Facebook Takes Another Step Toward Merging Functionality of Pages and Profiles
Anyone who’s been following this blog knows I’ve been playing pretty heavily with Facebook Pages as a marketing tool and think the tools have already surprised Twitter as a micro-blogging tool in terms of functionality (and in many ways, even utility).
This morning, I noticed that Facebook has now taken it one step further. In the area that used to be reserved for making “friend” recommendations, they’ve now started including profile Pages!
This rocks and I’m sure will make it even easy for people to gain traction on their profile page. And if you want to join my page as the community I’ve created explores how to use social media and Facebook Pages to generate business, then head over and become a fan!
By the way, I really want to thank the 200+ people who have become fans over the past few weeks. It’s been fun to watch as more people join because the conversations have obviously improved. It seems like almost every micro-blog post, video, link, etc. is generating a conversation, which just rocks from my point of view!
Fran and Rowena 12:33 pm on April 11, 2009 Permalink |
Dustin,
More good information! We’ll be on the lookout for that.
We are finding that many people do not understand the difference between a profile and a page, and how they can be a “friend” and/or a “fan”.
thank you!
Dustin 12:39 pm on April 11, 2009 Permalink |
Fran: Short answer: Definitely! I don’t think most folks know what a FB Page is yet or the difference between creating a Page for their business as oppose to having a personal profile on Facebook. The beauty of this is that it’s still early enough in the evolution of Pages that I’d think this lack of knowledge is a real market opportunity for some savvy business and brands.
Scotty Brown 12:23 am on April 12, 2009 Permalink |
Nice job trying to get more fans, but I’m smoking you now!
Cmon!
Su Prieta 4:32 am on April 13, 2009 Permalink |
@Fran and Rowena, @dustin: I am afraid that I am one of those people that doesn’t yet know the difference, but I am intrigued. I am going to soon be looking to expand my marketing efforts on Facebook. But, I have been thinking of ways to market myself and my website separately from my social page on Facebook. How can I start a group where people can follow my me and my website as a fan? How has this worked for you?
Dustin, I’m would like to check out your page on Facebook. How can I do that?
Dustin 6:51 pm on June 11, 2009 Permalink |
Su: Not sure how I missed this comment for so long… You can always check out my Facebook Page at http://dustinluther.com/
Top 3 Reason to Love Facebook Pages | Seattle Real Estate | Rain City Guide 3:20 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
[...] I like twitter, the marketer in me has completely fallen for Facebook Pages (note: these are a very different beast than Facebook profiles)… and if you’re running a small business, there are many reasons you should be [...]
Charles Richey 3:42 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
A friend of mine is launching a website for spa parts and filters so we launched a fan page for hot tubs about a month ago. Last time I checked it was almost at 2,000 fans. It will be interesting to see if that converts into traffic once the site is up and running.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 3:50 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
Nice! I’m finding a ton of success with FB Pages with some of my clients… but it’s like most other online marketing. You’ve got to offer something of value and expect to spend a decent amount of time (or money) marketing…
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Courtney Cooper 4:37 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
I first learned about the page function from you and then I learned about being able to point a personalized domain (courtneycooper.com and dustinluther.com) to it from you and I am impressed! I hadn’t thought about the friends of fans part of it….But that is three great FB page ideas that came from YOU – plus I see my mug captured in your screen shot – LOL. Congrats on also being able to grab that elusive personalized FB page domain because of all your fans, too!
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 4:42 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
ahh… we’re just getting started!
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Jay Ehret 6:21 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
Good luck with the Facebook page Dustin. I will follow with interest. I am on record as saying that I don’t believe Twitter and Facebook are the best marketing venues for Realtors. However, you are blogging and that’s a good compliment to Facebook and Twitter marketing.
It’s interesting that your forward your web address to your Facebook profile. I’m curious as to your reasons.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Ben 8:07 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
You absolutely spot on Dustin…being recommended to your friends fans is HUGE!!! You certainly have inspired me to get our team moving on our FB page.Its all about that value proposition -you so rightly mention – in this regard, look out for our video creation engine for individuals and small business to create video online for their real estate business in minutes and automatically syndicate to facebook pages!
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 8:26 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
Hi Jay,
I agree that twitter and facebook is a bad use of most realtors’ time, but only because they often do a horrible job using it as a marketing tool. Ditto for blogging, though. When done right, there’s no better way to reach a niche audience than with social media… and it’s often the niche audiences that provide the best referrals for most professionals (both online and offline!).
In terms of forwarding dustinluther.com to my facebook page, it’s simply so that I can link to it easily from sites like twitter. Recently (like this weekend), Facebook let me get a “vanity” url for my fan page so I can now link to my page via: http://facebook.com/dustinluther but before that I had to use a long URL with a string of numbers in it. Not very easy to share (or remember!).
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 8:27 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
When you get the Facebook Page built, let me know. I”m always curious to see how different people use the tool to market their biz.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Ben 9:13 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
Sure thing! I`m curious to know how you would rank your top 3 fb functionalities? Those providing you the most traction on your profile pages right now!
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 9:45 pm on June 16, 2009 Permalink |
great question… but not sure I have a “top 3″… Nonetheless here are some of the things that come to mind: Start with a niche… For example, I went after real estate professionals interested in social mediaGive regular updates (2 to 3 a day) of relevant and interesting stories. Try to keep self-promotion to a minimum… especially when building up the communityHave a unique landing page (tab). I use the Static FBML app for mine. Promote it around the web. I link to my FB Page from the URL link on twitter, from my blog, and in many other places. There’s a bit more to the magic… and like any other bit of online marketing, the more value you are willing to offer people, the easier it will be to attract attention.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
David Losh 5:54 pm on June 17, 2009 Permalink |
The comments are messy. It took me two tries to get to this box.
The time element to stay up on social media is a problem. So far my return on that investment of time is limited.
Let’s see if this works.
Thanks again.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Ben 6:29 pm on June 17, 2009 Permalink |
I was thinking more in terms of actual functionalities being provided by FB & through third party developers. You did mention the static FBML app which is no doubt useful! Nonetheless nice post… the value is undeniable!
What is your take on highlights and recommendations does one have any influence or is this appearing pretty randomly? I would think when it came to newsfeeds this is influenced by the frequency of posts very much on twitter lines…???
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 10:13 pm on June 17, 2009 Permalink |
yeah… there’s just not too many apps that do much for a facebook page. The real benefits come from regular and engaging updates.
Highlights and recommendations aren’t really random. From what I can tell, it’s almost entirely based on what you’re friends are engaging with (i.e. “liking” and/or commenting on). That’s part of the reason that engaging content is so key. If you can get people to engage with your stuff, you can end up in front of their friends.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Rhonda Porter 7:57 am on June 19, 2009 Permalink |
Dustin, I’m excited to see how the RCG FB page evolves and the new RCG Twitter. I’m surprised about your comment regarding traffic:
“Traffic: at this point traffic from
social media feeds (like twitter’s
stream and Facebook’s newsfeeds) are
generating more traffic than RSS feeds
for almost every website I run.”
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Mike Ciucci 11:44 am on June 19, 2009 Permalink |
Here again, I think that web 2.0 social media sites are the future. Always updated, always blending “personal” and “business” together, ever changing. For me, I’ll have to agree that I like FB better than what Twitter provides. Twitter is quicker, sure, but I’ve formed better relationships and ‘readers’ on FB.
Thanks for the article.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Rhonda Porter 7:49 pm on June 20, 2009 Permalink |
Dustin, let’s say you’re on a desert island, and you can only have one or ther other: twitter or facebook… which would you select and why?
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 8:15 pm on June 20, 2009 Permalink |
hmm… With Facebook, I get more family and close friends who are most likely to help get me off the island, but with Twitter, there’s some nice mobile apps that would let folks know my exact GPS.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Rhonda Porter 9:02 am on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
Too funny! Have you checked out Ning? (sorry…kind of off topic).
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Ardell DellaLoggia 11:06 am on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
Just logged in using Facebook. It shows my correct avatar in the sidebar. Seeing if that carries for a comment.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 12:08 pm on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
yeah… the problem is that the “system” just created a “new” account for you that’s not connected to your original RCG account… I still haven’t figured out how to delete the connection you made between your RCG account and Kim’s FB profile. But at a minimum, I know I’ll have to delete the one you just created (no use have two ardell profiles in the backend of RCG), so I don’t recommend leaving comments when connected to this account.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide
Dustin 12:11 pm on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
Thank you much
I have checked Ning out… but from a marketing point of view, it’s not much different than trying to build up a community with a blog. The hardest part of community building online is getting in front of people who “might” be interested in taking part and with Ning, you’re pretty much left to do all the marketing yourself (just as I was when I started RCG). The beauty of FB communities (like the RCG Page I started the other day), is that it lets you tap into a community of people where they already are, so it’s a lot easier to get traction.
This comment was originally posted on Seattle Real Estate ~ Rain City Guide