How to change the Name of your Facebook Business/Fan Page

Facebook is now letting you rename your Facebook Business/Fan pages that have fewer than 100 fans. If you need to rename your page, now's the time to do it as you never know how long this "feature" will last.

To change the name of your Facebook page:
--login to Facebook
--Under the "Account" tab at the far right (on top), click on "Manage Pages"
--Select the page you wish to rename
--Below the logo of the page, click on "Edit Page"
--Change the name of the page
--Finally, save your changes

It's as easy as that!

New ReachFactor Features - October 27

We just added a couple more great features for all our users.

Email Styling

All emails sent on your behalf through ReachFactor will now have some HTML styling.  This includes survey requests, invitations, listing broadcasts and more.  We know looking professional is important to you and we want to do everything we can to help.

Invitation Reminders

We want to make it even easier for you to get free marketing credits.  You can already resend an invitation whenever you want but now we'll even do it for you automatically.  Anyone you send an invitation out to will automatically be reminded after 3 and 7 days if they don't accept your invite.

ActiveRain Link

Let potential clients see all your profiles.  Lots of agents are on the ActiveRain blogging system and we want to make it easy for potential clients to see all your public faces.  You can add the link to your profile in the "Account" tab when you're logged into ReachFactor.

Send us your Endorsements

We know a lot of you have paper endorsements from past clients.  Dust off those old boxes and send them to us!  If you're a ReachFactor user you can send us a scanned copy of that endorsement and the transaction details for the sale that client was involved in and we'll take care of the rest.  Soon you'll be able to put all those old endorsements to work for you on the web!

Bug Fixes

Everyone makes mistakes.  We fixed the bug that required Land listings to have a number of bedrooms and bathrooms.  Those fields can be left blank now.

We also improved the click and drag reordering of images in the listing gallery.  You should now have no trouble clicking anywhere on a the image to change the order.

Three-time tech entrepreneur launches Web service to help real estate professionals strengthen their reputation

For Immediate Release

San Francisco (October 21, 2010)

ReachFactor (www.reachfactor.com) is a unique new Web application that helps real estate professionals strengthen their reputation and close more business by automatically collecting, verifying and promoting reviews from past clients.

Most marketing services for real estate professionals are time consuming, complicated, and require uncommon expertise; however, ReachFactor doesn’t require an Agent to write a sales pitch or produce any content. Instead, ReachFactor leverages an Agent’s listings and past clients to help them save time, money, and sell more.

ReachFactor’s core feature allows Agents to effortlessly connect with clients to collect feedback. Endorsements are verified by ReachFactor and then, at the Agent’s option, promoted across major Web services, the Agent’s website, and social media to encourage more and better consumer interactions.

“Your reputation is absolutely critical to generate a high conversion rate” says Suresh Srinivasan, founder and CEO of ReachFactor. “Consumers have always sought the opinion of others before selecting an Agent but the Web has taken the place of the neighbor.”

Unlike anonymous reviews posted on Yelp and the Surveys that national brands and offices send on behalf of Agents, ReachFactor collects and verifies the authenticity of reviews and provides badges and widgets that make it extremely easy to market endorsements online and off. Best of all the Agent remains 100% in control at all times and can get started absolutely free.

“Agents are already strapped for time and sapped of energy. The last thing they need is something else to do,” continued Srinivasan. “ReachFactor is a ‘set it and leave it’ marketing service that we’ve seen paying for itself in the first month.”

“ReachFactor is invaluable!” exclaims Robert Diamond, Broker with Century 21 Affiliated. “It‘s an excellent tool for networking with present and future clients and offers unlimited potential for new opportunities. I’ve received terrific feedback from past clients and ReachFactor helps me get the word out.”

Real estate professionals can get started for free at www.reachfactor.com.

About ReachFactor

ReachFactor helps real estate Agents, Brokers, and Offices strengthen their reputation and increase conversion rates by collecting and promoting 3^rd party verified reviews from past clients. ReachFactor was started by three-time tech entrepreneur Suresh Srinivasan who previously ran a successful Internet marketing company that had tens of thousands of small business clients.

Contact:
Alan Meadows
ReachFactor
ameadows@reachfactor.com
888-262-6161 ext. 301

1 tip to enhance your reputation using Facebook

We get a lot of questions about how to start promoting yourself in Facebook. A quick way to start is to chime in to Facebook questions to demonstrate your expertise. 


There are lots of people asking questions like "what's an affordable place to live in Los Angeles?" "Which areas of Seattle have the best schools" and more. Real people looking for help.  Can you provide answers?


It takes just a few seconds to respond and in the meantime you'll build an impressive reputation. 


(you may want to get your Facebook business page up  & get your listings in there prior as a tacit sales tool). If you need help, please ask!


Suresh

The one activity every Agent should steal from top producers

There's an old adage that to become a top performer you must think and behave like one. Here's one simple activity any Broker/Agent can steal from top performers. You be the judge, check out the data below.

Until ReachFactor came along (hehe) I know it was a very manual and tedious process for Brokers & Agents to collect feedback from past clients. But I was quite surprised to learn how few real estate professionals actually collect feedback and use them in marketing. In fact, the numbers are quite startling.

We sent a survey to 1,550 Brokers and Agents and asked whether they collected their own feedback from past customers, and if so, how they used it. We got nearly 600 replies.

1. 75% of the people who replied said "NO", they do not collect their own feedback. Of these people, 88% said they relied on the fact that their Office or their Brand was already sending surveys to clients on their behalf, so they felt they didn't need to. WOW! (If you've ever seen those surveys you'll know why I'm surprised)
2. Getting past this, of the 25% who said they do collect endorsements more than half said they collect them on paper and said it was hard to reuse them. They said they rarely used the endorsements in their marketing aside from having copies when they met clients in person.
3. Finally, it appears that only ~10% actively collect endorsements and actively promote them in their marketing (retyping into their website & using them in direct mailers were the #1 and #2 response respectively).

Here it is visually...

You'll notice that the green bar is around 10% of the respondent universe.

Indicative of the 90/10 rule?  We haven't correlated the data to sales transactions so I can't say for sure, but I have a strong sense this 10% may very well outperform the other 90. I poked around their websites and could see a definite difference in professionalism and presentation styles.

Active marketers naturally look for more content to use in marketing and the best sales material is always what others say about you, not what you say about yourself (see post on comScore study about the business benefit of reviews).

What do you think? Is the 90/10 rule rearing its head in our survey results? Is this a surprise to anyone?  Please share your thoughts and comments.

Shameless plug -- If you've never collected your own endorsements from past customers and don't use them actively in your marketing I think you're missing a prime opportunity to grow your business. ReachFactor now automates collecting endorsements and makes it super simple to get them on your website, Facebook, and more. You can even start for free at www.reachfactor.com. No excuse to not try..

New ReachFactor Features - October 20

Endorsements Marketing

ReachFactor has already made it easy for you to send Surveys to your clients so you can collect feedback from them.  So far this has just been for your own knowledge.  We've already heard some great stories from some of the folks using ReachFactor that this has been really useful by itself but we wanted to provide you with more.

Share your Endorsements with the world

Now, you can choose to share this feedback across the web.  When you choose to market an endorsement you can choose where to share it.  It will always show up on your ReachFactor Profile and you can add Facebook and Twitter to the mix.  We also make it easy for you to add a Endorsement Widget to any website you may be on.

ReachFactor Profile

Endorsements that you choose to syndicate will show up on your ReachFactor Profile.  They'll show in a tab right on the main page for potential clients viewing your profile to peruse.

Facebook

You may have already started using our Listings tab on Facebook - well now there's an Endorsements tab as well. You can choose to share Endorsements with all the browsers to your Facebook Business Page.

Twitter

Hopefully, you're already using Twitter to advertise yourself and your listings.  If you don't we can help!  We already make it easy to advertise your listing on Twitter and keep your audience up to date when the price changes.  We'll help you market your endorsements to your Twitter followers, too.

Widget

We make it easy to pull the Endorsements from ReachFactor into any website you want.  Just check a couple settings and copy and paste a little code into your website.  That's all.

Endorsement Verification

Make your Endorsements have more impact.  Let us verify them for you.  Many review sites have had problems with customers thinking the reviews were not legitimate.  If you provide us with some extra information we'll do the homework and verify that an Endorsement came from an actual client so that potential clients will feel confident that your reviews are legitimate.  If we ever suspect an endorsement is not valid we'll send you an email letting you know.  You can still share the review but it won't be on the verified list until we're comfortable putting our stamp of approval on it.

Share your listings by email

You've got a few email addresses of interested buyers or huge email lists you want to broadcast your listings to?  Great!  We can help.  When you choose to Email a listing we'll help you by sending a beautiful property flyer with a link to the listing on your ReachFactor profile and a customized message from you.

10 ways Agents can be more "Liked" on Facebook

1) Get your Facebook business page up. If you don't have the business page you're only building a friend network, which is not the same. A Facebook business page is the right way to market a business and there is currently no limit to the # fans you can have.


2) Expect to put up several (10) posts on there before you start marketing it. No one wants to see or Like a blank Facebook page.


3) Start close to home. Get other Agents in your office to like your page and vice versa. No one wants to be the first person to Like a page.


4) Get your Listings inside Facebook. Include pictures and make sure the listings look great. Let your homeowners know you went through the expense of getting their property into Facebook. Ask them to visit your Facebook page and 'Like' their listing. This promotes the listings through their network.


5) Ask them to get their friends/family to like the listing as well.

(The average person has 130 friends on Facebook. Each 'like' promotes the property and your page to another 130 people).

6) Add frequent Status Updates that might appeal to the people you want to attract, but don't over think it. Just post updates. Maybe there's a local bar that just added a new beer on tap. Maybe there's a halloween event coming up? Maybe you were invited to list a house in a bad part of town and had a funny (scary) experience? Post an update.


7) Post pictures if you can along with your status update. Keep the post short and at the end ask provoking questions.. "Hit "like" if there's a better than 50% chance I'll see you at this Halloween fest this weekend."


8) Not everything has to be "liked" - use your business page as a platform to promote business. Definitely post the date and time of open houses. Link to the Listing you created in Facebook.



9) If you are more advanced you can create a custom Landing Page (static FBML) and make it the default page non-fans arrive at. This should pitch people on the benefit of becoming a "Fan" immediately. Tell them why it's to their benefit to be a Fan. 


10) On your static FBML Landing Page you can hide content that becomes visible when someone likes you. Do this if there's compelling, immediate gratification someone can get from becoming a Fan immediately. This works well if there's non-public information or insider information you can share. Pocket sales opportunities? Investor auction tips? Anything that might not be generally available to the public.

West coast sales rally - and a Winner!

Our very own Karl Jebsen recently attended the Century 21 West Coast Sales Rally. I heard that we had a lot of people visit our booth and were enthused by our goal to help Agents and Brokers collect great endorsements and use them to increase their conversion rates. 

While he was there Karl gave away a ReachFactor Max account ($1800 value). Congratulations to Rosemary Skillman with Century 21 Earll for winning the grand prize! Hope to see you at the next event.

Here are some pics we took at the event:

5 steps to a Facebook business page for real estate agents

Facebook has announced that they will no longer support Tabs on personal profiles, so everyone needs to migrate their tabs over to a Facebook business page (or lose them forever).

The first step is to get a business page created in the first place. This pdf shows you how.

One thing to keep in mind - once you name your page you cannot edit it (you can only start over). So pick something that you'll like for a while.

Let us know if you run into any problems.

Need help with Yelp?

I recently got this letter from a concerned business owner asking for help with a review of his business on Yelp.

He felt strongly that the negative review about him was fraud, but Yelp was filtering the positive reviews and left the negative one front & center. He felt helpless and was pleading for assistance because it was harming his reputation and business.

This brings up a good point about reviews & review sites in general. You (real estate Brokers, Agents & Offices) should be vigilantly monitoring sites like Yelp for reviews about your business (especially negative ones) because left unchecked they can cause a lot of harm to your business.

Review sites have become wildly popular because they make it to compare businesses or service providers before deciding which to choose. The problem is that anonymous review sites like Yelp are easily abused. Someone's competitor can easily post crank reviews of them or post extremely flattering reviews of themselves. Yelp works hard to filter bogus reviews but they don't catch them all.

2 tips immediately come to mind to combat negative reviews:

1) Always be collecting your own reviews, get them verified & share them everywhere. This is probably the one that will give your business the highest payback over time. Make it a habit to collect real feedback from your customers and share that feedback (your endorsements) everywhere. These endorsements can also be 'verified legitimate' by a 3rd party service like ReachFactor.

Once you have them, promote endorsements on your website, make sure they're announced on Facebook and Twitter, and make sure the endorsements are easily indexed by Google (Google shows endorsements in Pages and map results). You want as many positive statements about you appearing in as many places as possible online.

Sound hard? It's not -- ReachFactor was specifically created to automate the endorsement-gathering-and-disseminating process for real estate professionals. You can use it to collect endorsements for free, forever.

2) Don't be quiet. Be sure to comment on negative reviews in a thoughtful, professional manner. If you suspect the review may have been posted by a competitor ask the reviewer to post proof they've used you before. People reading review sites want to hear the entire story, so be transparent and ask the reviewer to be transparent also. If they're perpetrating a fraud, chances are good they'll go silent and it'll become apparent to anyone reading your reviews who was telling the truth.  A negative review is a chance to show future customers how you handle customer service - it's another opportunity to shine.

Can you think of other ways to handle negative reviews (real or not)?  Let us know!

If your business is slowing.. check this first!

Many business owners who've experienced success in the past tend to fall into a trap. They stop thinking about whether their client's behavior has changed.  This is especially true in highly dynamic markets like real estate where technology's played a huge role.

Though the service you offer may still be the same it always has, you have to stop and think about where your potential customers get their information, how they make the decision to 'buy' or not, and what traits they value most.

There was a great blog post by Les McKeown over at Predictable Success about this very topic and he sums it up nicely:

Does your business growth seem sluggish? Not sure why? Then chances are, you're seeing your target customer / client through a distorted, out-of-date lens. 

The answer? No matter how much you love them, don't allow your current customers to act as an echo chamber for your misperceptions. Instead, go talk with very recent prospects - especially those you didn't land as customers or clients. They'll tell you what they were looking for that you didn't see or 'get'. Re-calibrate accordingly.

Hope you can make this kind of reflection a standard practice in your business..