Did you know... The Ad Maker Tool in 21Online will allow you to customize popular CENTURY 21 advertisements, including videos, in SECONDS and for FREE!
Check out one of our agent's videos! It's the same video that was played during the 2013 Superbowl, but with the agent's contact information at the end!
Click on the Ad Maker System in the Tool Library Box (Ad Maker will open in a new tab or window).
2. Click on My Account and verify that your information is correct.
This is what will display at the end of the video. You can only edit the Personal Information. If there is an error or change needed in the Company Information, please email hr@century21award.com.
3. Click on Ad Library, then Videos.
Select the video of your choosing.
Click the magnifying glass icon to preview (it will take several moments to render) and the shopping cart icon to order your custom video
You do not need to preview first if you would like to skip this step.
Select Send to Self in the Trafficking Options pop-up.
Click Continue Shopping to order more ads or Checkout to complete your order. Your custom video will be ready for download in a few minutes!
4. Download your video and Share!
Click on Finished Ads, then Order Number, followed by Click Here to View the Final Ad to start the download.
Once your .MP4 file has downloaded, upload it to YouTube, email it to your SOI, share on social networks, use it in your online marketing and display it on your website!
Need more assistance?
Full training is available in Ad Maker by clicking on Ad Maker Training:
…In talking to hundreds of individual REALTORS®, we came to an powerful realization: The vast majority of agents still get 80%+ of their business via word-of-mouth referrals. [This], combined with the incredible mainstream adoption of of Facebook and the Social Web over the past year, triggered a thought in our minds: What if we could build technology that helps REALTORS® optimize the 80%+ of their business that really matters? [...] The Roost Social Real Estate Toolkit is easy to use and all about helping you grow the biggest, most productive part of your business: word-of-mouth driven referrals from the people you know and the people who know them.
First things first: how can you get the app? Easy peasy lemon squeazy: go to the Roost App page of Facebook, click the “Go To Application” button, allow permissions, and follow the directions. Need a more visual example? Roost created a great video tutorial.
So… what can this do for you? A lot, actually…
Create a real estate tab on your personal page or business fan page (This first example if for a personal profile. See my test profile page in action here. And click on any image below to see a larger version in a new window.)
Add your picture (from your profile picture album), a tagline, and some marketing copy. Note: to stay in compliance with Facebook’s TOS, you will not be able to edit a phone number. I added mine manually in the marketing copy section. Is this a violation? I’m not sure.
You also can add introduction copy to the left of your photo, which is the text above the Google Map image.
Based on the information you provide about your market area, Roost will provide market stats, education information, graphs from Altos Research, and a Walk Score (see my test page.)
You can also add up to four listings (active, contract accepted, sold, open house). The Roost app will ask you to create a photo album called “Listings” from which you will select the photo for each property (I went with clip art for simplicity’s sake- you should put an actual home picture). You enter the address, price, bed/bath/square footage and a short headline.
You can edit, change, or remove these listings any time.
How does the personal page differ from the business fan page?
(Click here to see my test business page in action.) The biggest (and maybe only?) difference that I can tell is that you are now able to add a phone number, web address, and company logo. Note: You will still need to select a page owner and owner picture. Because of this, you wouldn’t be able to use this on behalf of a company without singling out one person as the “owner”.
Schedule future posts from within Facebook with Publisher
The Roost Social Toolkit also provides an invaluable tool: the ability to schedule future posts (to your profile or any page that you admin). These posts can include link previews as well by using the Add Link function. Check out Roost’s video tutorial here.
I tested two links last night and was rather pleased with the outcome:
As you can see, the posts come via Roost, so you do run the risk of losing exposure if people “hide” the Roost app, just as you are if you use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or the Twitter app. FYI: The first test didn’t show an image when I created it, and the second test replaced apostrophes with special characters. Be aware also that you can only schedule posts to go out at the :00 :15 :30 and :45 marks, and there is currently no way to use the Tagging feature in a scheduled post (from any program).
Who will benefit most from using this? Realtors who are using Facebook only will find this tool to be a great aid, if only for the publisher (although having that non-invasive “I’m an agent!” reminder with the Real Estate tab can only help you). If you’re all about social media and like the ability to schedule and post to multiple sources (FB/TW/LI/etc) at once, I would stick with an outside program- my favorite being Hootsuite.
Room for improvement? Knowing admittedly nothing about creating Facebook apps… this is my wishlist for the Roost Social Toolkit: 1. The ability to use the Tagging function in a scheduled post 2. A plugin or popup to easily schedule links from other windows a la the Facebook Share Button, Hootsuite Hootlet, or Bit.ly Sidebar 3. The ability to add a few more listings. (It doesn’t make sense to me that you can only add four when there is clearly space for six). 4. The ability to upload images off the hard drive vs from Facebook Albums 5. The ability to use the Toolkit on a page without selecting a singular owner (although I suppose there would be lesser incentive to purchase a custom app from Roost) 6. (And this one is purely because I’m lazy) The ability to auto-populate listing data from an MLS number
Q: Ok, I’m getting the hang of the new(ish) website and Broker/Agent Admin, but there’s a lot to know! What are 5 things that I may not be aware of?
A: Excellent question! Broker/Agent Admin (sometimes referred to as the Backend/Agent Backend) is where you have control over your Agent Website, can create searches/CMAs/One-to-Ones, find company news, and more. Here are 5 things that you might not have known before: 1. YOU CAN CREATE CRAIGSLIST-READY ADS IN THE MARKETING SECTION IN MINUTES
Hopefully you are already using the Marketing section of Broker/Agent Admin to create fast and professional printable fliers. But did you know that you can take these fliers and post them to Craigslist almost instantly? To do this, just copy/paste from the HTML pop-up box… or watch the short video tutorial below:
2. YOU CAN ADD ANY LISTING FROM YOUR MLS AS A FEATURED LISTING ON YOUR HOME PAGE
If you wish to add other listings to the featured listing section of your Agent Site homepage, you first have to change a few settings:
-Log into Broker/Agent Admin and click on My Website
-Click on “Settings” from the left hand menu and select the button for MANUAL. Click the SAVE button. Click OK on the popup screen.
-Click on “Featured Listings” on the upper right. Select the button for MANUAL. Click the SAVE button. Click OK on the popup screen.
-Click on “Listings” from the left hand menu and select the button for MANUAL Click OK on the popup screen.
-Click on OTHER MLS LISTINGS (top right) and select MANUAL Click OK on the popup screen.
-Now you may add the MLS number of a property into the text box below. Click OK. NOTE: You may only add listings in the MLS(s) you have linked to your Agent Site.
-Once you add a listing, click on ACTIVATE LISTING.
-Your added listings will now appear as FEATURED on your website and in your Listings section.
IMPORTANT! Doing this will no longer automatically pull your listings from the MLS. You will need to enter the MLS number for all listings you wish to appear on your site.
3. COMPANY SUPPORT IS FULL OF USEFUL FILES AND INFORMATION
Need a logo? Transaction documents? How about a referral form or letterhead? Notes from a Social Marketing training? All this (and much more) are waiting for you in the COMPANY SUPPORT section of Broker/Agent Admin. I highly recommend you take a few minutes to browse through the various sections and familiarize yourself with the resources available. 4. YOU CAN ADD YOUR OWN DOCUMENTS AND FILES TO COMPANY SUPPORT
You can add your own documents/videos/etc into Company Support. These will only be available to you when you are logged into Broker/Agent Admin. Why would I want to do this? If you have documents that you frequently require outside of the provided documents in Company Support, you will be able to access them from any computer once you have uploaded them to Company Support.
TO UPLOAD
-Log into Broker/Agent Admin and click on COMPANY SUPPORT.
-Click CREATE MAIN CATEGORY (Upper right). Name your category and click OK.
-Your category will now appear in the left side menu. Click on your category.
-Click CREATE SUBCATEGORY and name a subcategory,
-Click on your subcategory in the left hand menu.
-You may continue to create another subcategory by clicking CREATE SUBCATEGORY again, or you may upload a file by clicking UPLOAD FILE
-TO UPLOAD A FILE: first select the type of file (Media- YouTube videos, Document, Image, or Link). Give your file a name and description. Follow the prompts provided. Acceptable file types include YouTube video URLS, PDFs, Word Documents, Excel Documents. 5. RECENT SALES ONLY PULL YOUR LISTINGS SOLD, NOT BUYER-SIDE SALES To add your recent buyer-side sales:
-Log into Broker/Agent Admin and click on MY WEBSITE.
-Click on RECENT SALES from the left hand menu.
-Select MANUAL.
-Click ADD RECENT SALE (upper right)
-Enter the MLS number of the sale and click RETRIEVE
-Double check the pulled information, make any necessary changes, and click SAVE at the bottom.
