Facebook for the Realtor – Getting Started

Posted by Tom Lyons on December 11th, 2008

Ok, well here we are. You’ve read the first post in this series right? If not head there first and check it out, you need to know why you’re going to do this before you actualy start the process.

So now that you know the why, let’s start looking at the how.

Today we only want to do one thing. Set up our profile in Facebook. I’m a beleiver that if you can do one small thing each day to move you the direction you want to go, you’ll be amazed how far you get over time. It’s a tortoise/hare thing.

So that’s what were going to do, start slow, and over time if you stick with me, you’ll go far.

Step 1: Go to Facebook.com

Step 2: Sign Up for Facebook

Step 3: Confirm your email address.

Step 4: Facebook is about making and keeping connections. The part of the picture we are creating right now is personal side of your Facebook presence. It’s called your profile, and it’s about the more social friendly side of Facebook. Which means we need to find some of your friends.

The first stage is checking which of your current friends are on Facebook. Facebook makes this a little easier by allowing you to scan your current email contacts. If you’re worried about Facebook having access to your email, you can always skip this step. There are other ways to find friends.

6. Continue with the steps facebook walks you thorugh to set up your new profile. Remember to be complete in the information you give, but be yourself as well. Social media is about authenticity. If you would be uncomfortable telling something offline, you don’t need to share it online either.

7. Ok let’s head into the profile once it’s set up.

See the photo below. You’ll notice the arrows point to my status update, it’s one of the key tools of communication in Facebook. It tells people what you are doing, what’s happening and is your tether to all your friends. See how Tara’s status has been added to my page. She’s giving away some concert tickets cool, maybe I’ll comment back or give her a quick call, or email, or txt. She’s actively found a away to engage me, her friends and customers. In fact, she gave away her 10 ten tickets in minutes with that post. Do you think that built customer loyalty?

Ok, we’re going to stop here for now. We don’t want to get all fancy quite yet. What I hope you’ll do why you wait for the next post is go out and make some friends, start some conversations and play with it for bit. A word of caution. Even though this is your personal face in face book, keep it professional, clients are still interacting with you through this medium. Don’t go crazy with Apps, use your judgement and take things slow so you can get comfortable.

Don’t hestitate to find me, I’ll be your friend! And feel free to ask me some questions.

Here’s my Facebook Page. http://www.youhavetom.com You’ll notice it’s a facebook page not a profile, we’ll get to those soon. Become a fan, and I’ll friend you back. And of course if you really want to ramp this stuff up, get in touch with me about our “Making You Findable Program”, nothing wrong with a little self promotion.