Book 1 - Appraisal Institute of Canada

into the mix, however, care must be taken thatyour personal Facebook profile is aligned withyour personal professional brand. This meansthat attempts should be made to exclude photosof every drunken party you have attended sincehigh school. While you have little control oversomeone posting a photo of you on Facebook,you do have control over who can see it. Yourprofile must be viewed regularly, privacy settingsmust be carefully managed, and you need toexercise control over who sees what.Furthermore, if you want to use Facebook forcareer or business networking, it may not be theideal place to advance any political, religious orcontroversial causes that are close to your heart.Such activity risks alienation.If care is taken regarding the above, Facebookis a networking tool unparalleled in moderntimes. It keeps you connected to people, allowsthem to know you better, and for you to knowthem better. In short – richer professionalrelationships. It also allows for networking that issticky, i.e., in the transient business environmentof today, it allows you to maintain contact whenpeople are displaced geographically.Many people use Facebook to keep intouch with people they meet at conferencesfor instance. By the time the next conferencerolls around, the business relationship hascontinued to advance thanks to online personalinteraction.When incorporating your business networkinto your Facebook profile, care must alsobe taken with the manner of interaction.Remember that it is about the networking andrelationship building, and not about a salespitch. People do not want you to invade theirpersonal world with sales pitches and spam. Ifyou want to use this medium for advertising,buy an ad which can be appropriately targeted.“Marketing in the twentyfirstcentury meansembracing the moderntools that are currentlyavailable to us.”Do not harass or spam people.There are methods of directly marketingyour company on Facebook, such as setting up acompany page and inviting people to join it, orbecome fans. The Appraisal Institute of Canada,in fact, has such a page – www.facebook.com/AppraisalInstitute.Canada. Once again, however,care must be taken as some users view thisas an invasion of personal space. People donot want to feel as if they are just a captiveaudience for marketing purposes.Twitter is a more appropriate medium formore direct corporate brand developmentand marketing, however, it has a much lowermembership and usage than Facebook. Twitterallows users to post (or tweet) short statusupdates, which other members can follow.This can be a useful strategy for companies,however, the challenge is great in creatingsomething that people want to follow regularly.A blog or weblog, is another medium thatoffers good potential for brand developmentand marketing, as well as for achieving clientservice and loyalty goals. While some maysee the term blog as somewhat cliché andoverused, it is the blog medium or format thatis important. In application, it does not have tobe called a blog.As one of the original social networkingvehicles, weblogs provide a method ofcommunicating to a larger audience,collecting feedback from the community andsubsequently building lasting relationshipswith customers and partners. The blog formatis essentially that of an article that allows forreader interaction in the form of feedback,ranking, concurrence polling, etc.By supporting the self-publishing of richarticles on extremely focused topics, weblogsprovide a vehicle for positioning as thoughtleaders within the marketplace, allowingusers to differentiate themselves from othercompetitors.Blogs can be linked to other bloggers, andif the content is highly rated by members ofthe web community to which it is targeted,it allows for greater ranking and readership.This momentum can then be synergized foruse with other Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook,Twitter, or even live webcasting, etc.Using Web 2.0 applications for marketingpurposes is a broad and complex topic, andtherefore impossible to be explored in depth inthis short article. Therefore, I would encourageyou to inform yourself regarding the aboveapplications, as well as myriad others withinthis class, and work them into your marketingplan in a manner that works best for you.Marketing andCommunications CommitteeBeverley Girvan, AACI, P. App – ChairGlen Power, AACI, P. AppTom Fox, AACI, P. AppLaura Kemp, CandidateDavid Babineau, AACI, P. AppTo contact this committee email:communications@aicanada.caclick here to return to table of contentsCanadian Property Valuation Volume 54 | book 1 | 2010 Évaluation Immobilière au Canada 19