Recently announcing their launch on Facebook, Frugyl is designed to “crowd source” information and reviews on real estate marketing products. Products and services are evaluated by Realtors® in a group forum and Frugyl then determines the “best” of any category and offers the product at discount prices exclusive to Frugyl Club members.

“Every vendor will say they have the best product and the truth is this just is not the case,” said Chief Frugylist Jimmy Mackin. “What separates Frugyl from other services is we do the leg work. Frugyl works with vendors who are highly rated by customers then works with the vendors to offer deals to Frugyl members with a 100 percent money back guarantee if they are not satisfied with the product.”

Frugyl was born out of the What Should I Spend My Money On group in Facebook which provides a forum for real estate professionals to share their experiences with services they are using to grow their business. Mackin said the group grew to nearly 3,000 participants in one month and members found it difficult to keep up with the conversations happening each week. This inspired him to create Frugyl.

However, access to the content and deals are not free. Frugyl charges $9 a month to subscribe to the service. In return, members receive a weekly digest of the forum conversations, the deal of the week and a breakdown of how it works. Members also have access to a private Facebook group along with web based training sessions on social media marketing and technology.

“The goal of Frugyl is to bring greater transparency regarding the actual return on investment that sadly often times just is not there,” he said. “It’s our mission to help you discover great products that will help you grow your real estate business, without having to spend hours a day on Facebook.”

The new tool is being integrated into the Realtor.com HyperSocial™ group of agent search tools designed to help connect buyers, sellers, and agents, while also helping Realtors® better manage their online reputations through recommendations.

In a press release last week, Realtor.com president Errol Samuelson said, “For years Realtors® have built very successful businesses by networking within their local communities,” he wrote. “Today, approximately eight in 10 agents and brokers are in charge of marketing their listings and 56 percent consider social media important for generating connections with prospective clients.”

Realtor.com offers two new HyperSocial™ search tools:

• HyperSocial™ Agent Profile Pages. Mobile-enabled pages viewable from desktops and most mobile devices.  These are Realtor® profiles which serve as safe places for Realtors® to direct their clients for all relevant contact information in one location.
• HyperSocial™ Agent Recommendations. A Realtor® branded URL that is an easy way for clients to share a recommendation a Realtor® has earned without any registration requirements. Recommendations are reviewed and approved for display by each Realtor® and can be manually or automatically broadcasted to their online network from one central hub. When the recommendation URL is emailed or texted, users are directed to the Realtors® HyperSocial™ Agent Profile featuring other key contact information.

“By developing our recently acquired SocialBios technology into a scalable tool to find Realtors®, millions of people can quickly find a Realtor® based on common connections, interests and groups,” said Samuelson. “Realtors® can also use our new HyperSocial™ search tools to manage their online social reputations and proudly broadcast recommendations across the web as they’re transitioning their networking talents into the online world.”

HyperSocial™ Agent Profile Pages and HyperSocial™ Agent Recommendations will be integrated into the Realtor.com Find a Realtor® (FAR) directory at the beginning of the 2012 home buying season.

Registration is available in beta for Realtors® with a valid NRDS number. Information on how to register can be found on the company’s website.

Earlier this month, YouTube launched its new layout in hopes of gaining a competitive edge over cable TV by providing easier access to channel content for users.  Statistics show the typical YouTube user spends on average 15 minutes a day viewing content on the site.

“The new YouTube layout is going to be the new television,” said Chris Smith, chief evangelist for Inman News. “I watch YouTube more than I watch television right now.”

For real estate professionals, the new YouTube layout is expected to provide an easier way to add video marketing to a business.

“A shared Tweet results in six new YouTube.com sessions which means on average more than 500 tweets per minute are linked to YouTube,” said Smith. “Tweeting and YouTube are doing very well together. YouTube is a gold mine in my opinion.”

Smith recently conducted a free webinar called Video Marketing with a Brand New YouTube for Inman News where he offered his strategies for creating solid video marketing. He expects YouTube’s new layout to provide a way for real estate professionals to generate more leads with their video content.

There are three main new features with YouTube’s new layout:

1. New homepage. The new homepage offers customized information based on streams that the user has subscribed to as well as access to Facebook and Google+ social profiles so users can more easily share videos they find interesting.
2. Customizable channel pages. YouTube users with channels will now be able to choose from one of three template options for further personalization and simplification of their channels’ pages.
3. New design. The design, based on user-feedback, offers larger video thumbnails for easier user interaction with the site.

“The videos matter more than the look and feel of the channel,” said Smith. “Videos make the house a home. Don’t do a video. Tell a story.”

Smith says the best video content to create includes blogging, community blogging, client testimonials and highlighting local businesses. “The two most important things to remember are to create content that is helpful and humanizes you,” he said. “You want to tell a story about the home, the area and you as an agent.”

Once you click the link, you’ll have seven days to preview and test your Timeline before it goes live. With Timeline, your profile page will convert from one column to two. The new page will have a line down the middle, with different life events, activities, status updates and pictures branching off to each side. The large space at the top is called a cover photo.

Before, you could take the time to scroll to the beginning of your life on Facebook. With Timeline, you and your friends can click the timeline and view your digital past.

Cover photo

You now have the ability to showcase a large photo at the top of your page. The cover photo can be anything from a picture of your family or pet to a favorite place or television show. You don’t have to post a cover photo but it will be a blank gray screen if you don’t.

To add a cover photo, click the ‘Add a Cover’ button. Facebook gives you two options – choose from a photo you already have on Facebook or upload a new one. Once chosen, you will be able to reposition the photo but not edit it. The size dimensions for this space are 850 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. A higher resolution photo will work best. You can change your photo at any time by hovering over the Change Cover icon. Your cover photo is public, as is your profile photo.

Life Events

Facebook’s already added in life events you posted to your profile, including your birthday, graduations and jobs. Now it’s up to you to add your life events from before the first day you signed up. Click a year on the timeline bar on the right of your screen. A new bar will appear at the top. You can add life events (birth of a child, marriage, new job), status updates, pictures or location check-ins for that year.

Your Past

If you joined Facebook as a high school or college student, you may have pictures and other status updates on your profile you don’t want others to see. This is where “Hide from Timeline” will be essential for you. Every status update, picture or link you posted has two icons now – a star and a pencil. The star allows you to feature that item which makes it stretch across both columns. (You can always minimize this too.) The pencil lets you hide it from the timeline or edit it. Take the time to go through your past history and decide if it should be included for everyone to see.

Privacy Settings

Remember to look at your privacy settings. If you only want your content to be seen by friends, make sure your settings are correct. If you’re worried about old and embarrassing photos from your past appearing on friends’ timelines, turn on Profile Review. This allows you to approve photos before they appear on your profile for all of your friends to see.

With more than 100 types of social media tools available on the internet, it may be difficult to decide which ones are the best to use.

Commercial Realtor® Bill Gladstone recommends using LinkedIn and YouTube as integral parts of any online marketing plan.

“It’s important to have good communication in social media,” said Gladstone. “You should post meaningful content to these platforms in order to establish your credibility and become an expert in your field.”

Gladstone spoke Monday about the top social media tools commercial Realtors® should use during the 2011 Real Estate Symposium at the Radisson Hotel in Camp Hill.

“Social media should become new part of your job,” he said. “It can be very difficult but it’s important to stay committed. The more involved you become the better you will be at your business.”

He recommends using LinkedIn as a source for doing business. He says LinkedIn helps clients find a credible Realtor® through search engines.

Gladstone recommends every LinkedIn profile have the following:

• Professional profile picture
• Executive summary
• Skill sets
• Education
• Three recent positions
• Three recommendations or testimonials.

Gladstone says the real estate industry is at a crossroads when deciding how much money should be invested into video social media marketing and not other channels.  

“YouTube is one of the more unique and creative social media platforms,” he said.  “It allows you to create a message of meaningful content and is entertaining. If a picture is worth 1000 words, a video message can be so much more powerful.”

Gladstone says while creating videos for YouTube can be a bit of a learning curve, it’s a perfect platform for attracting clients.  He recommends posting video’s on topics including community experts, market updates or even vacancies in the area.

“The internet is about being brief,” he said. “People are not used to longevity anymore and are looking for quicker and better ways to be entertained. If you can entertain people, it’s easier to educate them.”

Lance who recently conducted a webinar for Inman on how to build a successful Facebook page says strategy is knowing how to bring a page to life in an authentic, compelling and personal way.

“Know your brand and core audience and what is important to them,” said Lance. “Find out who your supporters are and what content will engage them.”

Lance says one of the biggest mistakes agents make when trying to engage their audience is only posting their listings.

“Posting your listings is a big no-no,” she added. “Try posting a photo of a unique home instead and say a few sentences about it. This is an easy way to post a listing and not be annoying about it.”

Lance offers her top strategies for growing a successful Facebook page.

Know your audience: Find your core audience by targeting neighborhoods, people of a certain age and employees of a certain company.  Ask yourself what kind of relationship you want to have with the people connecting with your page.

Suggest people become fans: Send out a special e-mail inviting people to like your page but don’t do it every day. Give them a reason to like your page such as offering a contest for a free giveaway or gift card.  Be sure to add a link to your page in your e-mail signature block.

Brainstorm content: Create a list of content you want to put on your page and build a grid. This is a simple way to organize the content you want to put out and gives you topics to post about each month. Content could include a story about a past client, economic updates, community news or personal interests such as a favorite restaurant in the community.

Engage your audience: Most agents don’t work in one neighborhood. Ask engaging questions to an audience about what they like most in their neighborhood. Post two photos of two different homes of the same value and ask which one your followers like better. Once your audience is engaged, be interactive and nurture your relationships.

Post once a day: Once a day is ideal. Your post may not show up in a feed if you do it more than once and it may irritate your audience.

“Build a strategy, create an authentic brand, make it interactive, nurture your relationships and keep learning,” she said. “Just by doing this you will be ahead of the game.”

N-Play

The free Real Estate Agent Directory is intended to help Facebook users search for Realtors® by location and expertise and connect with them. The application allows users to review the real estate professional’s background as well as their prior services before connecting to their actual Facebook business page.

“This directory makes it easier for the consumer to connect with the Realtor® and allows the Realtor® to provide additional content for the consumer to look at,” said Mark Bloomfield, founder of N-Play.

“More than 80 percent of the real estate industry is on Facebook,” he said. “Facebook is ultimately a great platform for Realtors®. It starts a connection and builds a relationship with the consumer a lot better than a personal website can.”

Bloomfield says multiple state associations around the country are currently using the directory and over 100 real estate professionals a day are signing on to use the service.

“Facebook is a good platform for doing business because it allows for full disclosure and provides good control for managing information, comments and shares,” he added.

Based out of Jacksonville, FL, N-Play provides a number of real estate applications for Realtors® and brokers based exclusively on Facebook.

In addition to launching the Real Estate Agent Directory for Facebook users, N-Play is making the application available to Realtor® associations, multiple listing service organizations and real estate community pages. PAR recently added this application to its Facebook page.

The directory service is free for both real estate professionals and consumers. Realtors® have the option to add the application tab to their business page. Users can install the directory application by logging on to Facebook and navigating to Facebook.com/realestateagentdirectory.

“It’s not enough to have tons of fans or followers,” said Lance. “I would rather have 300 fans engaged in my conversation than thousands not engaged.”

Lance recently conducted on a webinar on how Realtors® can better engage their clients through social media. She says that social media is all about the “like,” the share or the re-tweet and Facebook accounts for 85 percent of all user reactions. She said it is important for real estate professionals to understand this because when they engage their community with social media they are creating more web traffic and clients will be more likely to share their content.

 “To be successful, you really need to learn how to create and get feedback from your clients and fans,” she said. “We are in a business laced with emotion and buying a home is one of the most emotional things you can do. The easiest thing you can do in real estate is evoke emotion.”

 Lance offered these seven ingredients to her “secret sauce” for creating engagement:

• Ask questions. Social media is not a one-way street. It is an opportunity to ask questions and get fans and followers involved. Social media is all about telling a story. Post a video or story of the home seller.  Engage by creating quick polls or brainstorm a list of questions about your community, local market, etc.
• Keep it simple and fun. Tweet tips and post photos and video to help create engagement. This will generate more likes and comments. Keeping it simple will help build and maintain relationships.
• Keep an editorial calendar. You must plan with social media. You need to have a calendar so you won’t run out of ideas to post. When you are consistent with postings, you keep the audience engaged and readership will increase. Google Calendar is a standard easy to use tool.
• Create a content grid. This is not as specific as a calendar. It’s a simple table or graphs that talk about content you want to address. The content can include your site, real estate, local information and anything else you feel is interesting enough to share.
• Reply to every “like” or comment. Post an article and ask a question about it. Afterwards, thank the audience for their “likes.” This interaction is how you build relationships with people. It’s as simple as a thank you.
• Reply to every share. Using the free site Kurrently.com, track who is talking about your page or brand. The site can pull up anyone who has shared your content from your page. It is important because when you share comments, those comments go out to followers.
• Analyze the results. Use the “insights” application on your Facebook to track the activity of your followers or use Google Alerts to track the level of engagements. Google Alerts is a great tool for keeping up to date on the industry or to find out what is being said about you on the web.

“To be successful in social media, you have to make time to pay attention to your site,” she said. “Use your smartphone to get back to your audience immediately. When someone responds to something, they want a response right away. If time is money than attention is gold.”

Amy Chorew

To protect yourself and your broker from liability issues, it is beneficial for a real estate professional to be aware of inherent risks of online activities, according to real estate agent and nationally recognized technology expert Amy Chorew.

“As new technologies and web resources are developed, real estate professionals are able to use innovative techniques and strategies for connecting with prospects and serving clients,” said Chorew. “It is crucial that you, as a real estate professional, develop and maintain an online presence. However, your online activities can expose you and your broker to risk.”

Chorew says Realtors® can sometimes forget about some of the risks with being online. She said it is important for Realtors® to not place unnecessary risk on their employer through the misuse of web resources. These risks include unauthorized distribution of confidential information, false endorsements, intellectual property violations, harassment and invasion of privacy.

She identifies four types of internet use risks:

• Legal: Risk stems from the misuse of online content, potential violations of trademarks and copyrights, and potential violations of agency relationships and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Practical: Risk may be faced regarding compliance with a real estate brokerage firm’s social media policy. Social media may be misused and abused by employees and agents.
• Ethical: Risk raised by violations of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. The risk also stems from the obligations imposed by any other professional organization or institutes.
• Regulatory: Risk stems from violations of rules of state licensing organizations and by violating policies of federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, or regulations imposed by NAR, state and local associations and the Multiple Listing Service.

Chorew will be offering a real estate education session titled ‘Tech Agent: Managing Your Risks & Reputation’ during the 2011 Triple Play Realtor® Convention & Trade Expo, from Dec. 6-8 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

“This class will teach Realtors® how to use content such as social media without violating plagiarism and making sure you are in compliance with the code of ethics,” she said.  “If you have a big presence online, it could get you in trouble. I provide practical information to safely expand your presence as well as keep out of jail cards.”

Chorew is a licensed real estate agent in Connecticut and nationally recognized technology expert who specializes in helping managers and agents maximize the opportunities that technology offers them.  She has helped educate Realtors® on social networking and the impact it is having on the industry, giving agents and brokers the tools to move from traditional marketing to Web 2.0 marketing.

Triple Play is co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York State associations of Realtors®.