Virtual Results Blog

I was at a Large Brokerage office meeting last week when the conversation of Social Media came up…  (okay, probably because I was at the office…)  There were quite a few agents excited about the prospect of adding social media to their marketing campaign.  They had significantly decreased any type of print marketing and wanted to ensure that were had some effort going forward toward attracting new prospects and increasing their sphere of influence.  They were considering Social Media.

Just about the time we started talking about ways for them to ease into Social Media Marketing, the “tech guru” of the office chimed in with…

John:  “Wait, Wait, Wait…  Let me ask THIS question…     Who here has EVER (I like the annunciated “ever,” as if SM had been around for decades..) written a deal using social media…”

One Hand.

John:  “See Jim?  We just don’t think Social Media works?”  It’s just not viable. OUR clients and prospects are NOT on Social Media”

I was amazed.  You see this was a smart guy, he knows tech and he was trashing my beloved social media, right before my eyes…. How dare he?

Me:” John, I understand that, and this IS the type of question we should ALL be asking…  But,  let me ask ALMOST the same question about Internet Marketing in general?

“Who here has sold a house from ANY Internet effort.  Your website, Your Blog,, Pay-per-click, Social Media?…  ANYTHING?”

One Hand.

Me:  “Well there you have it…  Ladies and Gentleman we have solved the great mystery here today, and CLEARLY the answer is?”

The Internet is Broken.

Of course,  we know that consumers are searching their hearts out on the Internet..  Yes we know that 80% of all Real Estate Consumers do some part of their search on-line. And Internet consumers SAY they want to find their home on-line and then call an agent… We certainly know that every man, women and child WE know uses the Internet…

But if YOU are not getting leads?  It MUST be that Internet isn’t working right.

John?, It certainly couldn’t be that you purchased a website with ZERO foresight or reflection of what the web consumer was actually looking for.

It couldn’t be that you have not looked at your web analytics in years and have no idea WHO is coming to your site and WHY they are not becoming contacts.

It couldn’t be that you never even CONSIDERED what effort might be needed to drive traffic to your website.

It certainly couldn’t be that you created a website that was about YOU and not the product you represent and it certainly couldn’t be that your DOG or your SLOGAN takes up more room on your site than your well thought out opinion of the condition of the market…   Couldn’t be.

And It couldn’t be that you built a web site?  Instead of a web STRATEGY…

And now?  You are going to make EXACTLY the same the mistake with Social Media.

You are going to Tweet, post, blog and follow your way out of business, or at least out of valuable time that you COULD have invested doing something that actually works.  Something you have tried, received feedback and response on, adapted, tweaked, and developed into a strategy, a powerful phone call to an expired or a heavy pitch to a bank exec. Something you have practiced and honed to a proven strategy.

The Internet is NOT broken.  Social Media works.  But you can’t just DO it.  You need to understand it. You need to create a STRATEGY for it, and you need to work that strategy just as you did your geographic farm, with measured input and measured results. You need to figure out what your return on investment expectation is and how to measure it, and you need to be thoughtful, nimble and consistent in your actions. You need to understand that doing Social Media and engaging in a Social Media Strategy with a purpose are two VERY different endeavors, and will provide very different results.

Social Media is NOT a panacea. It is not a golden button and it is CERTAINLY not the answer to your ailing Real Estate practice.  But with a bit of knowledge, some significant planning, a well developed strategy, a measure of discipline and careful MEASUREMENT?

It IS effective marketing.

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It didnt take me near as long to decide I didnt agree with the message in Rob Hahns post The Tragedy of a Twitter Strategy as it did for him to write it.  Rob is kinda known for his lengthy, pithy and well thought out introspections of current social media culture and habit. Usually, I can full heartedly agree with him.  Ocassionally, I get the grand AHAH! and am amazed at the insight and vantage point he scribes from.  Every Blue moon?  He is just dead wrong.

Today there is a blue moon…

To fully understand my sentiment you really need to read Robs entire prose.  But if you are short on time or terrible ADD. (guilty as charged) Let me sum up for you the paragraph that raised my cockles and sent the “that is the exact opposite of how I feel” feeling down my arm, through my fingers and ultimately out to my keyboard…  Here is the flawed opinion…

Rob Hahn says “Plus, please recognize that Twitter inherently assumes that you already have a relationship of some sort; it’s the only way in which a 140-character text message makes sense. If we don’t have a relationship, or a distant business relationship, I really don’t care what you’re having for lunch.

If we’ve embarrassed ourselves at karaoke together one drunken night, then I actually care that you’re doing laundry. Probably. Maybe. Sort of.

So, want more followers on Twitter? Go out more. Throw parties and events. Want to maximize your investment in Twitter? Go make more relationships — you know, away from the keyboard. Then use Twitter to maintain and expand those existing relationships.

This just is not right…  and I was forced to respond…

Rob,

Hey my, “did he really use his YALE education to come to that conclusion?” dearest friend…

You are missing the point as duly expressed within this pearl of wisdom…

So, want more followers on Twitter? Go out more. Throw parties and events. Want to maximize your investment in Twitter? Go make more relationships — you know, away from the keyboard. Then use Twitter to maintain and expand those existing relationships.

Look, if you WANT to use twitter as a toy, go for it. No rules, no holds-barred. Go ahead and sling it around like a toy gun at a shooting range. If it brings you friends, maintains relationships or destroys your existing ones… who cares, its a toy.

But if you WANT to use twitter as a sphere of influence building tool? (the SOI is still the number one quoted source of biz for agents) then have a strategy. A strategy means, decide WHO you are going to invite into your SOI, decide how to convert them, and go about it in a systematic method.

Look Rob, if you and I didn’t know each other, and JeffX and I were best friends… and you and JeffX were best friends… You probably NEED to be in my SOI, and I, yours. I may be an asset to you both socially and professionally and visa versa. But outside SM, I cant just call you and say.. Hey Rob, I know a guy you know…etc. etc.

It breaks my social contract with MY friend, JeffX… (this is the Seinfield equivalent of “worlds colliding.”) But with the SM space and Twitter I AM allowed to contact you, reach out and talk about Jeffx as our mutual friend, and common interest. We share this in common. Much more meaningful than a bad song in a Karaoke bar.

Imagine, now if I reached out, deliberately and systematically with all my current friends of SOI. These are people who I have a ton in common and the only distance between then now, a total stranger and members of my SOI? (which they will soon be)One conversation.

Twitters’ relaxed social nature facilitates this type of conversation. I ge the opportunity to reach out and meet new people with whom a have a ton in common and my SOI grows strategically and exponentially. Most important is these are people who have a valuable third party reference of my caring and trust worthy character. (which makes them perfect SOI members and possible future clients)

Now ask your agent clients this question. What woould it do to your business if you could use twitter to reach out to people just beyond your current SOI, and increase your SOI by 3 times… or 5 times.

What would this do to your business?

Now, instead of meeting people over a course of “you make me feel like a natural women,” and inviting them to hang with me ONLINE.. I will be meeting people in a designed manner and inviting them to meet me OFFLINE..

This is how you build friendships and future clients.

Click here to download:

PT_site.skitch (801 KB)

Over the last few months I have been creating websites, Social Media Strategy and support, etc. for a COOL new brokerage named Partners Trust.  These guys are big hitting LA Realtors that are forward thinking and GET social media…  I cant wait to talk more about their progress and success stories as time goes by… Stay tuned and I will keep the info coming…

Jim Marks | jimmarks@virtualresults.net | 949.436.6106

Ping me here Google Talk: jimmarks551 Skype: virtual.results

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Read VR's Latests Blog Post 10 Fave Twitter Tools for Realtors

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Although Twitter.com is great for some things, (searches, etc.) Twitter beceomes a MUCH more powerful tool when used with a host of 3rd party tools.  There are 100s, if not 1000s of such tools.  Here is a list of some of my faves.  Please do not feel you need to use any or all of these… Read the descriptions and see which ones might work for you and then learn to use ONE at a time…  As you become more and more experienced with Twitter, you will figure out JUST which of these tools fit into your twitter style and schedule…

This is step two on your journey…  Have Fun!!

1. TweetDeck is a desktop Twitter and Facebook application. Like other Twitter applications it interfaces with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets, view profiles, and organize your Twitter friends into groups.

2.HootSuite is the professional Twitter client. With HootSuite, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success.

3. Twellow‘s web site has huge database of Twitter users sorted nicely into categories! Very good way to follow and get some related followers. There’s many categories 3, Tellow is the Twitter Yellow Pages. If you haven’t registered your Real Estate Twitter account on Twellow, it is time to do so.

4. Nearby Tweets monitors the buzz on your business and local markets.

5. Twitter.com Search Yes, Twitter search.  Learn all the ways to search for prospects.  For example, if you enter in the twitter search box…  near: 92660 house, you will get everyone who lives in that zip that has used the word house in their tweet.  A valuable tool for agents.

6. TweetLater is really great tool where you can automatically follow people that follow you and you can submit tweets to be published at specific times. Very good and very effective tool for all Twitter freaks for sure.

7. Demand Spot is a Twitter mining tool that allows you to search (by keyword) and tweet people who are looking for homes to buy or rent in your local area.

8. Bit.ly allows you to shorten share and track your links.

9. Twext.Me is a cool service by Jeff Turner that sends your Twitter mentions to you via SMS text message. Go about your day and never miss another conversation!

10. BubbleTweet adds a personalized video to your twitter account.

At what point do we try so hard to twist everything into a marketing cliché that “simply BEING YOURSELF” is branding?

There has been a disturbance in the force…

Over the last few days, some the brightest people I know.  People I really respect have taken positions on both the effectiveness of Social Media as a lead generator and whether a blog was lead generation or branding.  These conversations irked every fiber of my being.

I mean, I do this for a living…well.  I have copious clicks to prove that Twitter and FaceBook drive traffic to Virtual Results websites and these sites, painfully configured to convert, create leads. So if my clients use Social Media to drive traffic to their VR website and the website convert this traffic to leads…  This is not an opinion…This is MATH.  I will not argue whether or not SM is lead gen, again.

se·man·tics Pronunciation: \si-?man-tiks\  the study of meanings: a : the historical and psychological study and the classification of changes in the signification of words or forms viewed as factors in linguistic development.

Yeah, semantics.  You see, I believe that a Brand is a promise that you make to your audience.  “I am the hardest working Realtor in California” is a promise, a brand.

Here is the wiki on Personal Branding…

Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. Further defined as the creation of an asset that pertains to a particular person or individual; this includes but is not limited to the body, clothing, appearance and knowledge contained within, leading to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable. Personal branding often involves the application of one’s name to various products. For example, celebrity real-estate mogul Donald Trump uses his last name extensively on his buildings and on the products he endorses (e.g., Trump Steaks).

So how is blogging branding?  Well Rob Hahn, here gives the impression that any marketing created that does not target a key group of prospects is branding.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I have MAD respect for Rob. I hang on his every word…  (and you should too.) But in this case? I disagree.

Branding is a concerted effort to make and keep a promise to your audience.  If a Realtor blogs about his community, the parking, stores, community issues, etc.  If a Realtor blogs about everything except the Realtor, how can this be branding…

Is simply Being, now Branding?

Blogging is an effective marketing tool for agents, here are its benefits.

1)      Long Tail Serp results (lead gen)

2)      Content, Google Loves Content (lead gen)

3)      Blogs create Authority (branding?)

4)      Blogs create relationships. (branding?)

5)      Blog contain Call-to-actions. (the focal point for you SMM efforts) (lead gen)

Most of the benefits are either to help with Serps, create call to actions, or establish a relationship with your reader.  Establish a Relationship… hah…branding? Lets dive in.

Scenario One:  If I am a door to door vacuum cleaner salesperson, and I knock on your door…  I hear and see your 6 Persian cats…  My conversation turns to, “I love cats.  How many to you have?”  Over the 20 minutes, we speak about cats, our lives, my job, your job, etc…  I am creating a bond. I am creating a relationship. I am being me.  Even if you tell me you are not in the market for a vaccum cleaner, and I come back every day for a year to speak to speak to you about your cats, until you are in the market…  AM I BRANDING?  NO.  I am selling.

Scenario Two:  I tweet “We have had 93 days in a row of perfect weather in Laguna Beach.. You really should move here…”  You go to my blog and see my post on Laguna Beach Weather.  It has a call to action, “you really can afford it here… check out these homes for under $500K” Branding? Nope.  Sales.

So creating conversation, is not branding.  And creating Business from that conversation is not Branding..  What is Branding?

Best I can tell, this is the new description…  Being You. But only if the person reading is not in the market for what you are offering.  If they are?  Lead Gen.

Just Not Buying this.  Here is my advice.  Stop Branding.  BE Honest, BE Transparent, BE Consistent…  BE.

For years, SEOs have engaged in a practice called Link Sculpting.  Link sculpting is merely the idea that each page of your site has Page Rank and that page rank can be passed to other pages on your site or elsewhere on the Internet.  Lets imagine PR points as currency. (Because it really is) If my Homepage has $20 worth of pagerank to invest and I have 20 outbound links on my site, it was common knowledge that Google would pass $1 worth of PR to each of the pages linked from that page. ($20/20=$1)  A thoughtful SEO, however, could manipulate that PR currency  to deep pages that he/she want to increase both the traffic and indexation rate.  We could do this by “nofollowing” some of the links, telling Google NOT to follow the link,  therefore making the existing links flow MORE Page Rank.  Let me explain.

If my Page has $20 worth of PR and 20 links, we can assume the each page linked to will get one PR dollar.  If I then NO FOLLOW 10 of those links, the balance of the PR cash will just average onto the rest of the links.  Therefore the 10 links that remain as Follow will get $2PR each.

With this theory, and thousands of PR points to invest, I can “sculpt” my page rank to drive traffic and indexability to pages that might not otherwise see the Google light of day.  It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because as these pages index, rank and create traffic patterns, (and inbound links) THEY earn PR points which in turn can we sculpted off to other pages in need…  The entire site can be boosted, as it will have more indexed pages, a higher PR in general, more traffic, etc.

BUT NO MORE…

In a statement that rocked the SEO world, Matt Cutts, at SMX Advanced on June 3rd, stated that it is no longer effective to nofollow some pages in order to flow more Page Rank to the remaining followed pages.  Basically, Matt stated (this is an example) that if your page has $20 worth of page rank and 20 links, 10 of which are no followed, the no followed links will still receive NO PR, but the remaining 10 followed links will only receive the $1PR each.  In other words, nofollow links usurp PR, they just don’t pass it…

Here is a quote from Rand Fishkin, owner of SEOMoz,

“I’m saddened to say that given this change, we, as SEOs, are going to have to also recommend the best practice that comments (in all forms of UGC) no longer accept links. While Google has said that linking out to “good places” provides some value, that merely suggests that webmasters and site owners should select good resources editorially and link to them with live, followed links. Comments that contain links, unfortunately, will actively detract from a site’s ability to get pages indexed… ”

So who does this effect and does it effect you?

IMHO,  this by and large only will effect those with moderate or low-level SEO experience.  If you do not do SEO on your site, or have hundreds or thousands of pages with PR to pay with  then this change will have little or no effect on your site.  On the other hand, If you are a LARGE site with 1000s of pages and have, or are a talented SEO, you will simply revert to the practices of old.  Unless this policy changes, I will start creating my outbound links in a manner the robots can’t see or follow (in Flash, external Javascript with blocked calls, in plugin content,etc…)  My gut tells me there is a WP plugin on the way that will do this. (Developers get busy)

But if you have a decent sized site, with lots of PR and don’t know SEO really well, this conceivable could hurt.  Frankly, I just dont understand why Google would do this. It seems really counter-intuitive to me.

Commenting and sharing community traffic IS web 2.0.  If I can engage this community and leave a link that explains my credentials, that is cool.  If I can carry the conversation back to “my place, even cooler.  But a comment, without a link feels less authoritative to me.  It loses some of its street cred, whuffie, social currency.  I want to give the link to my commenters.  I want my readers to know who is commenting on my site…and their authority within my community.

But until I hear a change in this policy, UNFORTUNATLY, my advise to my clients may have to be…  “You just cant allow comment links until Google figures out the ramifications of this decision to our social media world, (and hopefully) reversed this decision.