In the last few weeks, Facebook has made some great new updates available to page admins. They are definitely making it easy for page admins to get the help and assistance they need, get their questions answered, and make their page as successful as can be. In the past, when a page owner was looking to advertise on Facebook, or install a certain app, it took a little bit of “hunting and pecking.”

Now, on the new admin panel interface, there are a number of extremely helpful links to help you develop your page.

Here is a screen shot of the back-end of the Inman News page:

Once you click on “resources,” you can see there are 11 links and resources available to page admins. Many of these were available to Facebook users – and were in various places on Facebook – but to have them in all one, organized list just makes sense!

Here are some of my favorite key hightlights out of the 11 links:

The 1st is the top link: “Best Practices Guides to Make Your Page Engaging” – which takes you to this page:

This is a page that I refer to often on Facebook to find out about the latest changes and updates to Facebook pages. This page is chock-full of awesome tips and tricks like the pages manual, the insights guide, bloggers guide, and so much more. If you are a real estate agent just building your Facebook page, or need to spruce it up, I can not recommend enough checking out these resources!

Additional links on the back-end of your Facebook page include a link to set your username, add a social plugin to your site (i.e. adding the “like” button and other options) and the ability to send an update to everyone who has “liked” your page. By the way – are you sending updates to the people who like your page? This is a quick and easy way to send a custom message to a select group of people who like your page (geographically) or to all of the people who like your page.

Overall, I love with the new interface of the admin panel. I can find what I am looking for quickly and easily.

Facebook is smart – I’m a lot more likely to engage and add on additional resources to my Facebook page if they make it easy for me! This is a great tip for real estate agents – make it easy for people to contact you, to navigate your site, etc. Keep it simple, right?

What admin tools do you use the most from Facebook? I’d love to hear your thoughts – please post a comment below!

Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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We asked this question on our Inman News Facebook page this week and we received a lot of great feedback, comments and advice. Check out the list below – what pearls of wisdom could you add to this list?

Can you imagine if you were starting out today as a Realtor? Or, maybe you are new to the business – I’d love to hear what you’ve learned!

What Tips Would You Share With New Realtors Just Starting Out in the Business?

Please leave us your thoughts and comments below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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Even in today’s social world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, text messaging and blogs – one of the best ways to still reach someone is through email. Have you ever had an open house and couldn’t find a business card a potential buyer handed handed you or couldn’t read the handwriting of the person who signed in? Sure you could search them out via Google or even on social media, but sometimes actually finding someone’s email can be challenging at best.

I just discovered Peepmail, the brainchild of Samy Kamkar (@samykamkar)

Peepmail is a search engine that delivers someone’s business e-mail, even if that e-mail address is not published publicly. Peepmail has a super simple interface. To use it, just enter the person’s name and the business domain where they work.

It doesn’t work 100% of the time – when I plugged in a few Inman News team members it didn’t pull us up but other domains worked just fine. I will definitely bookmark this site next time I need to try to reach someone and can’t quite figure out where there business card went or where their contact info is.

Have you tried this? I’d love your feedback, leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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Please join us for a FREE Inman News Webinar!

TOPIC: 10 Web and Mobile Tools to Skyrocket Your Productivity

Sponsored by: Docusign

DATE: Wednesday, April 20th

TIME: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (PST)

In today’s competitive market, real estate professionals need to be able to work efficiently anytime, anywhere. The growth of mobile applications and cloud technology makes this easier than ever. In this webinar, you’ll learn about 10 tools/applications that can help make you more efficient and profitable both inside and outside the office.

This webinar is ideal for both agents and brokers. See you there!

Register today >>

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Ask any number of Realtors what is one thing they feel like they are an “expert” in, and they will most likely say “the neighborhood they work in.” One of the best parts of working with a local Realtor is the expertise they have about your local community and neighborhoods.

However, sometime neighborhood information is fragmented with certain key elements missing.

Last week, an intriguing new Atlanta-based tech start up called HomeElephant launched.

I spoke to one of the founders, and asked him the “why” for this site. He said,

“The founders were all apathetic neighbors, and all agreed we needed a better way to communicate with neighbors.  I have lived on Karland Drive in Buckhead (Atlanta) for 12 years, and only know 6 neighbors.  Not proud of it.  Another founder, Chandler Powell, his wife was harassed by a creep in a van while he was away on business, the police didn’t help, and he wanted a better way to alert his neighbors of these types of incidents.  Home Elephant was born soon after. Think of HomeElephant as a less intimate version of Facebook with built in communication tools that all center around a map view of your streets.”

In just less than a week, HomeElephant has 221 neighborhoods with almost 2000 registered users.

As a real estate professional, I think this site could be a great resource for a few reasons:

1. I really like that HomeElephant creates access to neighborhood directories, neighbor profiles, school info and HOA documents – all in one easy portal.
2. For users of the site, they can create a neighborhood watch, report a lost and found, find out about street closings and more.
3. From a social perspective, neighborhood events and important dates could be organized like a yard sale, dates of trash pick up, or an open house. All event dates can sync to your calendar.

Overall, I think this could be a great neighborhood resource for real estate agents and I’m excited to see how agents and brokers will embrace it.

Have you signed up for HomeElephant yet? I’d love your opinion about this site and this service – leave me your feedback below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Senior Marketing Manager, Inman News, @katielance

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Today is the official launch of a brand new real estate education and community site designed to enhance agent productivity through social media – The Hip Roof.

The Hip Roof was created by Maya Paveza (@mayaREguru), award winning REALTOR in Delaware with Coldwell Banker Preferred and real estate social media butterfly! Maya has gained national acclaim for continuously redefining the role social media plays in her business.

I’ve know Maya online for some time and was very excited to see this new forum get off the ground with the assistance of a lot of great people in the industry including the one and only, Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works.

I emailed Maya yesterday to interview her, and get the scoop on this new networking and learning opportunity for real estate professionals.

Q: Maya, how did you come up with the idea for The Hip Roof?

A: The idea for a real estate educational community is something I have been toying with since early 2009. I was a web developer and designer from 1993-2001, so my mind works in this sort of way, I am also very entrepreneurial in spirit. I loved the idea of creating a place where some of the community of experts I know via the social spaces, and from attending a variety of events, like Real Estate Connect, could interact and share their achievements and ideas with others. Where the new agent or the agent who has been working for 30 years could all come together and share and learn. A collaborative community if you will, where everyone can contribute as everyone has an area of expertise.

Q: What’s the general premise of the site?

A: The premise is that THR is a real estate educational community with a focus on social media.To allow people to grow and learn, to share successes and seek assistance from others. To remember that what we do is about customer service and finding new ways to do that better. To remind each other that humanity is much more important, especially in this day and age. To share expertise, to offer webinars to help agents better understand the social spaces, platforms, and a lot of basic business development and coaching too. Currently the membership gets three webinars a week, Sunday Night Open Forum, Experts Series Interview (kicking off 2/28 with Ben Kinney) and the Thursday “Hot Topic” learning webinar.

The most basic need I feel the site meets is to make education, coaching and training accessible and affordable to agents everywhere. We can’t always make it to New York or San Francisco for a Real Estate Connect, or a REBoot tour, especially with the current market conditions. I believe so deeply in this that we don’t want to turn anyone away – if someone wants to join but can’t afford it, I am working with a few partners to offer scholarships, it is that important to permit total access.

Q: Is it open to all agents nationwide?

A: Absolutely, real estate agents nationwide and worldwide – as long as they are licensed in whatever capacity in their municipality. But not just for agents, it is also for Brokers and owners – the category I call office leadership – they have their own private forum within The Hip Roof. Office Leadership will have different discussions needs from recruiting and retention to desk occupancy costs, and more. We also welcome our partners who we deal with on a daily basis, all of which have their own forums like the leadership does – lenders, title representatives, real estate attorneys and home inspectors. We don’t have a consumer facing side at this point, but there might be something coming soon to meet that need, a forum where consumers can ask questions and interact with the experts.

Q: I see you have no advertisers, will that change in the future? If not, do you have plans to monetize the site?

A: I want the agents and community to feel completely comfortable in sharing opinions and thoughts on technology, tools, platforms and vendors. I don’t anticipate that changing, which is why we do charge a membership fee, similar to the other Human Business Works communities although we are independent from the HBW family.

I don’t expect it will change, but the option has been reviewed. I think that if it comes down to advertising it will be advertisers that don’t directly market to agents, maybe on the consumer facing side – when and if that happens. I want to avoid agents having to feel like there is any undue influence on the information shared within the community, which is why I don’t want to permit advertising on the inside.  To help create local experts everywhere, because there won’t be a “tour” or local events, if a local board or mls wants someone we will refer them to one of our area experts.

Q: What is the cost for a membership?

A: The introductory rate is $27/month for the life of the membership until 3/31 for agents. For Brokers/Office Leadership, the rate is introduced at $57/mo as well as Lending Partners, Title/Attorney and Home Inspectors until 3/31.

Q: When is your official “open for business day”?

A: We soft-launched on Monday February 21, but our official “launch” is today! It is a living organism of sorts, the platform we are built upon is so dynamic, it is just amazing the things we can do with it, to grow it and expand. What is really exciting is that right now during the launch we are giving $5 for every paid membership that signs up until 3/2 to Daniel Rothamel’s Legal Defense Fund. Dan is a great guy, and he was in the new edition of Trust Agents, so he is a shining example of the goal of this site – to be a better agent, to serve your community, to share with others, to humanize business

Q: How did Chris Brogran hear about the project and get involved?

A: I met Chris in March of 2010 at a Trust Summit even in Wilmington DE, we have a mutual friend in Whitney Hoffman. She helped bring Chris, Julien Smith and Mitch Joel to that event. I wasn’t planning to go but decided last minute to buy a ticket. So serendipity, we met when a friend saw me arriving and called me into the coffee shop to meet the Governor. I honestly have to say I didn’t follow him on Twitter, had not read the book, and didn’t know much about him other than his name, I am like that with anyone, I want to meet people for who they genuinely are not what my mind might have created from reading about them or following them.

He is a good friend, more mentor often than anything else – always offering suggestions and a good kick in the backside when I needed it. This was a project I had been working on trying to create for a while, I believe I was most likely whining to Chris about my frustrations with progress on a variety of projects, purely for the friendly kick in the backside I needed and expected, when he suggested that his company Human Business Works could partner in the development of the site. An incredible offer, and after two previous partners had bailed, it was surreal to think it might finally become a reality. I think that for Chris it aligned nicely with some other projects HBW was working on, like 501MissionPlace.com and KitchenTableCompanies.com. Serendipity again. I really have the most amazing group of friends.

Q: What is your goal for this site? Your dream?

A: My goal has long been to create this site, so I now have to adjust my mindset to extended business planning and goal setting. This is the safe place for agents to interact and talk freely with each other without worrying about consumers reading about our day to day challenges. I want it to become the standard of excellence for real estate educational communities, to be the resource people think of when they want to learn something or ask a question. I think my dream is for the site to be everything that the member wants, it can grow and evolve as technologies change, platforms change, the business changes, it is completely dynamic and database driven so that is super easy.

Part of the dream of this site is to show my two daughters that anything is possible, and they should work hard and dream big. Be idealistic and be kind.

I would love to see it have a regular charitable cause, or some sort of benefit to the real estate community. I want it to make a difference in an agents life, to help someone gain access to all these wonderful resources, and affordable coaching. It really is about real estate agents by real estate agents, so I want everyone to feel that, and share in that sense of ownership.

My next dream has nothing to do with this site actually, I dream of being able to bring change to girls and women, to help bring back self-confidence and the #ownit mantra I have. Life is too short not to love every moment and feel great about who you are. My dream is to bring that message as far and wide as I can, by sharing my own story. That’s the next chapter after THR is running smoothly.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: I am so grateful for all the support from the RE.net community, there are so many amazing people out there, who have generously given of their time to help me build this community, when it truly is about the community. This is merely the beginning, I want to bring this to the far corners of every continent to make it accessible to everyone. I welcome anyone to join, and those that would like to contribute I would be happy to hear from them as well. There is always room for more people.

To find out more about The Hip Roof you can go to their site or contact Maya directly for more information.

If you have already signed up, I’d love your feedback on the site. Leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Senior Marketing Manager, Inman News, @katielance

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I just finished reading a great aricle on Inc.com about how to jump-start your business. They list 25 ways to jump-start your business. After reading it, there are 5 that jumped out to me that really apply to real estate agents and brokers.

1. To Focus on Truly Urgent Matters, First, Clear Your Schedule

As an agent or broker, you don’t work 9-5 Monday-Friday. Sometimes you need to put down your cell phone and as Brad Inman says, “look up!”  Feeling overwelmed? Clear your schedule -  to really refocus on what you should be paying attention to.  It may be time to say ‘no’ to some things, and even to some clients. See point #2 below.

2. Shed Your Problem Clients

I have witnessed first-hand agents who are so desperate for a paycheck that they hang onto the wrong type of client until they are completely drained and end up comprising way too much. The sign of a successful agent is the ability to walk away if needed. Ask the tough questions: ”Are they worth it? Are they being realistic? Are they keeping me away from other opportunities?”

3. Turn Freebies into a Search Engine Optimization Play

Search engine optimization can bring more traffic to your site and in the end, hopefully more leads! The most effective way to optimize your site is to encourage other sites to link to yours. How? Offer something free!  What is your specialty? What are you REALLY good at as an agent? Marketing? Staging? Getting a home ready? Negotiating? Whatever you are really good at – write a “white paper” on that topic and give it away free. People love free and it will help optimize your site.

4.  Turn Tweets into Cash

According to the Inc article: “Rose Associates, an 80-year-old real estate agency in New York City, searches key terms such as “moving to New York” on search.twitter.com. Whenever another Twitter user types one of these top phrases, a member of Rose’s marketing staff sends them a message offering real-estate listings or related service. The result? A hundred qualified leads a month.” Why couldn’t you do something like that for your local area? Simple!

5. Find Some Amazing Interns

More often than not, agents don’t need a full time assistant. They need help when they have specific lisitings -  help with marketing, or they need an extra body to be at their listing to meet to photographer or inspector. Maybe they need help for 2 months to get their “digital life” organized – their database, their computer, their files. Why not search for an intern? Check with your local colleges first and then use your social networks to see who may have a someone interested. It’s a great way for them to get experience (sometimes even college credits!) Last but not least search on Craigslist or LinkedIn.

Do you have some great tips to share that helped jump-start your business? I’d love to hear about them! Please let me feedback or comments below.

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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NeighborCity is an real estate search site that operates in 20 markets across the country. Like Estately and a handful of others, NeighborCity is also a brokerage and as a result, gets access to the MLS and is able to display all the active listings in those markets.

But NeighborCity is taking it one step further. It’s also displaying all the active agents in those markets and suggesting them alongside any searches done on the site. Right now it has profiles built for over 45,000 agents.

The premise is pretty simple, really; say I’m searching for a $400K single family home in the 97219 ZIP of Portland, Oregon – in addition to all the property listings that meet my criteria, NeighborCity is also going to suggest the best agent for my business. In this example, it says it is Dave Hrabal of Windermere.

They’re calling the service AgentMatch and it uses a proprietary algorithm to rank agents based on their relevance to the user’s search criteria – based on variables like price range, property type, neighborhood and the agents’ past performance.

If they’re interested in seeing the home, the buyer can choose to contact any of the suggested agents and the agent can respond to the inquiry with additional details on their commission structure and/or their individual specialties. Consumers get to stay anonymous until they’ve chosen an agent to work with.

Agents can also claim their profiles to provide more information to prospective clients. Presumably, there is some sort of referral fee paid out for any clients that come through the site.

We’ve seen agent matching sites before (Incredible Agents and Homethinking spring to mind) but this is the first site that I’ve seen that marries agent discovery so close to the property search touchpoint. It’s rather like the recommended items on Amazon.com – and I kind of liked the experience.

While it’s bound to be controversial (as any kind of computer generated valuation generally is) – what I liked about AgentMatch was at least the promise of editorial neutrality. Unlike Trulia or Zillow’s pay-to-play advertising model, which as a consumer I’d typically disregard. In theory, the algorithm should surface the best agent for my needs.

What I would like to see however, is greater detail and transparency on how the AgentMatch suggestion is generated. Currently – there’s really no explanation provided as to why the agents that are presented are suggested. And that’s the biggest shame really.

No sense telling me the who without telling me the why.

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