Personal Branding-Realtors and Car Salesmen

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.  I want to see the Windshield Replacement Cost and all the probabilities of getting in an accident caused by a drunk driver and having to get legal help from an OVI lawyer. All of these items and the list can add up to a nice price tag if you don’t do the right research on costs.

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.