Google allows users to create and embed maps into your own website.  Using Google Maps is a great way to illustrate the many amenities in a neighborhood.

You can add customized icons with photos and link them to websites.  For instance when marketing a home all the external features can be added to a map, then the map code can be embedded on the brochure page you create on your site.

Tutorials in Screencast

To illustrate this process I’ve made 3 screencasts with step by step instructions on how to create, customize and embed Google maps onto your website.

How to create a personalized Google Map –Where to Begin?

Adding customized icons to your Google Map – Step by step, how to find icons and add them to your Map

Embedding your Google Map into your Blogsite –

Personalizing Google Maps to Illustrate Amenities is a post from: Kristalks

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Google offers a great tool for those who have blogs.  Using Google Voice you can publish their Click and Call Widget on the sidebar so your customers can have the convenience of easily contacting you.  This free feature from Google offers so much more than voice mail.  When a caller uses it, the system rings every telephone you configure.  If you don’t answer it will record a message.  The message is then both transcribed into a Text and email to you and also archived in the system for you to read or listen to later!

To use Google Voice you will need 1) a Google Account 2) a Google telephone number.

Here’s how to get your own Google Voice Telephone Number and the Call Me button for your blog:

If you already have a Gmail account, just log into it.  Click on “more.”  (If you do not have a Gmail account, go get one! They are free!)

Next you will have to click on “even more.”  Then the next box pops up.  Look for “VOICE”

When you click  on “VOICE” you will be directed to a setup screen, where you can configure the system to ring your telephone numbers.

Look for then click on “Settings”  the next screen will allow you to Choose a Google Telephone Number.  Follow the instructions, continuing on to configure the telephones you want Google to ring when searching for you.

Remember, if you add your home phone and there are other people in your house, you will need to train them on how to answer the phone for you.  This is coming from your professional site, so a professional answering routine is important.

The person answering the phone will be told by the Google Recording who is calling and who the call is for, so they will know what type of caller is on the phone.

After Setting Up Telephone Numbers Go Get Your Widget

The Google Voice Widget can be found by going to the “Call Widgets” link.  Here you can configure the widget to do different things.

Be sure to save your changes!

Next go grab the Widget Embed Code. The screen will look something like this:

Just copy the Embed Code to your clipboard,

Ctrl-A to get full code.  Ctrl-C to copy.

Now go to your WordPress blog, >Appearance>Widgets>Text

Grab a “TEXT box” and drag it over to the Sidebar column

Give your Widget a Name, “Contact Me” works.

Save then go to the Home Page of your Blog and admire your work!

Let Google Voice Find You is a post from: Kristalks

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A Facebook page with 47,000+ members (fans) was deleted today.  The site used the Trademarked term “REALTOR” in an unauthorized manner Facebook.com/socialrealtors.

The owner, Jonathan Rivera  had been contacted by N.A.R. regarding the improper use of the Trademark. Jonathan said he was trying to reach someone at Facebook about changing the url.  Facebook didn’t respond, instead they deleted the site.

Oops!

Two years of building a valuable site now gone.

Lessons to be learned?

1. Pay attention when naming a business (fan) page on Facebook.  The terms clearly state the rules.
2. If you are a REALTOR or a vendor who plans to use the Trademarked term, familiarize yourself the the acceptable uses of the term. No excuses here.

Jonathan Rivera sorry about your site, I’m sure you are heartbroken.  I know it’s not much of a condolence, but I’m sure with your track record you can recreate the site and it will be bigger and better than before, also in compliance!

Facebook Shuts Down a Trademark Infringement Page is a post from: Kristalks

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This week is the annual Inman Connect Conference in San Francisco. Typically I attend but this year I have too many commitments to make it, so I must satisfy myself watching from afar.

Lucky for me there are so many people attending Inman that are using Twitter Hashtags.  By setting up a search in Twitter I can follow all the Inman tweets.

Saving a Twitter Search is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Here’s how to do it.

1. Login to your Twitter account.
2. In the “Search” box type the event’s hashtag.
3. In this case that would be “ICSF”
4. Click on the magnifying glass
5. When Twitter completes the search you will see, “Real-time results for icsf!”
6. If you wish to “SAVE” it you can click save.

How do you know what the HASHTAG is?

Hashtags are usually published by the event coordinator.  Typically if you know of someone attending you can ask them what it is.  You can also do a search for the event and find a tweet where someone is using it.

Hashtags are not “regulated.”  Many people just use the # sign to express feelings or accentuate a point.

Most conferences, like Inman use the same hashtag each year.

About the Conference, here are some goodies!

Some of the presenters were kind enough to share their slide decks with us.

Here’s links to what I’ve found, enjoy!

The Future of WordPress by @janeforshort

pubsubhubbub this is beyond me at the moment, but I’ll figure it out!

@tcar had a great resource list (Snaps from Todd Carpenter) with video on how to enable WordPress 3.0 goodies along with links to other resources (including my site:) That Todd is a smart man!

Matt Fagioli is live blogging on /Life

Well there you have it!  That’s enough reading material for one week (minus the spammy links)!

Using #hashtags to Track an Event is a post from: Kristalks

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If you are a Twitter lover like me, you might find yourself wanting to see more of the pretty pictures people use for their backgrounds.  You know, the photos that get obscured by the Twitter stream.

Well I finally found a site that will “lift” the stream so I can view the photo underneath!

Try this out, go to Peekr .  On the site you will see a toolbar that says, “drag me to your toolbar”.  Just grab it and place it on your tool bar by dragging it with your mouse.

Once there all you need to do is go to Twitter.com and find a background you would like to see in it’s entirety. Click on the Peekr bar and it will lift the stream so you can see!

How cool is that?

Peek Behind the Twitter Background is a post from: Kristalks

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Facebook Business pages are quite the rage right now. People are using them to advertise their business, generate leads, keep their consumers informed.  The benefits of having a Facebook page are many, the importance of having one to illustrate your brand is obvious!

Creating a unique look on your Facebook page is not too difficult.  The way it is done is by installing a Facebook Application called FBML, Facebook Markup Language.  It’s free, but installing it is a tad tricky.  To walk you through the process I’ve written a step-by-step tutorial.  Give it a try and when you are done come back and leave a link to your work.  I’d love to see what you built!

How to Add the FBML App to your Facebook Business page:
Follow these instructions:

1) On Business page click “EDIT PAGE” (located on left column just under photo/logo)

2) You need to Add the FBML Application to your page. To do so Type “FBML” in the “Search” box at page top.

From the pick list that pops up, choose “STATIC FBML” this will take you to the FBML Application page. (you have now LEFT your business page.)

3) Click on “ADD TO MY PAGE”

NOTE: If you have created more than one page you will need to “Highlight” the page where you want the FBML application to be installed.

4) Use the Browsers “BACK” button to return to your page. You should be on your page’s EDIT PAGE. Scroll down looking for the FBML APP.

5) Now the FBML App has been added to your site. The next step will be to configure it by adding HTML Code to add photos, links and anything you would like to dress up your page.

Other Tutorials About Adding Personality to your Facebook Business Page:

Adding a Photo to Your Facebook Business Page

Creating Links in the Sidebar of Your Facebook Business page

Adding the FBML Application to your business page. is a post from: Kristalks

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Facebook is so popular these days. Everyone seems to be playing over there.  It’s no wonder, the party seems to go on all day and all night too.

If you are looking to leverage the power of Facebook and would like to create a unique looking Facebook business page, this tutorial will help you achieve that.

In my previous post I demonstrated how to “Create Links in the Sidebar of Your Facebook Business Page.” In that tutorial one of the concept I illustrated was how to add the FBML Application to your page.  We will be using this application so if you don’t have it, go to that post and follow the instructions.

If you have already added the FBML Application to your page, all you need to do is go to it on the edit page of your site.  Once you find the FBML Application, click on the “edit” and at the bottom of that page you have the option to “Add another FBML box.”  Click on it.  Now go back to the “edit page” on your business page.  Look for the FBML that is not being used.  This is where you will be adding the following code.

2) at this point you have either activated the FBML App or added another App to your business page.

The application will look like this:

3)The next step we will be adding the code to the HTML section on the page.

4) You will need to find a photo or image to use and upload it to your Flickr or Photobucket account.  Copy the image path into the FBML Box.

Here’s the code:  5) Now add the two urls between the “” (apostrophes) It will look like this:

6)  At this point you will need to save your FBML edit. Return to your business page.  Look for the Tab called “Boxes.”  Click on boxes, you can now view your image in this TAB.

Of course the point of this tutorial was to place the image in your sidebar, so click on the tiny little pencil in the upper right corner.  You will see “MOVE TO WALL TAB”  click on it to move your image out of the BOX area and onto your sidebar.

Summary:  We learned to add the FBML to the edit page.  We learned you can have more than one FBML application box on the site.  We also learned the code for adding a LINKED image to the sidebar.

Adding a photo to your Facebook Business Page is a post from: Kristalks

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If you are looking to dress up your Facebook business (aka Fan)  page, a good way to do it is by adding a few links.  Links can be a collection of resource pages that add value to your business page. They can be links to your company’s website or perhaps a collection of links of sites you read and admire (think blogroll).

Facebook is not like websites where all you need to know is HTML code to create a link.  On Facebook you must add a FBML application in order to make the HTML code work.

It’s really not that hard, so don’t quit yet!  Follow these instructions:

1) On Business page click “EDIT PAGE” (located on left column just under photo/logo)

2) You need to Add the FBML Application to your page. To do so Type “FBML” in the “Search” box at page top.

From the pick list that pops up, choose “STATIC FBML” this will take you to the FBML Application page. (you have now LEFT your business page.)

3) Click on “ADD TO MY PAGE”

NOTE: If you have created more than one page you will need to “Highlight” the page where you want the FBML application to be installed.

ALSO: If you installed this application previously – there will be no choices for you to install.  The application will be found on the page – just go to the next step.

4) Use the Browsers “BACK” button to return to your page.  You should be on your page’s EDIT PAGE.  Scroll down looking for the FBML APP.

5) Click on “EDIT”

Add your descriptive title in the “BOX TITLE”

In the large empty portion of the box you will be adding HTML Code from the next step 6.

6) To create a link you need to have the complete URLS to the sites you wish to link too.

The best way to save multiple links is to;

a) Open “NOTEPAD” on your computer. Go to >START>NOTEPAD

c) Mac users – Open TextEdit

Working Tip: Why Notepad you ask?  Well it’s free and it exists on you computer.  Notepad is just a TEXT editor, it does not add extra formatting to your work like MS WORD does.  You can pop notepad up, place your text on it, hit save and not worry if you make a mistake and lose it like what might happen when you are working online on Facebook.

Saving your work to notepad (Mac = TextEdit) means it is easier to correct when you make a mistake right now or need to modify it later on.

————-

Collect the URLS you wish to link to.  Surf to the site, copy and paste the url directly to your open notepad.

It will look like this:

Next you will need to create the HTML code.

In NOTEPAD click down a few spaces to give yourself some room, then add the following code exactly as you see it.

Copy and Paste the line of code for every link you want to create.  3 links = 3 lines of code.

Like this:

You have just finished creating the code.  Now you will need to do a few more things.

• First copy one line of url and insert it between the “” in the code (parenthesis).  It will look like this:

• Next let’s clean up your code by deleting what’s in the red area.  Here’s an example:

• The last step to complete your code is to add the LINK TEXT.  Link text should describe what the url (website) is about.  It can be the name of the website or a description of what the site is about.  In the example we are using the link text for the 3 urls will be:
  • REBar Camp
  • Picnik – a free photo manipulation site
  • Flickr – share your photos and make friends too!
• Between the > <  Add your Link Text.  Mine will look like this:

7) OK now Cut & Paste this code from NOTEPAD (or TEXTEDIT) to the Large Empty box on the FBML EDIT page.

WORK TIP: At this point you may wish to SAVE the copy you completed on NOTEPAD.  I like saving work when there are extensive links involved.  If I make a mistake all I need to do is return to my NOTEPAD file and correct the mistake instead of creating the whole darn thing again!

Now that you have saved your FBML Edit, you need to return to your Business Page.  Look for the Tab called “Boxes”.

Click on Boxes, you can now view your links in this TAB!

At this point you can call it quits and leave your links under the TAB.  But if you are like me you would rather have your links more visible on the sidebar of your business page.  To move them, click on the tiny little pencil in the upper right corner.  You will see this:

9) In the drop down box click on the “MOVE TO WALL TAB”  your Links will leave your BOX TAB and now be found on the sidebar of your Business page!

Wow!  That wasn’t so hard now was it?

In summary,

You learned how to an a Facebook application.  In this case we added the FBML application, but you use the same routine pretty much for adding any application.

You learned how to use NOTEPAD or TEXTEDIT as a workspace when working with code.

You learned how to save the file in NOTEPAD or TEXTEDIT for future reference.

You learned HTML code for making a hot link!

You learned how to add HTML code to the FBML box to create links on a Facebook business page TAB or Sidebar.

If you like what you learned, please leave a comment!  Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog in your RSS Reader and become a FAN (Like me please) on Facebook.

Creating Links in the Sidebar of Your Facebook Business Page is a post from: Kristalks

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Facebook Profile Page vs. Facebook Business Page

Facebook has so many different applications, it tends to confuse people.  Few realize there are significant differences between the two.

A Facebook profile page is the page you get when you first sign up for Facebook.  It is were you add information about yourself and your friends and associates can write on your wall.

The Facebook profile page is only readable by those who you let “see it.”  Your profile is NOT index-able by Google.  For people who are wanting the exposure, being indexed by Google is a good thing, that’s why it is important to have a business page.

Facebook Business Pages

As a member of the Facebook community you can build a business page that is in addition to your profile.  The business page is free and you can have as many as you wish.  Each page can have a different theme, using specific keywords so it can be found via the search engines.

Creating a Business Page on Facebook

The nice people who run Facebook offer business pages for FREE to those who are lucky enough to figure out how to build one.  I say this only half in jest, because finding the “Create a Page” icon is difficult!  As Facebook grows and improves, they tend to change things up.  Just so you know, when looking for something on Facebook occasionally you will have to poke around until you find the correct path.  Don’t give up…it will be there.

Scroll to the very, very bottom of any Facebook page.  In the bottom navigation bar you will see:

Click on “Advertising”. Next click on “Pages” or “Create a Page”.   If you have already created a page, your screen will look different that if you are creating your first page.  Just look for the “Create  a Page” and follow that link.

The next decision you will need to make is regarding the “type” of business page you would like to create.  Most people will be creating the page for a local business or an organization.  Pick the appropriate category and then give your page a name.

Keep in mind, once you choose a name you are stuck with it.  The only way to change the name is to start over.  Choose wisely!

My next post will run through the steps to spice up your new page by adding a photo/logo and a few links using the FBML application.

Facebook – Understanding the Difference Profile Page and Business Page is a post from: Kristalks

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Right Here Right Now – The Lastest Version is a post from: Kristalks

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