Social Networking Pro? Your Friends Will Decide.

By now most of us have a Facebook account and maybe even you are “LinkedIn”.  You have your online network of “friends”, interact with them, post photos, etc.  You are an experienced blogging participant so now you can use these acquired skills to begin your internet marketing campaign for your company, right?  Wrong.  Believe it or not there are improper and proper ways to attack this new realm of marketing tools and beware of sacrificing your reputation online.  Builder education starts here on the latest trends to sell your community.

First off, remember that your group of contacts or friends are gold and they are not to be sold to via social media.    For example, if you are a new home builder with many communities and have a Facebook page for each community and you were smart enough (or savy enough) to gather your existing residents into your online network along with possible prospects, you have a great start.  As a recent article in Professional Builder explains, visitors and friends are seeking to learn, understand and provide feedback.  As many a marketer knows, a personal friend or family member of a potential buyer is the most trusted source of information.    How do you engage your friends to talk or “tweet” about you, Joe the Home Builder?  As the article suggests, make conversation about your community with fun interactive activities such as “best community picture” contest by visitors or residents on your page or a model rating contest.  These are but just a small sampling of ways to interact with your network without selling to them.