Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Facebook: Your Newest Marketing Tool

As if you haven't heard enough about facebook. Facebook just announced their 500 millionth user on Tuesday. There is now talk of an alleged contract that would award 50% of facebook to an associate of Mark Zuckerburg (Founder of Facebook), if the contract is found to be binding by the judge. Also, there is a movie coming. And this is to say absolutely nothing of friend requests, inbox messages, liking, photo tags, wall posts, and poking.

Without going into the how-to of facebook (you can talk to your 9 year-old niece for that), I'd like to shed a little bit more light on the power of this social media giant. In fishing, they tell you to 'go where the fish are.' In business, it has always been my feeling that you should 'go where the people are.' It sounds simple enough, but many loan officers and real estate agents are still avoiding using facebook as they see it as a fad. It is not. This is not a furbie or a tickle me elmo, facebook is here to stay. The longer you hold off to take advantage of this free service, the more business you will lose and the more business your cutting-edge competitors are going to get. Take advantage of it, build a company profile, update your status, and request a friend or two. Your checkbook will thank you later.

One thing to keep in mind. Do not mention confidential material on facebook that you would not openly talk about elsewhere. If you update you status saying that 'my clients just put an offer on their dream home,' the seller's agent may see it and encourage the sellers to reject the offer and raise the price. Your buyers may find out. They will sue you. They may win. If you're not going to announce it in the middle of the town square, don't post it on facebook. With 500,000,000 users it's more like Times Square anyways.

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