Jan
4
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-01-04
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- How is it when you leave for 3 days you come home 5 days behind?? #
- RT @tcar: Want free lunch at RE BarCamp? Get off your bumm and RSVP. Less than 30 slots left. http://rebarcamp.com/newyork/?p=54 #
- http://twitpic.com/ydgh - Getting ready for the festivities! #
- does anyone use a “phone valet” service, or some service that can replace 5 lines for 5 small businesses? #
- http://twitpic.com/z1qx - Having lunch with @billuben at this RE.NET favorite… #
- Although 3.5 hours is not a short meeting, @billlublin and I fell far short of the 10hr meeting record currently held by @respres and I… #
- Must be drinking the Re.Net Koolaid… thinking about NYC as well… Where is everyone staying…. #
- Word to the wise… DO NOT pick a poking contest with @Ines #
- THought today was Friday? Not that it changes much, but my inner clock is pretty jacked up…. #
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Dec
28
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2008-12-28
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- HEeadspace2 or All-in-one SEO. Headspace seems so robust, but pretty dificult to use… #
- Help! Need Ideas… Best gift (under $40?) to give 13-16yo girls whoi love tech, FB, music, etc… #
- Starting the organization of 2009… #
- http://twitpic.com/w7l9 - Life is good! Merry Xmas Eve… #
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Dec
21
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2008-12-21
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- Being sort of a #sunset afficiando, @respres must have thoroughly enjoyed tonights. Here it is from high atop LB… http://bit.ly/VBg9 #
- How many times can you say the phrase…”Searchers are NOT looking for Realtors on the Internet…” #
- I can see clearly now… the rain has gone… #
- Yes, my post DID call Twitter and FB “Realtor time sucks” Read the post first.string me up later.We need 2 teach basics. http://bit.ly/12VG3 #
- http://twitpic.com/to1k - Have to clean up after the huge socal storm last night. Check out all the damage! No wonder it made the news … #
- RT @jburslem: Marty Frame: Not priced right.Don’t list it. Joel, shout this from the rooftops… (twittertops?) #
- Taking some heat for calling Twitter and FB “current darlings of Realtor time-suck”.but you got to read the whole post…http://bit.ly/12VG3 #
- Just digging Woopra… It is so powerful it is almost scary… #
- RT @headmutha: @jimmarks in my world? Six kids… ahh yeah. There is a too early. But the moment @respres gets home… #
- RT @headmutha: @jimmarks in my world? Six kids… See this is what would GET me to drink!
#
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Dec
17
How’s your Internet Marketing Foundation…
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
I think the Internet is simply passing Realtors by.
Realtors seem to fixate on shiny objects, they trip over dollars to pick up dimes, they love to think of themselves as tech savvy, which in Realtor speak means “yeah, I have heard of xyz and have used it…some. Unfortunately, the shiniest objects in the Internet marketing world are (at this very moment) social media apps, and they are absolutely NOT the best thing a realtor can do to create revenue on the Internet.
In fact, if not handled properly, (like a sharp knife) they are more likely to cut into your productivity, than increase it.
The current darlings of Realtor time-suck are Twitter, and Facebook… but there are dozens of other social media sites that can waste away your professional career as well. Now before you reach down to pick up that stone, or cry out “But I found YOU on twitter,” I am NOT saying that either one of these Social Media tools are not plausible forms of Internet Marketing. In fact, I believe that just like the proverbial sharp knife, they can be very useful tool, however, most Realtors simply just don’t understand enough about Social Media Strategy to reap a decent return on investment with Twitter or Facebook. (Shameless plug for future social media strategy for Realtors post)
And frankly, investing valuable time on social media before you have built an internet foundation, is silly.
To gain true results with Internet Marketing, a Realtor most build a solid Internet foundation. This short post is dedicated to the 3 CORNERSTONES of any Realtors successful Internet Marketing campaign. Please be advised. The following is NEITHER sparkly nor shiny and IS for the faint of heart.
1) A website that works-I constantly see Realtors investing huge amounts of time to the latest greatest Internet app to increase their Internet exposure or traffic. But where are you driving that traffic. Realtors need as their base of operation a well written, properly executed website. Notice I didn’t say pretty…effective is the key word. Most web designers are just that… designers. Ready to redesign your site? Check this post for 11 items that every effective Real Estate website must have. Does your site contain them all? It really should.
2) A Prospect Database-How long have you been selling Real Estate? How many people have you spoken to over the years you have served your community? How many friends of friends have called you to ask a question about the market? How many Internet leads have you just stopped working because they got cold… How many leads just didnt get worked to the level you would of liked when the market was just so busy..
Each and every contact you make from the very first day of your career should be in database.
Once you start creaeting this database, you will be shocked at how fast it grows, and more shockedhow many buyers and sellers it produces, when watered, nutured and PROPERLY tickled. Don’t think Web Leads are good Leads? Read this article to learn how to make them great.
3) Listing Syndication-What are you doing to post your listings all over the web… Do you know that there are hundreds of sites that will host your listings with links back to your (properly written, effective) website?
Listing syndication is possibly the most effective and under utilized Internet Marketing tool to drive traffic and real leads to your website.
Take a look here for a list of 60 sites and their URLS that will post your listings and give you and your properties valuable exposure…
So , whether you are an Internet neophyte or a social media god or goddess, you must first ask yourself… Have I properly built my Internet foundation? Do I have my cornerstones properly in place? And can I maximize my efforts to build traffic and revenue through other avenues, by driving prospects to a sticky website…
Dec
10
11 steps to building a Real Estate Website that WORKS!
Filed Under Podcasting, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
1) Properties for sale, Properties for sale, Properties for sale
A quick trip to adwords will prove to you that searchers are NOT searching for Realtors on the web, they are looking for property. So if we KNOW that searchers are searching for property, why would be host a REALTOR web site, instead of a Real Estate Website… Answer? We Wouldn’t… would we.
2) Not a good IDX, but a Great IDX
Your IDX is the most useful tool on your site. This tool allows your reader to search every property on the MLS, and then contact YOU to learn about it… Great IDXs have super easy to use interfaces, with cool ways to sort porperties and terrain style maps… My fave? Diverse Solutions Why settle for a poor IDX, when the price difference between a poor IDX and a best of breed IDX is $20/month…
3) Up to date VALUABLE market info
As a Realtor that most common question you get asked is most likely “Hows the Market Doing?” How do you answer? Here’s the proper answer..” Well currently it is ….., but this is a unique and exciting market and it turns on a dime. Tell you what, if you want weekly, up-to-date market information emailed right to you, here’s my card, go to my website and subscribe. I send valuable info, weekly for no cost and no obligation…” Need the info to provide? There is NO ONE better than Altos Research.
4) Custom Neighborhood Content
No, not cut and pasted, regurgitated drip. Your personal opinions, and impressions describing what YOU love about each neighborhood. If you give YOUR honest opinions of a neighborhood, and one of your readers feels a bond with your opinion, could they really NOT choose you as their Realtor?
5) Micro Searches
If one of your readers already know which neighborhood they would like to buy in, and you give them a link to only search and receive updates on that neighborhood, then you have offered a service that very few, if any, other web sites will offer them…
6) Interesting Dynamic Lists
Your readers love lists. Create a list for the 5 least expensive properties in your area, 5 most expensive, 5 best values, (you can actually blog by phone from your weekly caravan and update a “This weeks breaking values” list.) Give your readers a reason to come back and check these lists, over, and over.
7) Your Voice
As a Realtor, your most important value is KNOWLEDGE. Use your website as a tool to show your Realtors that you are the Defacto authority regarding Real Estate in your market. Take quick notes of daily questions your clients are asking you, and post them to your web, with the answers you gave. You own the knowledge your prospects need. Give it away.
8 ) Subscription Button (RSS)
Give your readers the ability to subscribe to your pearls of wisdom. Once they subscribe, they will get all your updated info, when you update it.
9) Video…
Add video to your website, Tips for first time homebuyers, Neighborhood walk arounds, Community events, etc. Video give your readers a chance to see your personality.
10) Contact Info, Contact Info, Contact Info…
Make your contact info SUPER Visable on your HOMEPAGE, (not a contact page) Make sure you list multiple ways to contact you. Phone, email, chat,etc. When web readers want to speak to you, don’t make them wait. Make sure they can fine the info easily, and make your self available by THEIR favorite method of Communication.
11) CALL TO ACTION
Tell you reader what YOU expect their next action to be. Sunscribe here!, For more detail call (XXX) XXX-XXXX, To receive weekly market reports, enter your email HERE!! Tell them specifically what you want them to do and give them the opportunity to do it easily, and immediatly!!
Aug
4
Why are Web Leads so hard to close??
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
One of my newest broker/clients called me the other day and asked me why his salespeople didn’t care whether or not they got “their share” of the leads from his newly performing website… “We never got Internet leads before, now we are getting them almost every day… but my salespeople tell me that they are not that enthused about working them…”
I asked, “Are you just giving any correspondence ( I hesitate to call them leads..” that comes in from the website to your Realtors, to work?”
He responded, “Yes, I am not going to work them myself!” and here we unmasked the problem…
Emails that come to you via your website are USUALLY not leads…
Should I say it again?… I am not saying you will NEVER get a lead from your website, but unless it is a request for a showing, or a request for a car ride (attended the 4RealzED seminar? … you should) it is probably not worth investing your precious “closing time” on…
Emails that come to you via your website are requests for COMMUNITY..
Typically emails that come to your website are from searchers that are engaging your community. They saw a post about a neighborhood they are interested it, they saw a property they would like more information about. They read something that they need clarification on. They are interested in staying informed via your community market analysis. (You do have community market analysis, right?
These are individuals that have taken the first QUANTUM leap towards becoming a prospect/client. They have decided to trust you. So how do you repay them for their freshly discovered loyalty? You turn them over to a super busy hard charging Real estate agent who is going to qualify them from sentence three and blow them off around sentence four… not good.
You have GOT to have a community option for readers who are willing to self identify. They are crying out to become your desciples, your evangelists, your groupies? (Okay, I am reaching….) Let them. A newletter, a blog, a forum, a VALUABLE monthly email blast… (read: market conditions with valuable, personal, ORIGINAL, well thought out market observations) You have got to welcome Internet correpondence as you would welcome a valuable stranger into your home… tred lighly, offer your freindship, dont ask for anything in return. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY CAME FOR….
and from this community? You will grow leads… and leads… and leads….
Aug
2
Do you really need a website? (and why do you have one..)
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ME: “If you had a website”, (or more commonly) “If I write you a new site” (or most recently…a lot) If I completely redesigned your crappy Advanced Access (insert ANY template website company name here…) site, what would you do with it.. WHY DO YOU WANT A NEW WEBSITE..
Realtor: “Because EVERYONE has a website…” or
Realtor: “Because my clients (I expect this means “prospects) expect me too… Number three? or
Realtor: “To get Leads..”
Believe it or not, this is a legitimate question I ask Realtors all the time.
However I rarely get the real answer. The real answer is squirreled away and has to be carefully coaxed out… the REAL ANSWER is often “So I can bury myself in front of my computer and wait for leads to rush in, so I dont have to do all the HARD stuff that really creates business, like Up-desk, OR DOOR KNOCKING!! or cold calling, or going to community meetings and approaching strangers or DOING SALES!!
As an Internet Marketing Constultant , the strangest look I get is still when I tell Realtors “You know, you dont really need a website.” Why would I say this? Because you would be shocked how often I get this question…
“I don’t do anything with my website, and I am really busy, and I make plenty of money…really. But I think I need a website… DO I?? ”
NO, you need a vacation. If you ARENT really busy, if you DON’T make plenty of money, and if you have time to grow an Internet presence…carefully and methodically, you need a website.
If you are doing ALL the aforementioned stuff, and would like incremental business from a slightly different (cooler?) demographic, you need a website. If you have the time and energy to educate yourself just enough to understand how the web works and your place within it, you need a website. And if you are TRULY INTERESTED in Real Estate and want to touch more people in a day, then you currently do in a year… yes, you need a website…
Jul
29
Over the next few posts I will endevour to bring you some ideas on the VALUE of tracking website analytics that rise well above simply receiving leads… Now, Receiving leads, or convincing visitors to self identify is first and foremost. But how about just getting better…
How did you get better at your listing presentation… Feedback. Each time you gave a listing presentation your prospect showed you comments and body language that properly read coached you to add or omit parts of the presentation… and you got better!
Analytics is the Body Language of the web…
Analytics works for your website just as prospect feedback is used for presentation.. As you watch the trends of your visitors and see what they are doing, where they are going, and what they like and dont like… you change your web to match their likes… their body language.. and your site gets better…
The changes you make in your listing presentation AND your website create the same results… better conversion…
So, how do you improve your website without the feedback or BL of the web (analytics)… you simply don’t.
Apr
4
Deliver…or else.
Filed Under Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | 11 Comments
The Web 2.0 consumer has a short attention span. This we know. But how short? How many times can we expect a
searcher to click on a link or page BEFORE he or she gets exactly what they came for… WHAT THEY WERE SEARCHING FOR… three, two, one… I think not… Let’s try zero.
One of the great (unplanned) features of the BLOG is the long tail.. Yeah, Yeah, I know. SEO… But this is not about SEO. It is about the most efficient content delivery imaginable… zero click content delivery.
What do you search for and what do you expect to find when get the results. Let’s pretend a search for Large Pink Horse shoes… Okay, go to Google and type it in… What are the results? Let’s see…
Chances are you will get a site that has “large pink horseshoes” in the description… but when you go to the site? all you see is Large Pink Horses…. Wait is there a link to horse shoes? There is a link to the pair of horseshoes that are on the horse in the picture…. But I want all pink horseshoes…..
I am out…
However if I land on a blog post with content about Large Pink Horseshoes, how many clicks away am I now…. Here is the post…. Zero clicks.
Now, here is your challenge… How do you make your Real Estate Website, a zero click website. What are your searchers looking for, and how quickly can you provide it…
Build it and they will come.
Feb
24
The mantra from Broker to Agent is, “you’ve got to create an on-line brand…”
I think that maybe the Brokers just got frustrated or ran out of ideas,. Maybe they didn’t have the time during the “boom” to give better counsel… or perhaps they SIMPLY DON’T UNDERSTAND THE INTERNET. But frankly, this is really low-grade advice… Imagine yourself looking for a new shiny car.. A Prius, or even a Benz. You go to your favorite search engine, pause and breathe, and type in your search, p-r-i-u-s. You eagerly await the results and ta-da, there it is… three pages filled with sites advertising Prius…..salesman.
“Please choose me to buy your Prius, I have been in the industry for 23 years. I was number one in Talooga County in 2004. I have 15 initials after my name, Phd, BS, Md, Esq, l-m-n-o-p… Look at my picture, don’t I look trustworthy? Oh, and here is my dog!
Is this the actual results you were looking for? You are probably clicking through these sites faster than a 14 year old playing a video game. I want to see a car, I want see deals on a car, I want to see information about the car. I want to find the right car. I want see prices on this car. Convince me to buy THIS car and then I will THINK about who I want to buy from.
But that is exactly what Realtors are offering the Real Estate Searcher… *repeat* REAL ESTATE searcher. When was the last time you searched for a REALTOR on the Internet? Seldom? Never? Most Real Estate based Searches are just that…. Real Estate. Notice on the (hard to read) adwords chart below that Seattle Realtor is number 8 and not even close to the search term MOST searchers are using… which is REAL ESTATE. Realtor doesn’t show up again until number 23…
Enter Web 2.0… How about giving your searchers what they are looking for? They are not looking for you… They don’t care about you! They want your product. Real Estate Searcher come to the Internet to learn about houses. Check out houses, look at the prices of house. They come to get information (from you) about neighborhoods, architecture, market trends. They even come for advice…. about houses, housing and all things Real Estate.
Build it and they will come.
So, now you know what they want… Is your site offering it? Do you have the best IDX in your market. Can they see inventory with 2 clicks, one click, NO clicks. Do you have pertinent market information. Pertinent = timely and Original. Do you have community information. Not canned, regurgitated HOA information, but meaningful, valuable, original information. What would YOU want to see in a site… Make a list. If you were moving to Talooga county in six months, what would the site look like that YOU WOULD WANT TO USE….
Build it and they will come.
