Month: June 2009

#6: Post your virtual tours to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace (and 50+ more sites!)

Leverage the power of Facebook, Twitter and over 50 other social networks to help spread the word about your virtual tours. It is super easy to do and a great way to share & promote your real estate listings using the web’s hottest new technologies.

Instructions: Post your virtual tour on Facebook

  1. open your dedicated property website in any web browser (e.g. www.tourvista.com/784)
  2. click on the Share tab
  3. mouseover the “Social networks and bookmarking sites” button and click on Facebook

Facebook will open in a new window and pre-populate a Profile post for your Wall that includes:

  • a link to your virtual tour website
  • the property address, type and description
  • a thumbnail image – select a different image using the little arrow buttons

Add a personal note at the top if you’d like and click the Share button to update your Wall and your friend’s News Feeds.

Note: you have the option of “Send a Message” that will email your TourVista link to select friends directly from Facebook. We recommend using the Wall method described above because it allows visibility to all of your friends (present and future) and will generate more traffic for you.  In this sense, the Wall post is less invasive on your friends and more permanent for your online marketing.

ps – speaking of Facebook, if you haven’t claimed your personal Facebook URL yet (e.g. www.facebook.com/mattcass) do it now – www.facebook.com/username. You can get one for your company page on Facebook but only if you have 25 fans. Of course, we’d love to have you become a fan of TourVista’s Facebook page!

update 12/21/09: link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts directly from your virtual tours!

#5: How to setup MLS-compliant links to your virtual tours (non-branded)

TourVista creates a dedicated property website and link for each of your virtual tours. For example, www.tourvista.com/784. Link to this dedicated property website in your marketing materials to maximize your property views and increase your online brand.

Property sellers: be sure to include your TourVista link in your local MLS and get maximum exposure for your property. Most MLS’s will include this link in their data feed, meaning that your virtual tour link will show on many major real estate search portals.

Some MLS’s restrict the information that you can show online about your properties. TourVista allows you to customize which information is shown ensuring that you are in compliance with your MLS.

This short video gives a demonstration on how to create a non-branded, MLS-compliant link to your virtual tour website: