. 

Your clients will appreciate your extra efforts and they’ll be sure to give out your name and give you their repeat business!

Best wishes!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, Real Support, real estate marketing tips

However, e-signatures are growing in popularity. Today’s weekend web 2.0 wrap-up is a blog post from a company called DocuSign, eSignatures: Your most asked questions – Answered!

If you’re tired of faxing or mailing forms, only to have your client miss a spot for their signature, check it out. This post gives you lots of good information on how e-signatures work, as well as integrating this system into the way you currently work with clients. Another good post from more, more on integration, is 3 Common Questions About electronic signatures.

If you’re already using a service like this, how are your clients responding to it? Do they notice? Do they like it and find it easy to use? Please share!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, online real estate marketing coach, how to use e-signatures in real estate

AnnounceMyMove is a complete Social Networking and Viral Marketing tool that introduces an agent to their client’s contacts and helps them reconnect with past clients and prospects in a personal way.  Using a simple questionnaire, an agent creates a custom web-based announcement for their listing, open house, client move, and more.

Client Connections – connect with your client’s social network
How would you like to be introduced to your client’s friends and family with each transaction you complete?  Now you can!  Using a simple questionnaire, each announcement you create for your client can be personalized by them!  This personal touch to the marketing messages is what separates AnnounceMyMove from other online marketing programs, such as e-flyers and printed postcards.

As your client sends their announcements to their social network, you are introduced to a group of people you would normally never get to meet! When a friend gets an email from a friend, they open it. It’s like getting a personal endorsement from the client without asking for it!  Best of all, email can easily be forwarded from your client to their friends… and from those friends off to many others, making AnnounceMyMove a powerful Viral Marketing tool.   Your clients use their own personal email system.  You DO NOT collect or upload email addresses.  AnnounceMyMove protects your client’s privacy.  The announcements are sent by your client as “peer-to-peer” emails, so there is no violation of CAN-SPAM or Privacy Laws.  Every announcement is a “touch point” which gets your client talking about YOU.

I haven’t used them, but have run across a few agents that do, and are fans of the service. Some of the things I like about the idea are:

• It’s a great endorsement of you, and can naturally generate referrals
• Takes advantage of the surge in the popularity of social networks, and the connections your clients have there
• It’s a great way to stand out! By providing this service to your client, you help them spread the news of their move. Saves them time and is very convenient.

So check them out, and see what you think! I’d also love to hear from anyone who has used them.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, online real estate marketing tips, AnnounceMyMove.com

Why not put together a Community Holiday Events calendar to send to your email list, host on your website, and mail out?

As a Realtor, you’re in the unique position to know about a lot more of the local community events than the average resident. So share that knowledge! Your readers will appreciate it. At the holidays, many people would like to do more activities with friends and family, but are so busy that they simply don’t have the time to go looking for events to attend.

This also gives you a great source of ideas for blog posts through December. As I mentioned in a recent post, blogging about local events is a good way to get found in the search engines, as often, the event host or organizer doesn’t do a very good job of optimizing their webpage for search engines.

In your calendar, you could even let your readers know that they can check your blog regularly for full details on lots of the events from the calendar. Now you’ve created a targeted item for your newsletter, generated a whole bunch of blog post ideas, and increased traffic to your website. Happy Holidays to you!

Think about partnering with a local Home Stager (who also specializes in Home “Redesign” or Redecorating), and offering coupons for a Holiday Home Redesign. This is a great gift, as people get so busy at the holidays, it can be difficult to find the time to decorate their own home, or just want a new look without too much effort on their own part.

By partnering with one particular Stager, you will often be able to get a nice discount for your client base, as the Stager gets exposure to your entire list. And you might be able to work out an even better deal if you purchase a few packages at full price – maybe as a gift for the Buyers or Sellers you’re working with currently. Imagine getting a Holiday Home Redesign right as you were dealing with the stress of buying or selling your home – that would certainly brighten your holidays, wouldn’t it?

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, holiday real estate gift ideas