Control Who Sees Your Posts on Facebook (video)
When talking with those in the industry about Facebook, one of the most common questions is “How do we keep our personal information separate from our business information” and vice versa. They are excited about all the possibilities of networking and using Facebook but have concerns about professional connections seeing pictures of their kids, vacation, Halloween parties etc. I am a big advocate of showing your personality on Facebook and sharing that information, but there are definitely times when you want to keep things separate. (if for any reason not to annoy one set of connections or the other)
The great thing about Facebook are the many uses. One might use it primarily to connect with those in the professional world and others might use it only for personal connections. Many times, people want to use it for a little bit of both.
Until recently, many had to make a clear choice of how they were going to use this tool. Now Facebook gives you the option to control WHO sees your posts.
Each time you share content on Facebook, you can now decide who can see it by using controls in the Publisher. Watch this tutorial to learn more about these new Publisher privacy controls.
Of course, first you will have to set up and use your “Friends List” to segment your connections. Once that is done you can start controlling the message better. How can you see yourself using this new option?
You can ready more on Facebook’s blog here: New Tools to Control Your Experience
Build a Model Home for $2,500 (video)
I am sure you are intimately familiar with the cost to build and keep a model home running? Many times, it’s thousands of dollars every month.
How cool would it be to build a virtual model home – starting at $2,500.
That is exactly what Focus 360 is doing with their brand new Value Line. I was familiar with their product and quality of work with other builders and have seen these tours before. I also knew that it was a sizeable investment. Well, now they have introduced a new product for every builder. Check out the video below of my interview with Steve Greco at the recent BIS show in California.
I always like to bring you the latest in tech and I think this product is fantastic!
You can see examples at their site www.focus360.com and click on the link on the bottom right that says New! Value Line.
(Update) Steve left a comment pointing out their recent post on the Value Line here.
I quick snippet:
Take a look at the samples below that were produced for less than half the cost of our traditional imagery and let me know what you think. We are here to partner with you and deliver the rendering, animation, video or interactive tool that fits your project’s (and budget’s) needs!
And here are the goods:
Value Line Virtual Tour from Focus 360 on Vimeo.
Value Line Rendering
Your New “Web 2.0″ Script
I had an interesting experience last Sunday. I was volunteering for the Parade of Homes with my favorite home builder in Tulsa, Simmons Homes (I am biased, I consult with them as well) when Zach and Amanda came in. They had just signed their contract to build a brand new home and were very excited. They wanted to tour the model home I was manning to get some ideas and I struck up a conversation. Come to find out, they were perfect examples of first-time buyers taking advantage of the tax credit. Not only that, they are also getting married right before they move into their brand new home. It is a pretty cool story.
So, thinking about how to capture the moment – I asked if I could go over a few questions with them and record their response (the new iPhone 3 GS – should be standard issue for all sales executives). (You can see the results below – which we uploaded onto Simmons Homes Youtube account, published it on Simmon’s Facebook page and then tweeted out the message.)
After they had agreed their video could be posted online, I asked another question…
“Are you on Facebook?”
Amanda replied emphatically – “Yes, I am on Facebook all the time!”
I asked the next logical question, “Are you a fan of Simmons Homes yet?” – To which she replied, “No, I didn’t know you had a page – but I will be now.”
And here is where it got fun. I asked “Hey, would you mind, as you take pictures of your home and share them with your friends and family, would you also share them on the Simmons Homes wall?” She loved the idea and said, “Of course I will, that is a great idea – we are so excited!”
It is also worth noting – the sales executive that had sold the house hadn’t introduced this new “web 2.0″ script yet. This is a great way to stay engaged with the customer and also encourage them to spread the word for you. A builder doing a good job should be able to track 20-30% of their sales from WOMM – or word of mouth marketing. Social media allows for this to happen faster and to reach more people than ever before.
How can you ask your customers to engage with your company?
