social networking » Technology Tools for Real Estate

It’s easy to schedule social media posts so that they appear automatically when you’re busy or traveling. WordPress lets you schedule posts to appear in the future, Twitter lets you automate direct messages, and applications like Sendible and Ping.fm let you pre-post to just about any social media site you belong to.

But just because something is technically possible doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. The ability to automate your posts can be a huge convenience for busy professionals, but used in the wrong way, it can be a nuisance, an insult to friends and followers, or even unethical.

If you plan to schedule your posts, keep these considerations in mind:

Don’t send an automated Direct Message to everyone who follows you on Twitter, especially one that says something like “check out my website” or “buy my product.” It’s inauthentic and many people on Twitter hate those automatic DMs.
Don’t autopost every Twitter message to Facebook or LinkedIn. Twitter followers expect frequent posts all day long, but constant posting can be annoying on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Honor the application. If you must post to several sites at once, make sure your post is relevant. A message that’s perfectly OK on Facebook, for example, may be highly inappropriate on Linkedin. Likewise, lengthy blog posts sent to Twitter are silly.
Don’t repeat the same Twitter message over and over again. It turns you into a pest. Repeating Twitter messages to impact the workday in other time zones is OK, but limit your repeats to 3 or 4 spaced 8-10 hours apart.
Don’t schedule automatic posts so that they come one after another. Instead, space them throughout the day.
Never use automatic posting to fake, deceive, or pretend you’re something or somewhere that you’re not.
Beware of autoposting schemes that will use your account to spam friends and followers.
Avoid autoposting schemes that scrape or steal content from other people and post it as yours. If an autoposting service is offering some spectacular result that seems too good to be true—it’s probably not true.
Don’t use autoposting exclusively. Use it from time to time when your schedule keeps you from posting when you want to, but be sure to also post live so you can interact with others.
Don’t autofollow everyone on Twitter who follows you. Instead, interact in a personal way with as many new followers as you can. Remember, its called social networking for a reason.
Don’t just set it and forget it. Monitor your autoposts to be sure they’re presenting you in the way you intended.
By default, autoposting is about me (what I’m reading, what I’ve written, what I’m doing), but social networking should really be about others. This is one more reason to limit your autoposting and to interact live.
It’s OK to use automatic birthday reminders, but be caring and real enough to send a live birthday message to friends instead of one you schedule in advance.

What else should be included?

If you use social media to promote yourself or to attract and engage prospective customers, your blog posts and status updates gives friends and prospects a glimpse of what kind of professional you might be if they were to hire you. So every post should be well thought-out and critically evaluated before you press that enter button.

Readers have a limited amount of time and because there’s so much content online, they have to pick and choose. Why should they follow you rather than someone else?

Therefore, before you post, consider the following:

Value. Is this message important? Does it impart value to the reader? Does it answer a question or solve a problem for them? Does it give them information they don’t already have? Better yet, does it give them information they can’t get anywhere else? Does it make them want to comment or answer back? Does it make them want to save your message or share it with someone else? By reading it, will they see you as someone who adds genuine value and is worth doing business with?

Viewpoint. Let’s face it, everything you post is not meant to be a learning experience. Sometimes your status updates will be insightful or personal. So the question is, do you present a unique point of view? Will friends and followers relish your posts for your good humor or your unusual take on the day’s topic? Do you possess an outlook that sets you apart? Are your messages worth reading because each contains a special little bit of you?

Verve. Finally, are you exciting, energetic, entertaining? Do you move people emotionally or spiritually? Do your messages uplift? Do they make people laugh or at least smile? Do they make people think? Does the information on your site or its very design convey something that grabs people? Will this post make people want to read more? Will readers feel like they’re missing out if they don’t subscribe or check back another time? What is it about this post that will make readers want to come back again and again?

Certainly, everything you post is not going to meet all of these criteria every single time. Your aim, however, should be to gradually, through a series of posts, shape the image your readers have of you.

Keep in mind that the words and images you post become you, especially for people who’ve never met you. So craft your online image with care.

It’s a New Year and that means it’s a good time to take stock of where you are with technology and marketing. So to go along with your New Year’s Resolution, we offer this Technology To-Do List for 2010.

Clean Out Your E-mail Inbox. Seriously, do something with all those messages! Put them in folders or delete them so that you can start the year fresh. Ditto for the documents cluttering your desktop.
Change Your Passwords. It’s not a good idea to use the same password on all of the websites you visit and the passwords you do use should be changed from time to time. The start of a new year is a good time to change them. See my article on password security and tips on how to remember your new passwords.
Develop (or Review) Your Social Networking Strategy. If you’re not actively social networking, you’re missing the potential to connect with hundreds of friends, former clients and would-be clients. If you’re already active in social networking, consider what applications you use, how much time you spend, and what’s working and not working for you. Adapt your strategy accordingly.
Set Up Your Fan Page. Make sure that your social networking strategy includes the creation of a Facebook Fan Page. Fan Pages help you separate your professional self from your personal self and allow you establish and strengthen your professional brand.
Organize Your Contacts. Are there people you’ve been out of touch with? Are there others you need to look for on Facebook or LinkedIn? Are old names and e-mail addresses cluttering your contact list? Take some time to clean out old information and to reconnect with people you haven’t seen or heard from in awhile.
Create Your Marketing Plan. Where will you get business in 2010? What can you do to make it more likely that people looking to buy or sell property this year will work with you? Prepare a written plan that describes how much you intend to make this year and the specific things you intend to do to meet that income goal.
Always Be Learning. Technology never stands still and neither should you. Determine what new skill or new technology you need to master this year and develop a plan for how you will learn it.

“Do as I say, not as I do.” That’s a refrain my dad used from time to time and I guess it was his way of admitting that he was far from perfect. In the same fashion, I also say that I’m not perfect when it comes to handling social media over the holidays.

Blogging presents the biggest problem; when I’m taking time off, I don’t want to have to write and research articles. Fortunately, there are ways to work around that.

One solution is to blog in advance. In WordPress, for example, you can write an article today and schedule it to be published automatically at some date and time in the future. My article Blog While You’re On Vacation shows you how to do it. To make this option work, of course, you’ll need to write all of your vacation articles ahead of time.

Alternatively, you can rerun articles you’ve written previously. TV and radio shows do it all the time so that media stars and their staffs can take vacation. If Oprah can show reruns, why can’t you?

Another option would be to find one or more guest bloggers to write in your absence. Guest writers can sometimes bring a fresh perspective to your blog and help keep your readers engaged. This option assumes, of course, that you can find someone to write your blog who isn’t also planning to take some time off.

In the end, I did none of these things. Instead, I took a break from Twitter and only posted brief Merry Christmas and Happy New Year messages on my blog. But if social networking is about establishing and maintaining connections with friends and clients, is that the best approach?

There are three types of social networking posts. Each does something a little different, but each is an important ingredient in successfully creating an online presence.

Blog Posts. Think of a blog as the main element in a stew, the meat of your Internet mélange. Blog posts can be as long or as short as you wish. They can be tightly edited and written in a journalistic style, or they can be rambling, freeform essays that chronicle your inner thoughts and feelings. And because you can use them to write as much as you want, blogs give you a huge degree of freedom to craft your online personality.

But with blogs, it’s not just what you write. It’s also how your blog looks and feels. When you decide to make a stew, you get to choose the main ingredient; will it be a Louisiana-style gumbo with crayfish and crabs, or will you be boiling corned beef and cabbage?

It’s the same way with your blog. You choose the style. Will it be colorful and crazy? Or will an understated black and gray color scheme suit your purpose better? Will it have a slick, polished look? Or will it be more folksy and friendly? The words you choose, the slant and style of the writing, the look and feel of the site—you get to put it all together. And the choices you make impact your image online.

Status Updates. Status updates give you the opportunity to let people know what you’re doing throughout the day. They’re kind of like the vegetables in your stew: add some of this and some of that. If you’ve got carrots, put them in. If not, the potatoes and onions will be fine by themselves.

Status updates are what’s happening with you now—whatever you happen to have at the moment. They can be funny and personal or they can herald your latest professional accomplishments. It’s all up to you; whatever you can share in a few sentences. Throw in some pictures if you have them. Get feedback from your friends and fans. Stir it all up to blend the flavors nicely.

Micro-blogging Posts. Finally, there’s micro-blogging. Think of it as the seasoning: a pinch here and a dash there. The best cooks know how to work magic with seasoning and you can do the same with micro-blogging.

Twitter has become the cornucopia of micro-blogging. And while some people use Twitter mostly for status updates, it’s really most powerful as a micro-marketing tool. Share blog posts and news stories about events that interest you. Give people a sense of who you are by what kind of content you link to. Gain followers by adding value based on the content you share. Remember all the while that—just like in a well-seasoned dish—simplicity and subtly often work best.

These three kinds of blog posts are the elements in your online mix. Combine them well to create an appetizing and irresistible brand.