Stephanie's Blog

What are businesses doing on Facebook?

One of my Facebook friends had posted a question recently about Hannah's Closet's consignment shop in Facebook, so I responded to it because I've consigned my children's clothing at her store previously. After thinking about some more, I decided to speak with the owner to see what she knew about using Facebook, since the majority of her customers are moms with young children, a huge population using Facebook. 

Did she think about using Facebook to connect with her customers? I thought there was great opportunity for her to use Facebook to promote seasonal sales events, get feedback from her customers, and to create a free space where her customers could talk about anything related to consigning items at her store.

For so many in that generation, communicating through a place like Facebook is easier than picking up the phone and calling. With Facebook, you don't have to wait until the store owner is available, you can simply make your comment or post your question, then check in for your answer the next time you're on Facebook.  The response you get will help not only the person asking the question, but anyone else reading it.

I'm obviously promoting Facebook because the space it serves multipurposes and is free.  In my upcoming workshop on Social Media Marketing at Hannah Grimes Center in Keene, NH this month, I'll be speaking about some of the tools available for various small businesses to take advantage of.  I'd love to hear any other ideas you have or experiences you've had using Facebook for small business. Please feel free to comment below.

www.stephaniejacques.com

Stephanie Jacques

First time buyers of Keene, NH take NOTE, this home is now available to be viewed.  Priced wonderfully at $149,900, the 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bath ranch has a unique layout and modern kitchen. Heated efficiently with pellet stove or oil, you'll save by living in Keene at an affordable price!

Please take a tour.

Please contact me directly if you are not working with an agent or schedule showings through your agent. Overnight notice required.

Stephanie Jacques

Listing Agent, Realtor

BHG The Masiello Group

www.stephaniejacques.com

603-283-1948

I've been asked by people in the community about how to begin writing a blog. I'll post some basics, though practice is really essential and you'll see why.  You can start one on Activerain, Wordpress, Blogger, among others. Do a google search and see where you'd like to get started. You can also start by responding to blogs that you read. Creating your own blog is not for everyone.

Developing a voice

This takes a bit of time. Read other blogs about interesting topics whether it be about knitting or about Legos, about Real Estate or about Mortgages. Everyone's first blogs are written just for that purpose, to get that first blog out. There is some anxiety about what to write, how to write it, what will people think, who will read it, etc. Once you get a few out, check your statistics and read / respond to your comments. You'll see what attracts people and you really need to know ahead of time who aim to attract through your writing.

Adhering to the social media culture

Don't sell yourself. What? That's right, that style is meant for the old PR and Marketing rules. This is a culture of transparency, passion, emotion, personal or professional opinion backed by an openness to hear other's thoughts and opinions, acceptance, knowledge sharing (don't hold great ideas to yourself, you could be helping others by sharing those ideas), helping others, vulnerability (ask questions you don't know and let others help you, people on here are driven to help others and this give/take will help you build relationships), visit regularly.

What to write

Think about your work, what questions do you often get and what answers do you often find yourself repeating? Using those in a blog (one per topic or question) would help you increase your traffic because, chances are, several other people have those questions and are looking for those answers online. Using keywords for searchability in the following places will help drive readership: in the title, in the first few lines. If you add links, don't just add them as "click here", instead use keyword phrases that will help your post be found in the search engines.

Length of blog matters

This blog here is a bit longer than recommended. Can you answer a question, share a story, or communicate what you need to communicate in 3 paragraphs? Use highlighted topics and create an appealing page to read that's easy to scan.

Pictures and style

Add your own pictures or use some from Flickr.com (but be sure you follow the rules, some photos can be used for free but only if you acknowledge the person who took it, others have stricter guidelines...).

Come from the heart

I sometimes get so moved by something during the day that I feel the need to share. Write about that. I sometimes get asked such a great questions (how to write a blog) that I feel the need to respond so that everyone can benefit. If you're an artist, write about the feelings you had or the story behind a piece of art. Be passionate so people can relate to you. Tap into other people's passions and emotions.

Good luck!

www.stephaniejacques.com

Today at 11am will be a one hour segment on the future of newspapers.  If you're on a computer, you can listen to this on your Windows Media Player for free. The Diane Rehm Show.

This should be interesting for any of us keeping track of the media changes.

Stephanie Jacques

Can you get a "deal" now on buying a home in this buyers market? Interesting question, and I've been asked this several times during the past year so I figured I would post a blog about my answer.

On story, when my husband and I bought our first home, it was a foreclosure and it was nearing the end of a buyers market. Prices were definitely in our favor. We fixed up our home over the years, sweat equity as we know it best, and were lucky enough to outgrow it the summer of 05, right before the buyers market began to show some results. At that time, when we closed, we were able to answer the question, "is it a deal?" Because of the timing of our sale, the condition of our property at the time of the sale, and our motives for selling (we were not desperate, just exercised great timing on both the purchase and the selling ends) it WAS a deal that we got.

BUT WHAT IF you buy a home today at a price lower than you would have paid 3 years ago for the home. OR you buy a home in a short sale at a price less than the seller owes. Do you feel you got a deal? Maybe.

I'll take that even further and add to it that your life changes and you end up having to sell in 6-9 months, for equal to or less than what you paid for it. Was it still a deal?

So I'll wrap this up by commenting that perception, life circumstances and market value in relation to timing of purchase and sale are all necessary to look at when answering this question, "Is it a deal?" Factor in the tax credit incentive and add to that a look into the future, if you are able to hold off selling until after 36 months of ownership of this home, and you avoid having to pay due to recapture, did you get a deal then?

I would urge buyers to look at their lives and consider what's important to them right now. What are their needs for the next couple of years and take it one day at a time. Your future will answer that question of "was it a deal?" when the time comes to sell. If you're lucky enough, you'll be able to sell during a seller's market and you'll have some equity in your home.

Good luck!

www.stephaniejacques.com

www.bhg.com

www.masiello.com

I posted this blog about using Realtysoft for my website a couple of months ago. Several people emailed me directly with questions and comments, both of which I was happy to respond to. I have since registered my site with Google Analytics to track the stats from viewers coming to my site. If you have a site of your own and have not yet done this, you are missing out on valuable information.  I am now able to learn about where people are arriving from when coming on my site, as well as what length of time they spent on the site.

Google Analytics simply defines what you need to know to do a simple assessment on your views. From this, I've developed some further questions. I plan to add a polling widget next on my site, asking a question of those viewing the site.

Isn't there something we can all learn from potential customers that can help us improve our services or make our site more user-friendly? Don't we want people returning because we offer something others don't?

I then made a list of websites I like to return to and took a look at the reasons I would return to them. The changing interest rates on www.debbief.com 's site keeps me returning daily. There is also a tool on this site that allows you to pull up a good faith estimate (ESTIMATE, remember), and a tool that allows you to see what the mortgage payment would be if you paid 1 or 2 points vs 0 points in a refinance.

I hope this blog was helpful. If you have anything to add, share, or some additional sites you'd like to post that offer great tools, maybe sites that keep you coming back...please respond below!

Attention Keene and local area towns, it's time for us to have our own Food Coop!

I recently received this email (parts have been copied below) on a Keene City Council meeting scheduled for March 19th 7-8:30pm to listen to Bonnie Hudspeth (chair of coop committee) present details about getting a food coop in Keene, NH!  Please participate if you share an interest :

"Please, ASK YOUR FRIENDS, and tell anyone interested in a Food Co-op in Keene to come.  The more people, the better.  The entire presentation will only be 20 minutes tops, so even if you can only come for 20 minutes, it would be greatly appreciated! After we present to them, we plan to move forward to the FOP Committee to request a $5,000 match to the $5,000 we have from DRED for our feasibility study.  Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the Council meeting! 

 If you are interested in getting more involved with any of the MFCC committees (Education, Inventory, Infrastructure, or Coop)  please drop me a line.  I would be happy to speak with you about your interests.  We are always looking for more volunteers.  Thanks for your continued support!"

Amanda Costello

District Manager

Cheshire County Conservation District

603.756.2988 ext.116

amanda.costello@nh.nacdnet.net

The mission of the Cheshire County Conservation District is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of our natural resources for the people of Cheshire County by bringing individuals and groups with common environmental interests together to share ideas, resources, and information. 

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Granite Granite Gorge! What a place. I finally got a chance to visit last week while the children were at camp and childcare and my husband and I had a few hours to ourselves. We went cross country skiing at our local, Granite Gorge and what a fun family place right here near Keene, NH! Below are some photos of Otter Brook Dam, which was at the end of our cross country ski trail. The trail took us 1.5 hours from start to finish, with a picnic lunch at Otter Brook right there in the snow! It was a beautiful day and the trail was well groomed with tracks for our skiis...I had no idea they could do this, by the way, I've never done this before!

Otter Brook Dam

That's me heading back toward the mountain.

My legs gave out! The trail was quite simple, I'm just out of shape!

Costs were $10 for half day of cross country skiing per person, $18 for rentals.

Better Homes and Gardens has a nice feature that offers staging and remodeling ideas, including a tool to help you arrange a room and provides color selection tips that could be put to use when visiting a home for staging. I'm finding this site increasingly helpful when working with sellers who are preparing their home for market. It's a nice, hands on and user friendly site full of color and tips and also includes stats on housing trends which can target any market in the country.

More and more we are using the internet to find answers to just about anything.  To better relate to consumers in various age group, I feel it's important we provide them access to information in a way that is appealing to them. 

Enjoy!

www.stephaniejacques.com