Posts Tagged ‘Google’
How to Be Many Places At Once
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Real estate is such a “local” business that anything you can do to associate your business with your locality will help you stand out and be found more easily. Here’s a very cool free tool that will help your business get listed in multiple major online business directories faster than you can say “bi-location”…
First Check Your Business Listings Then Get Listed
Get Listed is a free site that a) first checks to see if you are listed in the major online business directories and search engines, b) helps you get listed in the ones you currently are not. After entering in your business name and zip code it takes just seconds for it to check six of the major search engines and business directory and then provide you a result page similar to the example below:
For the ones you are not currently listed it will allow you to enter your information right from their Website making the process very easy and convenient. And this is just the beginning because GetListed.org also provides additional guidance on how to maximize your online hyper-local presence that is so important for both SEO and professional credibility.
Take a few minutes to Get Listed now and in a few weeks or months you will be glad you did.
Seven Qualities of a High-Performance Website
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
The vast majority of real estate sales associate Websites fail miserably to come anywhere close to achieving their full business-producing potential online. Typically these sites fail in a number of different ways. Here is a powerful way you can self assess your own site to see what works, what doesn’t and what to do about it…
It’s Not Just About Driving Traffic
Driving traffic to your site is easy. Getting visitors to engage and convert into serious clients is not. In fact there are seven major qualities that your site needs to get right before it can be a fully productive online presence:
- Targeting & Branding – This is how well your site is targeted and differentiates itself to a specific niche market. Less than 2% of all real estate Websites are targeted. In their attempt to “speak to everyone” they end up talking to no one.
- Design – Just because a site is beautiful doesn’t mean it will be effective (just ask any agent who has spent thousands on a “beautiful” site only to see it not produce a dime of new business). Design needs to take into account many factors including being consistent with the nature of your target market and branding.
- Copy & Content – The primary purpose of you copy and content is to engage the visitor and effectively answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from their perspective. It has been my experience that most real estate Web copy fails completely in this respect.
- Interactivity / Ability to Engage – Information, even great information is not enough. Your content needs to engineered to maximize engagement via irresistible offers.
- Navigation – Ease of use and consistency are the hallmarks of good Website navigation.
- “Internet Empowered Consumer” Friendliness – Reassurances of privacy throughout your site and explicitly not requiring consumers to reveal who they are when they complete a form are crucial for your visitors to feel safe and secure when using your site.
- Promotion & Tracking – How your site is promoted depends upon its target market focus. Keep in mind that some target markets will NOT use search engines to find your site.
NOTE: You can self-assess your own Website for these qualities by downloading a 40 Point Website Assessment form I use to evaluate agent sites. Just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools” tab at the top and follow the instructions on the assessment form.
Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer –Yet
There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition. It takes many months of planning before you even THINK about talking to a Web designer. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite approach used by most people in the business.
Even the most gifted designer cannot make an effective Website that scores high in all of the above categories until you give them your written plan and vision for dominating a particular niche. Think of it this way: 90% planning, 10% building and execution. Once you give them your plan, the building of the site is actually fairly straightforward.
Here are some sites that score very high on the above mentioned assessment:
- www.DowntownLivingMiami.com
- www.ChevyChaseLiving.com
- FortSill.GoArmyHomes.com
- www.IntownLivingAtlanta.com
- www.SellingCantonHomes.com
- www.MilitaryMove.ca
- www.GotDreamNeedHome.com
Each of the above sites are highly targeted and required 3 – 6 months of intense planning before their owners even spoke to a Web designer. Take a few moments to examine each one carefully and you will see why they all score so high on the Website Assessment.
Improving your site’s performance starts with determining what its weaknesses are and then taking very well thought out and committed action to correct them, one at a time.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: another version of this article was first published in REALTOR Magazine Online a couple of weeks back. Despite the warning above about not seeking out a Web designer prior to planning your site, apparently that is what many people who read this article did. In speaking with Bobby Carroll of Dakno (the design firm for all of the above sites) he said their phone “rang off the hook” with agents wanting sites “just like the ones in the article”. Another example of how people look but don’t see and read but don’t get it…
Our Top 7 FREE Google Tools for Real Estate Agent
Friday, August 13th, 2010If you hadn’t noticed, we’re big Google fans and we can’t help ourselves! There are just too many great things that Google has to offer, and yep, they all happen to be FREE! As Real Estate Virtual Assistants we’re constantly on the lookout for the next big thing in technology and we love to share tips that can make our clients’ lives easier, after all, we believe in the motto “Work Smarter, Not Harder”! If you think Google is just a search engine, we’re here to give you our top seven FREE Google tools for real estate agents that are sure to make you a huge fan of Google as well!
YouTube: YouTube is one of the leading website online today. In 2006 Google purchased YouTube which has proved to be a successful endeavor. Each day, the site receives over 2 billion views and on average each person spends 15 minutes a day on the site. Realtors have caught on to this trend as they can create Community webpages and embed the perfect community video. Also, uploading new listing videos to YouTube is a great way to showcase a home and gain huge exposure for your clients. Interested buyers can search YouTube for listings in their area, resulting in leads for you and buyers for your listing clients!
Google Docs: Google Docs allows you to upload files online to share with others and also allows restricted or full access from any computer. Posting your marketing or prelisting presentation on Google Docs will take the worry of files being too large to send through email or even having your personal laptop with you at all times. A key feature is that multiple users can have the same document open and Google Docs allows editing capability at the same time as well!
Google Analytics: In an age of seemingly abstract marketing tools such as building SEO, and Social Media sites in which you aren’t able to see any official stats, Google Analytics steps in. Easily track what people search for when they land on your site. Search the most used key words so that you can integrate them into your website or blog allowing for enhanced SEO. Customize your preferences to see only the data that interests you. Using Google Analytics allows you to see reports of the traffic to your website or blog.
Google Voice: As an agent, you’re constantly going from your office to your car to your home and you may find it a challenge to let people know where they can reach you! Google Voice will generate a phone number for you in which you can be reached no matter where you are! This phone number will ring through to your different phone numbers until you are reached; which is great for not missing those important calls! Google Voice also sets up a voicemail which can transcribe messages and send them directly to your inbox. This tool also offers free calls and texts anywhere in the US and Canada!
Google Translate: Do you find yourself in a metropolitan city with people relocating from all over the world? Easily reach these potential overseas buyers with a website that speaks their language! Google Translate can translate your website into any language! Generate links of your website in Spanish, Italian, French or any other language and post these links to your site. Potential client can click on that link and instantly see your entire site in their language; talk about impressive!
Google Calendar: This tool allows you and your real estate team (or heck, even your spouse) to create individual calendars and then share them to merge into one calendar. This allows agents to see their team members meetings or showing appointments as well as sharing what they have going on each week. Everyone can access the team calendar and when adding an appointment to their personal calendar; it will show up on the team calendar. This is ideal for avoiding scheduling conflicts while also bringing a cohesive feel to the team.
iGoogle: As an agent, time is a precious commodity and with all that’s vying for your attention, the last thing you want to do is spend your time jumping from website to website. The solution? iGoogle. This “landing page” allows you to create a personalized portal in which you can access your Facebook and Twitter accounts, YouTube, Google Docs and Google Calendar all from one page! How great would it be to upload a new listing video to YouTube and then check your Facebook business page along with Tweeting about your new listing all with the ease of staying in one place? You can also add RSS feeds which means you will be automatically updated each time your VA posts a new post to your blog! Customize your weather, sports updates or any other personal items that you would like on your page. Use iGoogle as your home page and each time you get online, you’ll see all the information you need at once!
I hope all, or at least a few of these tools have sparked an interest as something you would like to begin incorporating in your daily life! If you have any further questions or need help in setting up any of these FREE tools; let your Real Estate Virtual Assistant know! We’re here to help!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!Visit us Online at RealSupportInc.com
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Catch the Google Wave of the Future, or Sink!
Friday, July 30th, 2010You’ve got the idea of Facebook and Twitter. So what now? Say hello to Google Wave (sign in or sign up with any email address to check it out). Launched in May, this newer program has the potential to revolutionize the way you interact with leads and existing clients, and can be used as another powerful prospecting tool . Google Wave combines the concepts of Facebook and Twitter with Google Search, Google Docs, YouTube, E-Vite, and basically every form of discussion forum on the internet. The potential is truly unlimited.
Imagine running a Google search of public conversations and forums, easily accessible and in the same place. You can do that! How about starting a discussion of your own, and inviting your contacts via email? Sure. What about starting a discussion and posting it openly to the public to engage? Yes. Organize your Home Buyer Seminar and guest list and agenda, even host a home buyer seminar live online, cost-free!
Beyond networking, Google Wave will change and improve the way you work. Track tasks, troubleshoot and work in groups, embed Waves in your website, ask questions, answer questions, and much more. Sure, it is young and there are still processes to streamline and improve, but better to learn and grow with the program. Wouldn’t you love to be the one around the office with all the answers, rather than questions?
Google Wave is a game changer, and you’ll want to be ahead of the curve on this one. So, I know, you want to get started. There are so many possibilities, but as with all multi-functional, multi-purpose cool tools comes a bit of “how-to” to get your head around. Try starting here:
Don’t get overwhelmed and throw in the towel on this! You can find other suggested video’s provided by Google that will help you navigate the program. Still need help? Have questions? Ask your real estate virtual assistant to help you catch the wave!
Have a great weekend!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!Visit us Online at RealSupportInc.com
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Become a Facebook Fan
Follow me on Twitter
Facebook vs. Google
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Last week I posted an article on how powerful Facebook Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising could be for your business. Since then I’ve received responses from people who say it is not all that great shakes. This is clearly a case of discovering a new “hammer” and thinking everything is the same kind of nail. It’s all about using the right tool, for the right purpose at the right time. Here are some tips that will help you choose the right business promotion tool for the job.
Facebook is about Interests
I recently challenged one of my ULTRA eTEAM members, Roman Pavlik to use Facebook to drive traffic to his new highly targeted DownTownLivingMiami.com Website. Since most of his buyers for luxury downtown Miami condos come from New York, Canada and South America he targeted his Facebook ads to people who live in those areas. Let’s just say there are a lot of Facebook members living in those areas. In a very short period of time (literally just a couple of days) he had over 60,000 ad impressions. Unfortunately, not one person clicked on his ads. And to add insult to injury, Facebook stopped showing his ads (after all, they want to make money too!)
So Brad Carroll (our Online Dominance Social Networking Mastermind coach) and I suggested that he further refine his targeting by including interests that would be consistent with anything having to do with Miami. For example, people living in Canada, New York and South America who are interested in Miami sports teams and so on. While this refinement substantially reduced his pool of Facebook members that would see his ad, the click throughs to his site shot up (he had 24 just in a couple of days vs. zero before).
When advertising on Facebook, less is more and you really have to think about which member interests are most likely follow through on your ad’s call to action.
Google is About Wants and Needs
When someone searches on Google, by definition they are looking for something specific (i.e. a want or need). In this case, it makes perfect sense for Roman to complement his Facebook advertising with a Google PPC campaign targeting people who are specifically interested in buying downtown Miami condos. A little closer to home, I am personally involved in syndicating GoArmyHomes.com Websites for every army base on U.S. soil. Part of this process includes driving substantial traffic to each respective base site. At first we considered running Facebook ads because there are well over 300,000 Facebook members who are also in the army. The only problem is that a tiny fraction of those will be interested in going to any particular base at any particular time. Without a doubt if we had pursued that course of action we would not have seen any click throughs and Facebook would have shut our ad campaign down. In this case, our PPC options are clearly better with Google. However, Facebook is the tool to use as we begin to promote our GoArmyHomes Facebook page.
Facebook and Google are two awesome online advertising tools. It’s just a matter of knowing which one is the best option for the task at hand and using it in the manner that produces the best results for the lowest cost. With a little bit of practice and patience, you will get the hang of it :0)
Maximize Profits Through Hyper-Targeted Facebook Advertising
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Imagine if you could advertise your services in such a way that only those who are most likely interested would even see the ads. And better yet, you only paid for when they acted on those ads. Sounds a lot better than traditional print advertising doesn’t it? This is what “hyper-targeted” advertising is all about and nowhere is the opportunity greater for this than on Facebook and yet few people in the real estate industry have taken advantage of it.
Facebook vs. Google
Facebook is huge with close to a half a billion members and continuing to grow rapidly each month. What makes the advertising potential so great however is that by the very nature of the data found in “personal profiles”, Facebook has amassed incredible demographic and psychographic information on its members that is the envy of even companies like Google. This information includes personal likes, dislikes, affiliations, interests and so on. It doesn’t stop there however because Facebook also has the ability (and the necessary funding) to cross tabulate their internal member information with purchased third party data like magazine subscription information, group membership affiliation, etc which allows them to further refine their targeting ability.
When Google serves up ads to users of its search engine, the ads typically are targeted based only upon the search query because that’s limit of Google’s knowledge about that particular consumer. Whereas when Facebook serves up ads to members, it knows far more about the member and can show ads (on the right side of the page) that are tremendously more targeted and hence more likely to convert. And Facebook ads can leverage built-in “social proof” to add credibility and increase conversion rates since your ads can show who else of the viewer’s Facebook friends have interacted with you or your services. Also, the amount of time an average member spends on Facebook eclipses even the most avid searcher on Google.
Like Google Adwords, you can pay for Facebook ads either as Pay-Per-Click (PPC – recommended in most cases) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM). The process of setting up, managing and tracking your Facebook ads is very straightforward. And frankly, no one does a better job of explaining it than Facebook. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising to review the steps and best practices. (TIP: Facebook suggests ad pricing to best reach your defined ad target. Let’s just say they can be a bit biased about this. Experiment using PPC values that start out about 10% less than suggested and then continue to lower your bid amounts until you see a significant drop off in impressions. This strategy can save you a lot of money!)
Now let’s take a look at all the ways you can use this high-powered advertising rifle to grow your business…
Hyper-Targeting for Hyper-Growth
The ways in which you can use Facebook advertising to grow your business and differentiate yourself are limited only by your imagination. The following came out of a recent brainstorming session with my Online Dominance students. To help organize these ideas, I’ve broken them down into categories:
- Win New Listings – show your prospective sellers how you can advertise their listings on Facebook and receive literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of impressions. Chances are very good that none of your competitors are doing this and it will help you stand out considerably.
- Sell Targeted Listings – if your listing is unique or fits a particular profile (e.g. Florida waterfront property) you can create an ad that is shown only to those who would likely have interest in this including “snow birds” from other areas that have a proven track record of purchasing this type of property.
- Property Tours – advertise just about any kind of tour you can imagine (the more out of the box the better) to targeted Facebook members in your area. Here are just some ideas that came up for this:
- Riding horse property tours
- Bicycle property tours
- Waterfront property tours ending in a wine-tasting party
- Luxury high-rise condo bedroom tours
- Boat tours of waterfront properties
- Golf course / property tours that include short presentations by the golf pros at each course
- Foreclosure property tours, or pre-foreclosure tours (with the permission of the owners of course.)
- Seminars – either in person or Webinar-based. There are tons of possibilities here including:
- Investor seminars
- Foreclosure / Short-sale seminars
- Invest with IRA funds seminars
- First-time Buyer seminars
- How to get around today’s mortgage maze seminars
- How to prepare your home for sale seminars.
- Community Involvement – you can advertise your community involvement by getting local people to participate. For example:
- Charity food drives
- Client appreciation parties
- Neighborhood block parties
- Irresistible Offers – if you Website has irresistible offers, using Facebook ads is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to take advantage of them.
Advertising without targeting is just taking shots in the dark. Your chances of actually hitting something are pretty slim. Advertising without the ability to measure your ROI is just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks. Neither are a viable way to grow business profitably. Facebook on the other hand offers a convenient, inexpensive way to hyper-target your advertising dollars and almost instantly measure the results. And the good news for you is that very few real estate professionals have even started taking advantage of this potential. Now is your chance to grow your business in a way that will have your competitors guessing and you smiling, all the way to the bank.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
The 110,000 Facebook Member Man
Monday, May 24th, 2010
This past February 18th I wrote an article about how Realtor Doug Newby’s Modern Homes Facebook page surpassed 50,000 “fans”. As of this writing he is just a few hours (minutes?) from clearing 110,000 members to his page. This exceeds the sum of the Facebook page membership of every major real estate franchise combined probably at least two times over.
Don’t Blink…
When I share Doug’s Facebook numbers with audiences the very first question I get is “Great, now what has it done for his business?”. I can tell you this; Doug gets over 95% of his business online and traffic to his SignificantHomes.com site is up dramatically since last Fall (when his Facebook membership was zero).
Now if you are one of those folks who still doubt the power (and necessity) of social networking within your business, check this out:
And in terms of impact on your business:
EdgeRank optimization appears to be an order of magnitude greater than search engine optimization…
TechCrunch
*EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that measures social networking relevancy.
Clearly Doug’s Facebook numbers put him as an Outlier in the realm of Realtor social media. Be that as it may, his success on (and as a result of) Facebook is something we all can aspire to. Just don’t expect to play the online game well without this part of the equation. Mainly because it IS the equation for success online.
Copy and Paste For New Web Traffic
Monday, April 26th, 2010
I get asked all the time about how to prevent people from copying content off their Websites and blogs. Now there is a service that will have you hoping they will!
Copy Me —Please!
Tynt is a new free service that will track what is being copied off your Web and blog sites and help you drive traffic back to those sites as a result. After you set up your free account you are given a short bit of code to add to your Website pages you want to track. For blogs it’s actually much easier. It shows you (or your Webmaster) how to add the code just once and which will then cover every page and post of your blog (highly suggested).
Once your site or blog is loaded in this way any time someone copies and pasts an image or text from your site / blog and pastes it into theirs, a social networking site like Facebook or even an email, it will automatically include an attribution link back to where it was copied from. This provides a powerful and automatic way to build link backs that will drive more traffic to your site and raise its SEO positioning. Oh, there’s one more thing. You can even set Tynt up so that anytime someone copies and pastes your content online, it will generate a Tweet about it in your Twitter account.
Here’s a short video explaining the entire process:
So now instead of dreading that someone is “ripping you off” you can actually benefit every time they send a part of your work to their friends and associates. BTW, feel free to copy any part of this post and forward on to others, you have my whole-hearted permission :0)
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
Google Makes Your Active Fan Page Even More Valuable
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Google is busy serving up real-time updates from Twitter, Myspace, blogs and so on for hot search topics or trends. It just added Facebook Fan Page updates to this mix and here is why it’s important to you.
The world of search results and relevancy is going more real-time (you can largely thank Twitter for that). Since Google is all about providing relevant search results for a particular search, it is now striving to provide these real-time yet ephemeral results right at the top of the non-sponsored results of each search. If you have an active Facebook Fan page focusing say on your primary neighborhoods, and fans are actively posting comments, then you are going to see more search engine traffic. First to your Fan Page, then (by extension) to your site. This also means that your Fan Page is likely to rank higher in the search results over all as a result.
For this to work in your favor however, two things need to be in place regarding your Facebook Fan page:
- Its focus needs to be relevant – a Fan page is NOT about you (at least not if you want to succeed)! For most real estate sales professionals this means it needs to be about your particular niche and/or neighborhoods you service.
- Fans need to be active – this means you must keep the content fresh and worthy of comment.
I truly believe that appropriately maintained social media will be the new “Google Juice” for driving Web traffic and hence most online business. Static content, even if comprehensive, is no longer enough. So if you are not connecting with clients and prospects this way (i.e. via an active Facebook Fan page), now is a good time to start!
* Special thanks to Brad Carroll of Dakno Marketing for this tip :0)
