Have you used Facebook Questions yet? Facebook questions launched pretty recently with not a lot of fan fare, and it was almost by accident that I stumbled upon it.

According to Facebook:

“Facebook Questions lets you ask any question and get quick answers from your friends and other people on Facebook. Questions is designed so that anyone on Facebook can help you find the answer. So when you ask a question, it is shared in News Feed. If your friends answer or follow that question, it will be shared with their friends and so on.”

Here is why I like Facebook Questions:

1. It is a super easy way to push out content from your Facebook business page. “What should I post?”  – this is ALWAYS at the top of mind of any real estate agent who has a Facebook page. As part of your social media plan, incorporate a few questions a week. You could ask questions like:

• Are you planning on moving in the next year? (answers could be: yes, no, maybe_
• What’s the best part of living in (city)? (answers: parks,  schools, restaurants, all of the above)
• Do you think the economy is improving? (answers: yes, no, not sure)

2. The nice thing with Facebook Questions is you write the question and the answers. You can opt to have people add more answers, but I personally prefer to set the answers myself.

3. . Facebook Questions are easy for people to answer and share. You typically will have a higher response to a Question than some of your other posts. The more people interact with your page through Questions, comments or liked, the more your OTHER posts will show up in the News Feed. This is a huge benefit.

Here is an example of a simple question we posted on our Inman News Facebook page a few days ago:

You can see from this one question we had 53 people respond!

How do I ask a question through Facebook Questions?

1. Select the Question option at the top of your profile, home page, group or Questions page.
2. Enter your question.
3. Add poll options if you wish. To limit the answers on your poll, you can uncheck the box allowing anyone to add options.
4. Click “Ask Question” to share your question.

Pretty simple tool! Are you using Facebook Questions? I’d love your feedback – leave me a comment below!

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

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The more you learn, the more you earn.

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Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Last week I was able to participate in an extraordinary and power-packed conference – the ERA IBC 2010 conference in Nashville (#ERAIBC).

ERA has done a really great job of re-branding themselves and truly embracing social media and web 2.0.

From their Opportunity Stations, to their Social Media Lounge, Twitter Sign-Up Station, Discovery Hub – it was clear that ERA is very focused on moving their brand and their agents into the ‘new way’ of doing business.

“Real estate is changing—it’s a new world for our industry,” says Charlie Young, president and chief executive officer, ERA Franchise Systems LLC. “Consumers are more knowledgeable, technology is delivering information that was previously inaccessible and the brokerage community is evolving in response to a new economic reality. At ERA, we are building ‘a smarter community’ of brokers and agents to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s consumers and real estate brokerage industry.”

IBC featured a variety of programs designed to enhance the learning experience and to help brokers and sales associates build meaningful connections that add value to their business. Specialized learning tracks featured education sessions, such as “Motivating Buyers to Buy,” “Make More Money with Social Networking” and “Seizing on the Recovery Market.” The sessions were hosted by industry experts and allowed ERA brokers to create a personalized plan to enhance their business.

I taught a one hour “Social Media Bootcamp” class where I coached agents through my “Top 5 Tips for Social Media Success” and helped to give them a simple and easy-to-use plan.

A highlight of the General Session was “Innovation Hour” with Inman News founder/publisher Brad Inman and ERA CEO Charlie Young. Brad and Charlie discussed innovation and technology in 2010 and what that means for the real estate community.

Personally, one of the best parts of the event was being able to meet and interact with the agents and brokers from all over the country (and the world) who came to Nashville. Some were not familiar with Inman News, so it was exciting to talk to them and let them know about the news we provide.

I know I am biased, but I am extremely proud to work at a company like Inman News where day in and day out, I get to see first-hand the award-winning and unbiased news that our journalism team puts together.

Hundreds of agents at ERA signed up for our free daily headlines service – if you haven’t signed up yourself I highly recommend it! You will get an email from Inman News 2x a day with the top real estate headlines of the day. It is a great way to keep up-to-date with nationwide real estate news and trends. I honestly think every agent should sign up!

I also met a lot of agents at ERA who had been enjoying our free headlines and decided to upgrade to a premium membership because it gives them unlimited access to our news, webinars, exclusive industry reports, discounts on our conferences (Real Estate Connect) and much more.

It’s very exciting to see the direction that ERA is headed in! ERA agents and brokers, if you attended ERA IBC please leave us a comment below and let us know what you thought of the event.

To everyone else….do you have an event coming up? Let us know! Leave us a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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p.s. Have you downloaded the ConnectNYC app yet? It is available for use on any smartphone. Go to http://connectnyc.boopsie.com on your mobile browser or for iPhone users, go to the iTunes App Store and search for ‘ConnectNYC’

posted by Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) really needs no introduction. Web 2.0 guru, brilliant marketer and unabashed self-promoting social media superstar, he is on a mission to help you take advantage of the all the latest web technology to further your goals and monetize your passions.

I first met Gary at his keynote at Real Estate Connect in New York where I had the opportunity to corner him for an video interview (see Leverage the power of social media).

Gary’s book Crush It has been tearing up the best-seller lists and I’m stoked to announce that as of today, Crush it is available as a vook.

I could write a lengthy blog post about the app – but Gary sums it best…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXeeieMBM7Y[/youtube]

The Crush It vook app contains 18 never-before-seen videos and the full content of the book. It is available for immediate purchase on iTunes (App store download) and on the Web.

[Full disclosure: I've been working on this app for the last couple of months. Vook was founded by Inman News publisher Brad Inman.]

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Thousands of fans packed Pioneer Square in downtown Portland at 1am last night to see and hear comedian Dave Chappelle perform. Later dubbed “Davestock” by some in the crowd, the event was a truly remarkable night.

The evening unfolded something like this.

Allegedly, Chappelle, while wandering around Portland yesterday, told a handful of people he would be doing a free set at 1am on the steps of the downtown gathering spot.

Word began to spread through social networks, via Twitter and Facebook status updates. Anticipation began to build. (As did some healthy skepticism that it was all a hoax).

Chappelle expected a couple hundred people to show up and instead, this is what happened.

An utter mob scene – but in typical Portland fashion, totally chill.

I think this is a wonderful illustration of two driving concepts in today’s web economy; the power of giving something away for for free and the power of social networks to distribute that message for you.

Let’s tackle the first concept – as Chris Anderson explains in his book Free, “free” is a incredibly powerful motivator and can instantly build brand loyalty. How many Chappelle fans, spurred on by the thrill of him just showing up, raced home and purchased his CDs or DVDs off Amazon? How many will be in line to buy tickets the next time he swings through Portland? By deciding to perform for free on a whim, he instantly connected with a legion of local fans and gave them a unique night to remember.

So what are you giving away for free? A market report, your home search tool (i.e. no registration). There’s lots of things you can be doing for free.

Secondly, the excitement around the mere thought of a Chappelle appearance in Portland was amplified exponentially by online social networks, as friends told friends, and the word of mouth buzz spread. And, either online or offline, this buzz (and good will) will likely continue for weeks as the story is retold over and over.

Granted most of us aren’t stars the magnitude of Dave Chappelle, but each of us, in our own way, can use this understanding that by doing something remarkable, and better yet, by giving it away for free, you can create instantly communicate, invigorate and even resuscitate your brand to your fans.

We can all learn something here. Even from a funny man like Dave Chappelle.

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Two well known real estate bloggers have launched a new training program for real estate professionals.

Jeff Turner and Bill Lublin have announced the creation of the new Social Media Marketing Institute (SMMI) and now offer a new designation to Realtors; Certified Social Media Marketer (CSM). The course is designed “to educate business professionals in the effective and responsible use of Social Media to generate business through permission-based marketing.”

Both instructors certainly have the chops to pull this off; Jeff is better known as the founder and president of the virtual tour company Real Estate Shows. He is a deep thinker and true pioneer in the social media space – you can follow him on Twitter (@respres) and on his blog Turner’s Perspective.

Bill is the CEO of a Century 21 affiliate in Phildelphia; you can read him on MOVEPHILLY blog, on Twitter (@billlublin) and is an active contributor to AgentGenius.

For more on the SMMI, read today’s Inman News article.

Other social media/online marketing resources:

• 1000Watt Consulting
• Reachd
• 4Realz
• New Media Labs
• Domus Consulting

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It must be something in the water. Or maybe its just the fact they’re working in one of the most competitive real estate markets in North America.

Whatever it is, it seems like Vancouver-based Realtors are really pushing the envelope when it comes to new media marketing (see Video Isn’t Just About Your Listings).

Kye Grace is one of those Realtors. He recently completed a marathon open house; 3 days non-stop, embedding himself in a downtown luxury condo he was trying to sell.

But what makes this open house story different was he conducted it entirely online.

Grace live-streamed his entire 72 hours over the internet on his web site 72houropenhouse.com. He used the video streaming service Ustream.tv to connect with potential buyers through the embedded chat window and fielded questions through other social media tools like Twitter.

It’s just this sort of creative thinking around marketing that’s going to get you and your listings noticed these days.

Certainly, there’s no doubt Grace also benefitted himself from healthy media attention his endeavor attracted – the local television channels and newspaper all picked up his story.

He even turned the idea into a revenue opportunity offering up sponsorship opportunities to local vendors to come in and talk about their products and services too.

The idea that you can adopt all the means and methods the mainstream media has had at its disposal to accomplish your own goals is one of the most powerful and defining paradigm shifts brought about by social media in real estate.

So, how did it go? Ubertor Real Estate Blog has the follow up.

Photo by Adrian Eden

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