Is Facebook Bigger Than Google? A Viewpoint from Real Estate Connect SF
One of my favorite sessions at Real Estate Connect SF was a panel answering the question: “Is Facebook bigger than Google?”
What do you think? With Facebook approaching 500 million fans – they are certainly in the right position!
The panelists who spoke during this session were:
- Drew Burks, Broker, Web Real Estate Tools, @sdrealtors
- Nicole Nicolay, Founder & CCO, Agent Evolution, @nik_nik
- Dale Chumbley, Realtor with Prudential NW Properties, @DaleChumbley
Drew Burks spoke about recent changes in Facebook and their new ‘open graph’ platform.
He emphasized that everyone should add the ‘like’ plugin to their blog (something I need to do ASAP!) It’s one of the easiest ways for people to share you info on Facebook. Also ‘liking’ a post or page helps to index you in the world of search. This stat was staggering:
“Facebook indexes 25 BILLION pieces of information a month!”
Drew’s shirt says it best: “Google Me” – this is his business card. I love it!
Nicole talked about Facebook ads and gave some excellent advice:
- Set your goals. What do you want to accomplish?
- Establish your target criteria. There is a tremendous amount of targeting you can do when creating your ads – including demographic, gender, age, likes, interests, and so much more.
- Have compelling content. She spoke a lot about the ‘nature of the network’ – we aren’t likely to click on ads unless they are eye-catching, interesting, funny, or are very relevant to us.
Also, Nicole said to make sure that the link on your ad is the your most productive link – whether that is a link back to your page or back to your website. Historically the links that work best are link back to your Facebook page. It’s easier for someone to ‘like’ a page and then get to know you and your brand before they transact with you.
Dale Chumbley, famous for his 365 Things to Do in Vancouver page (which now has over 11K fans), spoke about Facebook pages – do/don’t and the tremendous opportunity.
One of the biggest opportunities agents have is that they know their communities and the ins and outs of neighborhoods better than anyone. On Dale’s page there is no mention of him as a real estate agent. All of his content resides on his blog – so he will always ‘own’ the content – in case anything happens to Facebook. He blogs everyday and links to his blog posts once daily. He said he started his blog 146 days ago and his Facebook page is now #4 on Google when someone searches for his county and #2 on Google when someone searches for his city.
He does caution about starting a ‘365′ page – it’s a lot of work and a big commitment! But whether your community is large or small, any community could benefit from having a community page created from someone who knows it best – a real estate agent!
Overall I thought this was an excellent panel because they talked about each facet of Facebook and how a real estate agent can maximize this huge opportunity. Thanks Drew, Nicole and Dale for doing a fantastic job!
Would you love your opinions on this – leave me your feedback and comments below!
By they way, a video of this session, (along with all conference videos) will be available soon to Inman Premium Members. Sign up now for only $99 and get a 1 year Inman Premium Membership which includes ALL post-conference video.
Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News
Facebook – Inman News | Facebook – FOREM
Chris | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Some great advice there, have to say can’t see Facebook ever being bigger than Google. Facebook is getting stuck into everything on the internet, Facebook less so.
@CBRElongBeach | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Facebook is a powerful part of “the Social Media 4 Square” (FB (fan Page), twitter, YouTube, and Linked In. When used in conjunction with a strong Blog s a Hub, Agents can really provide a Hyper Local presence and engage their community/Farm/Sphere.
Inman Connect Rocked because of panels like this one
Stay Blogging My Friends!
@CBRELongBeach
Elli D. | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
I think the question whether Facebook is bigger than Google or vice versa is not relevant while working on your web presentation, because you simply need both. The biggest problem for me is that it takes a lot of time to learn how to maximize the positive effects of my presentation – I need someone in in my time who does it for me. Nevertheless, I always like to learn more myself, when there’s an opportunity.
Shane | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Some good tips for getting up the google rankings, thanks for that.
alex cortez | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Funny, we just added the ‘Like’ button to our blog. FB has huge potential and it’d be smart to get a running start on it before it fully challenges Google. For me, I prefer G for its simplicity but can’t put all my eggs in one basket.
Mark Jacobs | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Great post, loved the post
Drew Burks | Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Katie … thanks for the mention. So glad you enjoyed our panel. It was great to finally meet you in person. Excellent job recapping the panel discussion.
Nick | Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
Great article. I love the compelling content nod. There is so much marketing out there that is just completely unrelevant
Lenore Wilkas | Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the great information and suggestion. I have a quick question as to which plugin to use. I have seen two and would appreciate knowing where to find the “like” only button. The two I have seen have a share on FB not “like”.
SiliconValleyRealEstateTeam | Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
My opinion is that when you are referring to “real estate” and searching for information regarding real estate, then I would say that Google is “Bigger”.
My answer as of this post is: I think that most people would search for “information” on Google. It that doesn’t mean that things won’t change in the near future.
As far as social media is concerned, Facebook is King.
That’s my 2 cents!
Don
Robert F. | Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
I think this highlights how facebook and google depend on one another.
Amanda Page | Jul 25, 2010 | Reply
Google & facebook are truly a great aspect in terms of internet marketing.They both help us marketers in different perspective.
Anthony Rueda | Jul 26, 2010 | Reply
Both Google and Facebook can be incredibly valuable when it comes to internet marketing. At this point, Facebook can claim to be king of social media, but Google is the king of the internet. Google’s marketshare of all search engine traffic is greater than 70%.
Katie Lance | Jul 26, 2010 | Reply
Thanks everyone for your feedback!! Stay tuned for the videos from Connect that will be released soon for Premium Members!
Katie
Eric Watts | Aug 6, 2010 | Reply
I dont think that it is quite to the standing of google, but as alex stated in his comment – many individuals are adding links & “like” buttons to their sites/blogs. Definitely in a great possition and has MASS amounts of visitors/ hits going to the site all of the time.