How to Use Foursquare to incentivize people to come to your open house

foursquare

If you have a Facebook page, you’ve probably seen some of your friends “checking in” to various businesses around your town. Foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city guide, and game that will reward you for doing interesting things! Foursquare aims to help you and your friends keep up with what you’re doing, while at the same time, helping businesses promote specials, deals and even theme days of the week.

There are a lot of great ways to use Foursquare for your business, here are just a few tips to help get you started.

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Add your listings

Adding your listings to Foursquare can really help agents as a tracking and feedback mechanism. For instance, if you “check in” every time you show a home, those clients who see your Twitter or Facebook Feed will be reminded of your listing. Set up the location and listing so that people are able to see up to date pictures and the exact location of your listing. Now, in addition to showing your listing, it will also serve as an impromptu advertisement for you, your agency and most importantly, your listing. It’s even possible to get people to make up their minds on an offer if they see you showing a property they’re interested in. A properly timed Foursquare check in can push that undecided client of yours into making a purchase!

Checking in to your listings is a great way advertise. Listing agents and homeowners alike can check and see who is showing the property and how often they are coming back.

Pursue expired listings

No one likes to see their listing expire. When a client puts up their home for sale, they’re usually expecting something quick and easy. If you’re having trouble selling a particular home, try to reignite people’s interest in the listing with Foursquare. You can check the history of the location and how many people checked in to the listing and what they might have been looking for. Adjust your strategy depending on what worked and what didn’t work in the past.

People are also known to leave comments on Foursquare check ins, so review those comments and see what people were saying about the home. Did they see repairs that needed to be done that you haven’t? Did they think the place needed more work? What was it that kept people from buying the listing when first listed? Look through the history and determine what needs to be done in order to make your next campaign a success.

Use Foursquare to track attendance

For an open house, there isn’t a better tool than Foursquare. Attract people to your showing by offering special incentives for those potential clients who “check in” at your listing. Better than signing in, Foursquare allows a real estate agent to collect client information that you can follow up on, on a later date.

Offer incentives for those people who “check in” at your open houses and listings

Surprisingly, you don’t have to offer big rewards for people to come check in to your open houses. Even something as simple as a ten dollar Starbucks giftcard will be enough to get looky lous out to your open house and check in giving you so much more than ten dollars advertising. For every potential client that checks in at your open house, they (on average) have 150 friends on their Facebook list that sees their check in and where it is. While the person who is checking in might only be there for a chance to win the giftcard, there might be someone on their list who is looking for the perfect four bedroom two bath in Downtown area. Foursquare allows for an incredibly penetrative passive advertising platform for your agency.

The better prizes you offer, the more people will check in, and the more people will see your listing. A small investment can pay huge divedends for you and your agency in the future if you properly manage your Foursquare contests.

Use Foursquare to leave tips for people about great places to check out in your city

Beyond your clients doing passive marketing for you, Foursquare is a great way for you to act as a concierge service for your clients at places all over the city. As a real estate agent, you want to appear that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to your town/market, so you need to be checking into places you like as well. Leave tips about where you can find the best bagel in the city, or the best place to see a movie, or where the best steak is cooked – every time you find a place that you think your clients would enjoy, “check in” at that businesses’ location and leave a tip about what they should look for or order.

Use Foursquare to complement your social media strategy, not replace it

With the Foursquare App, you can also push your updates to your Twitter and Facebook feeds adding to the amount of people who see your check ins. Use Foursquare as a complement to those other social media sites, not as a replacement. Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare all have very different uses and experiences that users expect. Twitter is for pithy updates and quickly tweeted photos (such as pictures of your listings). Facebook is for longer updates and articles for people to discuss. Foursquare is a social app for people to show their friends where they are eating dinner, going to the movies or having fun.

Take Foursquare seriously, and you can make some amazing inroads into markets that you never even knew existed! The whole idea of social media is making yourself and your business more available to people – no matter how they interact with the internet. Use every tool in front of you and you’ll soon see rewards you never dreamed of!



What Klout.com Means to You

klout

Klout.com is a relative newcomer on the social media network scene, however, it’s already proving to be one of the most effective tools for companies to reach out to their core demographics and gold star customers who are most likely to spread the good word about you and spend money on your company.

Klout.com was founded in 2010 with the aim to measure an individual’s impact on the social media scene. Their algorithm was a fairly simple bit of genius – they measured how often a person was retweeted, followed, and responded to in each of their twitter and Facebook conversations. This publicly available data was then put through a number cruncher that determines how much of an impact a person has within their social sphere – that is – how likely it is people will follow that person’s recommendations and how many people hear what a particular person says.

This Klout score can be adjusted on a daily basis due to an individual’s daily impact. As their social media presence grows, companies find that offering these high scoring Klout individuals premium gifts and specials in exchange for broadcasting the good word about you and your company. Hotels will offer extras such as spa packages and airline companies have been known to upgrade people with high Klout scores.

What does this mean for you? Well, Klout can give you a good idea of which customers are most likely to say something nice about you and your company, thus generating warm leads for you and referrals for your company. Klout can help you determine whether or not someone is worth offering special deals to, or requires extra attention.

Scores above 50 mean they have a very high impact within their close circle of friends. This will likely include people in your area, and close friends of theirs – two things that make their recommendation have more weight than any advertisement you’d spend thousands of dollars on. Targeted advertising is the goal for any user of Klout.

my klout score

There are some good ways to raise your Klout score for your profile if you want to be taken seriously with professionals in your area. The higher your Klout score, the more of an impact you can make with your followers – use this score to leverage incentives from fellow realtors by promoting listings that you can split the fees on. A larger audience means more leads and money for you!

As a real estate agent, you know that owning your own agency is an entrepreneurial endeavor. A big company would be able to pay for branding and lead generation, but as an individual with your own office, you’re on the hook to not only sell houses, but also to keep up on the latest news in your market, branding your company, lead generation, account management, and network building. In one day, you could be doing the job of ten different people! Fortunately, if you work hard and build your brand while managing your marketing through Twitter and Facebook, your passions are driving your Klout score, which can help lead your agency to organic growth.

Raising your Klout score is more than just tweeting and being retweeted and followed. It’s about building a brand for you and your company. There are several easy ways for you to increase your Klout score:

Tweet relevant content to your followers

If you’re in real estate, make sure you’re tweeting articles, photos and other content that you know your audience will appreciate – don’t just make it a commercial for your agency. A good twitter feed that attracts new followers is one of the quickest ways to increase your Klout score. This content helps your score in many ways – hopefully they’re engaged enough with your twitter feed to retweet and respond to your Twitter name as you post that content.

Stand out from the Crowd

There are hundreds of real estate agencies on Twitter, and probably dozens within your immediate market. Find a way to stand out from the crowd and make your feed unique to you and your voice. If your agency serves a niche in real estate that other agencies do not, concentrate your twitter feed on your niche. The internet allows for an enormous buffet of different options for users to choose from – most of the time, people are looking for something very specific. So, if your agency does a lot of vacation rentals, have your social media feeds concentrate on the vacation rentals you offer. Try to partner with other businesses in your area to offer specific deals clients can only find on twitter. Partnerning your vacation rentals with discounted dining at local restaurants or other activities is a great way to promote your business. If you can’t find anyone willing to offer deals, look for trading opportunities where you can exchange free inventory for specials, coupons and other deals you can offer your twitter followers.

Encourage and nurture a referral network

Klout isn’t just about who you meet, but also the relationships you help foster among people who need to know each other. When you introduce two people looking to do business (and you can’t serve their needs), they are much more likely to come back to you when they do have something that you can help them with. Generating a referral network that helps other people will help you in the long run. There’s a lot of competition out there, so these days, you have to make every lead count!

Klout isn’t a panacea that will instantly help you market your company perfectly. What it will do is give you the kind of information you need to focus on the customers who will pay off the most in the long run. Klout gives you an idea of what that person likes, how much they make, and what their personality is like – all things that great realtors know they need to know before trying to find a house for someone. Buying a home is very personal, so the more information you have going into the deal, the more successful you will be!

To checkout Klout click here

Why Realtors Need To Be Using Google +

google plusOver the last few years, Google has struggled mightily to enter the social media arena. They’ve produced failed junctures like Google Buzz, Google Wave and Orkut. For a long time, it looked like Google would never be able to break into the social media scene. However, that all changed when Google + was introduced in 2010. Google + is Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter, and offers a more powerful experience for people who need a flexible platform to achieve powerful results. Let’s just say Google delivered.

The key to Google’s success has always been simplicity and functionality. That’s the mindset programmers had when they first began programming the site, and they’ve made the experience of signing up and promoting your business real estate firm incredibly simple. PowerUP Social Media explains why you should be signed up for Google + and the best ways to utilize the platform for your real estate firm.

1)      Build your reputation on Google +

Facebook is a great place to start, but Google + allows you to build your reputation with your clients and present the best face for your company. Google + allows you to easily promote your listings with their extremely easy process of uploading photos. You can simply connect your Android or iPhone with your Google + account and instantly use the app to upload the photos of your listings. It’s that easy!

2)      Networking

The biggest reason why a real estate professionals should be on Google + is for networking purposes. A great deal of your business comes from referrals (from past clients, to fellow realtors, etc.), so it’s important that anyone and everyone can reach you. Not everyone has Facebook or Twitter – but anyone with a Google/Gmail account is automatically signed up for Google +. Promote you and your business and join Google + Groups that are relevant to your real estate interests.

3)      Diversify your marketing efforts

As stated before, not everyone has a Facebook page or Twitter profile, so it’s always a good idea of making yourself available in all social media platforms. That way you can keep you and your business relevant. Google + is connected with YouTube now, so you can upload the virtual tour videos of your listings and make them instantly accessible to your potential clients.

4)      Google + Hangouts

Google + has an incredibly useful feature called a Google + Hangout. This is a great way to gather potential clients together in group chat/video chat sessions and lead them on a virtual tour of your properties. Video and pictures can be instantly uploaded to the Google + Hangout session, which your clients can view and learn about your listings when they might not have known about them before.

Check out powerupsocialmedia.com for more tips on using social media to its fullest potential!

Why WordPress For Real Estate Professionals Is A Must

WordPress for real estate is a match made in heaven. The powerful platform WordPress allows realtors to create a blog and website that can put their listings and agency on the front page of Google search results. Its powerful tools for search engine optimization, its flexibility and its incredible community of users, who are always happy to help, makes WordPress the perfect program for you to publish your blog. Powerupsocialmedia.com has gathered some tips so you can use WordPress to its full potential!

1)      Ease of use

The biggest advantage to using WordPress for real estate is how easy it is to use and update. You don’t need to spend a great deal of time learning about the platform, or because it’s so common, you can easily hire someone to run your site for you. You can even go the more advanced route and have it designed for you (but don’t break the bank). The available templates also make for a very inexpensive design, so you can spend money on more important aspects of your business. We highly recommend StudioPress themes.

2)      Plugins, plugins, plugins!

Like the apps on your phone, plugins are a great way for you to add that extra pizzaz to your WordPress site. In fact, if you search Google for “WordPress plugins for Realtors” you’ll find thousands of options that can help make your page stand out amongst the rest.

3)      Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is key to keeping your page on the front page of Google search results. If you’re not on the front page, you may as well not exist. That’s why it’s key for you to pick specific keywords for your WordPress site, making them unique enough so they don’t have a lot of competition. Optimizing your blog, articles and other pages on your site will help people find your business, which will lead to more money in your pocket!

4)      Use WordPress to create niche sites

If you need to set up a special section of your site, it’s a fairly easy process to create a new page within WordPress that easily links to your main page. Using the template you originally used for your site, it’s simply a matter of creating the new content you need and posting it. The process is a breeze!

5)      Inexpensive

For a minimal amount of money you can buy a domain name, hosting, and install WordPress. You can also go with a free WordPress site, but we advise against it. That’s because if you have your own hosting — you control the content yourself.

Using WordPress for real estate is a no-brainer! So what are you waiting for? If you have questions write them in the comments area below.

Flipboard | Don’t Miss This Mobile Social Media App

The biggest complaint about social media is how difficult it is to keep up on everything. It’s totally understandable. To maximize your presence in the world of real estate you have to be on several different social media platforms, and it’s not easy to monitor all of your accounts at once. Well, that’s about to change with the introduction of Flipboard — a mobile social media app you’re going to love.

Flipboard App

Flipboard

I was recently introduced to Flipboard, so I’m still figuring it out. I like what I see so far though. Flipboard is described as “Your Social Magazine”, and that’s exactly what it feels like. You can select any of your major social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram, but there are other options like Tumblr, Google Reader, Flickr and more. Yes, you can manage ALL of your social media accounts in one place on Flipboard! It’s a very simple set up too. You just simply flip through your social media accounts like a magazine, and you have full access to like, retweet, +1, etc., on all of your accounts.

There’s more to Flipboard than just social media as well. Flipboard allows you to follow your favorite websites, RSS feeds, and/or social media accounts. For example…let’s say you love PowerUP Social Media (which we know you do). You can add our website (http://powerupsocialmedia.com), our Twitter account (@PUSocialMedia) and Facebook page (http://facebook.com/powerupsocialmedia) to your Flipboard. That way you can stay on top of everything we’re doing. You can do that for anyone and everything.

The only drawback is that Flipboard is only a mobile app. There isn’t a download for your PC or your Mac. That’s where TweetDeck and HootSuite still carry value. If you prefer to manage your social media accounts on your laptop, then I highly recommend one of the two social media dashboards. I prefer TweetDeck over HootSuite, but I know several people would fight me on that. Both will help you manage some of your social media accounts (Faceboook, Twitter and LinkedIn), but not all of them like you can on Flipboard.

I also haven’t figured out how to manage multiple Twitter accounts or Facebook or Google+ pages on Flipboard yet. Again, I just started using Flipboard, so that option might be available. If it’s not — then that’s an issue. If you’re like me, you have a professional Facebook and Google+ page, and several Twitter accounts. Those accounts are just as important as my personal pages (if not more important), and they need to be managed as well.

We know how busy life is for real estate professionals, so we’re constantly striving to make life easier for you. Social media is an essential part of your real estaste business. The easier it is to manage your accounts; the less time you have to spend on social media. That’s why I’m recommending Flipboard. It might lack a couple features (more experimenting is needed), but it’s by far the best app (desktop or mobile) I’ve used to help my monitor all of my social media accounts all at once.

Do you use Flipboard? We would love to hear what you think about it! You can leave a comment below or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and/or Google+. Don’t forget to also check out our killer social media videos on YouTube, or visit us at PowerUP Social Media for more social media tips and training!

How To Use Pinterest For Real Estate

Pinterest is becoming one of the fastest growing social networks on the web today. In the last five months, Pinterest has seen an explosion of visitors, with over ten million registered users in the few months alone! This is something that if you are a Real Estate Agent you should be taking advantage of now!

But first, a quick overview of what Pinterest is, and what it is not.

What Pinterest is:

Pinterest is the grownup version of the corkboard you had over your desk in college. It’s a place where you can “pin” interesting articles, photos, motivational speeches, posters, images and pretty much anything else you find on the web. You can “pin” things to help keep you organized, places you want to visit, and things you may need for future projects. It’s a great way to keep your thoughts organized in a neat and orderly location. It’s also a great place to keep up with the hottest new trends in decorating and real estate related images. Pins are usually centered around different topics: i.e. New Home Listings, Decorating Ideas, Furniture, etc etc. You can even use Pinterest to help link build through the repining of your images. If clients are repining images of a particular property, the original source-link of your image is maintained no matter how many times it is repined by different users. So, if a link you pin goes viral, those thousands of users who are repining your image will know where it came from opening up a whole new source of clients you may have never imagined possible!

What Pinterest is not:

Unlike Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest doesn’t offer status updates. Content isn’t generated by the user, but rather from places you find on the web and on other people’s Pinterest boards you follow. You can upload images and websites to your Pinterest page which other people/friends who might be following you can repin for their own board. Pinterest isn’t a blog, or a tumblr.

How you can use Pinterest as a Real Estate Agent:

1) Be a tour guide for your listings

Take photos of your listing and post them on your agency’s Pinterest board. If you direct clients to your Pinterest board, there, they can easily find images of their dream home, which in turn can help make your job easier if you know what your clients are looking for. You don’t have to limit yourself to listings only in your neighborhood. You can display images of houses with unique characteristics in other parts of the country that your clients can become interested in.

2) Let your inner interior decorator come out!

Pinning interior photos of creatively decorated houses can help give your clients ideas of how to decorate the house they’re going to buy from you. The better you can help visualize your client’s future home, the more likely you’ll make a sale! Don’t hold back, pin modern and classic examples of decorating various rooms in the house. Pin images of the latest and greatest ovens and kitchen accessories. Your clients may not have thought of having a refrigerator disguised as cabinets – or they may not have even known of the GE Smart Refrigerator that connects to the internet to help remind them when they’re out of milk! The more options you place on your Pinterest page, the more inspiration you can give your clients and get them even more excited about purchasing their brand new home from you! If you have staged homes in your listings, pinning those photos can generate interest in your listing for clients who may not have been able to visit the listing person otherwise.

3) Provide a personal touch to your Pinterest

This can be a great way to showcase to your clients how happy you’ve made your other clients with their brand new homes. Pin images (with your client’s consent of course), of happy new home buyers on move in day, or signing a new contract! Showcase your office and office staff putting them front and center. Show your clients how your team is always working hard for them! Don’t let up on the personal promotion either. You live to help your clients be happy with their new home and are always working hard to make that happen!

4) Give moving tips for buyers and sellers

Use Pinterest to offer tips and tricks on the legal hoops you’ll have to jump through when purchasing or selling a new home. You can also offer tips on how to best prepare for moving day (where to find boxes, reputable moving companies and other minutiae of moving). This is a great way to show your clients how you’re there for them for the long-haul. This will give you an edge over your competition!

There is no wrong way to use Pinterest right now. This is a social media site that’s still evolving, but the direction it is headed in is very exciting for Real Estate Agents. The key to any successful Agent is getting the word out about your listing and Pinterest is proving to be a great way to showcase what you have to offer to clients! The most important thing to remember about Pinterest is the fact that it’s a place to show off your best and most relevant content to your followers through images. Twitter and Facebook can help, but only Pinterest offers the dynamic view of multiple images organized efficiently and easily for your clients!

Twitter Makes Major Changes To Your Profile

It’s hard to avoid conversations about the new Facebook Timeline, the new profile Facebook is currently rolling out (click here to watch a pair of videos 1 | 2 that we’ve done on the Facebook Timeline). As for Twitter, they made some “under the radar” changes to your profile recently. Check out Twitter’s new look in this video:

Like I mentioned in the video, I usually use TweetDeck or HootSuite, so I didn’t notice the changes on Twitter.com right away. Twitter conducted its makeover in mid-February. The makeover hasn’t fully taken hold though. When I log in to Twitter on my home computer, I get the new-look profile. When I log in to Twitter on my work computer, I get the old-look profile.

Aside from aesthetics, Twitter isn’t that much different. The “@ Connect” tab is more in-depth than before. Instead of just showing when you were mentioned, it now shows all of your “interactions,” including who recently followed you, favorited one of your tweets, etc. The “# Discover” tab is new and different. Instead of just searching for hashtags, Twitter now offers popular topics in story form. You can then “View Tweets About This…” and get in the conversation if you find the story interesting.

One of the cool features that real estate professionals can take advantage of is the “Browse Categories” section under “# Discover” (you can find the “Browse Categories” option in the top left-hand corner of your screen once you get into the “# Discover” section. You can now search “real estate” or “real estate in [whatever city you live/work in], and Twitter will find real estate professionals and/or companies that you might find of interest. Follow the cool people you find, connect with them, and start building a business relationship. It’s that simple!

I don’t have any major complaints about the changes. In fact, I kind of like them. Twitter is still easy to use, and I honestly think it’s easier to navigate than it was before (once you get used to the control panel and feed flip-flopping sides).

I would love to know what you think about Twitter’s changes. You can connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and/or Google+.

We aim to make real estate professionals the best they can be at PowerUP Social Media. Visit our website or enter your information below for more real estate social media tips and training!

Save 25% On Premium WordPress Themes

The holiday shopping season is upon us. People are already camping out in front of their favorite stores all over the country to get killer deals on Black Friday. On top of that, there’s also Cyber Monday. It’s a great opportunity to get awesome deals on top-notch products. That’s why shoppers spent more than $1 billion on those two days alone last year.

This is a great deal we wanted to share with you, especially if you’re looking to create a real estate blog or jazz up your existing site.

StudioPress makes easy-to-use, premium WordPress themes. That includes the best WordPress real estate theme on the market (make sure you watch the attached video) — and now it can be yours for an incredible price!

Starting on Tuesday, use the code THANKS at checkout (don’t forget to do this) to save 25% off anything you’d like at StudioPress.

1. Get the Genesis Framework for only $45.

2. Save close to $20 on most Genesis / design combos (again, the attached video will explain what this means).

3. Wipe the entire shop clean and get the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package. This means that you can get every design they’ve made, plus every design they make in the future, and save more than $74 off the regular price and over $875 off the retail price — and that’s just the existing 43 designs!

All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you checkout and you’ll save 25% on anything and everything at StudioPress.com.

This deal ends promptly at 7pm (PT) on Monday, November 28, 2011. So, hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

Don’t miss this opportunity to take your real estate website/blog to the next level!

Happy Thanksgiving — and even happier shopping!!!

P.S. Click here to check out more awesome resources for real estate professionals!

PURE Training | Social Media Training For Real Estate

By now you should know that social media is an essential marketing tool for your real estate business. That’s why more than 84% of real estate professionals use social media. The only problem is: most real estate professionals don’t know how to use social media correctly. They just use social media, to use social media (because everyone says they should). Listen to me when I say that social media is a POWERFUL marketing tool when used properly. If you’re not seeing the results you want from social media…here’s the answer:

You can learn much more about PURE Training right now at http://PURESM.com. I also created this video to give you a sneak peek behind-the-scenes view of the “members only” PURE Training Center. I want to show you exactly how great PURE Training is!

Social media doesn’t have to be a burden for you anymore. That’s because PURE Training is proven to work. We’ve helped hundreds of real estate professionals — just like you – take their business to the next level through the power of social media. Don’t just take my word for it…check out these testimonials.

I still can’t believe we’re giving this program away for just $97! Take another look at everything you get:

  • Nearly two hours of social media video training designed specifically for real estate professionals like you.
  • Step-by-step training teaching you how to master Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+.
  • Mind maps and PDFs showing you exactly how to create effective social media campaigns.
  • Custom designed backgrounds for your Twitter and YouTube accounts for a more professional look.
  • A unique plug-and-play tweet list to help you save time every single day (you can’t find this anywhere else).
  • One-on-one email coaching with us — the experts — to help you break down any barriers standing in your way.
  • And much more!

On top of all that, PURE Training is guaranteed to launch your real estate business and social media presence to new heights. If you aren’t seeing the results you want 30 days after you purchased the program, we’ll give you your money back — no questions asked.

Stop wasting time on social media! It’s time to turn your followers and friends into customers and dollar signs! Sign up for PURE Training today!!!

Don’t forget that we also offer free social media tips for real estate professionals at http://powerupsocialmedia.com. You can also get three FREE social media training videos right now by entering your information below. PowerUP Social Media is here to help you be the best real estate professional you can be!

The Best WordPress Real Estate Theme On The Market

If you’re like me, you don’t think many of the available WordPress themes are very exciting (especially for real estate professionals). Here’s the good news: I’ve found the solution. It’s a WordPress real estate theme called AgentPress by StudioPress. Check out all of its great features in this quick video!

As you just saw in the video, the AgentPress Theme is the perfect WordPress theme for real estate professionals. There’s a scrolling gallery at the top of the page, a property search box, a gallery for all of your listings, an area for your latest blog posts, client testimonials, and much more.

The best part is: the AgentPress Theme is VERY simple to use. You can make your real estate blog and/or real estate website look exactly like the example in the video. That means you get a professional look (as if you paid out of your ears for a web designer), but you’re in complete control (able to make changes with just a click of a mouse — if you still use a mouse).

You can learn more about the AgentPress Theme by clicking here! It truly is the best WordPress real estate theme on the market right now.

At PowerUP Social Media we want to help you become the best real estate professional you can be. Check out our website and/or sign up for our mailing list below for more great real estate social media tips and training!

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