Ribeezie: Social Media Business Strategy for Real Estate & Small Business

Get Your Entries In for the Social Media Blog Carnival!

What is it? 

The Social Media Blog Carnival is a weekly online event wherein people submit and nominate great articles from around the web; articles about Social Media, New Media Practices, Theory and Statistics, etc. You're not restricted by any one particular niche, so long as you effectively describe how social media is being used in your specific industry, you're good to go! Also, the use of video and audio is highly encouraged!

Who does the judging? 

Sorry but I'm not a liberty to disclose such information. In the past, judges have been bribed and in order to keep the contest as fair as possible, we're keeping their information private. What I CAN share with you is a bit about the criteria for selecting the winner...the point system looks somethin' like this: 

This upcoming week, I'll be selecting...I mean, a secret panel of judges will be selecting one winner as "The Best of the Best" and nine other entries will be featured. 

So what are you waiting for? 

A ton of entries have been submitted already! If you want to submit one of your top social media posts for consideration, submitting an entry is super easy... Click here to submit your entry for consideration on the next blog carnival which debuts here on Monday July 6th.

Again, to submit an entry for the Social Media Blog Carnival on July 6th, simple click here: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_3724.html 

Is there a deadline? 

You betcha! Since the Social Media Blog Carnival debuts on July 6th, the submission deadline is tomorrow, Sunday July 5th at 6:00pm CST. Which means you'd better get on it! Dig through your posts and submit your best entries for the Social Media Blog Carnival! There's a lot of stuff in already, so get creative (think multi-media, you know...video and audio!). 

Good luck!

P.S. If you're going to try and bribe me, I really want these books... 

• Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk   

• Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith  

I Don't Know Who You Are!

There's always someone around the web trying to sell you something. But before you try to sellme anything, give me some back-story. If I don't know who you are... If I can't find you online... Don't bother trying to sell me anything! 

Win A Free Pass to Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2009!

For over 12 years, Inman News has been delivering one of the largest real estate conferences in the country, the Real Estate Connect Conference in both San Francisco and New York. It's 3 jam-packed days of learning, collaboration, networking and fun! You'll be hit with everything internet marketing & technology to brand development and discussions on the MLS and other Broker break-out sessions. 

Leaders and visionaries in Real Estate, Tech., Lending, Title and the Financial Services sector will all be there. And let's not forget, this year we're hearing from folks like: Alfred Lin, Chairman, COO & CFO of Zappos.com and Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp. 

Then, in July 15th's issue of Tomato Radio will be featuring Brad Inman himself! If you don't know Brad Inman, here's an AG Entrepreneurial Spotlight on him... 

Win A Free Pass to Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2009!

So here's the deal, courtesy of Inman News, I'm going to be hosting a bit of a contest here for a chance to win a free pass to Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2009. The contest rules are pretty simple, here's what you have to do:

• Join my Facebook Page Here and leave a comment telling me why you deserve to win a free pass to Inman Connect. (please keep it short; about 50 words or so. Haiku's extra credit).   

Each day, for the next 10 days, I'll be selecting a winner. Yup. That's 10 free passes to give away to Inman Connect. The most creative entries/answers will be selected by me and my posse so your use of multi-media (photo and video) is HIGHLY encouraged!

[Disclaimer: Refunds will not be issued. If you've already purchased your ticket, you are not eligible for this contest. Furthermore, this pass does not include workshops like Blogger's Connect; you'll have to purchase tickets to those separately.]

To Retweet, just copy & paste the following: 

Head on over to Ribeezie.com for a chance to win a Free pass to Inman Connect SF: http://tinyurl.com/kvhs77 

See You There!

If you're going to Inman, it's going to be treat. A few of us from the Real Estate Tomato will be there; I'll be leading a Session at Blogger's Connect as will Jim Cronin. So let me know if you're comin', I'd love to say Hello #IRL (in real life). 

Adding Custom Tabs To Your Facebook Page [Video Tutorial]

So everyone hit the vanity url landrush and is jumping to create Facebook Pages! Requests look something like this: 

"XXXXX became a fan of xxxxx on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too." 

While some Pages look really great, others are short of spectacular. I think that if you really want to Rock Out your page, then you really need to take advantage of the fact that you can customize the lay-out by adding custom tabs and applications. For those of you that don't know how to do that, here's a quick video tutorial that walks you through the process of adding custom tabs to your Facebook Page...

The application that you want to and need to install is called the Static FBML Application. You can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below or post 'em on my wall (I'll answer them right away)... 

Upcoming Events

Tomorrow kicks off what is going to be a long stretch of upcoming events. Lots of people to meet. Discussions to be had. Photos to be taken. And much, much more...

What I love about events is that it's always an opportunity to meet people face-to-face. We talk with one another and engage with one another online day-in and day-out that when you meet, you don't know whether to shake the person's hand or give them a hug. 

It's always a diverse group of people each with varying insight and everyone is always so open to collaboration and sharing their knowledge with one another. 

If you're going to be at either of the events mentioned below, I'd love to meet you! I might not be wearing the infamous hat, but I should be pretty easy to spot out nonetheless. So give me a shout and say "hey!"

• REBarCamp Orange County: Thursday, June 24th from 9:30 - 5:00pm PST  

• Glendale Women's Council of REALTOR's: Thursday, July 16th 11:30 - 2:00pm PST | Location TBD     

• Southern California Home Stagers Meetup: Friday, July 17th from 10:00am - 1:00pm | Location TBD  

• LA Mastermind: Tuesday, July 21st from 9:00 - 11:00am PST | Location TBD

• REBarCamp San Francisco: Tuesday, August 4th from 9:00 - 5:00pm PST    

• Inman Real Estate Connect Conference: Wednesday, August 5th from 8:30 - 5:00pm PST    

• Tri-Counties Real Estate Conference: Thursday, August 13th from 9:00 - 1:00pm PST | Location: Diamond Bar Center  

• Real Estate Tech Camp: Thursday, August 20th | Details to come...  

I don't have details on some of the events listed above as far as location... If you'd like more information or are interested in attending, drop a comment below or shoot me an email and I'll forward you some more information. Cool? 

See you soon...

We're Moving to Aweber!

I love Madmimi. Always have and always will. I like it for it's simplicity. If you've never managed a newsletter and want an affordable, easy to use/edit service, Madmimi.com is your ticket. It's free up to the first 100 subscribers and you have all of the following (and more; I might be leaving a few things out):

• Web forms (fully customizable),
• Statisics (open rates, click-through rates, etc.), 
• Ability to add/edit headers and more

But I Need More: 

I need a service that allows me to create multiple Lists for differing campaigns. One that allows me to set auto-responders when people sign-up and to create specific drip campaigns. So far, Aweber seems to be giving me all that I need and more. 

Stats are great. Building new lists and generating web forms is easy. The only thing I'll have to get used to (and I ask you to bare with me), is the pop-up that appears for new visitors. I've yet to determine whether I like this feature or not but while I work on moving my subscriber base from one service to another, I'll keep it active. 

In the meantime, what do you think? Should I get rid of the pop-up or keep it active? I'll report on more of the cool and unique features that I find in a couple of weeks once I've had the chance to put Aweber to work!

Oh and before I forget, you can subscribe to the newsletter below...  

Is Commenting On Blogs An Effective Traffic Strategy?

I read this post over on CopyBlogger: Is Commenting on Blogs a Smart Traffic Strategy?

...and it got me thinking. Yes, I think it's effective when you have something of value to add. When all you're adding is gibberish, the tactic completely backfires. Rather than having people wanting to read your content, you become an outcast in an otherwise thriving community of readers and commentators. 

When I first started [Ribeezie.com], nobody knew about my blog. But as soon as I started reading and engaging with people on other websites (by simply commenting on other blogs), a small but thriving community started formulating here. In a period of about one year, we're at 1,211 comments and counting. 

What do you think? 

I thought I'd pose the question to you...

If you chose [It depends], please explain in the comments below. 

Did you grab your Facebook vanity url yet?

Last week, TechCrunch, Mashable, AllFacebook.com and the rest of the web community were counting down the grand release of Facebook's vanity url's. If you were sitting in front of your computer on Friday night, you probably already grabbed yours. But if you've been disconnected, you probably should head on over to: 

http://www.facebook.com/username 

...and set yours today! 

Remember, Your Username is Permanent: 

People ask me this question all the time: 

What should my username be? My name? Or my company's name? 

Now I'm not against people branding their company's name. But what happens when you change/switch companies? 

On Twitter, I've seen people do some variation of the following: @RealtorSmith 

(this is just an example)

Again, nothing wrong with this. If you leave the Real Estate Industry, you can change your username at a later date. With Facebook on the other hand, you CANNOT change your username. So if you set your Facebook Vanity url to facebook.com/realtorsmith, that's what you're stuck with for the life of your account. You wanna change it? Too bad!

So choose your username wisely. And in this case, it's ok to stick with just your name. I set mine to: http://www.facebook.com/ricardobueno 

What's yours? 

What About Facebook Pages? 

You can set a username for your Facebook Fan Page if you meet the following two requirements: 

1. You must have 1,000+ subscribers/fans, and
2. Your account must have been created before May 31st.  

If you don't meet these requirements, then you are ineligible for a username. You'll have to wait until June 28th to qualify for a vanity url in this case. 

But don't fret! All is not lost. Here's an alternative to a vanity url... 

Get a subdomain: 

http://www.facebook.ricardobueno.com

...It's great for branding. Cleaner. And easy to set up! 

Aroma Coffee Meetup & An Invite...

We had the first of what should turn out to be several meetups at Aroma Coffee & Tea last week and let me just tell you, it was awesome! Aroma Coffee is a great cafe run by an amazing staff... 

The atmosphere was great, the food and drinks wonderful, and the company was spectacular! I think we spend a tremendous amount of time talking to each other from behind our computer screens so it was great to finally rally the group together for a IRL (in real life) meetup. 

Photos from the Group:

 

What's Next?

I'm not entirely sure; I'll leave this one up to you. I would love to get together at Aroma Coffee & Tea again for lunch with the group. It's always great to see everyone! But I know that I'd also like to put together something with a little more structure. And that's where LA Mastermind comes in: 

http://www.lamastermind.com

The idea is simple. Each month, Real Estate Professionals can come and share experiences, ask & answer questions, share marketing & business advice and network with one another. We'll feature guest speakers/presenters from an array of backgrounds as we strive to solve some of work's everyday problems (from marketing to sales to technology). 

Whadya think? Are you in? Simply head on over to the site, LA Mastermind, and rsvp via the sign-up form. And if you're game for meeting us for lunch next time, just drop a comment and I'll let you know when we're meeting up at Aroma Coffee & Tea again...  

And the Winners Are...

Remember the book giveaway contest that I had here on the site a few weeks ago? Well, drawing the winners has been long overdue! But when I saw the opportunity to travel to San Francisco and meet Tara Hunt, I thought I'd get a few autographed copies straight from the author. 

So here we go...

 

What I'm going to need from the winners is a mailing address; you can send it here: ribeezie(at)gmail(dot)com

If you've read the book, did you like it? What else are you reading? 

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