This Facebook marketing tip relates to the personal profile marketing tool in Facebook. For clarification on where this tip fits into the greater Facebook marketing picture, please view our post Facebook Foundations: Facebook’s Marketing Tools Explained.
The launch of the new Facebook profile layout last week (update-this article was originally posted in December 2010) created a new opportunity for the creatively inclined to use the power of photos to tell a story about themselves at the top of their profile. Take a look at this article on the most creative ways to customize your Facebook profile and this example I created on my profile which emphasizes my association with Pixel Coaching through the use of color and logo:
So how can a real estate professional use this? Here are a couple of ideas to get you started (all of which can be executed by tagging yourself in six photos – the most recently tagged photos of you appear next to your profile image):
- Create a panorama like photo of your community or city (see this great example)
- Take pictures with your sellers at closing in front of a “Just Sold” sign
- Take pictures of yourself with your for sale sign yard sign
- Use photos of your listings or scenic shots that represent the lifestyle of your area.
- Upload your logo of your company or take a picture of yourself by your brokerages sign
To keep in mind:
- You have to have opted in to the new profile layout that was released on Monday, December 6th, 2010 to execute this tip. Facebook has indicated that the conversion is happening at phased pace over the next month or so. If you would like to convert to the new format before you are forced to (meaning, one day you will log in and, ta-da, you will have the new layout), you can go here and click on the green button in the upper right hand corner.
- The photos that display are tied to your privacy settings. The photos you tag may or may not be visible to your friends and non-friends depending on how you’ve configured your privacy settings.
- The photos that appear at the top of your profile are dynamically generated from the photos that you are most recently tagged in. So, as other people tag you in photos, they will appear in the stream. To maintain the 6 that you want to display on your stream, you need to monitor and close out unwanted photos in order to maintain the priority of the six photos that appear on your page. You can close out the photo from appearing in the stream by hovering over the thumbnail and clicking the “x” that appears. It does not remove the tag but it will remove it from the stream.
- It is against the terms of service to use your profile for commercial gain so blatant promotion of your service via pictures may be perceived as a terms of service breach by Facebook. It seems logical that you would be less likely to fall into this category if you actually appeared in each of the photos that you are tagged in – for example if you pose with your clients who you are closing deals with and you tag yourself in the photos.
Did this get your creative juices flowing? How are you going to use this new space on your profile to position yourself? Leave us a link to your profile or a screen shot showing Pixel Coaching what clever ideas you come up with!
January 2011 Update: There have been some additional, very creative uses of this new feature that have emerged since I originally wrote this post. Check out these links for some additional ideas to spur your creativity:
- 10 Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile (Dec 14, 2010)
- 10 More Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile (Dec 24, 2010)
- Another 10 Creative Uses for the New Facebook Profile (Jan 30, 2010)
In addition, check out this creative way to send a message to your Facebook friends by tagging them in a photo album YOU create as Brian Copeland of Village Real Estate has done for his friend Chris Nicols of Pinnacle Group Real Estate. What a clever way to send a message to a Facebook friend – Love this!
This article is part of a month long series of tips, tricks, and strategies for real estate marketing with Facebook. View additional posts from our “Tip a Day” series on Pixel Coaching.
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