Yesterday, I read this message from Chris Smith about Facebook’s plans to roll out one-to-one email capability for Facebook Fan Pages.

“Just Announced via Mari Smith: Facebook will begin to allow one to one messages to be sent from a Facebook Business Page to anyone who Likes the page. So for example, if you have 1,000 fans you could technically now email them via Facebook. This is monumental in my opinion as most people did not Like Pages knowing they would get messages from them, even one to one messages. Will this cause a mass unliking of Pages that suck? You betcha! Could even cause anyone on the fence to completely leave Facebook all together. I know their are Pages I liked years ago that if I now started getting emails from them I would be very upset. How do you all feel about this it literally just broke?”

So what this means is that you will soon be able to connect with your Fans via email, which is great news for Facebook Page Admins who are also good at marketing because it provides another way to connect with your fans.

But, WARNING: it’s also a Kamakazi (Crash & Burn) Marketing Tool for admins who think it’s a great idea to start spamming fans with poorly thought out email notifications.

Personally, I really like the idea that it will enable my FB fans to email me if they want to ask me a question privately rather than posting a comment publicly on my wall.

Plus, maybe (just maybe) send a Thank You message to each new fan for joining in individually (BUT even the message within that email would need to be very carefully constructed because it’s normally so early within the relationship).

This new functionality could also provide an opportunity for FB Fan Page admins to individually notify competition winners and/or notify existing fans that they are in the running to win any new competitions (as a Value-Add) that the Page administrator may be conducting from time to time in an effort to entice more NEW fans to join their page.

Beyond that, at this stage I can’t see any other instance where I’d use this functionality personally…BUT I know for sure that some Facebook Fan Page Admins are going to misuse this new function and stuff up big time.

I think this is great for individuals or businesses using Facebook Fan Pages but be warned…if placed into the wrong hands or misused, it could dissolve your Facebook fan base very quickly.

Interested to hear what the B2 community thinks about this latest update on Facebook?

There are already plenty of blog posts about the topic (including some excellent posts on Business2). And, there are already plenty of rhymes. But, until now, there has never been a rhyming social media blog post. (as far as I know)

It is, therefore, my distinct pleasure to introduce to you this world’s first–in its global premiere.

World’s First Rhyming Social Media Blog Post

“Social media, should I use you?”
That is my query.
Tumblr. Twitter. Facebook.
“YES!” is my theory. (1)

On this climb start many.
Many give up.
If I paid you a penny,
would you Tweet me to the top? (2)

They say to study others,
Learn from the barely surviving.
So your tail is well covered,
Put in toe before diving. (3)

You must talk, talk, talk, talk.
It’s 24/7.
Cluetrains don’t stop,
Even if a rest would be heaven. (4)

What’s cheap is expensive,
When you’re paying in blood.
Not to cause apprehension,
Customers can now make your name mud. (5)

Follow the lessons Gary has given.
Go online with compassion,
And up, up, up sales will be driven. (6)

This is really just for fun, and I’m no poet. It does, however, point to some truths. Below, I give a little more information about each verse.

Verse (1)
For 100 years or more, traditional media let businesses broadcast messages in one direction. Social media let us start two-way conversations.

Many people in real estate already understand how this will change their business. For example, I am doing some consulting work with LJ Hooker, and I have been impressed by the excellent social media training they offer their network. I’d be interested to hear what other agencies are doing, as well.

Verse (2)

Lots of people have tried social media marketing. A Burson-Marstellar study of 20 excellent corporate brands found this:

“A large number of companies have dipped a toe in the social media arena without following through. The study revealed a lot of inactive accounts, which could suggest ad-hoc efforts with no clear strategy for online stakeholder engagement.”

Many people who try and then give up blame the medium, and say social media is too immature to be useful. That’s like saying a trumpet is broken because the first 100 people who pick it up suck, as Gary Vaynerchuck wrote in The Thank You Economy.

Luckily for you, you have the world’s first ever rhyming social media blog post and Business2, the world’s best real estate blog, to help you figure it out. Nothing can stop you now!

Verse (3)

It pays to learn from the mistakes of those who have blown it. Take the same precaution with your social media strategy that you would before jumping into a swimming pool: dip your toe in first.

Start small, test the waters, and learn to swim. Then begin to take on bigger challenges.

Verse (4)
Social media look cheap, but they take their payment in blood.

Opening a Twitter account is as easy as checking your email. But, it’s a bit like hiding inside of a refrigerator. It’s easy to get in, but once the door closes, you can’t get back out.

To use social media productively takes a lot of time and dedication. It will probably also require some changes to your business that go beyond adding your Twitter account to your business card.

But, yes. It will be worth it.
Verses (5) and (6)
Word of mouth today has much more power than before social media. Tools like Facebook and Twitter give your customers the ability to say things about your brand persuasively and to a huge audience. Before, it was limited to the people they could conceivably talk to, email or call on the phone in a day.

Overwhelm them with kindness and excellent customer service, and they will become loyal fans and customers. Give them crap service, and they will make your name mud.

The Gary I mention in verse (6) is Gary Vaynerchuck, founder of tv.winelibrary.com and author of the The Thank You Economy. You could write a book about this topic, but he’s much smarter than I and has already done it. It’s the book about social media I have liked best.

For now, I hope you enjoyed this rhyming blog post as a bit of fun.

PS: Some real experts regularly read and contribute to this blog. If you have any social media questions, I’m sure they or I would be happy to respond below in the comments field.

If you have a Google Apps Account and you understand how to administer this account you can now enable Google Plus for Google Apps for each of the users in your organisation and they in turn can now finally have a Google Plus Profile.

Note: If you are logged into your Google Apps GMail click on Manage Account (should be top right)

A Note on Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages are terrible, admittedly they are getting better. As a company we have invested a considerable sum in building applications for pages with some success, but it is a hard road and the rules governing these developments can be quite limited, with changes looming, it may get better for developers, but for business without integrated apps it can still be a very manual – time consuming affair.

Google Plus for Business

Yes, you will need to be on this site and yes Google Plus for Business (pages, brands) will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Here are some things you will need to know.

Google Apps Users will get Special Treatment
If you are a power user or you want to be a power user you should already be using Google Places, Google Reader (you site must have rss feeds), Google Webmaster, Google Analytics, Google Calendar and possibly even Feedburner. If you have a Google Account you can sign into that account to get access to all of these services (after sign-in)

The above have little to do with what you can accomplish with Google Plus but they definitely will make life easier once Google Business Pages rolls out.

Google Plus Company Pages

Looking through the Google Plus source we can definitely see what is on the horizon and most of this is pretty cool indeed and will have Facebook rolling out updates (finally) for Facebook pages.

Google Meeting
Like Hangouts, but for business, Google Meeting will allow you to organise, record and store, phone, text and video meetings with groups of up to 10 people. Attendees will be able to be invited via Google Calendar, GMail and Google Chat. The possibilities with this will be pretty cool for people to collaborate and share information on projects and the like.

Google Screencasts
You will be able to record screens and share them with people within this meeting, you will possibly be able to create notes whilst you record your screen on the screen and archive all of these within a screencast.

Google WhiteBoard
Google Whiteboard is a document style process where users can collaborate on documents, share them amongst users and then post them via email.

Google Location
This one is a wild guess, but looking at the code, it seems that you can also track people within an organisation (users must opt in) to see where they are currently located on a map.

My feeling is business pages will take over Google Sites, which is very underwhelming, this would mean users can create multiple business pages and create circles for those pages.

All in all Google Plus is building into a substantial success for Google and my belief with Google Company Pages being released shortly it is going to cause some headaches for Facebook. Better yet, we will all benefit from the competition as more and more features are rolled out. Competition – don’t you just love it.

How to get Shortcut (Vanity URL)

www.Gplus.to allows this. This nifty little app lets you create a short URL for your Google+ page, making it easier to share with your friends. As an example, is Gplus.to/peterricci , is much easier to remember instead of digits e.g http://plus.google.com/117489371829741156604

Updated

Google Plus for Business is now released in a basic form, so you can now create pages for Google+ Brands

Here is the official Google Blog Post
People + pages, better together
Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.

For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.

For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you’ll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.

A number of pages are already available (see below), but any organization will soon be able to join the community at plus.google.com/pages/create.

• Anderson Cooper 360
• H&M
• Pepsi
• Business2

Direct Connect from Google search
People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they’re looking for businesses and brands. Today’s launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we’re rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.

Maybe you’re watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy—even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you’re interested in (like +Angry Birds). We’ll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we’ll add them to your circles.

Direct Connect works for a limited number of pages today (like +Google, +Pepsi, and +Toyota), but many more are coming. In the meantime, organizations can learn more about Direct Connect in our Help Center.

I have just created my Google Apps Plus Account. You can add me here

At the recent F8 Conference Facebook revealed a new look at some new features to the world. The changes it brings in makes your profile look a little more snazzy and you can have a nice big header image. These new features will be rolled out over the coming weeks. As a Facebook developer (anyone can be one), I was able to get into the new feature immediately and take it for a test drive.

As mentioned in an earlier article, the point of a little competition driving innovation and regular updates shows us again that in every sector of life and business – competition is the key and Google Plus has certainly drivin Facebook to get off their backsides and provide many updates people have been screaming about for years.

Here are some of the new features:

Header Image
The first thing everyone will notice is you have control over what you profile will look like by managing and editing the main image header. I like this, it gives your profile a new personal look and feel.

Hide Updates by Third Party Apps
The worst feature of Facebook, is that when you like a celebrity or a page your newsfeed is then filled with junk mail and posts from these third party apps. So if you don’t want to see these or are tired of people who feed their twitter tweets in as Facebook updates you can get rid of them immediately! If you are viewing your newsfeed and see that an update is from an app you can click on the dropdown arrow next to the update and select the Hide All by fillthisspace. Nice!

Custom Lists
You can now sort your feeds into Custom Lists, Family, Friends, Wannabees etc. You can create a custom list and add it to your favorites and then click on those lists to get that lists news feed. It would be nice if you could make one of these your default news feed though!

Privacy Overhaul
Firstly, everything you do, forever and ever, is saved on Facebook. If you use Facebook, you must understand this. If you haven’t looked at this already, you should. Go to your Privacy Settings, and Edit Settings for How Tags Work. Turn on Profile Review and Tag Review.

You can review your tags, by visiting your profile page and, under Wall, you will see an option for Needs Review. You can then click on this to see any posts, photos, and other requests that need your approval.

Facebook is making you do the work with privacy, so you cannot complain (in their eyes) if people see things you do not want them to see.

Timeline Profile
As you can see from my screen capture your new Facebook profile features a timeline of you and your profiles events by year and month. A little creepy if you share life’s intimate secrets, like how many times you are in and out of a relationship etc, who has friended and unfriended you and when (ouch).

There are also more options for events in your life like relationships, children and the like. I prefer to keep all of this pretty private, but some people just love telling us these things. So for those of you who want to share life’s events in gory detail here are some other options. You can also create your own!

Other examples include:

• Got Engaged
• Got Married
• Add a Child
• Add a Pet
• Add a Job
• Graduated
• Military Service
• Moved
• Bought a Home
• Add a Roommate
• Add a Vehicle
• Broke a Bone
• Had Surgery
• Overcame an Illness
• Learned a Language
• Got a License
• Traveled
• Achievement or Award

To me most of these options are welcomed, but beware this is all recorded, so share what you want, but keep in mind it is forever As for business pages, it seems they are still being left a little behind, but you can be sure

Download Timeline PDF File

Over the past year or so we have seen the rise of Real Estate Agents using Facebook to promote their business or personal profile. The best of you continually add informative and fun content to your page and have seen a steady rise in fans. But there is a disturbing trend to this and this shows complete mis-understanding of how to market yourself online.

If you are a real estate agent who has a page on Facebook and you are reading this, I am going to give you some advice, and some of this will hurt a little, but here goes.

Preaching to the converted

Let us say you have a fan page on Facebook and you update this page daily, you deserve a pat on the back and get one social strategy point, however if you have a website and do not do the same, you lose that point, why? Because you are preaching to the converted on Facebook, they are already a fan. Your first strategy should always be on your own website, this is where the whole world is waiting to connect with you and my guess is that your advice is not the most amazing real estate advice on the planet, where all of your fans spread your word and get other people to join (this is the holy grail of social marketing). The only true way to build your Facebook page is through your own business or personal websites blog and then to select appropriate articles to post onto your Facebook page.

Rachelle Hirt Real Estate Agent Miami Beach Florida

We recently built a site for a local agent in Miami, Florida. Her name is Rachelle Hirt and she wanted a site to market celebrity style homes in and around the Miami area. She has only just started, but she has the right strategy and will learn quickly from any mistakes she makes, but off the bat, she has the right strategy.

Her Facebook Page is here (you must be logged into Facebook) and I advise to follow her, just to see what she does and the content she publishes on both her website and Facebook Page.

Her site is fun and bright and she posts regularly and doesn’t push everything to her Facebook page, she selectively chooses what to post and push.

Note: The website cost just over $1,500 including theme, setup and design elements. Talk to your web developer about doing the same.

Different strokes for different sites

Another thing you must understand is content, if the only thing you post are ‘amazing new homes’, ‘get in quick’ and feel good market news, then you lose another point. The one true reason people will choose you to sell their home, is that they see you understand the local market, you understand technology, they trust you and most of all they like you.

Understanding the local market
Post local sales information and try to break it down as best as possible by property type, bedrooms etc. The more it relates to people the more they will trust that you understand the local market, Talk about property types that are selling well and ones that are not, give people advice on how to get their homes ready for a sale, smart renovation techniques that buyers are looking for. You understanding the local market gets your foot in the door.

One thing to avoid is ideology posts or comments, unless your market is mainly conservative or progressive, do not risk it. Stay away from horoscopes, and religion too. In most cases these only impress the minority, and just alienate the rest.

Understanding Technology
If you think it is cute to tell your potential vendors that you are a technophobe, then get with the program, you are and will be left behind. You dont need to know quantum physics to understand how a browsers works or how to resize an image, there is a world of information online that can help you to better understand the business you are in and the technology that you use. Spend some time online learning how to get the most out of your web browser, mobile phone, tablet device and computer. Understanding and possibly helping vendors out will impress them in more ways than you think. This is your business now, get it!

Trusting you
Start being honest on your website and Facebook page, display content that helps and hinders you, good or bad, thin or flush, this content makes a trust difference between you and your competitors.

You as a consumer would know that good advice is brutally honest advice. If you believe it when the salesperson tells you every dress you try on you look fabulous in or that Donald Duck tie you wear to work makes you look windswept and interesting then you are naive and in the case of the donald duck tie – an idiot

But tell me, how many vendors are easy these days? Very few! In most cases vendors are well armed with a good dose of information and an equal distribution of mis-information. You need to be honest and tell them what will work for them and what will not. You need to also post information on your website and Facebook profile that works against you selling more homes and always make a corresponding comment with bad news.

This comment should not be that you always disagree and why (you must always give a valid reason to disagree), but should be informative and sometimes brutally bad for your own motives.

Liking you
You are awesome right? You mum and dad thinks the world of you, you can do no wrong, in fact you dream of receiving the greatest person of the year award each year. Here is one lesson you must learn when publishing to any website or social media platform. People love self deprecating humor, it gives you a human side to your electronic life. For me, luckily it comes naturally. There are two types of self deprecating humor, the first is first person and this is where you let people know your stuff ups and remind them of this on occasions in the future.

Some of the readers may remember when I got ‘done’ big time years ago by a member on this site on April Fools Day. My default position was to try to repair the embarrassment, but I learned a long time ago (2001 to be precise) – this only makes things worse, so I embraced the fact that I got caught out and just went with it. The lesson from this is always to distrust your own motives and just let the world know that sometimes you stuff up.

The second variety of self deprecating humor and a great example of this type of person is Sam Newman. Yes, there are people that dislike him (most of whom rarely watch or engage with him), but overwhelmingly he is liked.

Sam Newman says some of the most ridiculous offensive things and should be “banged to right” on occasions, but one thing he does magnificently, is when someone makes fun of him and his positions, he laughs, he doesn’t fight back, he doesn’t get angry or show negative emotions, he laughs at himself!

So when people make a comment on your website or social profile (that is not overly abusive) display it publicly, laugh it off, or at least explain why you do not agree. If you are one of these people that blocks or deletes negative comments then you are already a failure and need to get over yourself or your business.

Finally, enjoy your social profile, don’t treat it too seriously, make sure you mix the informative with the fun.

Different Content – Different mediums

Your final strategy should be to not always post information to both mediums (blog and social) keep the mix a little different, otherwise why would they follow you on both your website and social platform? Keep the social posts a little more fun with articles from across the spectrum, if you do post funny stuff, make sure it will appeal and not offend (you can save the offensive for direct messages on Twitter – Anthony Wiener tells me it is very hard to get caught out with this strategy).

So post regularly and make 100% sure your website blog is the king when it comes to your marketing strategy! Make sure your title of your post is informative and describes exactly what the article is about, this is important for subscribers as they scan for articles that interest them.

Titles are everything

Given that we use technology differently today than we did even a year ago, speaks volumes in how we must communicate effectively. Today we are overloaded with so much information, that we care more about the time it takes to scan and read, be it your Facebook News Feed or your blog Feed, titles are everything and if you use Facebook, you should already know this. I cannot emphasize how important titles are. Here is good and poor example.

Poor: Property prices continue to rise. Comment:For who, for what? This is not personal or direct at all.
Good: Mosman, Neutral Bay Sydney see steady rise in apartment sales. Comment:This is going to appeal to homeowners or potential buyers in this area. It mentions location and property type.

How to get the ideas and motivation for writing articles

I use Google Reader (help here) to subscribe to hundreds of different websites. I create folders for these subscriptions. Here are some examples of these folders. Apps, Client, Company, Design, Style, Real Estate News, Technology, WordPress, Social, Travel.

Everyday hundreds of new articles from all of the sites I subscribe to come into my reader. I do not need to waste time jumping to each article. I scan them for ones that interest me and this is usually in the title. Sometimes I write an article about this news, sometimes it inspires me to write something else. The great thing about Google Reader is that it saves me so much time and if you organise it well, it can also save you money (daily deals etc).

If you havent got Google Reader (or similar) then you are missing out on a great little program.

Footnote: One thing that always amuses me is friends on Facebook who ‘accidentally’ click on what is obviously adult spam on Facebook. These are little posts on your news feed with images that have titles that are of the erotic nature, that one of your friends ‘accidentally’ clicked on.

What is more amazing, is that they do not know how to delete this immediately and leave it for me to ponder why this married man (or woman) of three is doing looking at this stuff anyway. Human nature is a wonderful thing isn’t it

Facebook currently has over 500,000,000 users, yes that’s 500 million! An almost unbelievable statistic, coupled with the fact that most users are active it is an Internet behemoth and will almost certainly be a very profitable machine.

Twitter has fewer active users but their figures are also very impressive with a user base of around 200 million.

Both of these platforms outshine even online newspapers for breaking news and events to family and friends, so much so that online newspapers are actually becoming slightly less relevant than they were just a few years ago. You only have to take the recent Osama Bin Laden death to know that most of us get a lot of our news directly from our online networks on both of these platforms.

Creativity Vacuum

Where I think Twitter and Facebook fail is in their business models. The current thinking (or lack thereof) is that build up users and then start displaying advertising from 3rd parties amongst the content on various pages.

Google was the first large Internet player to do this successfully and have reaped billions and billions of dollars in advertising revenue on this model and will continue to do so. Why this is successful is very simple, users search for information and Google displays as close to relevant information back to the user as their algorithms allow.

Newspapers do the same thing, they attract visitors to their websites and then display advertising amongst and over (annoying their users) content and generate most of their online revenue from doing so.

This model is a problem for Twitter and Facebook and Online Newspapers because users do not use or behave the same way on these sites as they do on Google and other search and retrieve related entities. We use Twitter and Facebook to inform others on what we are thinking, what we are doing and where we are going, we gather news from Online Newspapers to share ones that interest us to our networks or to keep ourselves up to date. In short we generally have conversations on Facebook and Twitter and we use newspapers to gather information on the days events.

What is needed from these entities is a creativity revolution, one that value adds the offerings to those of us that want to become power users.

Online Newspapers

I am going to use the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Newspapers as these are clearly the best newspapers in Australia. Each day I visit both of these websites to read up on news and events and each day I try to avoid any annoying ads across these sites.

What if I became a member of either of these websites? I really get nothing in return, making the added value proposition worthless. However what if the hierarchy thought a little differently about their business model.

What if for say $100 per annum, I could get an enhanced mobile version for both my smartphone and my Android or iPad tablet? What if my membership included the ability to sell my unwanted sofa quickly and easily? What if I could sell my car, engage a real estate agent, advertise open positions at my company? What if all of this was included in one simple interface and for one simple price? I don’t know about you, but I would pay this money without a second thought. Why? Because I trust the company, I know they have the biggest user base and I know I have one place to go to do all of these if and when I choose!

Facebook

If you read the above with interest, could you imagine if Facebook did the same? This would send shivers up the spine of any newspaper across the globe, simply because newspapers have lost control of their users and have been slow to innovate. Facebook could very easily do the same thing and to be honest, I think they would win this battle. Facebook currently has the dumbest advertising platform of all of these entities combined.

As an example if you ever had the miserable pleasure of adding some of your favourite movies, books or music to your profile you will immediately notice your Facebook wall being filled up with junk advertising from related advertisers. They must have been up all night thinking about that one – pathetic!

Facebook is so bad with their business model that it only serves to annoy their base and this is a true crime in the online world and may someday open themselves up to competitors. It also will cost them billions in the long term as users will simply change their behavior.

Facebook should also offer an enhanced version one with stronger privacy cooler profiles and a tranche of new offerings including the above, classifieds, cars, jobs and houses. I should also want to store with the options to share HD Videos, HD Photography and enhanced mobile versions all for a simple annual fee.

Twitter

Twitter worries me, it is no longer a must-be destination for the average Joe consumer or small business. It is slowing down dramatically and may only useful in the future for disseminating news and events. Sure it is still relevant but it maybe just a niche player in a few years.

For the power user it still offers some great insights and I do get great information, but more so from a select group of people I follow.

Summary

In summary I think the advertising model is flawed across Online Newspapers, Facebook and Twitter and needs some real creativity. I am convinced the model of the future for sites that have massive user bases is enhanced offerings all paid for with one simple annual fee.

The need to leverage social media for a real estate agency is really a no-brainer these days. In 2011 Facebook is one of the easiest ways to connect with clients, potential clients and the community.

Unfortunately many agencies have failed to setup their business correctly. Businesses really need to be setup as a Business Page, not a personal profile and your choice can hamper its effectiveness.

There are many reasons why your agency should be represented by a Business Page not a personal profile but here are a few..

1/ Facebook Can Delete Your Business Account if its created as a Personal Profile

Facebook states that maintaining a profile for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

They also state that If you don’t convert your profile to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the profile and all of your content.  You have been warned!

There has been one report of a Victorian agent having their substantial account deleted because they did  not follow this rule.  As that agency found out if your business’ profile gets shut down by Facebook for violating this rule, your friends list will vanish with it. All your hardwork is gone and there is no way back.

2/ Personal Profiles are limited to 5000 pages

Now there are not too many agencies out there with thousands of fans but in a few years time this will become more and more common.  Personal Profiles are hard limited to 5000 friends but Business Pages have have as many fans as you want.

3/ Business Pages get widgets, visitor stats and demographics and adverts.

Facebook Insights allows you to view alot of information about about the  user activity on your page. This is not just visitor analytics but also the demographic break-downs of your visitors, all of which is not available to individual profiles.

Facebook also offers a range of widgets for businesses to integrate into their websites driving more fans business page. The latest Opengraph widgets rolled our recently convert at much higher rates which means that those who use a Personal Profile for their business are missing out on a huge avenue to grow their audience on Facebook.

4/ Better Design and Feature Set for Businesses

Facebook pages have recently undertaken a number of overhauls and more are planned for the future.  You can now navigate and interact with other areas of Facebook as your Page such as like and comment on other Pages as your Page.

Till recently those who used a Personal Profile for their business were stuck  as the conversion process to a business pages was complex involving manually inviting all your friends to become fans.

Facebook has now created a conversion tool to allow you to convert a Personal Profile to a Business Page.

This is great news for people who incorrectly setup a personal page as a business page.  If you don’t convert your profile to a page you will run the risk of permanently losing access to the profile, all friends/fans and all other associated content.

To convert your personal profile first read everything on this help center page http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18918.

This page also provides you the necessary link to start the migration process.

I went to the year 2023 to check out the Real Estate Industry.

The web landscape is vastly different since Facebook was completely taken over by “BrainWave”, the portal of choice by over 7 billion minds.

Some say it was the” Pineal Search System” that defined its success. The “Accessible Imaginator” on the 2016 released “I Wallet” had taken touch to a whole new dimension.

Most didn’t like it at first. Imagine attaching a bug to your forehead. In India, there were cries of blasphemy, but it was taken up readily when the Krishna App came out, that saw a new surge in spirituality around the globe. Besides, unlike “The Chip” that never really found its way, the “Accesible Imaginator Bug” could be removed anytime. (most left it on, however, when they realized the system actually could work independently of any other hardware, incuding the “I Wallet”)

Google had been dead for 3 years now. They didn’t see the Facebook Revolution for all it could do and by the time they had reorganised there Social Function and gained the trust back after their disastrous “WE.KUBTU” experiment (We Know You Better than You) in 2015, Facebook had filled the gaps.

But “BrainWave” combined with the “I Wallet” had applications that released humanity from the boredom of constructing questions. Subliminal thought patterns could now be deconstructed before the user even knew what they were thinking. “Pre-thought” was the new catchcry amongst developers. The thing about “Pre-thought” is that takes the query the user never even knew they had. Never knew they had, because of ego restraints and constant bombardment of outside desire marketing.

(By the way-Nobody ever found out who actually developed the Brainwave software coding.)

The big winners have been the little guys. The ones with the products that they always believed in based on their own needs, regardless of reward. The ones with the epiphanies, that stuck to their guns and didn’t produce based on the desires of Humanity and the short term reward market, but the needs of the soul.

Nobody fought harder than the Material Wealth Industries. Marketing campaigns based on desire and materialism fell down like tin soldiers. Boards were sacked that didn’t embrace the change. Changes were made. Industry had to find its soul.

Funnily enough, The Real Estate Industry, after an initial mass panic and implosion of self pity and outward attack on the new landscape, actually benefitted the most from the paradigm shift.

Like the Food Industry, Natural of course, and the Love Philosophies, Real Estate found that it could align itself perfectly in the new dimension of Pre thought search. Humanity craved places; shelter within community, life changes with meaning and locations for living, their souls searched for. New Pre Thought portals like Deep Genetic Root Location Search, and Dream Life Niche Home Finder took off. Real Estate Agents became, quite literally, life changers.

Footnote from 2035…
The world doesn’t look like it will be the same again. The internet is reportedly going to officially die in three years, as users have found that not only can they work with the bugs linking multiple minds together, independent of the web, but some are even now beginning to see without the Accessible Imagintor Bugs.
The circle is nearly complete some say…

Disclaimer: Of course this is pure fiction…of course !

ANZ Bank has fired back with their own Real Estate iPhone Application,, the ANZ Property Tracker – and it is proving to be quite popular. It looks very pretty – which you would expect from a bank with a little spare change and it plays quite nice. You can view it here and download it immediately from your ITunes Application of iPhone.

Just by following us here at Business2.com.au you will have noticed that all the major banks are getting in on the iPhone Real Estate App Marketplace and for good reason, research indicates that this is where young people get their information – although most young people do not have the money to buy a house, they can now have an app to find that house they can’t afford!

Some nifty little features of the ANZ Property Tracker are:

• Get the last sales price of properties for free (not sure for how long), but this is a pretty good reason in itself.
• It allows users to share properties of interest with family and friends via Twitter or Facebook
• There is also a diary function for organising open for inspections, auction dates – times, and providing reminder alerts.

Would be great to have a schedule for those days of house hunting that allowed a user to plan their day on a Google Map, possibly by integrating with a calendar.

All in all a solid start from ANZ bank

During the recent UK general election (American friends of mine were amazed at how quickly it was over, English friends bemoaned how it dragged on for weeks), I read a Guardian blog post which berated parties of all hues (“tribes”). The writer loathed one tribe, but was saddened how his own tribe had left him, and he wasn’t really interested in the third one either. Hence the inconclusive result I suppose.

And so it got me pondering the state of how we get our information these days, and how quickly media has changed. The blog itself is something I would never had read without the advent of the internet (itself only a 20 year old invention). By the time I read it, it had already attracted 50 comments.

On election night (morning in Australia), I found myself searching #ukelection and #ge2010 twitter themes to read what people were saying as the results came pouring in. Most of them were watching the same telecast I was half a world away (I found the BBC player online somewhere which had been blocked on the official BBC web site). They were reacting to the same commentators and politicians pontificating in front of us, which we were all viewing in real time. Yet, it was these live twitter comments and reactions which drew me in. They had far more validity and were much more entertaining and “real” somehow. They were from people who I did not know and would never meet, but whose opinion had more power and meaning than the pollie spruikers set up in adversarial mode by an aggressive media front man bating them into actually saying something.

Opinions poured forth over the twittersphere – every minute I could refresh the screen to read dozens more updated “tweets” (those 140 character short messages served up by twitter users).

I turned to an ex school friend of mine (a passionate Liberal Democrat and someone I’d not physically met in 30 years and only recently got back in touch with thanks to Facebook) and discussed the outcome with him and his ‘friends’ (we have only one in common, another ex school friend I’ve not seen in 3 decades).

As we collate information (on anything) directly from the sources of individuals whose opinions are as good as anyone else’s ‘in the media’, so we are simply returning to our tribal roots. It’s where we all came from (and still are really) – learning, teaching and sharing.

Of course, this is devastating news for traditional media who have much invested in their print presses, TV and radio stations. Over the past 100 years (a miniscule time frame in the grand scheme of things) they have informed us on what they believe we want to hear, read and view, and when we can get that information too. Our grand children (and maybe our children) will think it quite twee that we all once sat down together with our families at the predetermined time to watch TV programmes (I remember what an ‘event’ the 6pm nightly news was every night in our household in the 1970s). Those days are over.

If someone wants real information on property, who better to tell you than your knowledgeable local ‘tribe’ member? The person selling real estate who lives around the corner from you, the property manager who’s seen everything a thousand times and in a patient manner organizes the leaky gutters to be fixed for the hundredth time. They are the experts, and they ‘know local’ like no one else. 20% of those looking for rental properties in Australia search rentals on twitter. Of the 7 million Australians on Facebook, half tune in every day, and more are aged over 40 than under 20.

If you’re not there, you cannot be noticed or listened to. In this way, twitter, facebook, blogs and the like are merely tools of communication. No silver bullets. No one can give you the scripts and dialogues, but if you view this all in the right manner, you’ll know what to say when the time comes. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll learn it by doing (and listening). Join the conversation. We like to pass on interesting snippets, we like to help, we are good people. It’s tribal, it’s in our nature, it’s who we are.

Photo Credit: Maasai Tribal Dance